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Pari Dukovic
The Best Sounds in the Cloud
Follow your favorite acts on SoundCloud and every track they drop flows into your stream, creating a personal radio station of artists you like. The exploding popularity of the service is due to its simple setup: Artists post clips to their profiles; you listen and then subscribe to musicians you enjoy. That can be time-consuming, though, when there are millions of accounts angling for ear time. So tap into these four expert followers who scour the site for good stuff and repost it. Then press Play. When a song you like surfaces, follow that artist and your stream will swell into a river. —Eric Smillie
/as-you-like-it
These party promoters find the best DJ mixes: Maya Jane Coles' house and dubstep, eclectic journeys from Nicolas Jaar, even classics like Daft Punk's '97 Essential Mix.
/yourstrulysf
This blog delivers a supply of hook-heavy hip hop, ethereal singer-songwriters, and raunchy drawl rock.
/yvynyl
Blogger Mark Schoneveld spins the latest indie-rock tracks—be-banjoed pop folk by Mutual Benefit, say—and discoveries like jangly garage rock from Sea Pinks.
/weeklypodcast
Features half-hour shows of songs that have two things in common—they're from SoundCloud and they're good.
Questlove on J Dilla, vinyl snobs, & lo-fi hip-hop
In Praise of Top 40
"Music for people who don't like music." That's how the snobbiest of my annoyingly music-snobby friends once described Top 40 radio. Condescending, sure, but there's also some truth to it. Bands, scenes, and hyper-micro-subgenres crop up endlessly these days, and some people (like me) understandably don't feel like digging. We turn to pop radio because it's always there—a quick and easy snapshot of what regular people like to listen to. Lucky for us, there's never been a better time to tune in. Despite its reputation for pumping out "Now That's What I Call Pablum," today's pop radio is a great way to hear smart, bold music. It's hard to imagine acts like Lorde, Daft Punk, or Macklemore—all of whom are deeply influenced by underground music—sitting alongside the Stacey Qs, Europes, and Chris de Burghs of yore. But the former were all included in American Top 40's list of 2013's biggest songs, and that's a sign that pop radio is headed in the right direction. Credit the web: As online networks have made our cultural tastes more diffuse, they've also pushed the mainstream's musical appetites to better, more adventurous places. The result is that more interesting artists have been invited to join the pop party. Think about giving it another listen. —Eric Steuer
Lounge Acts
Next time you want to see CeeLo onstage, just stay put. Because now you can livestream concerts cheaply (harvest a little pocket change from the couch) and legally (no bootlegs here). Buy one-off tickets or be a pay-what-you-will subscriber at Concert Window. Irocke aggregates events from services both popular and obscure, while mainstream artists on 2vLive perform exclusive concerts. At Stageit, you can even chat with artists and request songs. Either way, the views are hi-def, the beer costs less than $8, and fellow music fans aren't giving you a panic attack as they crush against every surface of your body. —Matt Jancer
Hey DJ
Stay on top of the latest in dance music with DJ mixes. Here are the best. —Eric Ducker
For 20 years, Essential Mix has been a dance music institution, giving DJs a two-hour showcase to do whatever they want. Guest spinners craft immaculate sets that combine classics with modern favorites.
Clothing label Opening Ceremony is behind this series. Our favorite jam is Jubilee's "Bad Gal RiRi" mix, featuring Rihanna's hits blended with the underground Caribbean dance music that inspires the pop queen.
The organizers of the popular dance party the Do-Over upload live recordings of each DJ set for music fans around the world to enjoy. Artists include everyone from techno legends to 1990s New York hip hop cult heroes.
Here DJs dial back the BPMs and play tracks intended for the trip home after the club. That means lots of spacey beats and subgenres with "psych-" as the prefix. Trip out.
