Few websites for music lovers

 

The internet has changed the way we acquire our music. You don't even have to visit your neighbourhood record store any more. Simply sign-up for an account, pay by card, and download the tunes you want. But did you know there's more on offer for music lovers on the web? Here are some amazing sites that every aficionado should know and bookmark...

Free downloads

www.myspoonful.com

This site is backed by a team of curators that sift through a bunch of fresh artists every week to recommend the best of what's new. 

www.rollingstone.com/music/daily-download 

If you love music, you might have at least heard of Rolling Stone magazine. But did you know that its website has a 'Daily Download' section? Okay, so you don't get a song a day, every day, but RS regularly updates this section with tunes every couple of days. 

www.1classical.com 

This resource is an aggregator of classical music. You can browse its tunes by composers such as Bach, Brahms, Chopin, Handel, Mozart, and Wagner - or you can choose to download compositions based on the instrument it was written for. 

www.gaana.com 

If you're looking for tunes closer to home, you might want to consider Gaana. It boasts of a huge collection of songs in practically every regional language - from Hindi to Kannada and Marathi to Bengali. A free account lets you create your own playlists, and you can even 'like', comment on, and share songs with friends through Twitter and Facebook. 

www.stereomood.com 

Right at the top of the main page on Stereomood, you will find a text box that asks you to describe your mood. And you can type practically anything: angry, aggressive, loved, beautiful, sad, sleepy...

Stereomood accordingly creates a playlist for you.

neverendingplaylist.com and www.jiggyape.com

 

In the old days, if you wanted to listen to a song, you needed to own the vinyl, cassette, CD, or request the track on the radio. Now, simply head to Never Ending Playlist or JiggyApe, enter the name of the artist you want to hear, and hit enter.

The site trawls through YouTube and automatically creates a playlist for you.

www.musicovery.com

Each song listed on Musicovery has been curated and categorized using 40 parameters. The site's algorithm then plots the song - in the form of coloured dots - on a 'mood map'.

The 'moods' on the y-axis range from calm to energetic, while the x-axis has values for dark to positive. Simply click on any dot, and the site will start streaming that song