How Do You Find New Non-RIAA Music?

burgundysizzle writes "Given the general reaction to the RIAA in comments, I assume that there are a number of users that try not to buy from RIAA sources. What alternatives do you use - or more importantly - what methods do you use to discover alternative sources of music? I use Sellaband.com (some free legal music available) and Amiestreet.com (new music is free and most music really cheap) to find new music, but I'm always on the lookout for interesting sites to discover new music. Tell me about your experiences and any other interesting places you get new music from. I'm looking for inexpensive, and legal."

Riaa-Radar

[excelblue]

I use the site http://www.riaaradar.com./ [www.riaaradar.com]

It has a listing of many mainstream albums and shows whether or not they are published by the RIAA.

I usually look through their RIAA-free lists and see if there's anything I'm interested in.

Re:Riaa-Radar

[Kris_J]

Try the link without the extra "." [riaaradar.com].

Re:Riaa-Radar

[RobertM1968]

The problem I have with the RIAARadar site is that it does not correctly attribute the appropriate record label and appropriate distribution company to many artists...

One such is Iron Maiden, who releases their music through one of their own labels (ie: formerly Sanctuary), but like most bands who are not RIAA members, and who (like them) are vehemently against the RIAA tactics, the CD production/distribution is done by a big label.

Thus, in their case (Iron Maiden's) and many other artists, the information is misleading, and people will be misinformed as to the band's actual status, feelings about the RIAA, and who their real record label is.

And yes (before someone asks) I did submit (multiple times) the correct info to them, including numerous links to support my claims, and they still have ignored it - after months since my last submission to them.

If they were more pro-active in correcting their listings (especially after being provided numerous supporting links, etc, making the job easy), their site would be quite useful... heck, if they did ANYTHING to correct their listings (other than send an automated confirmation saying "thanks for the info") it would be nice.

Re:Riaa-Radar

[Jake Dodgie]

I don't know too much about the rest of the world, but for new australian music downloads I go to

http://www.triplejunearthed.com/ [triplejunearthed.com]

and

http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/listen/mp3s.htm [abc.net.au]

Both sites are run by the local government (read tapayer) funded youth network radio station and aussie music rips the rest of the world to pieces.

I grab mine

[Splab]

when bands play in the local student bar. Usually indie labels, often burned copies so you know quite a lot of the money goes directly to the band.

Re:I grab mine

[moosesocks]

There's something very satisfying about handing the money directly to the musician on the CD.

Then there's something pleasantly surprising when said musician says "If you like it, and want to do us a favor, make as many copies as you want, and give them to your friends" after handing you the CD.

And If you legitimately don't have the $10 they're selling the CD for, they'll usually give you the CD for however much money it takes to buy gas to get back home.

Re:I grab mine

[Daengbo]

Amen to the "gas money" comment.

About three months ago, I had a "discussion" with someone who claimed that piracy would be the end of the music industry and that no one would want to play music anymore. My assertions that real musicians (and I know quite a few) just want people to listen to their music. They'll work a day job, go without eating, or do anything else it takes to keep playing in front of groups was dismissed. In my experience, the guitar/bass/sax/whatever is always the last thing to get hocked and the first thing to come out of the pawn shop.

Real musicians play for the people, not the money. They always have and they always will. This fifty-year invention of the rock star lifestyle is just a fad.

Speaking of that, the movie Rock Star with Mark Wahlberg has an interesting opinion on that. Paraphrased. "You've got to start drinking and sleeping with women. Live the lifestyle. Be sexy. Then the women will want you, and come to your concerts. That'll make the guys want to come, and it's the guys that buy the album." (I lookes for the exact quote, but couldn't find it.

By the way, I use http://jamendo.com/ [jamendo.com] to get almost all my music. Current favorites are:

• Antarhes
• Brad Sucks, and
• invain There's also a ton of decent blues, though most is in French or Italian.

Re:

[compro01]

watch the local paper's entertainment section. many local bands around here get their gigs in there, especially if a few bands are having a collective show.

