Allmusic.com - Release Dates, Reviews, Track Listings and Discographies. Billboard Online - Trade magazine of the music industry featuring several internationally recognized record charts. Fact Magazine - UK based independent music review site with lots of great interviews and features. NPR Music - A staff favorite, with a plethora of well-written reviews, interviews, podcasts, and more. Tunefind - An index of music and songs appearing in popular TV shows and movies. Not comprehensive, but certainly accurate.
Discover New Music
Every Noise at Once - A one-page map of playable audio samples for more than 1500 music genres, from dance pop to bossa nova to black metal to Turkish new wave to swamp blues to deep opera. Prepare to kill an hour or more with this exhaustive and comprehensive interactive site. Gnoosic- A search engine for music, featuring a mapping system to locate music that is closely (or remotely) related to the artists you love. Music Ninja - A unique music review website, that has dozens of playlists covering all genres and moods. Noon Pacific - A playlist of music from hundreds of music blogs, hand-picked and delivered to your e-mail inbox every week.
Music in Film
Music makes a pretty compelling subject for a film, and our streaming movie database Kanopy has hundreds of music-related features for you to enjoy. Whether it’s a cradle-to-grave story biopic about a famous musician, or an enlightening documentary about a specific music scene, or simply a film with a killer soundtrack, Kanopy has you covered. You can access Kanopy through a variety of devices and platforms, and you get 10 play credits per month. Click here to peruse the music films available and stream (and listen to) a great movie today!
Listen to Music Online
Pandora - Free, personalized music that plays music according to what you love. Bandcamp - Discover amazing new music and directly support the artists who make it. Spotify - Free music, for tablets, smart phones, or computers. Slacker Radio - Hundreds of stations, adapted to your personal taste.
Freegal Pick of the Week
Are you using Freegal? How can you call yourself a music fan and not be using this excellent service that gives you five songs per week – absolutely free that you can keep forever. There are thousands of songs from popular artists (AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, Miles Davis, Johnny Cash) and tons of new & upcoming bands and musicians to enjoy. Speaking of new stuff, Tool's internet-breaking Fear Inoculum is here, as well as Beyoncé's latest Homecoming, the soundtrack to her live 2018 Coachella performance, and of course, the new EP from Lil Nas X featuring the ubiquitous "Old Town Road". Whatever your taste, Freegal is perfect for any music fan.
This week's pick: Sheer Mag - A Distant Call After their critically acclaimed debut album, 2017’s Need to Feel Your Love, one would expect the sophomore slump to strike Philadelphia’s Sheer Mag. Thankfully it hasn’t. Their newest LP A Distant Call builds from their debut to deliver unapologetic guitar-oriented rock that has its roots in the scuzzy dive bar scene but its sights on the stadium. And at the same time, their music has a sparseness and simplicity that compliments its lyric themes, which are topical, contemporary, and just a tad political. Tackling big subjects like poverty (“Blood From A Stone”), political corruption (“The Killer”), labor unrest (“Chopping Block”), class warfare (“Silver Line”) and even the current refugee crisis (“Unfound Manifest”), the songs contain deep messages that reflect on the power of community, standing up for what you believe in, and the overarching meaning of human dignity in the face of craven political opportunity. It’s pretty heavy in terms of subject; however it’s buoyed by some truly fun riffs, blistering twin lead guitars, and killer soaring vocal melodies courtesy of lead singer Tina Halladay. A frequent number of bands these days play around with hard rock/punk elements, but their approach is more tongue-in-cheek, a “loving tribute” to the sounds of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Not so with Sheer Mag, who truly embrace these aspects, fully owning their Thin Lizzy-meets-Cheap Trick-meets-Judas Priest sound to deliver a powerful punch. –Mark, Downtown
