Music is an obsession for many. Some people live on music and some feed on it. And when you feed on it, you can’t have the same kind of music to hear everyday, every week. When you have veggies everyday, it feels good to have a pizza once a while or bite a burger. So why not experiment and find music which has not been found yet? For those who are too addicted to Coldplay or Linkin Park, should know that there are a lot of artists and bands, which are striving to get their music heard without the support of any major recording company. Their music may not always be good but it may be very good at times, all they need is support from people and good coverage before an established studio signs them up. A lot of these artists try to get their content reach people through the internet which in most of the cases, is available for free. You get to hear music never heard before, you get to know artists never known before. And they’re usually good. Without further ado, let’s have a look at some of the best places on the internet to look for such indie music from unsigned, independent artists or pop groups.

Jamendo ^[1]

Now hosting more than 20,000 albums, Jamendo is a music sharing and community site. Artists can upload their tracks onto the site and assign them one of the Creative Commons licenses. With a license in hand, artists can promote their content and protect their rights at the same time. If you like a particular artist, you can also make a donation through paypal from the site itself. A quick sign-up gives you a profile with some social networking abilities, although downloads and unlimited streaming is free for anyone, registered or not.

Magnatune ^[2]

Magnatune works directly with artists worldwide and the music published is all hand picked. When an album is uploaded, you can listen to it for free – as much as you want. But downloading it will require a subscription. Starting at just $10/month, you can download any album you like. Magnatune pays artists 50% of what it earns justifying the tagline ‘We are not evil’. You can also browse through collections, like this one for best selling instrumental music ^[3] and order CDs by postal mail ($11 to $24). An option for individual album downloads is also there which costs between $5 and $18, fifty percent of which goes to the artist.

Netlabels ^[4]

The netlabels archive on archive.org has been a prominent place to look for new music. It allows netlabel owners to upload their content – creative commons licensing is an option – to the archive and anyone can stream or download the tracks for absolutely no cost. You can either download individual tracks or get hold of an album with a zip download.  Streaming music is also a feature.

Legal Torrents ^[5]

Legal Torrents is an online digital media community and as the name implies, this is no pirate bay. Being a community, there are also a lot of other things like movies and games –legal ones! – for grabs. The music is licensed under any of the creative commons licenses and a submission is only taken in once it has been verified. Although you can’t browse the netlabels ^[5] section by genre, the point that it provides a community based p2p platform for artists makes up for it.

FMA ^[6]

The Free Music Archive is an interactive library of free legal downloads. All the music is free to stream and free to download. Artists get a page of their own which sport a short bio and links to their sites. Listeners can also ‘tip’ or donate to their favorite artists via paypal or mark albums as a favorite. Albums can be browsed by genre and further by sub-genres.

Mixcloud ^[7]

Mixcloud, unlike any other on this list, focuses on music mixes and compilations rather than individual tracks. It also accepts podcasts, radio shows and dj mixes into its library. Subscription right now is free, while Mixcloud is in beta. You can listen to any music, any time at no cost although downloading is not permitted. Every registered user can upload their own music as well and create a profile to promote their content.

The Sixty One ^[8]

It’s like Digg but for music. Artists upload their songs to the site and users can ‘love’ them. With each ‘love’ vote, the song gets popular and rises to the top of the list. A very well thought out site, the music continues its play as you navigate through the site and browse songs, either by genre or popularity. If you sign up, you’ll get to bump tracks up the list, save them to a playlist and download some freely available tracks as well.

GarageBand

A large community website for independent artists, GarageBand is used by musicians to promote their creations and get critical reviews about their tracks. Songs can be streamed and many can be downloaded as well. The site provides a social network backend for artists where they can create a community and meet new fans. Listeners can review any album out there and rate it accordingly.

PureVolume ^[9]

Purevolume solely focuses on the promotion of indie music artists and groups. Listeners can signup for free and go through their archive of albums and tracks. Many of the tracks are available for free download even though you can stream all of them. PureVolume features both signed and unsigned artists and there’s a page which lists the top tracks by unsigned artists ^[10]. Check it out.

Amie Street ^[11]

Amie Street is like the ideal platform for emerging artists. When an album is submitted, it’s either free to download or cheap to buy. As it gets more popular and more people listen to and buy it, it’s price rises. So the newest and latest music is either free or doesn’t make a hole in your pocket. When it rises in popularity, you’ll have to spend about $0.98/per track. Not at all a bad price for good music. Update: Ok Ok, I missed IndiePit ^[12]. Check it out as well, it seems quite cool. And That’s All. Let me know what are your favorite sites for finding cool new music. The comments are always open. Err…I still can’t help those who have veggies everyday :D Get a change guys!