Where can I find music I will like?

August 12, 2004 12:20 PM

Metafilter braintrust: Is there a site I can go to and enter an artist/group of artists and get recommendations based on my listening preferences? Something a little less retail oriented (ahem: Amazon). Thanks!
posted by omidius to media & arts (11 comments total)

AllMusic.com has an 'artists like this one' function.
posted by kickingtheground at 12:25 PM on August 12, 2004

Maybe not exactly what you're looking for, but Audioscrobbler/Last FM will generate recommendations after you build up a listening profile.
posted by Galvatron at 12:28 PM on August 12, 2004

Gnoosic has those groovy spider-like artist cosmos, as does mp3.com.
posted by gleuschk at 12:44 PM on August 12, 2004

Musicplasma (warning: Flash) is a neat little visual search engine that does just this.
posted by ScottUltra at 12:54 PM on August 12, 2004

I would not recommend using allmusic's features for this purpose. The recommendations tend to be hilariously awful.
posted by kenko at 12:56 PM on August 12, 2004

i recommend musicmobs if you're using itunes. their suggestions have worked great for me.
posted by bob sarabia at 1:00 PM on August 12, 2004

AudioScrobbler & LastFM are positively wonderful. I've been working with it for a little more than a week and am absolutely hooked - I've discovered lots of new music.

But the killer app is the streaming radio provided by LastFM. It generates a high-quality .m3u playlist based on what you're already listening to. Further: If you like the music you see in my profile (or perhaps mathowie's), you can listen to all of it before deciding what to buy for yourself.

My God . . . it's full of stars!
posted by aladfar at 1:37 PM on August 12, 2004

OMG Musicplasma just made me cream my panties. Ugh, my headphones are all sticky and I need a cigarette.

I'm sad, though, because the search for Plaid didn't turn up anything I hadn't really heard of before. Maybe I should try Lisa Carbon.
posted by loquacious at 2:25 PM on August 12, 2004

Meh, I'm less impressed with Musicplasma.

I searched Coil and the halo is all tiny. Sure, it's well connected. But Radiohead has a larger halo then Coil? Coil 0wnz j00r Radiohead completely. This is entirely unfluffy. Nuking the site from orbit is the only way to be sure.
posted by loquacious at 2:30 PM on August 12, 2004

What we really need is an integrated Collective Filtering / DirectConnect client, that will search your mp3 collection and automatically download albums that you might like.
posted by signal at 2:45 PM on August 12, 2004

Epitonic does this too, and quite well in my experience. The bands available are a little off the beaten track though, if that bothers you.
posted by sinical at 3:26 PM on August 12, 2004