Name: Spotiseek
URL: http://www.spotiseek.com

I am sure that those of you who live in Europe are more than familiar with the peer-to-peer service known as Spotify. It is a streaming service that lets you listen to artists both new and old in a legal way, as record companies have granted permission for each track to be featured.

This website aims to let Spotify users have a more enjoyable time around. Using it, they can find artists that are meant to match their tastes. Once they have found a couple of similar artists, they can create a mixtape including these new bands and share them with friends. 

Let’s see how it works out.

When looking up similar artists to “The Who” the results were:

The Kinks, The Beatles, The Yardbirds, Pink Floyd, Cream, Led Zeppelin…

When looking up artists that were similar to XTC I came across:

Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Devo, Big Audio Dynamite, Wire, Wall Of Voodoo, The The…

We all agree that these recommendations are right on target. But is it me, or searches mainly return artists that were contemporary to the ones you looked for? Maybe an option to look up artists whose sound was derived or inspired on each other would lead to richer results.

For example, if such an option existed by looking up The Who you could be pointed towards The Jam. And by looking up XTC you could be told to give The Crash Test Dummies a try. It is not that they sound similar, it is just that there is a clear debt/influence at play. And that in itself offers a greater window for discovery that deserves to be explored.

Still, the site does a truly great job as it stands right now. Young people who are becoming acquainted with any classic band could learn more about its contemporaries very easily, and that will take them into even better and bigger things. At the end of the day, that is the one thing that matters.