Music Monday: A Guide to the Best Music Websites
My monthly entertainment budget is essentially eaten up completely by my Netflix subscription. This leaves for majorly slim pickings when it comes to music subscription accounts. Here’s a fun fact for you – the Spotify premium account price is more expensive than a Netflix subscription. This may sound trivial to the vast majority of you, but as someone who has a severe case of music indecisiveness, Spotify’s “all you can skip” premium perk was music to my ears (literally). Sadly, I had to part with said premium perks once my free month trial was up. Seeing as I am a student and must leave luxuries such as music subscriptions for the far future, I’ve reinvigorated my hunt for free music websites. And naaaaaaah, I’m not talking about YouTube or pirating music – I’m talking about music websites with unlimited skips to stream to your heart’s content.1. Hype MachineThis site tracks 799 of the best music blogs and deposits the curators’ favorite songs onto a long and constantly updated list of current up and coming music. The three main sections of the site link to a diverse array of genres, artists, and videos, as well as remixed and non-remixed tunes. Even cooler? Any given song lists all the different blogs that have reviewed said song, helping to spread that music culture. My favourite way to use this site is by simply browsing under the “Popular Now” tab. Go and explore!
2. Indie Shuffle More human-curated songs! This site expands its horizons a bit more than the one mentioned above by adding genres such as folk and covers into the mix. Songs are presented in chronological order of reviews, but the settings can easily be set to popular mode. Best feature here? Each review has a little “Sounds like” section where the given curator will list artists that the song’s vibes are similar to. This amazing perk is handy if you ever feel overwhelmed by the amount of new artists on the site and don’t know where to start listening. Clicking on an artist or band you’re already fond of will link you to recently reviewed and popular songs by new emerging musical talent.
3. Soundcloud Before you throw something at me for suggesting this website, hear me out. Loads of people complain about the difficulty or inconsistency of this music service, but there is a little secret to making the most of your experience here. Follow your already favourite artists and check out the tracks they re-post! That way, you’re guaranteed some sick recordings similar to tried and true tunes, but can also explore new artists along the way.
Each of these sites offers something a little bit different. If Apple Music is your thing, you do you. But if you’re looking for fresh variety and are down to put a little more effort into exploring new tracks, check out the sites above!Yours Creatively,Alexandra Kopij, Music Editor
