Category Archives: Resources For Musicians & Music Lovers

Shuffler.fm – The Pandora.fm Of Music Blogs

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Shuffler

Name: Shuffler.fm
URL: http://www.shuffler.fm

Shuffler.fm is a site that redefines the way in which Internet radio has always been approached. In a nutshell, it’s like Pandora for music blogs. The site aggregates all the music-related content that surfaces on the blogosphere, and has it arranged by genre on its homepage for you to listen.

Each genre has got its very own channel, and you can jump from one to the other at will. You can also skip songs that start as energetically as Stephen Bishop on downers and find something that can at least make you tap the table and hum along.

It’s important to make it clear that the music featured here is not aggregated from just any old blog. In fact, the music is culled from a curated list of blogs in order to ensure a minimum of quality. And an effort is also made not to present users with duplicate songs. Continue reading →

Flashbck – Reliving Gigs & Festivals

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FlashbckName: Flashbck
URL: http://www.flashbck.com

Flashbck is a new service that lets people relive all the gigs and festivals they have attended. On the site, people can upload all their videos and pictures in order to let others see the shows that they have been to right through their eyes

Images are used to create something comparable to a slideshow that can be shared with all your friends. If they wanted to attend the gig and they couldn’t make it, they will be getting the story straight from you. And if they did manage to attend it, then they will be able to add their own insights and images to what you have uploaded. And being able to tag friends just adds to the sheer fun of it all.

Plus, the ability to start following both your favorite bands and venues will give you the chance to learn about upcoming shows the minute they are announced. Continue reading →

MusicLink.fm – Stream Full Albums For Free & Learn How Good They Really Are

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MusicLink
Name: MusicLink
URL: http://www.musiclink.fm

MusicLink is a free service for the streaming of full albums. Love the “California Gurls” single by Katy Perry, but wonder if “Teenage Dream” is any good? Can’t get enough of “Only by The Night” by Kings Of Leon and want to know if “Come Around Sundown” lives up to its predecessor? Well, MusicLink makes that easy. You just search for the concerned album, and once you have found it you can proceed to give it a good listen online. You won’t have to download anything. And you won’t have to sign up either.

Just in case you are wondering, MusicLink is as legal as a service of this nature can be because it is powered by Grooveshark. As you know, Grooveshark is a streaming service that was founded in 2006, and which caused the same controversy that sites like YouTube caused when they began gaining preeminence. Yet, Grooveshark has slowly been scoring licensing deals with many major labels such as EMI. Continue reading →

Is Ping The Facebook For Music Many Thought It Would Be?

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PingAs I am sure you know, Apple has just given the iTunes store a social layer by releasing Ping, a network that is solely meant for music-related interactions. According to Steve Jobs, Ping has been created to solve the problem of discovering exactly what to listen to on iTunes.

Note that Ping is not really an independent website; it is actually part of iTunes 10. It is not a site that you sign up for, and it is not a mobile application either.

Ping lets you see what your friends have downloaded, what music they like, and which gigs they are attending. And if you follow other musicians (some celebrities are already there), you get to learn about new releases straight from them. You are also informed about any shows they are going to play.

Privacy (a big issue ever since Facebook tried to impose some big changes on users sometime last year) shouldn’t be a cause of concern – you can keep everything as public or private as you want. It is possible to create a closed circle with your ten best friends and exchange music among yourselves if that is what you want.

However, the shortcomings of Ping have already been pointed out. And in a unanimous way at that.

For starters, you will lament the absolute lack of intelligence Ping has got when it comes to recommending music to you. It just looks at the artists of the hour and recommends them to you, with little rhyme or reason. Since Ping is not an independent site but it is actually part of iTunes, you would think it would use iTunes’ “Genius” feature. Well, it doesn’t. And that was a big letdown to many. Continue reading →

Double Lyrics – A Directory Of Lyrics That Are Reviewed And Rated

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Double Lyrics

Name: Double Lyrics
URL: http://www.doublelyrics.com

I am sure very few among us can claim to have a favorite lyrics site. I mean, there are a zillion of them out there. Personally, I have always been keen on the AZ Lyrics website because it is lightweight, the lyrics are arranged album by album, and (yes, I know I am fastidious) the punctuation and the use of capitals is fully accounted for. As a non-native speaker of English, I always print the lyrics to all the albums that I buy that don’t include them. A site like AZ Lyrics lets me get them quickly, and create a Word document with them painlessly.

Still, I am always looking for alternatives. And I must say that the Double Lyrics website has got a lot going for it. For starters, whenever you carry out a search you get results that are sorted by relevancy. You don’t get a jumble of links that might be what you needed or something completely unrelated. The most relevant lyrics are ranked by the site’s engine and featured on top, while the ones that will probably have nothing to do with your query are relegated to the bottom of the list.

