Best and Top of Everything : Best Music Websites

Best Music Websites

1 ITUNES

Praising iTunes is like endorsing chocolate and puppies: well, duh. Even so, any discussion of music on the Web has to start here. With its supersize catalog (more than 2 million tracks), fair pricing, and any-idiot-can-figure-it-out interface, it's most people's first stop for downloading the latest Kelly Clarkson single or Mariah Carey remix. Since it launched in 2003, iTunes has trounced its competitors, capturing close to 75 percent of the marketplace and selling more than a billion tracks.

But while everyone knows iTunes is big, fewer people realize how useful it can be for finding new tunes. Start with its top 100 downloads — updated daily — and you'll see an instant, direct reflection of American musical tastes: the newest Dixie Chicks single; surprise emo phenoms Panic! At the Disco; that Daniel Powter song that's on American Idol every week. Then move on to the ''essentials'' playlists, full of offbeat cult favorites. (Thanks to the ''Folk 101 Essentials,'' John Prine's epic ''Angel From Montgomery'' is our new after-work beer-sipping soundtrack.) And one of iTunes' best features is actually free: The site has grown into a portal for thousands of Web radio stations and eccentric podcasts, offering everything from rowdy dancehall reggae to classical music. Happy hunting.

GREAT FIND RJD2 & Ric Ocasek's ''Through the Walls''

2 EMUSIC.COM

This underappreciated, expertly curated MP3 store is the music geek's alternative to iTunes. It's packed with fantastic choices, and at $9.99 a month for 40 downloads, it's a great deal. Emusic sells tunes only from independent labels, which means you won't find most current pop hits here. But spend some time sifting through its 1.2 million tracks — including new stuff from Neko Case and Spoon and classics by Johnny Cash and Otis Redding — and you won't care. Best of all, the site's sharp editorial team steers you toward the good stuff with articles on the best Parisian jazz or the latest Brazilian pop. And their ''Dozens'' lists are essential 12-album starting points in categories like ''boomer-friendly rock,'' or ''English folk,'' or ''old-school punk.''

GREAT FIND Art Brut's Bang Bang Rock & Roll

3 PANDORA.COM

Perfect for anyone who likes surprises, Pandora is a wizardly website that lets you customize a radio station to fit your own tastes. After logging in, users type in the name of a song or a band (the Beatles, for example); then Pandora uses a complex mathematical algorithm to find tracks matching the Liverpool lads' musical characteristics. In addition to Fab Four songs, our station came up with some Kinks and Stones, lots of obscure '60s nuggets, and unexpected contemporary acts like the Pernice Brothers.

GREAT FIND The Move's ''Curly''

4 RHAPSODY.COM

If other MP3 stores leave you hungry, tuck into this musical buffet. Pop gluttons will love Rhapsody's all-you-can-eat subscription service, which lets you download as many songs as you like for $9.99 a month. (Though the tracks will vanish from your hard drive when you stop paying. And it won't work with an iPod.) Another draw is the playlists, the most creative and well thought-out of any MP3 store. Their genre mixes go way beyond the obvious into left-field genres like ''pub-rock explosion'' and '''80s paisley underground.'' And somebody on staff obviously has a sense of humor: ''Yacht rock'' features smooth-sailing soft pop (Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald) fit for a day of sipping Cape Codders down at the marina.

GREAT FIND Firefall's ''Just Remember I Love You''

5 Myspace.com

There's a lot to dislike about MySpace. It's uglier than a Commodore 64, the music tracks are slow to load, and it has been co-opted by record labels, which pay for prime placement. Still, with more than 1.8 million bands offering their own homepages, it's impossible to ignore — it seems like every act you've ever heard of (and countless unsigned acts you haven't) posts free songs here. Read about a band? Head to MySpace and you're basically guaranteed to get something for your time: a prerelease album preview, a new single, or even a raw demo. Weezer and Nine Inch Nails debuted their latest albums here, and Fred Durst recently posted a rant about former Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland. Maybe that's not a compelling advertisement, but hey, there are at least 999,999 non-Durst bands on there, too.

GREAT FIND Love Is All's ''Talk Talk Talk Talk''

6 THE LIVE MUSIC ARCHIVE

The utopian ideal of the '60s thrives on this free concert-swapping forum, where the old Grateful Dead tape-trading community has set up shop. But there's far more here than the latest Phil Lesh & Friends show. Ryan Adams, Jack Johnson, and Death Cab for Cutie are just a few of the nearly 2,000 bands with concerts on the nonprofit site.

GREAT FIND My Morning Jacket, 11/23/05, Louisville Palace

7 STEREOGUM.COM

Like a snarky best friend, this blog is the prime Web destination for rock & roll gossip and breaking Britney news. Despite its trashy celeb obsession and often goofy tone, the music is no joke. Stereogum picks next-hot-bands with uncanny accuracy. (Current choice: the folk-pop of Beirut.) Count on the site to point you toward the latest indie-rock crushes (Sufjan Stevens), fun covers (the Postal Service do Phil Collins), and prerelease singles from the likes of Kanye West.