Re:

[OECD]

There's a new site Stop Standing Still [slashdot.org] that is attempting to act as a one stop reference for finding live nerdy music (nerdcore, wrock, chiptunes, VGM, etc.) It just launched and it's still in beta, but it's worth keeping an eye on. (Needless to say, none of the bands are on RIAA labels.)

Re:

[OECD]

Frak. That should be Stop Standing Still [stopstandingstill.net]

Re:Go away, you're not 21

[gEvil (beta)]

Can you think of anything that under-21s can do that's as effective?

Go to all ages shows. Even places that serve alcohol will put on earlier all ages shows if there's enough demand.

Re:

[Telvin_3d]

How about the same thing? I live in Montreal, so the music scene is great. When there is a good band playing in the pubs and bars that cater to that croud, the age range is from 18 to ancient. And the bands are always happy to help you spend money on them.

Re:Go away, you're not 21

[OAB_X]

It's an understatement to call the Montreal scene great. It's certainly the best scene in Canada, and one of the top 5 in North America.

Re:Go away, you're not 21

[Man On Pink Corner]

'Get the hell out of Fort Wayne' is sounding like a good plan.

Re:Go away, you're not 21

[Splab]

Yeah, move to a different country :)

From Denmark, legal drinking age is 18 (in bars, you can buy alcohol at the age of 15 in supermarkets), but if you don't drink we (the student bar) often allow minors in to see the music.

Umm...

[Poromenos1]

last.fm [last.fm]

Re:

[chochos]

Yeah me too, that's my main source of music these days. I have enough stats there that the recommendations the system gives are good. Plus the whole neighbor system is very helpful too.

Re:

[Tsuzuki]

Agreed! It works no matter what your taste in music is or what music player you use. The automatic recommendations are great once your profile's built up a bit and you can also receive recs from other users and groups.

Since they added the Events system I've started seeing ridiculous amounts of live music again, which is always one of the best ways to support an artist.

Re:

[Poromenos1]

Well, actually it doesn't work that well for me, because I listen from metal to pop to opera, etc etc, so it's really hard for it to find a match. It mostly gives me metal songs, but I only like a particular kind (melodic songs in general), so it doesn't have a great success ratio. But, hey, it's a machine and I'm hard to please, so overall I'm very satisfied with it.

Re:

[Tsuzuki]

I should have mentioned that Similar Artists is one of the best forms of recommendation on the site... that and the neighbours/weekly neighbours system. I have Isis and Kanye West and Pendulum in my top 20, so I know what you mean!

What?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're actually going to pay for music?

Re:

[TheRaven64]

I've bought a few albums after hearing a track or two from them on Radio Paradise (after checking on RIAA RADAR). If it's on iTunes Plus, I'll get it from there. If not, I'll buy a second-hand CD (and the band gets no money).

For reggae, check ...

[rasjani]

http://www.versionist.com/ [versionist.com] - quite a big community creating reggae, mainly dub and thats where the quality is but also other sub genres. Website is quite horrible thou but the content is superb.

Web Radio

[Abcd1234]

Most of the new stuff I encounter is from places like SomaFM [somafm.com]. Most (all?) of the stuff they play is from indie labels and unsigned bands, and I can listen passively, which means I get decent background tunes while I work, and if I hear something I like, I can take a look at my stream player to see who the artist is and investigate from there.

Basically, I'm lazy, so why not let someone else send the music to me? :)

Jamendo

[Aeolien]

If you're interested in high-quality music, check out http://www.jamendo.com/ [jamendo.com] . Tons of new stuff everyday, free with the option of donating to the bands, and it's all 200kbps in MP3 or 300 kbps in Ogg Vorbis. There's a wonderful flash-based player if you want it to stream, with playlist capabilities as well. All music is downloaded through BitTorrent or eMule, so it's superfast. Check it out!

Jamendo.com

[tehniobium]

I strongly recommend jamendo.com...there is a lot of good music (especially if you are a electronica/indie sound rock fan Its all 100% freely downloadable from .torrent or emule, and usually covered by some kind of permissive license (making it free beer and freedom). The site was started by french people so a lot of the music is from french bands, however lately stuff is being submitted by people from all over the world. A couple of good picks from jamendo: SGX - Synesthetic, White Light Riot - Atomism and of course the widely famous t r y ^ d. Check it out!

