www.epitonic.com
I couldn't get this to load in the "Culture" part of the wiki, so I'm going to put it here. Hope y'all don't mind.
I’m a big fan of organizations and websites that provide free or low-cost access to information for anyone looking to educate him or herself about a particular topic; this is especially true when I am thinking about providing services to young adults, given that money is more often an obstacle to access for young people than it is for grown-ups. For this reason alone I might love epitonic.com; however, it also so happens that I love it for providing brief, guided “audio tours” of specific musical genres, as well as downloads of specific songs, for the low, low price of absolutely free. The only thing users must do to gain access to these features is to register.
In the Genres/Radio section of the site, each musical type is annotated with a brief description of its historical development, relation to other genres, and major concerns and innovations. Genres with these annotations, as well as audio walk-throughs, include: punk, indie rock, math rock, folk/acoustic, pop, hip hop, jazz, experimental, twentieth-century classical, and a bevy of electronic forms, such as house, breakbeat, techno, d & b, trance, ambient, downtempo and abstract. There are also a number of other genres with exemplary tracks available for download, some of which I had never heard of before using this site, including dronology, Neo-Dada and a wide variety of found-sound recordings. The only problem with this part of epitonic.com is that some of the song-to-genre classifications seem a bit arbitrary, and thus potentially misleading if one does not know to take them with a grain of salt. Usually, however, the sheer joy of being able to listen to so much new music far overshadows purist concerns around authenticity; most teenagers, I think, will be able to enjoy the scope of the site without getting too bogged down in quibbling over someone else’s ideas of what belongs where.
Epitonic.com also includes sections where members can download selected tracks from new releases and other featured albums, as well as pages devoted to articles about particular concerts, reviews of albums, and an editor’s blog dealing with all things musical. There is also an archive of earlier editions of the Epitonic Newsletter and a community forum where members post their thoughts about music- and event-related issues. Finally, there is of course an Epitonic Store, where folks can buy the albums featured elsewhere on the site; I can only assume that this is how the good folks at epitonic.com keep everything running. Epitonic.com was originally recommended to me by a twenty-two-year-old dj friend, who was unbridled in his enthusiasm for its efforts toward offering folks a free musical education—I’m happy to be able to pass his discovery on for others to share. Submitted by Sierra Logan on May 17, 2007
Last.fm is a music based social networking site. A detailed profile of each user's music is created by recording each song played through a user's computer, portable device, or streaming radio stations. Charts and statistics are generated each week based on tracks played showing top artists and tracks. Similar to other networking sites, friends can add each other, compare musical preferences, communicate, and recommend music. Submitted by Travis Whitt on November 3, 2008.
Pandora was started in 2000. This music based social networking site creates personalized stations based on your musical preferences. Enter one of your favorite songs or artists and the site will create a station that explores that part of the music universe. Pandora is based on the Music Genome Project, which analyzes the essence of songs using over 400 attributes to describe the song and a complex mathematical algorithm to organize them. Stations can be listened to over the web, in your home, and on the go. Submitted by Travis Whitt on November 5, 2008
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