It’s no doubt that Web 2.0 can often be categorized by sites with pastel colors and rounded edges, but there’s a ton of cool technology that has developed amongst all the pretty designs. Some of the coolest new stuff profiles you as a user and compares it to all sorts of data (including your friends and random strangers) to come up with a breakdown of stuff you know you like, as well as stuff you didn’t know you’d like (or at least, that’s the point). Here’s a few of my favorite music-oriented sites I’ve discovered:

– This site used to be known as “AudioScrobbler”, but changed it’s name and then was sold to CBS. You run a small program (for all OS’s) on your computer, and it watches the music you listen to. It compares your music listening habits to those of all the other users on the site, then provides internet radio (free!) of not only your music, but other artists that you’ll probably like. Here’s my profile (for a sample of what it looks like).

– This site pools together all the mp3’s posted on various music blogs across the web. Do a search for one of your favorite artists and you’re bound to find some new tracks – covers and live versions in particular. You can also snag the RSS feed for an artist, import it into iTunes, and voila – instant free downloads of those tracks.

LivePlasma - Utilizes the Amazon database of “User’s who bought this, also bought…” to give you a map of artists related to your entered artist. This one works for movies as well – be warned that it’s not very forgiving of misspellings, and a lot of the more obscure artists don’t show up at all. Definitely fun to play with, though.

– This is for the lucky iPhone owners out there, although it works on a normal browser as well. Similar to HypeMachine, this pools together all the mp3’s it can find on the web and offers full listens through the interface. The iPhone version looks amazing on the phones with an interface emulating the iPhone iTunes almost exactly.

Please feel free to share your favorite Web 2.0 music sites in the comments section!

Tags: geekery, music, music video, review, technology, websites
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