Great Sites for New Music
As a music enthusiast, I am always looking for the best websites to find the best music out there and to catch up on all current events. Everyday as I drive to work, I hear the same 15 songs on the radio, that at one point, I sincerely liked, until the radio literally killed the music by playing it 70 times too many. I have found the best websites on the Internet that offer a lot of variety and allow you to find new songs that you would probably not have found otherwise. Below are 6 unique blogs we wanted to give a shout out for promoting new stuff.
The Music Ninja
When I first went on to themusicninja.com, the first thought I had that it is bustling from top to bottom with music that wants to be listened to and news that needs to be heard. The website is organized and laid out very well with different drop-down menus that let you explore different genres, playlists, and features. In the “explore” section, it shows you different genres that the site is broken into: electronic, indie/rock, acoustic/folk, and hip-hop. Once you click on the drop-down menu, you click on the subcategory you want and it will provide you with a ton of new information and music from that specific genre.
Another unique feature is that there is a dropdown that lets you view all of their playlists from different categories: trap, indie, hip-hop, and they even have the best party songs for Friday nights. There are hundreds of different volumes to choose from; each volume has many unique songs that are already preset to provide you with the best songs for whatever mood you’re feeling that night.
Not only do they have a variety of new songs, they also have a featured artist every month. Since a lot of the artists on this website have not made huge names from themselves yet, The Music Ninja takes it upon themselves to feature a different artist every month so you can learn about their life, their music, and even their music choices.
The main goal of this website it to bring new music to the forefront and not to have to listen to the same old 15 songs you always hear on the radio. All-in-all, I really like this website and all it has to offer. It’s set up nicely and it’s easy to find whatever you’re looking for. In addition, it provides you with a lot of new music to browse from to expand your music library.
The Fader
The Fader is another website that is very much it’s own, unique website and provides you with a lot of information about current events in the music industry. This website is not heavily based on listening to music, but it does have songs on it, as well as artists who are in the spotlight right now.
This website is also very easy to navigate because it tells you at the top what the different categories are: music, style, and culture. The music dropdown focuses mainly on different artists in the music industry and what they do for society or how they impact it. The style dropdown focuses on fashion now-a-days and who’s wearing what or who’s designing a new line of clothes. Culture focuses on a variety of things such as music, movies, and the people in those industries.
The Fader also has their own magazine and sells their issues on their website. The magazines are concerned with people who are big in the industry at the moment and discuss topics such as: society, culture, politics, style, and how each of these impact people today.
In the end, I believe this website is good for those of you who are trying to stay updated on what is happening everyday in the music industry or even in the movie-making industry. If you are looking for a website that shares music and introduces you to a ton of new music though, this is not the website for you.
The Hype Machine
The Hype Machine is yet another great website for those of you who are interested in hearing all new and different types of music, and is quite similar to The Music Ninja. On this website, you’re able to search tons of different music and genres.
When searching for music, the genres include just some of the following: dance, dubstep, future garage, and singer-songwriter, as well as many other genres. You can also look for the hottest music that’s trending at the moment, or look for the newest music. You also have the option to listen to remixes if you please.
A unique feature about this website is that it includes over 700 music blogs, and they all include different songs and different genres. With this much variety, it’s very easy to find all new songs and songs that you haven’t already heard 20 times on the radio.
Another very unique feature of Hype Machine is that it has a feature called Spy. Spy allows you to look at the top songs and artists that are being listened to in other areas and countries rather than the one you’re living in. The different countries include France, Poland, Russia, Portugal, etc.
To me, this website it a little bit harder to navigate than the ones mentioned above, however, once you get used to it, you can use it to its full potential. The fact that it has tons of different options and cool features also makes it one of the best music-listening websites, in my opinion.
Pigeons and Planes
Just like The Fader, I believe this website is best for those of you just looking to stay updated on current events and artists now-a-days. This website includes a lot of articles about current events and interesting things going on with artists, as well as new albums they’re releasing, such as Taylor Swift, Adele, and Kanye West.
One interesting thing this website has is the “features” option. It showcases certain artists in an article and even includes articles that talk about the best songs of the week and the best free songs to listen to and download.
Pigeons and Planes also includes an interview section where they interview artists or famous groups and discuss with them their music or even just fun facts to know about them. They update it every few days, which is nice, so you never run out of artists to read and learn about.
Overall, I like Pigeons and Planes because it’s a nice layout and navigating through it is easy. It’s not cluttered and it’s easy to find what you’re looking for. If you’re looking to keep up on everything going on in the celebrity world, this is definitely a good website to come to!!
Soul Culture
Soul Culture is a good website to go to if you’re looking to find new music and newly released albums. This website showcases a lot of newer artists and suggests new songs that have just been released, that they think you should listen to. Just like a lot of the other websites, this one has dropdown menus for music, culture, and life.
This website has a really awesome feature that I think might be my favorite out of all the websites in this review. At the top it has a section called “OK Not to Be OK”. Often, we focus more on the materialistic things in life and sometimes don’t talk about a lot of things that matter. OK No to Be OK discusses prevalent and ongoing issues in society like depression, suicide, eating disorders, and even just knowing when to ask for help. Artists discuss their personal stories on here or there are just a ton of random articles that are for anyone to check out if they need help.
Overall, I like Soul Culture and I like what it has to offer. I think there is a lot of new music to listen to and choose from. I also really like the idea of having an OK Not to Be OK section because it really brings something different to the table, unlike the same old, “here’s what this celebrity is doing”, article. I would definitely love to use this website for myself sometime, but I wish they updated it more. My only complaint is that the website hasn’t been updated since 2014, so the articles are a little bit old. Besides that, it’s a nice website to find some new music and find some new artists.
Triple J Triple J is a radio show that is based out of Australia. On their website, there is a guide that tells you all of the segments that are happening during certain times and you can listen live to whatever you feel like! The website includes many things such as podcasts, live music, and new music. The podcasts are divided into different segments, so if you wanted to listen to a specific person or specific part of the broadcast, you can choose it from their long list! They also have music that you can stream and listen to that was live including Mumford & Sons, Halsey, and The Rubens. Under their music dropdown, they have many different options. You can pick from playlists, hit list, or feature albums. The playlists are preset albums that you turn on and it plays the best songs for you. Under feature albums, they choose a few albums and give you a review on them in hopes that you will listen to the albums they’re suggesting. Their Hitlist has the list of the top songs that people are interested in at the moment. These songs are completely different from the usual, popular, overplayed songs right now and that is the exact purpose of this radio station– to play newer and more interesting music, rather than the same 15 songs over and over again. Triple J also writes reviews on many different things- music, video games, movies, etc. The website reviews these to reach out to a bigger audience and let you know what you should and shouldn’t be wasting your time on. Triple J is a very good website if you’re interested in finding new music to expand your music library. They introduce you to new music and they have tons of music that would appeal to a large audience, which is obviously their intention.In the end, I think if you’re looking for new music to listen to and you’re looking to find the best music, The Music Ninja, the Hype Machine, and Triple J are definitely your best bets to find the best music and discover songs you wouldn’t have heard otherwise. If you’re looking mainly to read up on what is going on in the music industry and gossip about artists, your focus should be more on The Fader, Pigeons and Planes, and Soul Culture. None of these websites are better than the others because they all contribute their own uniqueness, which I think differentiates them from each other, even though they’re alike in certain aspects. I give my thumbs up to each of these websites based on information and overall quality, and as music enthusiast, these are definitely the best websites to keep up on all things music.