Hey guys, its Anthony again with another edition of Check This Ish. I love all kinds of music and finding new (hipster some would say) bands to listen to since I’m not into stuff like Lady Gaga. You’d be surprised how many good bands bring out their songs for free listening on sites just to get their name heard.
Hope these sites will help you to be the guy who says “Oh I knew about Florence and the Machine years before they were cool” or the guy whose Ipod is filled with bands no one knows.
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TheSixtyOne
TheSixtyOne is one of my favorite music sites because bands are able to upload their songs just by making a band account. This allows for all kinds of music, good or bad to be uploaded and for groups to have their names heard.
The main gimmick of the site is to “heart” the songs you like so that they gain more popularity and you also gain points. How the point system works it that when you “heart” a song, depending on how many time you “heart” is and how many people “heart” it after you, you will gain a certain amount of points. The points let you level up and give you more opportunities to “heart” more songs per day, or just use more of your daily hearts on one song. Think of a game where you find new songs but integrated with RPG elements and achievements.
The site becomes really addicting when you’re trying to be a hipster as possible and be the first to heart songs or just get a lot of point from the songs you love. The site they have now is set up more towards a radio style where you go through songs one by one, though this link to the old site is more suited toward letting you browse the site at your leisure. Some of the features like listener groups don’t work on the old site but all of the hearting functionality is still there.
The Hype Machine
Hypem is a very simple site, people blog about the songs they like on the website and sometimes they show up on the front page. It has a similar system to T61 with hearting songs and upvoting them to gain more popularity. But I find this site great just for when I’m not looking for any type of music in particular and just letting the playlist run.
Pitchfork
This site isn’t like Hypem or T61 since it is just a regular music news site. But it is the holy grail of hipster music sites. Basically it’s the site that all the indie kids go on but would never admit because “it’s too mainstream”. The site is constantly updated with new album release dates, tour info, interviews with artists, and album reviews.
Turntable FM
This site quickly became one of my favorite sites to go on but unfortunately it has become limited to US use only due to licensing issues. With Turntable.fm you become the DJ in a virtual room and other will come listen to the songs you put up. You are able to upload your own MP3s or search from their vast library of music.
Every time someone likes or dislikes the song you're playing a meter fills or falls respectively. If the meter fills all they way into the green the DJ will get an encore and is able to play another song instead of it switching to another DJs turn. Also if the bar goes into the red because people don't like what their listening to the song is automatically skipped and the next DJ in line is chosen.
There is also a points system in place; for every time someone likes the song you're playing you get a point. The points are used to unlock different levels of avatars to DJ as, so you can see if someone has a really high score they will be rolling around as a gorilla with a big gold chain around its neck. I think the highest level is a Daft Punk avatar but I haven't seen anyone rocking that one yet.
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Hope you enjoy these sites and look forward to another “Check This Ish” sometime in the future. Also remember to check out the podcast and Vinces figure reviews. And as always if you have any bands or music sites you want to share post them in the comments.
