Since the fall of Napster and continued dispute over radio broadcasting fees, consumers might perceive the words “music” and “Internet” with hesitancy. However, there are a thriving number of interesting sites, many offering music listeners wouldn’t otherwise find.
MP3.com is a logical first destination. Music on the site is organized in different ways. Most of the downloads are free, and basically anyone can put his or her music online. Best of all, the artists can be grouped locally. The song most downloaded in the Eugene-Springfield area is “While the Trees Sleep,” by David Nevue. A link from a friend’s Web site had me downloading tracks from “Anti-Social Music, Inc.” a New York-based nonprofit organization of composers and performers.
Amazon.com is a well-known destination for Internet commerce, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be used as a shopping tool. The “music” tab on the Web site leads to extensive information about many recording artists, including a chronology of releases and reviews from both Amazon.com and customers. In addition, Amazon.com has music available for download.
Salon.com, one of the few major Internet-only news publications, has a great audio section and it’s not just limited to music. Here you can find anything from a full cast dramatization of “The Two Towers,” by J.R.R. Tolkien to poets reading their own work to streaming songs from The Roots new album.
Performers often release material on the Internet that wouldn’t otherwise see the light of day. James Whiton — whose “Rhythm & Motion” album I reviewed last year — has 13 additional MP3s from the recording sessions available on his Web site, www.jameswhiton.com. David Byrne’s “Buttercup Blossom,” a track he recorded with his daughter for “The Powerpuff Girls” movie soundtrack but was not included on the disc, has recently been released on his Luaka Bop Records Web site.
Internet radio stations broadcast music far beyond a local station’s transmitter range. The syndicated music show “World Cafe” — featuring an eclectic mix of music every day of the week — cannot be heard in Eugene because no local station broadcasts the program. Therefore, the only option is to listen to the show over the Internet through its Web site, www.worldcafe.org. There are a great number of Internet radio stations specializing in particular genres, available even for some of the slowest connection speeds.
Then there is album — tape, minidisc, CD, etc. — trading. With the Internet’s worldwide appeal and nearly universal accessibility, music fans can find the best trading resources and the widest selection. Usenet newsgroups are another good resource for finding underground exchanges and artist information. There are Usenet programs for nearly every type of computer and platform, but a good Web-based option is “Google Groups” at groups.google.com.
All of these places can be accessed through a Web browser. However, a whole new generation of peer-to-peer software clients similar to Napster have come to fruition since the company’s legal downfall. The “Kazaa” and “Grokster” programs even improve on what Napster offered by allowing users to exchange files in any format they desire — not just MP3. There are also alternatives such as the “Gnutella” system of programs; two prevalent clients are “BearShare” and “LimeWire.”
Have you ever wanted to know what a “magnolia root borer” sounds like? Visit the “Reference Library of Digitized Insect Sounds” Web site at http://cmave.usda.ufl.edu/~rmankin/
soundlibrary.html to hear this, and dozens of other insects.