Also, users can both review and rate lyrics. That is nothing new (many sites let users “comment” on lyrics, and fans take advantage of that opportunity to review them), but its usefulness is not questioned by anybody – you will have a bigger chance of finding what you are after in that way. And once you have found it, a well-written review can always let you figure out what a cryptic song is all about. For example, how many are really aware of all the possible interpretation of Cat Steven’s “Moonshadow “? How many are aware of the cancer interpretation, the Vietnam chopper interpretation…? Only fans are. And if given the chance to review a song and illuminate everybody else, they are likely to do it. Continue reading →

Music180 – Connecting Indie Artists With Renowned Music Pros

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Music180

Name: Music180
URL: http://www.music180.com

Music180 is a development platform for artists. What the site does is to connect new musicians with big names in the industry and let them collaborate to the full. For example, young bands can get in touch with renowned producers and cover designers, and strike up a relationship that might end up in them getting their album produced by people who have worked with international superstars.

The site has a database of music pros that have worked with artists of the caliber of Aerosmith, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, and these indie artists who sign up can have their music brought to their attention. It is all taken from there, and in addition to producers Music180 makes it possible for performers to get in touch with the kind of people who can dream up the right marketing campaign for any musical genre. Continue reading →

The Melody Master – Learn To Play The Piano By Ear

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The Melody Master
Name: The Melody Master
ULR: http://www.themelodymaster.com

There were only two instruments that I ever tried to learn in earnest in my life: the guitar and the piano. In both cases, my mind was made up because those were instruments we had at home. Had it been down to me, I would have gone either for the drums or the bass guitar. And I know it is not late to pick either now, but I no longer have the time and (what’s more important) such a starry-eyed outlook on music to go for it. And today I’m also aware that creating music is not my forte.

Could a site like this one have helped me when I tried to learn the piano? Well, the basic premise is letting you mastering how to play the instrument by ear. Back then, I was absolutely reliant on sheet music. And I think that was my problem. You took the sheet music from me, and that was it.

And I don’t know if this site could have worked out for me or not, but I can tell you for sure that (had it been available back then) I would have loved to at least check it out. It is full of online exercises and games that you can try out, and (on the whole) these will let you learn how to distinguish the intervals between notes, how to memorize the pitch, how different chords are constructed…

The site even includes a beginners game that consists in telling if a given note is higher or lower than the other. That is the first thing you must master when trying to play something by ear. To some (lucky) people, that comes naturally. Others have to work on it to make it grow. Well, this site will let them do it. And at no cost. Continue reading →

Venossi – Making The Discovery Of New Music Something Natural & Logical

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VenossiName: Venossi
URL: http://www.venossi.com

Venossi is a new site that has taken one of the best features offered by Facebook, and a feature that Facebook actually took from Twitter, so it is alright – a thief who robs a thief gets a hundred years of reprieve. I am speaking about the fabled news feed, something that has become an integral part of the way that we interact trough Facebook. Before the news feed was available, learning who had befriended who, or what your friends were talking about necessitated you checking their individual profiles. But now, we are all able to learn about that the moment we log in.

Well, take that concept and apply it to the music that others are listening. That is what Venossi is all about. It will enable you to see what songs your friends are playing, and also to read music-related conversations that they have been involved in as part of a feed that is constantly updated. Continue reading →

SoundzAbound – A Royalty-free Library Of Music For Educational Purposes

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SoundzAbound

Name: SoundzAbound
URL: http://www.soundzabound.com

Education is the true cornerstone of any society, but that doesn’t mean that educators have all the advantages they should have for doing their jobs as thoroughly as they need to. There are many parts of the world in which the remuneration they receive is out of proportion with the task they have to undertake. They can’t really afford to create materials for their students that go beyond a certain point of refinement.

SoundzAbound is a resource that solves that problem to some extent. It’s a library of music, audio themes and sound samples that can be used at no cost – provided the uses these are put to are always educational ones.

In this way, educators can create powerpoint presentations, podcasts and audio guides in a more confident (and certainly richer) way. Continue reading →

Mixest – The Best Way To Discover Indie Bands As They Surface

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Mixest

Name: Mixest
URL: http://www.mixest.com

By now, you probably have your favorite sites for finding independent talent. Maybe you resort to this one, or maybe you have bookmarked some other website that serves that purpose. There are enough of these spread all over the WWW to keep everybody happy. And you can argue whether or not the one I am reviewing now is indeed “the best way to discover indie bands” as I say in the title. But I frankly don’t think there is one which  is as easy to get to grips with as Mixest. When you land on its homepage a clip will start playing automatically for you to enjoy. When that song finishes, another will begin playing. And so on. You aren’t required to input anything or hit a single key if you don’t want to. You can head straight to the site and leave it open as you go your merry way. When (and if) something that has you tapping your feet and/or banging your head starts playing it is a mere matter of clicking on the window again to see who it is, and make a mental note.

But the best parts of the whole service are unearthed only when you are willing to interact a little with the service, of course. You can favorite each single track that you like, and you can even use a “Block” button in order to prevent someone who is as tuneful as The Vibrators ever coming through again.

In order to favorite anything you must first create your own account. That costs nothing – just pick a username and a password and you will become a Mixest user as quickly and sure as night follows day. From then on, you will be ready to start building a library of indie artists of its very own.