Sounds passe but...

[Bayoudegradeable]

I actually like to browse through friends lists of bands that I like on Myspace. Most of these bands are unsigned or indie acts. Chances are that the bigger bands I like have friends that are new bands that often fit into the sound of the "big" band. Not always just clones, either. While you come across some music that may not be what you look for, I have found numerous new acts that I really enjoy that I learned of only through Myspace. Of course, if I want to buy a full album I can look on iTunes to see i

Re:

[speculatrix]

friends lists of bands that I like on Myspace.
I find the "musicwall" facebook thing quite interesting for finding stuff, or even discovering what your apparently normal friends and colleague actually listen to!

Slashdot believe it or not

[syousef]

/. led me to Jonathan Coulton [jonathancoulton.com] whose quirky music I like very much, and who also responded to my email blindingly fast on the same day that a story about him appeared on /. - now he may not always reply quite so quickly but what are the odds I'd have been able to get a conversation going with a RIAA artist? Even some of the unknowns, who you'd think would be chomping at the bit to build a fanbase, seem quite aloof.

Re:

[kentrel]

Have you actually tried this? It would be nice to bash the RIAA with some actual real life experience, other than arm chair musings.

Re:

[syousef]

Have I actually tried what exactly? I'm actually confused by your one line rant because I have no idea what you're trying to say except for your dig at my "real life experience" (when you know nothing about what real life experience I do or don't have). ...and it's modded insightful?. Probably by some buddy of yours sitting next to you in a computer lab or at work. Typical! Try -1:Incoherent & Requires Validation.

Re:

[Dirtside]

and who also responded to my email blindingly fast on the same day that a story about him appeared on /.

That is a triumph! I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.

college radio

[gEvil (beta)]

Listen to college radio stations, which is a whole lot easier now thanks to the internet. No, it's not all indie rock. Most stations have a wide variety of specialty shows, so you can become exposed to lesser known bands in nearly any genre--bluegrass, folk, country, j-pop, classical, avant garde/experimental, hip hop, dance, etc etc etc. And when their pledge drives come around, make a donation and support them!

Re:college radio

[OAB_X]

I listen to CBC Radio 3 (the Canadian equivalent to BBC Radio 6(uk), TripleJ (aus), and the NPR music shows).
Oh, and it's good.

http://radio3.cbc.ca/ [radio3.cbc.ca]

Also found in the "Alternative" and "Public" directories of the iTunes 'radio' section tab.

Re:

[Jazzer_Techie]

College radio is definitely a good way to go. It's independent music broadcast by independent means. Give WMBR [wmbr.org] a try. It's MIT's student station. A wide variety of great music broadcast by a mix of college-age nerds and members of the local community.

Re:college radio / KFJC

[LM741N]

KFJC in Los Altos Hills, Ca is my favorite college radio station. Their reggae DJ has been there for at least 20 years.
Go to www.kfjc.org and look for the streaming audio section. They are right in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Archive.org has some pretty good live stuff.

[tetrahedrassface]

I have found that archive.org has some pretty good live stuff, especially if you are looking for a particular song and honestly I like hearing the live recordings of people I have never heard of before. So i hit archive a pretty good bit. It was sad when a lot of the soundboards were pulled for some of the bigger bands (like the Dead etc), however a lot of smaller groups still release really good stuff. For the most part its archive for me, and some lastfm with the occasional visit to magnatune..

Re:

[richlv]

given that both magnatune and last.fm are integrated in amarok, i can vote for those two :)

Archive.org also has some good original stuff

[zoeblade]

Amongst a lot of other good things (such as incremental backups of the worldwide web [archive.org]), archive.org also hosts a lot of music by various netlabels [archive.org]. This gives you access to much more good music than you're likely to have time to listen to, in a variety of genres. In particular, the chiptune inspired dance music of the label 8bitpeoples [archive.org] should go down well with the Slashdot crowd.

Magnatune.com

[lattyware]

Magnatune.com - check it out. I'm a fan of Roots Of Rebellion, Very Large Array & Rocket City Riot.

