Today, there are more ways than ever for artists to get music into their fans’ ears. However, the vast array of services can also be problematic—how do you stay abreast of new music releases when they could pop up in lots of different places?
A couple of decades ago, all you needed to do was subscribe to a music magazine and listen to the radio every day, but these days it’s not so simple.
Luckily, there are plenty of ways to keep up-to-date with new songs and new albums from your favorite artists. With that in mind here are the new music websites worth bookmarking.
1. The Music Ninja
The Music Ninja isn’t concerned with Justin Bieber’s latest release or Miley Cyrus’ newest album. Instead, it focuses on new content from lesser-known and up-and-coming artists.
Most of the site’s recommendations revolve around four main genres: electronic, indie, hip-hop, and folk. The Music Ninja publishes regular playlists and often has new featured tracks—all of which aim to introduce you to bands you probably haven’t heard of. Each track in a playlist comes with at least a couple of sentences describing the artist and the song.
You can download most of the featured tracks for free. Any that don’t offer a free download can be purchased directly from the site.
2. Pitchfork’s Best New Music
Pitchfork is a wide-ranging music website that covers everything from interviews to exclusive video content. If you want to find brand new music, head to the “Best New Music” section.
It has the tagline, “Highlighting the finest music of the current moment,” and it certainly delivers. There are three sections: “Best New Album,” “Best New Track,” and “Best New Reissue.” Each section has an overall winner, but delve a little deeper and you can find shortlists with hundreds of entries. You can play lots of the tracks directly from the website via SoundCloud links. This all combines to make the site one of the best places to find out about new songs.
Pitchfork updates the shortlisted content on a rolling basis, but it only updates the overall winners every few weeks.
3. Billboard
If you prefer mainstream music, head to the official Billboard website. The company was founded way back in 1894, and has since grown to become the definitive voice on record sales in the United States.
If you want to see what’s popular or currently trending, you need look no further. The website includes the Billboard 100 (singles) and the Billboard 200 (albums). You can play snippets of songs through the site, or click the Spotify link to listen to the full tracks.
You’ll also find some novelty charts and themed content for Christmas, Halloween, and other holidays.
4. Beathound
If searching through endless lists just to find new music before it’s released sounds like too much work, you need to check out Beathound.
The site grew out of the embers of the now-defunct Music-Alerts.com, but it’s far more powerful than its predecessor ever was. Simply put, it lets you upload your iTunes XML file, then emails you a list of all the new releases it thinks you will be interested in.
Unfortunately, at the time of writing, the site only supports iTunes. If you use one of the many iTunes alternatives or rely on streaming services like Spotify, you’re out of luck.
5. Spotify New Music
Despite using the Spotify name, Spotify New Music is not affiliated with the streaming service.
Nonetheless, it’s a fantastic resource. Tell the site which country you live in, and it’ll list any newly-released songs or albums that are also available on Spotify in your area.
Amazingly, it scours 21 websites to find new releases in the first place. They are: The 405, All Music, AV Club, Beardfood, Clash Music, Consequence Of Sound, Drowned In Sound, The Guardian, Music OMH, NME, No Ripcord, Paste, Pitchfork, Pop Matters, Resident Advisor, Slant, The Line Of Best Fit, The Music Fix, The Skinny, Tiny Mix Tapes, and Under The Radar.
6. AllMusic
Like some of the other sites on this list, AllMusic offers a lot more than simply listing new releases. However, the new music section is in a class of its own.
The section is split into three distinct areas: “Featured New Releases,” “All New Releases,” and “Editor’s Choice.” You can filter each section by release date, genre, and record label. The featured section includes a written review, an AllMusic rating, and a user rating.
Each record has a link to an Amazon listing, but there is no native way to preview the content.
7. YouTube: Just-Released Music Videos
The Just-Released Music Videos playlist is curated by YouTube. It features new songs from the world’s biggest artists, so it isn’t a place to find niche or little-known artists.
YouTube updates the list every day. At the time of writing, there are more than 3,500 videos in the playlist and users have watched it over 95 million times.
Remember, there are lots of free services allowing you to convert YouTube videos into MP3 files, so you can add them to your collection. However, the legality of doing so is highly questionable.
What Are Your Favorite New Music Websites?
In this list of new music website we’ve shown you the best sites to stay abreast of the new releases, but there are hundreds of others out there.
If you already know which artists you like, often the most efficient way of finding out about new content is to follow them on social media and read dedicated fan sites. And, of course, Spotify now offers its “Release Radar” feature which gives you a weekly playlist of new song releases it thinks you’ll enjoy.
If you’d like to learn more about finding new songs and albums, check out our article listing timeless ways to discover new music.
Image Credit: sn6200/Flickr
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