Awdio.com

I quiet like the idea behind Awdio: the site allows you to listen live to various DJ sets happening at the same time in clubs or venues the webradio has a patnership with. From the Vegas, a club in Sao Paulo, to the music of Hotel Costes in Paris, through New York and the Zebulon, you can choose a location all around the world and check what is going on there. The concept is refreshing and very original.

The number of "channels" available is - quiet logically - limited though, with around five to ten locations sharing their music with the site, depending on the time of the day and the clubs/venues programme obviously. The site has its own recording system installed in each of the clubs/venues.

The Flash interface is simple but nice and efficient.

Even though the music itself is not often my cup of tea, I guess Awdio is the perfect webradio for those into clubbing but too lazy to go out! Or for those who are just curious to know what's "hot" in various clubs around world!

For those who speak or understand French, there is a really interesting interview here of Awdio's CEO Julien Ulrich.

 
He explains how Awdio works extensively and I learnt a lot there on the site's history and economic model. Julien Ulrich notably explains that the future aim of the webradio is to be a platform for live music in general, whether that is clubs or concert halls or other locations. He also explains that the clubs that have a partnership with the site get 20% of all the site's commercial revenues. That sounds fair, I suppose. Ulrich also says quiet honestly that there is currently no legislation as far as legal rights are concerned for the type of service Awdio offers: the clubs pay the rights locally but the site and that's it! I wonder if that will always be like this though. Meanwhile, good for Awdio!

Record Labels websites

Finding a good site for streaming music isn't everything. You also need to know what you want to listen to. We have all experienced times when, no matter how much music a site has to offer, we simply don't know what to listen to anymore. In such time websites like Pandora or Myspace can be really valuable for the way they help you find new music you might like.

But we shouldn't forget that record labels websites can also be quiet helpful. Well, it obviously depends on your music tastes, but pretty much all record labels websites now offer streamed music of the artists they produce. Long gone are the days when record labels and music stores expected you to buy an album just based on a band's reputation, without having listened to it first.

Let's say you really dig one artist of a given record label. There is quiet a chance you might also like other bands/musicians they produce. Checking the record label website is then the best option to verify this.
Let's take the exemple of a tiny independant label like Polyvinyl. They have a really good page with at least two songs per artist available on their site. They even have songs you can download for free.

Same thing with a record label like Subpop, each band having at least 3 or 4 songs streamed on their page, as well as the same number of video clips. Quiet a lot to discover here is as well. See here with Band of Horses' page for instance.

But this also true for majors such as Universal music or Sony BMG, if you dig some of the things they produce. Universal has launched its own platform for listening and seeing videos of its artists.

Same thing with Sony BMG with their site Myplay. The obvious goal for each of these two sites is to make you buy the music.

I must say I am not a big fan of these two sites but again, to each is own when it comes to music. So do visit your favorite record labels websites. You'll be surprised by how much you can find.

Grooveshark

I was quiet puzzled at first by the Grooveshark interface. It doesn't look like any other websites in its category which is honestly quiet refreshing. Grooveshark is a Deezer/Spotify-like website where you are offered to listen to the bands/songs you type in. Like its "rivals", Grooveshark retributes the artists per play. Once again, it's another opportunity for you to "put your money where your mouth is". Well, not exactly seens Grooveshark is all free! To go back to the site's original interface, I found the way the playlist is displayed horizontally quiet nice and original.

But most of all, it seems to me that Grooveshark has a much larger catalogue than its 'rivals', like Deezer for instance. I would certainly put it on my top 3 list of websites for streaming music. Certainly before Deezer. And maybe even before Jiwa and Spotify.

UK's 18 most popular sites for streaming music

The site readwriteweb.com has a good article listing UK's 18 most popular sites for streaming music, with a quick description of each site.

Jiwa

Even though its layout isn't the sexiest thing ever, I was quiet surprised by how much I actually found on Jiwa.

The site is a lot similar to Deezer: a search engine helping you finding the bands/songs you'd like to listen to, the songs being displayed as a list, with the possibility to add songs to your own playlist/library.
Its default language might be French but it is also available in English.

All in all a more than decent site for streaming music. Probably in my top 5 right now.

Webradios.com

The idea behind Webradios.com is pretty simple: the site offers a list of links to various webradios, classified either by genre or by geographic area. Radiostations and their music selections really suck in your area? Well why don't you try this webradio in Quebec or Australia?!

You can now try to find this obscure webradio with the best music selections perfectly fitting your own tastes! This way I got to become quiet a fan of Chicago Public Radio and one of their music shows like Chicagocore or Re:Sound. Here again, the possibilities are endless.

Myspace

It is hard not to talk about Myspace when talking about free and legal streamed music. Not that I have things to say here that most people do not already know. But it just seems to me that a lot of my friends keep forgetting about myspace as a good - even if temporary - alternative to illegal downloads.

Like for most people, Myspace is what I use when I hear about a band and want to check out what they sound like. In the past, I would download their album straigt away without thinking twice. But then I would always end up with tons of albums on my disk that I wouldn't really like or just wouldn't have time to listen to. Considering that pretty much every band (from the most obscure amateurs to the most mainstream ones) now have a myspace page, the possibilities are endless.

The other good thing about it, even though it might sound like a cliché, is the interractive aspect of it. I did find myself a couple of times sending messages to bands or musicians that I really liked and was always really pleased to receive a reply from them. Besides, if you have a band and a Myspace page yourself, you might even find yourself in the pleasant position of receiving messages from people that actually like your music too!

I aslo quiet like checking what influences a band that I like lists on its profile. It's always inspiring. Plus it is even easier with the "top friends" functions showing what bands and people the band is friend with, with a direct access to their profile and music. I have discovered quiet a lot of band like this.