mySpoonful: The Perfect Portion for New Music Seekers

For those who crave new music but are not quite sure where to look there is now a great solution. mySpoonful is a site designed for the busy, interested and lazy indie-music enthusiast alike. Each week a team of “expert music writers” present three picks for consideration. Each week’s top picks are accessed on both the homepage of this uber-user-friendly site and conveniently in the subscriber’s email box. Subscriptions are free and so are downloads from the site. Amazingly so, this is all legal.

Straight from the start, the homepage displays the latest selections for visitors. mySpoonful boasts a just-enough-information approach for prospective subscribers to get a taste of new music. The first thing you see is the musician’s picture with the title of the featured track underneath. The origins and short description of artistic flavor are also listed which can be considered before the actual listen. If the song hits the spot then listeners can share it via Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Digg, just to name a few. The songs can even be downloaded for free right there on the homepage. If further reading on the artist is desired, a simply click on “read more” will be the fix. This will bring those hungry site googlers to the artist’s page where they’ll find additional information including tour dates, website address and more. For more downloads on the artist in interest mySpoonful will redirect traffic to iTunes.

The best things in life are free, right? Well, so is mySpoonful. The site deserves a peek or two from the people who enjoy indie-music and especially from those who don’t know where to find it or who don’t have the time to look. Navigating through the expert’s picks is quick and easy. What’s really great is that the music posted is first reviewed by the site's writers and then again by the public. All FREE.

Tune into Rdio

When considering streaming Internet music services, consumers now have a variety of sites from which to choose. It appears that new sites are popping up everyday each with different prices, benefits, and drawbacks. Some of the deciding factors for deciding on the music service are accessibility, costs, and music selection. The public will become more aware of the key players in the market in addition to their pros and cons as the need for music on-demand grows. Fortunately for everyone involved, technology advances and competition will most likely keep prices low while more features become available.

Rdio, a streaming music service spawned by the founders of Skype, has just the right arsenal to keep the competition (e.g., Pandora, Last.fm, Rhapsody) at bay. For starters, Rdio offers listeners two subscriptions with the only difference being price and connectivity. The subscriber who pays $4.99 will be able to access the music inventory from the pc only. For $9.99, the subscriber is accessing the music from not only a pc but also mobile devices. For now, Rdio offers about 5 million songs to listeners and has plans to expand the library in the future. With a subscription to Rdio, listeners are able to share music and playlists with friends and family on Facebook as well.


With the growing selection of streaming music services entering the market, a little research will help determine the most suitable site for satisfying the needs and wants of the consumer. In this process, some consumers may find that music on-demand is not for them at all as they will not own the music but only have access a music library for the duration of the subscription. On-demand services will of course take some getting used to just as consumers warmed up to CDs after cassettes and mp3s years later. When consumers are ready, Rdio should be first in the line of consideration.