It's easy to feel inundated with the sheer volume of websites that aim to help us find our new favourite tunes. To clear the clutter, I'd like to introduce you to some of my favourite music-discovery websites. (If you haven't already, check out how I use Spotify to discover new music.)
Hype Machine
If you're looking to hear the latest and greatest music that's generating a lot of Internet "hype."
Hype Machine's simple, feed-style interface displays the "freshest" new music – both commercial and indie – that's trending on hundreds of blogs right now. Their songs are listed in order of popularity, measured by the number of "hearts" a song receives. Hype Machine is also available for free on iPhone and Android.
Standout Feature: You can filter songs by "Only Remixes" and "No Remixes."
Indie Shuffle
The place to find new artists with vibes and sounds similar to your favourite artists.
Indie Shuffle's music blog and player will help you easily discover new tunes and genres. Their genres (electro-pop, deep house, daytime disco, and surf rock, for example) are nicely geared towards indie electronic music lovers looking for more specific sub-genres of music. If you like quality writing to go along with your music listening experience, Indie Shuffle is the best music blog for you. You can also find Indie Shuffle available for free on iPhone and Android.
Standout Feature: The "sounds like" button is a great way to find artists that have a similar vibe or sound to your favourite artists.
Hillydilly
Best for discovering new music based on your mood or activity.
Like Indie Shuffle, Hillydilly presents some well-written overviews and backgrounds on the artist you're listening to. But compared to Indie Shuffle, Hillydilly is more for listeners who like to find new music based on mood or activity (a few of their playlist categories are "romantic," "workout" and "sing-along," for example), rather than actual musical genres.
Standout Feature: "Charts" on the home page shows you the most-listened-to tracks on the website right now. Some of those tunes may be unreleased on popular streaming platforms like Spotify and SoundCloud, so you'll be able to listen in before the rest!
8tracks
Find unique, user-generated playlists for any mood or genre – even the most obscure ones.
I've been using 8tracks for over four years now (check out my profile here). 8tracks' edge is the volume of unique and seriously high-quality playlists created by its own users. Because users can upload their own songs, you'll find loads of tracks that aren't available on Spotify or SoundCloud.
Standout Feature: The search bar. Since users add tags to their playlists, you can search for a pretty random combination of words like "study," "chill" and "R&B," and find tons of playlists that match your search query.
SoundCloud
Take advantage of this popular platform's under-utilised "related tracks" or "in playlists" features.
Since anyone can upload their tracks on this platform, SoundCloud has become the place for underground and up-and-coming artists to gain exposure and even get signed to record labels.
Standout Feature: The "in playlists" and "related tracks" buttons, as you can see above, are some lesser-known features in SoundCloud that I think makes this platform a leader in terms of music discovery.
Majestic Casual
This growing "audiovisual music blog" is a YouTube channel handpicks the best of (mostly super chill) electronic music.
The songs Majestic Casual upload are mostly electronic, deep house, hip-hop, experimental and indie genres with production that creates a distinctively relaxed atmosphere, so you won't find any EDM here.
With the gorgeous, Tumblr-like images accompanying the music, listening to Majestic Casual is really a "majestic experience" more than anything. I mean, haven't really seen any negativity in the comments section, which you've got to admit is pretty rare for YouTube.
Standout Feature: This isn't really a feature, but you can always rely on Majestic Casual for consistently uploading music that will help lift your spirits and keep you in a super chill and relaxed mood.