Music Search

It is a common question asked by bloggers about how I find and discover all this music that I feature on my blog. A lot of it has to do with mix cds my bestie gives me or songs my high school dance teacher played, but my main source is New Music Tuesdays on itunes. It is a little weekly ritual of mine to go open up the itunes store every Tuesday morning. Depending on the week and how much cool stuff comes out determines how much time is spent doing this (it could be up to an hour - whoops!). If you want to start discovering new music, follow these steps:

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1. Go though all the pages of the "New and Noteworthy" (usually like 4) and listen to artists you have heard of, whose name sounds interesting, or who has cool album art (I am a sucker for packaging). Sometimes you just need to listen to one song to know you don't like them.

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2. Look though the "What's Hot", "Indies" and "What Were Listening" to categories too.

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3. Always get the free singles every week - they have had some great ones like Lily Allen, The Fray, Amy Winehouse, etc. By the time these people got popular on the radio, I had already owned and loved the song. A lot of these singles are under the radar and are about to make it big. Just delete it if you don't like it - its free after all. Even download the latino single too, because even though I cant understand it, they still sometimes sound cool!

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4. The "Genius" (just for you) application is great too - look and preview through some of that. Also check out "My Alerts" to see if any of the artists you have purchased from out out any new music.

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5. Basically even if you never heard of the band and they look interesting, still check them out. You will most probs be pleasantly surprised.

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6. And since I can't spend 100.00 a week on itunes, I write down names of artists in a notebook (its now like 15 pages) to go back and look up when you want some good music. OR... you can create a playlist on your itunes called"wish list" or "to buy" and drag and add the songs you discovered at the store but cant buy yet or are still pondering to buy. It will stay forever in your playlist until you are ready to purchase the song. It keeps my wish list MUCH more organized!!

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7. Before you pay $10 for an album on itunes or the new $1.29 price for a single song, look it up at the amazon MP3 store. Cd's there have the same quality but are usually a few dollars cheaper and all their songs are .99. Those mp3 also automatically start downloading into your itunes library - its soooo easy!

Hope some of these tips help - HAPPY HUNTING!!