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Over the past week, three of my friends and one of our competitors reminded me of exactly how hard it can seem to find new music these days. Radio's horrible, MTV and its ilk stopped caring about music a long time ago, and formerly great music magazines like Rolling Stone and Spin have dropped the ball. PC Magazine's John Dvorak went so far as to claim that "there is no way to discover new music except as a fluke or via limited word of mouth."

Come on John, the situation isn't anywhere near that grim. Sure, the sheer volume of CDs and musical styles out there can make it hard to sort out the good stuff, but there's plenty of new music available. There are a bunch of ways to find it; you just have to work a bit. Here are some places to start looking.

Online Services

Commercial radio may have gone down the tubes, but Internet radio is alive and kicking. It can take a while to find a station you like, but once you do, you're likely to hear lots of new tunes. And there's no waiting for a commercial break to hear artist names or track titles--most online radio stations display artist, album, and track information while songs are playing.

Most media players like Apple ITunes and Winamp now have built-in Internet radio browsers. Musicmatch goes one better with its Musicmatch Radio service, which lets you build customized streaming radio stations with a staggering degree of control. Its ArtistMatch feature uses related-artist data to create a custom radio station based around each artist in the Musicmatch library that features tracks from that band and others like it.

If you'd rather browse the playlists and collections of your friends, you'll want Napster and Rhapsody; they both let you do that. If your IS department doesn't mind (or doesn't know) that you're keeping MP3s on your work computer, you can use ITunes to legally share music with coworkers by streaming songs from your PC to others on the network. Just choose Edit, Preferences, Sharing and check the "Share My Music" box.

Web Sites

If you understand the usefulness of the Internet Movie Database for all things involving movies, then it's safe to say you'll agree that the All Music Guide is to music as IMDb is to movies.

The All Music Guide is the first place to look for information on a band. Want to find out if Liz Phair's drummer has played with anyone else? Wondering how many albums the song "What's so Funny 'Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding" has appeared on? AMG can tell you. In the true spirit of the Web, almost everything on an AMG page is a link. Pick an artist or album as a starting point, and see where your mouse takes you. The Related Artists and Related Albums links are a great way to find new music.

Pitchfork, an all-around great site for independent music news and reviews, is another good source for new tunes. However, Pitchfork's critics sometimes trash marginal efforts too readily. If that bugs you, stick to the site's Best New Music section and you're sure to find great stuff.

The Ultimate Band List has been around since the early days of the Web, when CDNow was new and music fans traded zipped 8-bit mono recordings of rare tracks because MP3s didn't exist. Back then, the music industry was even farther behind the times then it is today, so official sites for bands were few and far between. Dedicated fans filled in the gap with some extremely impressive sites, and UBL was the place to find them. The site's been a shadow of its former self ever since Artistdirect bought it, but it's still one of the first places I check to find info about a band that hasn't been stamped and approved by a record label.

Who needs a record label to sell CDs? CD Baby lets musicians put out their own discs and sell them directly to the public, so they can keep a much larger portion of the purchase price. CD Baby is open to anyone who'll send the store five CDs, so you'll find some pretty eclectic stuff on there. Just beware of taking any glowing notes on a band too seriously, they're written by the artists themselves. Thankfully, you can listen to every album before you buy--in either high- or low-bandwidth streaming audio formats. Some well-known bands, including The Eels, have tapped CD Baby for fan-friendly releases like live concert CDs.

Magazines

Quite possibly the finest independent music magazine in the country, the bimonthly Magnet has been covering outstanding but overlooked music for ten years now. It's hard to describe what makes Magnet so great, but its writers have rarely steered me wrong on music recommendations. Its Web site is pretty spare, so try to find Magnet at a local book or music shop.

Another good publication is Harp. This independent magazine is like Magnet, but with an alt-country/Americana focus. It's rapidly becoming one of my favorite music pubs despite its bare-bones Web site.

Sadly, I have to go all the way to England for a mainstream music magazine that I like. Well, figuratively speaking, anyway. Q has pretty good U.S. distribution through bookstores like Borders and Barnes & Noble. Its beautiful design, competent reviews, useful features like the occasional "If you like this, try these" box, and unmatched special issues put Q head and shoulders above its peers.

Got a favorite source for new music that I've left off this list? Drop me an e-mail and I'll run the best suggestions in this space next month.

In Heavy Rotation

Lately, I've been listening to a couple of CDs I picked up after Magnet's Year in Music issue arrived at my house. So this month's music recommendations are brought to you by Magnet magazine, the number 2, and the letter w.

Top Album of 2003: Magnet named The Meadowlands by The Wrens as its top album of 2003, and it's easy to hear why. What's it like? Imagine if the Pixies decided to do an indie pop album.

New Favorite: The disc that may end up glued into my CD player is Reconstruction Site, an impressively literate pop/rock album by The Weakerthans. The fifth track, "Plea From a Cat Named Virtue," is written from the point of view of a cat. I can't get it out of my head.

Eric Dahl wishes he'd seen more shows at Noise Pop. To comment or ask a question, send him an e-mail.