Listening to Music Online

There are many ways to experience music in today's world. The Internet is a vast expanse of users both creating and consuming information and media, and it is a wonderful place to find and listen to new music. Here are some places to find and listen to music online.

Lala
(lala.com) An innovative system where you can play a song once, but thereafter must add the song to your Lala account for 10 cents. There is also the option to download the MP3 for 89 cents. Luckily, you get 25 song credits when you sign up, so you don't have to pay anything right off the bat. If you're willing to pay a little, it's a great place to manage your online music. Even without paying anything, you can find most music and listen to it at least once.

Last.fm
(last.fm) The go-to online music radio station. Here you can find songs, get recommendations based on what you listen to, find concerts of artists you like and connect with other listeners. A popular destination for listening to music online.

Pandora
(pandora.com) The most popular way to find new music based on what you already listen to. You create virtual radio stations based on an artist or specific song you like, and Pandora gives you a steady stream of music it thinks you might like. Very useful for finding new artists or creating a general atmosphere of music based in a specific genre.

iMeem
(imeem.com) The online MP3 database. Users add songs to the site, so the collection is massive. You can find almost any song here, and with a free user account, you can listen to all songs without limits.

Project Playlist
(playlist.com) Playlist.com is a great idea: It searches other sites for MP3s hosted elsewhere, and simply adds a reference to their database. Users create playlists, and Playlist.com simply streams the song from the original hosting site, eliminating the need for storage servers and giving the ability to offer more music than many other sites. Useful for finding specific songs and creating playlists that can easily be shared.

MySpace
(myspace.com) Many artists will put popular songs and new music on their MySpace profile, and sometimes it's the only place you can find their music online. For lesser-known artists and rockstars alike, MySpace is a valuable resource for getting music heard.

YouTube 
(youtube.com) If all else fails, YouTube has many full-length albums uploaded in the form of videos. You can often find a playlist of the videos put in order, and you can literally listen to an entire album without stopping and searching in between songs. If you are using YouTube as a music source, the tool tuberadio.fm is a useful interface to find songs and make playlists.

Artist Websites
(sigur-ros.co.uk, zoekeating.com, etc.) It is usually a good idea to check the artist's website. There are often free downloads, streaming music, and of course information about what the band is up to. Check back in periodically, too; you may find that new songs are posted there before anywhere else. 

If you have a song you've heard but don't know what it is, you can use software like Tunatic (wildbits.com/tunatic) to identify it. If it can determine what the song is, it will even give you a link to buy the song on Amazon.com or iTunes.

There are many other fun and interesting places to hear music online, such as the user-created playlist site 8tracks.com, the music-as-an-RPG site thesixtyone.com, or the "democratic music revolution," the indie cherrypeel.com.

Music as an art form is limitless, and the way we hear music is getting broader every day.