Re:

[HangingChad]

My favorite Magnatune artists are Burnshee Thornside and Brad Sucks. Give generously, half the money goes to the artist.

Well

[El Lobo]

I listen to what I like, be it from RIIA , alternative or from my out of tune neighbour... And no, I will not let the politics affect my life in that way. No way I'll miss the next Iron Maiden DVD just because their record company is part of the RIIA, the Vatican or the Holy Spirit.

If I don't like the politics from some party, coorporation, economical or religious group, I try to find a way to protest without affecting my life. Imagine if I would veto everything I dislike. I wouldn't drive a car (oil producing country often suck major dictatures), eat meat (poor cows), miss a manowar record (Riia), drink a beer (alcohol monopoly in sweden). etc...

But hey, don't let my rants discorage you to listen to what you want...

Re:Well

[DM9290]

"I try to find a way to protest without affecting my life. "

People like you are the problem in the world.

Re:

[harryman100]

What you're assuming is that the OP is looking to purchase non-RIAA music instead of purchasing RIAA music. However, this is not strictly true, as far as I can see the OP is in a situation similar to my own. They want to discover NEW music, but they would also like to encourage non-RIAA bands, the obvious thing to do is to look for independant music. There is too much good music currently signed to RIAA labels to avoid buying it. But if I am actively looking for new music, I will go looking for independant

May your chains rest lightly upon you...

[MacDork]

And no, I will not let the politics affect my life in that way.

If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.--Samuel Adams

How funny

[yerktoader]

I just looked up Rage Against the Machine on RIAA Radar. Every album except one was released by a RIAA affiliate.

Hilarious.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to mention that their music sucks festering goat balls.

Project Playlist?

[kermit1221]

I just started poking around http://www.projectplaylist.com/ [projectplaylist.com] Don't know yet if it's worth much or not, but it might be worth a try.

I hate to admit I use it at all, but the music on myspace has some okay stuff. Just poke around the bands' pages and see what you get. Find a local band you may or may not know and follow their "friends" links, especially some of the smaller show producers and such. If you like metal, start with http://www.myspace.com/coldethylmusic [myspace.com] (shameless plug, my tattoo artist is the drummer).

Re:

[illectro]

Check out imeem.com [imeem.com] project playlist basicly copied most of their 'ideas' from imeem with a few changes to try and avoid potential legal issues, imeem is the real deal in this case.

Review/news sites

[garbletext]

These sites are essential to maintaining my indie cred. They aren't 100% RIAA-free, but they do skew quite heavily toward the independent side. Pitchfork is the biggest of these and IMO the best music publication in existence.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/ [pitchforkmedia.com]
http://cokemachineglow.com/ [cokemachineglow.com]
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/ [tinymixtapes.com]

Re:

[Kandenshi]

Hmm, I've never used cokemachineglow.com before, I'll check it out as soon as I'm done this post =D

While pitchfork has it's issues, it's pretty good. Found out about it(and a fair chunk of my music catalog) from Jeph Jacques's webcomic Questionable Content [questionablecontent.net]. He posts reviews of music on a not infrequent basis, and between them, pitchfork and word of mouth I've got a fairly hefty amount of non-RIAA stuff. If you like indie music giving his comic a read is well worth it. Not every(or even most) strips i

Re:

[philipgar]

I don't know about the other 2 sites, but pitchfork.com is one of the most annoying sites ever. It is based on the principle that experimental is always good, independent is always better than commercial, and a band shouldn't be popular (although they're allowed to be HUGE in the underground). Also bands aren't allowed to "sell out" which means making commercials, or doing anything besides releasing CDs and touring to feed their families.

The whole indie vs big label thing is kind of crappy. It's okay to

Re:

[garbletext]

You're entitled to your opinion, but some of the things you wrote simply aren't true. Pitchfork focuses on indie music; you can't fault them for giving more news and review coverage to the type of music they were founded to review. And after reading the site for years, I'm convinced that their editors don't give undue praise to a band for being indie, or punishment for not. For example, they have a running list of the "best new music." One of the current three is the new Jay-Z album. And I can think of

shoutcast radio

[crabpeople]

Whenever I need new music thats not personally recommended by a friend (which is 95% of music i download), ill find a shoutcast stream I like, set up stationripper and then listen to the individual tracks at my leisure. If you have a good track, ill download the whole album.

