Review: Best Music Discovery Website

For folks with highly evolved music discovery habits, the Internet has become the resource for finding new songs or albums to add to the library. Radio and word-of-mouth have always been there, but some of the best music websites offer greater personalization and customization than radio could ever offer (even satellite). And while hearing about a great new (or old) track from a buddy is always fun, how often over the course of your week do you get that chance? The Web is always on.

So I've decided to write up my thoughts on a number of music discovery sites. I only chose sites that I've had plenty of experience with. Also, I only chose sites that offer full-length listens for free. Let's be honest - free listens are what we all crave in our quest for new music. The list was thus narrowed down to 6 sites: Last.fm, Pandora, YouTube, MySpace, Lala, and Imeem. Then I judged the sites based on features I look for when I'm scouring the Web for music - features like comprehensiveness of the library, ease of use, number of free listens allowed, and speed/quality of streaming. The results, from worst to first, are as follows:

6th Place: Pandora

This is a little unfair, because Pandora is conceived by its designers as an Internet radio site rather than an on-demand streaming site. As a result, you cannot simply search for that song you just heard in your car and listen to it. Instead, you create a custom station based on the sound of a specific artist or song.

Regardless, I feel justified in reviewing Pandora here because it's an extremely popular site (and one of the most popular iPhone apps). My thoughts are as follows: Pandora has a deep library that covers both major label and indie catalogs. It's an easy and fun site to use. The inability to skip songs an unlimited number of times when you'd rather hear something else is disheartening, and probably the main reason I rarely go to Pandora anymore. The streaming program is especially robust, however, and pauses in the music are very rare (depending on your Internet connection, of course). So - if you're looking for a customized radio that you're willing to let play without much input, then Pandora may be the solution. But if you really need to find that song you just heard, or even if you're just surfing for something new, there are better options.

5th Place: MySpace

Facebook's scatterbrained nemesis happens to be a decent music discovery engine as well. Unfortunately, a few details are holding it back. On the positive side, basically every artist has a profile on MySpace, with at least a handful of songs available for streaming. In general, you can listen to those songs an unlimited number of times. If you're lucky, the artist you searched has an entire library uploaded to the profile.

However, those artist pages are often lacking the precise song you want. It depends: if the song is a new single, most likely you'll find it. But I've often had issues finding even year-old songs on MySpace. The library is, in a word, inconsistent. Also, the programming is pretty weak. Lots of songs have choppy playback. You need quite a strong Web connection to enjoy MySpace. And the pages hardly have a standard format; often, you'll have to scroll through other media (video, photos) before you find the music player. All in all, MySpace is a hassle.

4th Place: YouTube

Oh, YouTube, how you have changed our lives...and pissed off content owners. YouTube probably has the best streaming speed of any music site, as well as an easy interface that we're all used to. It offers unlimited listens to all its content. And its user-uploaded library is pretty complete, too.

But that library is in peril due to many record labels' actions to have their content removed. I'm not going to take a side on that issue at the moment - besides, that would be another post altogether. Suffice it to say that last week when I tried to embed a YouTube video of Van Morrison in The Last Waltz on to Hot Riffs, I found not a single audio or video track available. The video had been removed. This doesn't bode well for YouTube's future as a viable music discovery site.

Listen, if you can find it on YouTube, great. But if you need a one-stop shop for music streaming, read on.

3rd Place: Last.fm

Last.fm, built and operated in Britain, is my favorite website. Bar none. The concept of Last.fm is so elegant: offer a tiny software download that records every song listened to in iTunes or on an iPod to an online database, automatically create a profile for the user based on what they listen to, and recommend new music to the user based on their taste and the tastes of similar site users. I have found countless new (to me) acts through Last.fm. It may well be the best use of cloud computing I've seen (aside from Google).

So why do I give it a 3rd place finish? For one, only certain tracks are available in full-length streams, and even those tracks can be listened to for only three plays before you get the 30-second sample instead. Even if that's all the plays you'll ever need, there's the issue of streaming speed: often my solid Internet connection isn't enough to handle an entire Last.fm song without a skip.

A final point: Last.fm also offers a customizable radio that blows Pandora out of the water. You can skip through songs an unlimited number of times, and the selections are based on users' listening habits instead of the judgments of Pandora employees (Google the Music Genome Project for a further explanation of what goes on behind the scenes at Pandora).

2nd Place: Imeem

High-speed streaming, deep and eclectic user-generated library, unlimited full-length plays, easy interface: Imeem is a wonderful tool. I recommend it to anyone who needs to find that one song now: search the database and most likely your song is there. You can even make playlists of your own using songs that are already on the site, although after a time some of those songs will become the dreaded 30-second samples.

Imeem doesn't have every song, but it does have most. I get the sense that the labels are having a tricky time with Imeem, as they are simultaneously supporting the site financially and issuing takedown notices for some songs. As with YouTube, this isn't a good sign. But for now, Imeem remains a great resource for full-length tracks.

1st Place: Lala

Have you heard of Lala? My guess is that out of the six sites I've reviewed here, Lala is the least popular. But by my standards, it's also the best. If you visit lala.com, you will instantly appreciate the clear and attractive layout. If you search for a few songs, you will soon realize that its database contains virtually everything you need - both major label and independent. And the streaming code is robust. You can watch as the playback bar chases the data-loaded bar while the song is playing; the data bar almost always stays a distance ahead of playback.

Lala also offers a great option for the serious Web music voyager: for an average of 80 cents per album, you can buy an unlimited stream of an entire album. The songs will go into your "Music Collection" on Lala, and will be playable from any browser thereafter. I use this feature all the time, and for about $10 total I have accumulated some great music over the past few months that I simply needed to hear several times before I bought the CD or downloaded the iTunes track.

All in all, Lala is the best one-stop solution for discovering and hearing music that's new to you. However, I have to be honest: I continue to make use of all these sites in my quest for online music. I recommend that you get yourself a free account at a number of these sites if you're going to be hunting for music on the Web in the future. As always, enjoy the music!