Addicted
to Noise
One of the longest-running and sharpest rock music magazines in the Web. Smart writhing with a bias towards the Alternative end of the spectrum.
All
Music Guide
A massive guide to - as it says - all kinds of music, with good biographies record reviews, and some rather odd classifications. A hugely impressive site, nonetheless, and with some useful built-in search engines.
Aus
Music Guide
A massive guide to all that's shakin' down under.
Bad
Taste Records
http://www.siberia.is/badtaste/badhome.htm
The Sugarchubes, whose lead singer Björk rocked to iconic mainstream acceptance, have made a valiant attempt to bring Iceland's underground talent to the world's attention through their Bad Taste label. This may be your only chance to hear it.
Canonical
List of Weird Band Names
http://204.254.248.7/~chelle/bandname.html
Directory of bands where, in many cases, more thought has gone into the name that the sound. Amusing all the same.
CDnow!
CDnow! is everything you've ever wanted from an entertainment magastore - but online. Alongside a vast range of CDs, it has reviews, press clippings, and an impressive selection of Real Audio new releases on the Internet Jukebox, and accepts international orders, which in some cases, could work out cheaper than buying locally.
Ceberus
Digital Jukebox
To listen to any of the hundreds of independent-label music tracks and samples available here, you first have to download the CerCure sound player - and you sometimes have to pay. The range varies from Bing Crosby to Funky Porcini, but not much from the charts.
Classical
Music on the Net
http://lmc.einet.net/galaxy/Leisure-and-Recreation/Music/douglas-bell/Index.html
One hell of an address ! ? ! If you're in for a hefty, text-only site providing informed links to pretty much every classical music Net site.
Digital
Dream
http://www.openworld.co.uk/staff/dd/
Hundreds of CD reviews conveniently searchable by genre, rating, and title. Covers the overlapping spectrum of techno/ambient/drum'n'bassy stuff. Astound your too-cool disco pals with you new-found fluency in chill, ambient, trance, and trip hop, without ever having to buy an album.
Dirty
Linen
http://kiwi.futuris.net/linen/
Online excerpts from the US folk, roots, and world music magazine. Features and excellent forthcoming gig guide, plus a host of related links.
dotmusic
Charts, goss, contacts, and profiles from industry rags Music Week, Record Mirror, MBI, and Gavin.
ECM
Sound samples and online ordering from the German-based jazz and contemporary classical label, home to the likes of Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, Pat Metheny, and Arvo Part.
The
Ever Expanding Web Music Listing
http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/music/web-music.html
Monolithic directory split into academic, non-academic, user-maintained, geographically local, and artist-specific sites. It comes close to the impossible task of completely indexing the Net's music content.
Firefly
Rate and slate a hundred or so artists and gave your tastebuds diagnosed. Once processed, it can then recommend selections of music you're likely to adore or abhor.
Folk
Roots
http://www.cityscape.co.uk/froots/index.html
The UK's equivalent to Dirty Linen (see above) delivers on British and American folk roots, and Celtic music, and has a sublime ear for the best in global sounds.
Geffen/DGC
The home of Nirvana, Teenage Fanclub, Herb Alpert and, more recently, Swervediver, appears to have given up using this site to relaunch the Eighties. It now conventionally plugs its catalogue through bios and clips.
Global
Electronic Music Market
Commercial compilation of various music dealers' catalogues and second-hand music trading post. Once you've found what you want, you contact the vendor directly.
The
Grateful Dead
http://jwww.cs.cmu.edu/~mleone/dead.html
The mother of all Dead pages, with lyrics, concert sets, tape trading guides, and links to just about every other Dead page on the Net. Thanks, Jerry - RIP.
HiFi on
the Web
http://www.unik.no/~robert/hifi/hifi.html
If the news, reviews, and trade show reports housed on this site aren't enough to convince you that your hi-fi's crap, link to another site and find out that no matter how much you've spent, you're still insulting your ears.
Hyperreal
One-stop shop for all your raving needs. Find out what's hip, where it's at, what's going down, and what to swallow.
Independent
Underground Music Archive
Get in touch with hundreds of unsigned and indie-label underground musicians. All bands provide samples, biographies, and contact details. You'll need to rummage around through loads of unfamiliar names, but it's often worth it.
Japanese
Independent Music
Could the exploding underground Asian pop scene be the next big thing? Here's an offbeat selection to get you prepared.
Jazz
Central Station
http://www.jazzcentralstation.com
Bulging global jazz multimedia digest in English or Japanese.
Juan
Luis Guerra
http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~stolting/JLG/jlg.com
Clips from the Latin superstar plus English and Spanish lyrics, FAQs, interviews, and links to other Meringue and Dominican Republic music pages.
Michael
Jackson Internet Fan Club
All you want, and more than you need, to know about the little Mr Epaulettes and his troops.
