More ways to listen online.

TechCrunch posted today about a new team-up involving Yahoo and Rhapsody.  The two are joining forces so that listeners can search for music on Yahoo, and listen to up to 30 songs for free per month.  You can subscribe to Rhapsody if you want to have access to unlimited songs, or you can listen to 30 second clips after your 30 full songs until the next month starts up.  I particularly appreciate the idea that if you want to try out a song, but decide you don’t like it before a minute is up, it doesn’t count as one of your “songs” for the month. 

Another great source for online music is Pandora. It works this way:  you make a “radio station,” categorized by your favorite musician.  You can have a station with just one musician, or make a station with lots of your favorite musicians. Then, when you press play, you will be treated to a mix of that artist’s songs, as well as similar artists.  That’s the beauty of Pandora – it can let you in on great new artists you never knew about before, but that you discover you absolutely love because they are in the same category as your station’s artist. You can also rate music as you go, so that you hear songs you enjoy more often, and songs you don’t like won’t be played anymore.

Last.fm is a well established online source of music.  It’s great for community building, and another great way to make new music discoveries – you just look at the profiles of people who like artists that you like, and see what else they are listening to!