1. Find New Jams – While this website categorizes music into some genres you’ve never even seen before (nudisco?), these unique categories give you the opportunity to hear music that you probably wouldn’t have found otherwise. My favorite categories are electro house and progressive house, but they also have a page with all the newest music or the most popular tunes on the site. Although clicking download on the songs sometimes leads to you Beat Port or other sites which require you to pay, a lot of the tracks can be downloaded for free off of Facebook by liking the artist’s page, which is always a great feeling. I’ve found some of my favorite songs off of Find New Jams and I highly recommend it.
2. This Song Is Sick – With mixtapes, albums, videos, and more, This Song Is Sick has been one of my favorite music blogs for years. It is constantly updated and instead of just following the popular music, they have unique remixes and free downloads that you pretty much can’t find anywhere else. There is a large range of music, from rap, to reggae, to dubstep, but this blog is a must-see for remix fans.
3. Dirty Mexican Lemonade – This site is run by a college student, a friend of my brother’s at Elon University, so he knows what’s up with the college music scene. There are also posts by other people so you get a wide variety of tastes. My brother sends me music every week and most of it is from DML. You’ll quickly become obsessed.
4. Pigeons and Planes – Not only does this website always have the best new music, but it also has news on upcoming albums and mixtapes, videos of performances, and contests. If you become a big enough fan, they have shirts for sale on their website.
5. BBC Radio 1 – Sometimes I feel like I hear the same music over and over. That’s why I decided to check out the music in Europe. I found “Hello” by Martin Solveig & Dragonette on this site months before it even started playing on the radio here in the states. This site gives you a sneak peek of music that none of your friends have heard, and let’s be real… Being the first one to have hit songs makes you feel like a champ.
Image courtesy of KStreetMagazine