Junglematic
747
http://mbinter.com/ss7x7/jungle.htm
Mix you own Jungle tracks instantly with this astounding Shockwave toy.
Kraftwerk
Infobahr
http://www.cs.umu.se/tsdf/kraftwerk
Demos, live out-takes, MIDI files, interviews, lyrics, and the discography of pioneering Krautrockers, Kraftwerk.
Lyrics
Server
http://archive.uwp.edu/pub/music/lyrics/
Search a massive lyrics database by title, artist, or text. Everyone from Aaron Neville to 999.
MIDI
Karaoke
http://www.teleport.com/~labrat/karsingles.shtml
Sing along to pics from an archive of MIDI instrumental files.
Mozart's
Musical Dice
http://lecaine.music.mcgill.ca/~dawkins/html/waltz.html
Anyone can write music. Even you. Just by rolling a dice. Well that's what Mozart reckoned anyway. See for yourself. Or be like U2 and use a coin.
MTV
After wrenching the domain name from ex-VJ Adam Curry in a protraced legal wrangle, MTV has finally got around to putting up some content. Mind you, if you can, you might proffer to switch on MTV itself, rather than download large, but low res, video clips.
MusicBase
Home to such British labels as Deconstruction, Parlophone, Creation, Island, N-Gram William Orbit, and Perfecto records. Artists include Britpopstars Grid, Pet Shop Boys, Pulp, Blur, Oasis, Boo Radleys, and Paul Oakenfold.
NME
On-the-pulse weekly reviews with soundclips, charts, features, news, gigs, demos, and archives from the world's most respected pop newspaper.
Offbeat
http://www.neosoft.com/~offbeat/
Monthly music news, dates, and jazzy sounds fresh out of Louisiana.
Polyester
Records
http://www.polyester.au/PolyEster/index.html
Large indie selection for email order. It will ship internationally, but beware that Australia is one of the world's most expensive places to buy CDs.
The Residents
http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~tzoq/Residents/
The world's finest and weirdest neo-classical ensemble have preformed anonymously, wearing giant eyeball heads, since the early 70s, so efficient at concealing their identities that even their most avid fans remain in the dark. Take this one for instance.
Resonance Records
http://www.netcreations.com/resonance
Check into the listening booth and see what's hot in drum'n'bass. It will ship anywhere in the world.
Rolling Stones
Originally set up to promote the Stones' Voodoo Lounge album, this official site has ongoing video feeds, loads of sound files, interviews, and pictures. It carved its place in which, although not a critical success, was a turning point in the Net's evolution from tool to lifestyle accessory.
The Rough Guide to Rock
http://www.roughguides.com/rock
The Rough Guide to Rock was developed as a work in progress on the Web prior to book publication, and this site has the full text (1100 band/artist biographies), plus Web links to find more on the artists. If you're a budding rock writer and spot a crucial missing entry (or one you could write a lot better), you can submit it for consideration. Rough Guides are in the progress of posting text from their guides to World Music, Jazz, Reggae, classical, and Opera.
Sound Wire
Like most indie music shops, this one has lots of stuff similar to, but not necessarily exactly, what you're looking for Relatively few albums have samples and cover shots, and none have track listings. All the same, it's well worth visiting the listening room to discover obscure gems.
Space Age Bachelor Pad Music
http://fwww.users.interport.net/~joholmes/
From garage sale bin to next big thing. Discerning hipsters say the Loungecore sounds of Exquival, Denny, Klaempert, and co. are more now than they were back then.
Stereolab
http://www.maths.monash.edu.au/people/rjh/stereolab
All the gas on the IK's front-runners in the Moog and strings revival.
Sub Pop Records
Try and buy grunge.
Timecast
What's new on the Real Audio airwaves. Get a sound card, download Real Audio, and visit this site regularly.
The Ultimate Band List
http://american.recordings.com/wwwofmusic/ubl/ubl.ahtml
Search for, or add, all your favourite pop ensemble's Internet presences. This is a massive resource that rock fans will want to bookmark right away and will keep referring to.
Virgin Records
Prime multimedia tidbits from Chemical Brothers, Verve, FSOL, Auteurs, Rolling Stones, Lenny Kravitz, and the entire Hut Records catalog, plus gossip, and Virgin info.
WorldWide Music
This is perhaps the Web's most amazing record store - at least if you have a fast (and preferably direct) connection, so that you can make use of its stunning library of samples, which include at least six tracks from each disc in stock. The design is excellent, the range astonishing. Explore!
Yothu Yondi
Yothu Yidi's blend of tribal techno brought Aboriginal music to the world's attention and won Mandawuy Yunupingu nomination as Australian of the Year. This site has Real Audio clips, videos, an art gallery, and passion for a sunburnt country.
