Music of Web 2.0

Well as many of you know there are a whole bunch of music sites floating around out there. Being the music addict that I am, I figured I'd give a quick overview of the three coolest music sites and let you all be on your way. So I decided to take a look at Last.fm, Pandora, and Finetune. Chances are that if you're into music you've already found these sites, but for those of you who haven't heard of them, they're definitely worth a look!

Last.fm

Last.fm is a social network built around music. When you join you can download a plugin for just about any kind of music player imagineable and Lastfm will keep track of everything you listen to. When it compiles a list of everything that you listen to and then it matches you up with neighbors who have similar tastes, gives you music recommendations and helps you meet new people.

I use Last.fm to track all my music, and search for new people who have the same tastes as I do. It is really the best way to find new music and such from what i've experienced.

Pandora

Pandora is basically an online jukebox which plays music that matches your taste. It was created from the folks who did the Music Genome Project. When you go to the page you can load up a stream of music from whatever band you would like and you can rate songs with a thumbs up or down. When you give something a thumbs down it will no longer play that song for you and will also eliminate similar songs. There are plenty of bands and types of music on Pandora which means that there is a huge selection for people to choose and listen to.

I use Pandora to sample music, for example when one of my friends tells me about a new band I just fire up Pandora and make a station for that band. Usually I know within the first two or three songs whether or not I like the band.

Finetune

Finetune is also one of those tools which lets you find who you're looking for fast and lets you sample their music. You can search their huge collection of music for any artist and come up with at least one 30 second sample for almost any artist. It's all flash and has the whole 'web 2.0 look' going on. The coolest thing about Finetune is that you can register an account, make a playlist, and then put their player on your blog wherever you'd like and share music.