Photo by Thomas Purves
With free mixtapes, remixes, and underground music all over the web, the global music scene is more vibrant than ever. Keep your iPod fresh with these downloads.
Just like video killed the radio, MP3 might have killed the LP. Granted that doesn’t hold true for a lot of purists out there, but you have to wonder when iTunes recently exceeded over 5 billion downloads sold.
Either way you cut it, the web has done a lot of good for music too. Freeing artists from their labels, popularizing others that might otherwise have gone unnoticed and providing yet another resource for music heads to find their next favorite tracks.
Photo by fernando
Here are a few resources you might like. Use these tools wisely.
1. Peel program:
With Peel, add your favorite music blogs to the interface and each day the program will go through and literally “peel” (get it?) all the mp3s from your blogs onto one easy-to-use menu.
You can browse the music, listen to the tracks, and download the ones you like straight into your Itunes library. You can’t Peel every blog.
And you will find yourself sifting through a ton of tracks if you add several blogs, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, is it?
2. The Fader:
The Fader has expanded its magazine publication to a super, all-inclusive site where these arbiters of good taste have a little something for everyone. Videos, free music, and mixtape downloads, good articles on your favorite artists or the ones you just discovered you like: you can find all of these on the Fader. Check it every day!
3. Fully Fitted:
Contributors xxxchange, Pase Rock, Mr. Devlin and Darko are dope, full time artists who blog this site in their spare time when they aren’t killing it all around the world.
One of my favorite tracks is xxxchange and Darko’s remix of Kenna’s “Out of Control”. Dig on through older posts to download other great music. Learn more here.
Photo by ming2046
4. Mad Decent:
Mad Decent is Diplo’s label and this site is a home base of sorts. Go here to download some of his latest remixes, as well as other soulful, international burners that serve as inspiration for some Mad Decent tracks and muse for us normal folk.
5. The Hype Machine:
This site aggregates pretty much every MP3 that is posted on the web. Sign up for an account, pick the artists and/or blogs you want to keep an eye on watch the tracks stream in. Find out what you like, then go buy it!
6. Stereogum:
A oldie but goodie, Sterogum has been around for a minute. Broad tastes from Cut Copy to Flying Lotus keep me tuning in to snag a track here and there.
7. Gorilla Vs. Bear:
From new Sigur Ros to a J Dilla cut I had never heard….throw this one your Peel.
8. RCRDLBL:
This site releases exclusive tracks from emerging and established artists in a clean way. By clean I mean you can find some great stuff for free and not feel dirty about downloading it. It’s a good site model.
9. Mojo:
Mojo is an Itunes sharing program where you can dig through other users’ libraries and download anything you want straight into your library.
10. Other blogs that I have on my Peel:
Fluxblog, Certified Banger, Disco Workout, Big Stereo, Foe Weel and on and on and on. Start with one, and you will find others that you like.
There you go. Off and peeling new music. Now, while you’re out there discovering new tunes, what blogs do you recommend?
Matt Huntington
Matt is currently taking a year off to travel through South East Asia, and if he doesn't put down any roots there he's returning to South America to spend the rest of his sabbatical WWOOFing, trekking, and brushing up on his Spanish.
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