music for MP3 player

[gregebowman]

I know for a fact that I'm getting a MP3 plalyer for Christmas. i know because I'm Santa! Anyway, I've been trying to download as much music I can remember liking over the past 30 years (I'm trying to forget my C&W years growing up). I'm more of a classic rock and modern rock listener, but do like alternative rock. I'll also put my John William's collection on there also. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to what else I can put on it. The radio stations seem to play only so many songs of a band, so there might be a little gem Metallica performed, but will never hear because I don't buy cd's any more. So any suggestions will be appreciated.

[Gandalf Parker]

Amazon.com has over 1300 free songs for download. Quite a range of music there. After you download one you can check out the album it was on for what else that group performs (obviously thats the idea)

One new-tech thing you can try is the cloud. Thats a hot new term. In this case, an example would be to go to last.fm and listen to music. The more you listen and flag things as something you like, the more it can make recommendations. The recommendations are based on the info it has gathered from other people flagging what they like. So it sees that you have flagged three groups, it looks at everyone who has flagged those three groups, sees what other groups they had in common and say "you might like these". Amazon does the same thing. So does iTunes.

Anything else gets specific to what you like. Im very eclectic (all over the place) but I really like parodies and covers. So one of the places I like to check often is theFUMP.com which has some great hidden gems in it.

Gandalf Parker
--
Before MP3 chores were boring. Now they're aerobics.

[Imp]

Good post Gandalf pretty much covers it, using the likes of Last FM rather than missing songs by that artist you will find ones youve never heard of. Dont just add the song go to the full list for that artist & select all you want at once then you can tick them off.
Now see what it recomends as similar.

[Gandalf Parker]

I also really like last.fm's "neighborhood" feature. It can show you people who's likes are alot like yours. Listening to their lists as a radio station is great for discovering new gems. Sometimes I listen to people who are 95% match (not very many of those for me). But sometimes I prefer 80% or 75% just to hear more new stuff.

By the way Im gp1628 on last.fm but I will warn you that very few people can stand my "radio station". Its way too spread out. Everything from great gandma to grandkids, all genres, many countries, etc. Some people like to collect some of my stranger playlists (oddball waltzs, goth, pagan, geek, acappella, parody, cover, and of course the ever popular WTF) but when its all together its apparently hard for anyone to take. Thats the story of my life, jack-of-all-trades in more things than just work history.

Tip:
If you use iTunes the best tip Ive ever gotten was from LifeHacker.com about using comment tags to automatically fill in many different playlists. When I download a new song I add tags to the comments field of it. Things like chores, relax, workout, dreams, names of people who might appreciate it most. Then I have "smartlists" in iTunes that build off of a certain word being in the comment field. That way adding one song can automatically add it to multiple playlists.

[Gandalf Parker]

Since you mentioned CW you might like to know that Amazon is offering "one for free" of any of the CMA Award songs.
http://bit.ly/cmacode

[gregebowman]

The only reason I mentioned CW is that I stopped listening to it when I turned 16. My rebellious teenage thing. I haven't gone back, although my wife dragged me to a Garth Brooks concert when I lived in Phoenix. Thanks for the ideas, though. I'll have to check them out.

[Fyron]

I'd have to second the last.fm recommendation. It's way better for music discovery than stuffy spectral comparison sites like Pandora. Like Amazon, they've also got a bunch of random free music to download. In either case, it's mostly going to be from fairly obscure or brand new artists, though.

[gregebowman]

Thanks Fyron. I'm on the last.fm bandwagon now. Great site. I've discovered a Finnish band called Battlelore who base most of their songs on Tolkien. But through their links, I've found out that there are a lot of these bands out there basing their songs on Tolkien and other fantasy themes. Now where was this music back when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons?

[Gandalf Parker]

D&D by Stephen Lynch
(Do You Want to Date My) Avatar by the Guild
Nerd by Beefy

[Fyron]

Originally Posted by gregebowman

Now where was this music back when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons?

Rockin' it in basements.