GREAT FIND Kevin Federline's ''Popozao''

8 TURNTABLELAB.COM

The beat junkies at this Web store are intensely dedicated cool-hunters, combing the globe for the latest obscure mash-up mixtape from Belgium, the rarest dub-reggae compilation from Jamaica, and underground hip-hop MCs from Brooklyn whom everyone will be raving about six months from now. Stock up on mix CDs drawn from their cache of hard-to-find music before your next party and prepare to move the furniture.

GREAT FIND DJ Spinbad's '80s MegaMix Vol. 2

9 KCRW'S AND KEXP'S SONG OF THE DAY

Imagine booting up the computer every morning and finding a free new MP3 on your hard drive from the Shins, post-punk legends Gang of Four, or indie-pop singer Jenny Lewis. That's the appeal of these podcasts offered by Santa Monica's KCRW and Seattle's KEXP, two quality public stations that have updated NPR's boomer slant for the blog generation.

GREAT FIND Band of Horses' ''The Funeral''

10 FLUXBLOG.ORG

Site founder Matthew Perpetua has been posting MP3s nearly every day since 2002, which makes him a veteran on the scene. His experience has honed his audioblogging skills. Biased toward anything catchy and upbeat, Fluxblog is like an aural dose of Saint-John's-wort. Visitors can expect shiny dance-pop (Scissor Sisters), hard-to-find remixes (Hot Chip's remake of Gorillaz's ''Kids With Guns''), and plenty of Kylie Minogue-style disco princesses (Robyn), all long before they hit brick-and-mortar stores.

GREAT FIND Robyn's ''Crash and Burn Girl''

11 SMITHSONIAN GLOBAL SOUND

The best government program since the New Deal, this site opens up the Smithsonian's massive archive of ethnological recordings. It's an astounding resource for world-music fans, who can instantly sample, download, or buy CDs of jaunty Caribbean calypso, epic Indian ragas, or croaking Uzbeki bards (yes, that's a good thing). And folk-music obsessives will drool over the unrivaled collection of exclusive Americana. A sampling of Alan Lomax's famous field recordings can be found here, along with Moses Asch's Folkways collections of legends like Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, and Son House.

GREAT FIND Elizabeth Cotten's ''Freight Train''

12 NPR'S 'ALL THINGS CONSIDERED' PODCAST

The radio network for the Volvo set actually has a lot more music to offer than Norah Jones and Garrison Keillor. Just listen to gentle-voiced host Bob Boilen, who each week briefly introduces a noteworthy new release, then plays an entire track or two. And unlike many podcasts, the focus here is on playing music, not talking about it. Expect lots of songs from dad-rock favorites like Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen, but Boilen also spotlights newer groups such as the Concretes and the Raconteurs. In other words, it'll make your station wagon the coolest ride in the car-pool lane.

GREAT FIND Mountain Con's ''The Escape Artist''

13 SOUL-SIDES.COM

Run by a vinyl obsessive in California named Oliver Wang, Soul-Sides posts free MP3s of ultra-rare funk and soul, often from his personal collection of dusty 7-inches. (We're talking really rare stuff. Heard of the Romano Mussolini Trio? Didn't think so.) A professor in his nonvirtual life, Wang also likes to educate his readers, offering history lessons on obscurities sampled in modern hip-hop hits.

GREAT FIND Linda Lyndell's original version of ''What a Man''

14 I LOVE MUSIC

For the uninitiated, this message board can be an uninviting place. Threads are often filled with obscure Web slang, vicious flaming, and know-it-all 'tude. But it's also an amazing place to learn about music, both new and old. Fierce debate takes up the bulk of the bandwidth, often leading to some of the most intelligent music talk around (many posters are music critics). Last year's long-running thread on Sri Lanka-born rapper M.I.A., to pick one example, was worthy of a grad-school seminar.

GREAT FIND Annie's Anniemal

15 MIXUNIT.COM

Unless you live in a city with a thriving street-vendor scene, this is your best choice for staying up-to-date with the who's who (and who hates who) of the hip-hop universe. That's because Mix Unit offers a massive selection of ''official'' mixtapes — artist-sanctioned CDs that fall in a legal gray area — where hungry rhyme spitters and established rappers try out their latest material and vent their anger. Did you hear that Cam'ron mixtape where he dissed Jay-Z for wearing open-toed mandals? That's harsh.

GREAT FIND The Clipse's We Got It 4 Cheap Vol. 2

16 PITCHFORK

A webzine people love to dis. Its dense reviews often are overwritten, underedited thickets of pretentious prose. The attitude? Frequently flip, mean, and smarmy. Grudgingly, however, we admit that the Chicago-based site has become a tastemaking institution that's impossible to ignore. When it anoints an obscure band with a glowing review — as it did with a then-unknown Arcade Fire — we pay attention.