Other ways would be getting on something like soulseek and browsing other users files whom you share common interests with.

There is simply so much music out there that it isnt really nessecary to go out looking for it. Let the music find

C=64 remixes

[Anonymous Coward]

http://remix.kwed.org/ [kwed.org]

Is great source for a lot of nice remixes of old C= 64 games.

Re:

[kn0tw0rk]

Also Amiga tunes get remixed.
And it should be noted in a variety of styles, not just techno remixes. Visa Roster do acapella covers with their version of Internation Karate being brilliant, Romeo Knight has a ph4t cover of the ballblazer tune with beastie boys vox, Machinae Supremacy started off with a wicked metal/rock cover of great giana sisters and have since done sound tracks to games, and Moog's version of Tristess is just breathtakingly emotive. I should rave on about all the other great talented r

Digitally Imported

[sherpajohn]

I listen to the chillout channel on di.fm - most of the artists are on small independent labels. But honestly, I would never set out to avoid music from companies who belong to RIAA (or CRIA up here in Canada - though all/most of the Canadian labels have quite that org), no matter how much I despise the tactics they employ. I just happen to like music that comes from small labels, and I wil lbuy and listen to music I like.

For me its sort of like Inbev or Constellation Brands - they own a lot of wine and beer companies, and while I am fairly anti-globalisation (especially where it concerns local craft products like wine and beer), if I like a beer or wine I wil ldrink it regardless of who owns the winery or brewery. Maybe I'll get more particular about this sort of thing one day. But not today.

Nerdcore

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.mcplusplus.com/downloads/ [mcplusplus.com]
http://www.rhymetorrents.com/ [rhymetorrents.com]
http://www.frontalittle.com/index.php?page=songs&showall=yes [frontalittle.com]

Re:

[OECD]

If you're into nerdcore and other nerdy music, you need to read the blog Hipster, Please! [slashdot.org] and its accompanying podcast Radio Free Hipster [feedburner.com].

Re:

[OECD]

Grrr. Make that Hipster, Please! [hipsterplease.com]

Nercore - Futuristic sex robots

[Joce640k]

Check this one: http://www.futuristicsexrobotz.com/ [futuristicsexrobotz.com]

So good I even paid... who says the new economy doesn't work?

best Oz alternative and new stuff

[pbjones]

http://triplej.net.au/ [triplej.net.au]
Triple J is a national radio net which has lots of music and podcast interviews.

Magnatune

[entgod]

I like magnatune [magnatune.com], lets you listen to the music with descent quality befor buying it (in vorbis/mp3/flac/wav) for a custom price of which 50% goes to the artist. You're also allowed to share the music with a couple of friends.

Re:

[hrvatska]

Based on your recommendation I just visited them. I really like their pay what you think it's worth approach. I'll likely be purchasing music from them in the future. Thanks for recommending them.

WOXY.com

[dirk]

I have yet to find a station as good at introducing me to new music as WOXY. They started as a college radio station and made the jump to the internet a few years ago. They are constantly praised as being one of the best stations around, and I believe it. They still have DJs that select all the music they plan on their own, without any rules on what they must play. And the playlist is in constant rotation, with new bands being added all the time.

imeem.com

[illectro]

imeem [imeem.com] - It's like napster 1.0 with a web interface - upload your music collection to their servers and listen to any piece of music from everyone else's collection - it has practically any piece of music you'd ever want to hear on there, and has even negotiated revenue sharing deals with a load of labels to pay them for people listening to their tunes.

Re:

[szyzyg]

While imeem is an awesome site for finding and listening to music you're missing the point, there isn't any easy way to find only non-RIAA music, for a while it was but now imeem has signed deals with most of the major record labels you can listen to RIAA and non-RIAA music with equal painlessness. So while it's an awesome site it's not, strictly speaking, the answer to the question.