GREAT FIND Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's self-titled debut

17 RADIO DAVID BYRNE

We're dying for a Talking Heads reunion, but we'd be bummed if it took Byrne away from this fascinating monthly show. Each program is based on a theme: ''Latin Rock'' or ''Rednecks, Racists, and Reactionaries: Country Classics'' or the unexpected ''All Missy Elliott.'' He also pens related essays that are as insightful as you'd expect from the pop smarty.

GREAT FIND Ray Baretto's ''Indestructible''

18 INSOUND.COM

An Amazon-type megastore for hipsters, Insound makes it simple to explore the newest indie boomlet or Brit-rock trend. Most folks come for underground and import-only CDs that iTunes or the local Best Buy doesn't stock, but we're also partial to the excellent in-house music stream, which is a great summary of what's on college radio stations nationwide. Recent selections included Nick Drake soundalike José González, raunchy Baltimore rappers Spank Rock, and lo-fi bizarro folkies Wooden Wand. If you hear anything you like, buy it with an easy mouse click.

GREAT FIND Alexi Murdoch's ''Breathe''

19 LEMON-RED.ORG

This audioblog is the cheapest and easiest way to experience the hedonistic thrill of a sweaty late-night dance club without paying a cover, risking a hangover, or even leaving your sofa. Every month, expect a substantial new set from such DJs as Montreal's Ghislain Poirier and Rhode Island's Certified Bananas. No single genre dominates — Southern hip-hop, Jamaican dancehall, and old-school funk have all been tackled — though a mash-up aesthetic dominates. Never heard the Beach Boys, Young Jeezy, and Black Sabbath in a single hip-grinding mix? Time to log on.

GREAT FIND DJs Caps & Jones

20 MUSIC.FOR-ROBOTS.COM

A blog run by eight different people, which explains its broad, unclassifiable taste. Minimalist techno, ragged indie rock, spiky post-punk, and earthy hip-hop all make regular appearances on the slickly designed site, which posts a couple of MP3s a day. May's highlights include a song from Texas-born chanteuse Jolie Holland's new album, a prerelease Sufjan Stevens track, and a stunning psych-folk meditation by singer Findlay Brown, who just became our favorite new artist. That is, until we visit again.

GREAT FIND Hysterics' ''Potato Famine''

21 WOXY.COM

A casualty of FM radio consolidation, Cincinnati's WOXY went off the air in 2004, but it soon reemerged on the Web. The delivery system might have changed, but the message hasn't. WOXY remains dedicated to alternative acts like the Walkmen and Bloc Party. Also check out their ''vintage'' stream, where Generation-Xers can reminisce to a soundtrack of the Smiths, R.E.M., and other not-so-modern ''modern rock'' acts.

GREAT FIND Cold War Kids' ''Hospital Beds''

22 LITTLE STEVEN'S UNDERGROUND GARAGE

On his weekly online radio show, Springsteen and Tony Soprano sideman Steven Van Zandt is the nation's premier priest of garage rock, spreading the gospel of no-frills, fist-pumping rock & roll. Punctuating the music with his hepcat patter, Little Steven spins old-school fuzz-rock (the Yardbirds, the Kinks), their 21st-century descendants (the White Stripes, Arctic Monkeys), and anyone who thinks less is more, gritty is good, and louder is better.

GREAT FIND The Woggles' ''Soul Sizzling''

23 BBC RADIO

Don't let the Atlantic Ocean get between you and the world's most respected radio network. The Beeb's website offers extensive free radio streams and podcasts, making it a must-bookmark for all Anglophiles. Shows dedicated to only-in-England genres such as grime, U.K. garage, and Northern soul are plentiful, along with live in-studio sessions from hit bands like Snow Patrol. Dance-music sets from DJs Gilles Peterson, Judge Jules, and Pete Tong bring London's famed nightlife to your PC, and Steve Lamacq's influential weekly show is the place to hear the next Franz Ferdinand well before they're on Saturday Night Live.

GREAT FIND The Long Blondes' ''Lust in the Movies''

24 AOL MUSIC'S LISTENING PARTY and MTV's THE LEAK

Ever felt bad about illegally downloading a leaked album weeks before its official release? Now you don't have to. This pair of sites lets you hear streams of, say, the latest from Pearl Jam or Bruce Springsteen without any of the guilt. MTV's focuses on TRL types like Nick Lachey, while AOL's offerings are a little more wide-reaching.

GREAT FIND Paul Simon's Surprise

25 DUSTY GROOVE AMERICA

After you've burned out on Miles and Coltrane, expand your jazz-listening habits at this Chicago-based site. Full of bebop oddities, avant-jazz imports, and little-known swing composers, Dusty Groove boasts a connoisseur-friendly selection that's impeccable and far-flung. Whether you want to explore Hungarian violin fusion (Csaba Deseo) or Brazilian funk (Deodato), it's there. Beyond jazz, Dusty Groove carries plenty of curios for the open-minded, including unusual soul reissues, kitschy soundtracks, and lots of Afro-Latin grooves. One complaint: Why aren't there any audio samples? If there were, we'd buy even more.

GREAT FIND Mulatu Astatke's Ethio Jazz