What I do

[br00tus]

At work I do not listen to a lot of music, but sometimes there is a lot of noise in the next cubicle, so I put in earphones and listen to music. I do not want to have any MP3's that the RIAA might complain about on my PC at work, since listening to so-and-so is not worth it for me in possibly getting in trouble at work. One thing I do do though is go to YouTube and load music videos of different groups. Usually I am not even watching the video, I'm just listening.

In terms of MP3's on my work PC, I usually go to Google and type things like "Beethoven mp3" or "Bach mp3" or "Chopin mp3" or the like. All of the recordings I've downloaded have been free. It is not that difficult to produce this stuff - all you need to make a Chopin mp3 is a piano, a microphone and someone who can play Chopin decently. Plenty of people can. Not all of it is amateur though, I've downloaded fine recordings from professional orchestras for free as well. One of the top Google links I get is Classical Cat [classiccat.net] - the free classical music "cat-alogue".

Plug

[soliptic]

Here's my band [keiretsumusic.com] :)

Mailinglists and CD Baby

[savala]

I'm subscribed to a reasonable active mailing list for the type of music I like (characterized by words like: female, singer-songwriter, alternative, ethereal, celtic, eclectic, folk, americana - although obviously not all at the same time; think artists in the range of Björk, Sarah McLachlan, Loreena McKennit, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Cocteau Twins - although that pretty much exhausts the list of big names, and 95% of our conversation is about independent artists who (imo) sound far better than most of those, but whose names you'll never have heard of), where people constantly toss out new interesting names they've just discovered, and write about shows they attended. (The name of the mailinglist is ecto.)

CD Baby [cdbaby.com] with its decent 2-minute samples and rather good "sounds like" comparisons is another way I've used to discover new music. All artists listed here are independent.

Opening acts at concerts of artists I already like also frequently turn out to be worthwhile in their own right. That's not a very swift way to get to know new artists, but it does add up over time.

Finally, every other year or so I get together (in the real world) with a group of people from the mailinglist, and we all bring the worthwhile CDs we've bought since the last such meet, which we play for each other throughout the day. We also make sampler CDs for each other, so we can all go back and re-listen to those things which caught our interest and remember "oh yeah, that sounded really good, I need to go and buy that".

Re:

[Man On Pink Corner]

I'm subscribed to a reasonable active mailing list for the type of music I like (characterized by words like: female, singer-songwriter, alternative, ethereal, celtic, eclectic, folk, americana - although obviously not all at the same time...

Give Halou [halou.com] a try sometime; they add an electronica feel to that list of adjectives. (If you check them out, I'd recommend downloading some actual album rips to listen to, rather than using the awful-sounding streaming gadget on their website.)

I knew Halou was awesome w

Som of My Favourites

[szyzyg]

The Bachelors Of Science [imeem.com] - Drum n Bass from San Francisco

The Hot Toddies [imeem.com] - Oakland Girl band who have a great song about HTML

The Eclectic Method [imeem.com] - not really a band - VJ's from the UK who do lots of video remixes.

Ten Digit Army [imeem.com] - Solo guitar + vocals with extra electronic goodness - awesome stuff

I like scene.org

[dillon_rinker]

www.scene.org

Lots of good music there.

hand-picked list

[AlgorithMan]

http://www.garageband.com/ [garageband.com]
http://www.jamendo.com/ [jamendo.com]
http://www.stage.fm/ [stage.fm]
http://magnatune.com/ [magnatune.com]
http://www.soundclick.com/ [soundclick.com]
http://www.myownmusic.de/ [myownmusic.de]

hand-picked from around 1000 at del.icio.us

Nightclubs!

[xaxa]

I'm (not entirely) surprised no one has mentioned this yet, but go clubbing! The DJ is usually happy to tell me what he's playing if I ask -- when I forget, I can sometimes find the DJ's setlist online.

Of course, remembering the name of the artist by the morning is the hardest bit. I generally photo it with my phone, or text myself.

Oblig...

[Rodness]

I'm looking for inexpensive, and legal.

Yeah, good luck with that. The RIAA doesn't consider legal and inexpensive to be two compatible concepts.

I Download Songs Illegally...

[morari]

No, seriously! I can't count how many fairly obscure, independent bands I've come across and learned to appreciate while downloading more popular stuff. I've bought many of said bands' albums years later after listening to a small, questionably obtained selection. It's not that different than listening to the radio, except that there are no commercials and the same string of tracks aren't played at a scheduled time each day!

Exposure to new music

[SCHecklerX]

I just listen to Internet Radio streams to learn about new stuff that I can buy. Guess exposure to stuff that RIAA doesn't market is something they don't like...

Opsound

[_aa_]

opsound.org [opsound.org] has indexes Creative Commons audio. Lots of good stuff.

I'm also going to shout out to anal0g.org [anal0g.org] and sudd.org [sudd.org]

eMusic

[lsd]

eMusic [emusic.com], definitely. For $15 a month I get to download 50 tracks from a huge selection of independent artists. The site is full of metadata that you can use to find new stuff (similar artists, lists compiled by other users, etc.), they run a great blog about new and interesting stuff called 17 dots [17dots.com], and they have download clients for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Re:

[AllNicksTaken]

Me too, I love my emusic subscription. DRM-free MP3s rock and I've discovered tons of great new music. They really need to implement quota rollover, though.

Re:

[hobo sapiens]

Duh! eMusic is totally a no brainer.

Their dozens have introduced me to loads of new groups. I have discovered some of my favorite bands there.

I do hate that they have lost several labels lately, though. Ryko and Hellcat come to mind immediately.

Still a very good place to discover new music.

Where? Slashdot at last!

[bzipitidoo]

Been hoping for years that a question like this would make it on Slashdot. Since searching for music has been such a pain, I've been pretty much living without. Now I can refer to this story when I want to look for something new in music.

I did stumble over Needfire [needfire.com], a Celtic Rock band, thanks to one of the members posting a comment on one of the many MAFIAA stories here. He had a link in his sig.

There are lots...

[drspliff]

I was literally just talking with my flatmate that was going on about how there's no non-drm music... there is and I buy it every week and know quite a few people (mostly djs though) that use it as one of the primary sources of music, along with the good old vinyl shops (like Know How in Camden).

Places like DjDownload.com, Beatport.com, Trackitdown.net etc. all offer unencombured 320kbit mp3s, and in some cases FLACs or plain old wavs. You simply cannot play stuff from iTunes or similar on a large soundsystem, you can hear the difference easily and it's not nice. These are niche sites for an audience of maybe a quater of a million or less people, but a lot of them care about sound quality, respect the artists enough not to pirate the music and best of all - the artists get a nice bug chunk unlike iTunes or large-corp record deals.

Dont get me wrong, iTunes is ok, but there have always been alternatives in niche areas and always will be. iTunes is good for finding new music and is gaining in popularity by individual artists and much smaller labels, but the majority of my stuff comes from these alternative retailers.

iTunes is the new boy here trying to be the alternative to the big highstreet retailer...

emusic + netlabels

[botio]

Hi,
My main sources for music are emusic.com which sells great independent artists for cheap and DRM free,
and some netlabels in particular thinner/autoplate http://www.thinner.cc/ [thinner.cc] that is simply amazing.

irate

[halcyon1234]

I haven't used it for a while, but there's irate [sourceforge.net]. Basically you connect to a server. The server feeds you music right from the artist's website. You rate it. It starts to figure out the types of music you like, and will feed you more of it. Everything is mp3.

AudioJelly

[fozzmeister]

I use audiojelly semi-often, it's not cheap though, and im not sure it's even non RIAA (doubt it though). Everything is non DRM'd

Aquarius Records in San Francisco

[dave-tx]

First, the disclaimer - I don't really pay attention to what is or isn't RIAA music.

That said, for anyone looking to discover something off the beaten path, sign up for the newsletter offered by the fine folks at Aquarius Records. [aquariusrecords.org] I've found more good new music there than I have in all other places combined. It's not the biggest record shop in the Bay Area, but it's the coolest, and you're bound to find something you've never heard of.

Shameless Self Plug

[garett_spencley]

This album [cdbaby.com] is not affiliated with the RIAA ;)

Now that that's out of the way ... CD Baby [cdbaby.com] is a huge collection of independent artists and most, if not all, have no affiliation with the RIAA.

Also, as much as it's hated here on /., MySpace has loads of indie artists too. It takes much more sifting through crap to find them than on CD Baby, but I've found so many fellow musicians both that I listen to and jam / collaborate with thanks to MySpace that I have a hard time hating it as much as most slashdotters do.

Check out the indie label websites

[Alicat1194]

A lot of them will let you download one or two tracks from an album for free so that you can get the flavour of the artist, and you can often buy albums straight from the site if you decide you like the band(s). ( Hell Cat Records [hell-cat.com] is a good example, if you're into the punk / psychobilly scene)

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

SocialCase!

[stonecypher]

I listen to SocialCase [socialcase.com].

Good requirements

[Gribflex]

"I'm looking for inexpensive, and legal."

Sounds like my dating requirements.

Pandora!

[LordPixie]

Why on earth has no one mentioned Pandora [pandora.com]? There's a surprising amount of music on there that isn't part of a big name recording company. It does a damn good job of introducing you to music you actually *like*. Toss in something you already enjoy, RIAA affiliated or not, and it will start playing similar music. Note the stuff you like, and give it a pass through riaaradar [riaaradar.com]. While it's not intentionally aiming for indie/non-RIAA music, it's definitely a solid way to get started. And from what I've found, it really can branch out into the fringes a bit.

That being said, this is obviously just my personal experience. It's entirely possible that my particular style of music (Metal & Industrial) has a better non-RIAA showing on Pandora. So I guess your mileage may vary.


--LordPixie

Radioparadise

[pherthyl]

http://www.radioparadise.com/ [radioparadise.com]

Listener supported radio with no commercials. Not everything is non-riaa, but there is lots of excellent indie music to discover there.

Pandora

[GWBasic]

I'm a big fan of Pandora [pandora.com]. You can type in a band name or song name that you like, and it'll start playing similar music. A lot of the music will come from non-mainstream bands.

Oink - Thanks for asking you insensitive clod!

[Cordath]

Many /. readers have already experienced the future of music distribution. Imagine a system where high quality digital music (in both lossless and lossy formats) could be found for all but the most obscure artists, and even many of them as well! All indexed and searchable by genre, likeness, etc.. All with download speeds high enough to max out whatever fat pipe to the nets you happened to be sitting on. That system was Oink.

I have subsequently gone to concerts, bought a fair bit of merchandise and even the occasional CD from the artists I discovered through Oink. I discovered a distressingly large proportion of my current playlist through Oink. I say distressingly because the fellow running Oink was located in a country with copyright laws as messed up as the U.S. (U.K) and he was shut down. Oink is now, sadly, dead.

Let me make this clear. Oink was not legit. However, it was *better* than any legit music store in existence, and not because it was free. If the labels could get their act together and offer a service like Oink for a monthly fee, I'd pay through the nose for it. However, the labels simply don't understand the new music consumer. We don't want to pay $10 per lossy album when we have digital players that would take in excess of $30000 to fill at those rates. Some of us (although certainly not all) want to be able to download high quality lossless tracks that are as good as physical CD's so we can enjoy them on high quality audio rigs. As for DRM, none of us want anything to do with that BS.

If the labels give us what we want and we'll gladly tithe 20, 30, 40 dollars a month of absolutely rock-steady continual income to them on perpetual basis. If they ignore us, we'll just wind up on Oink's successor, whenever one finally rises to dominance in the gaping hole formerly filled by Oink. Maybe it will be in a country where they can squish it, and maybe it won't. One thing is certain though, eventually the Oink model is going to take over. Having used it, I just can't imagine going back to the legitimate alternatives.

Re:

[gEvil (beta)]

You can skip paying for number 3 and instead use binsearch.info. [binsearch.info]

Re:

[garbletext]

http://newzleech.com/ [newzleech.com] is also excellent. I once paid for newzbin, and it's nice, but indexing content isn't something people should pay for nowadays, even if they did invent NZB.

Re:

[QMalcolm]

Some big chains do carry "major" independent stuff if that makes sense. I bought In Search of Sunrise 6 at an HMV because I knew it was on a non-RIAA label, but I bet >90% of the stuff there isn't like that.