I have a Last.fm account and Last.fm is good - but hypemachine is better.

I’m always looking for new music to discover and although Last.fm has your standard “related artists”/”if you like this you might like this” hype machine is solely built upon discovering new music. Last.fm tries to do everything, Hype Machine knows what it is and doesn’t try to be anything it’s not.

from Hype Machine

The Hype Machine tracks a variety of MP3 blogs. If a post contains MP3 links, it adds those links to its database and displays them on the front page.

Some of the frequently accessed tracks are cached by the Hype Machine server, much like Google Search caches web pages, to reduce load on the bloggers’ servers and protect their bandwidth.

And the way Hype Machine works is downright genius. It leverages the blogosphere to feed its appetite. If you have a music blog you want to be in hype machine’s swarm because they give you credit boosting your own traffic and exposure in the process.

Plus, you’ve gotta respect the way these guys are making their money. I don’t know what their bandwidth/labor costs are so I’m going out on a limb here but I think Hype Machine is a cash machine. There’s advertising, and they’re also leveraging affiliate programs from eMusic, Amazon, and Apple to capture sales on catchy new singles. It’s a great business model to boot.

Other notable awesomeness

• It streams music fast and never buffers mid-stream
• It’s current and always changing
• I can always find that “latest track” in its entirety with excellent quality
• The site itself is minimal, looks sharp, and is easy to use - big brownie points (from a web developer)
• You can’t download the tracks - only stream them, so they sidestep any piracy issues

You can favorite tracks as you go along and then listen to them straight through. Give Somedirection Radio a listen and let me know what you think. Of course my radio station is a bit thin right now. Hype Machine has their own “official” radio stream which offers a good mix. I’ve found myself going to it when I get bored with my library and don’t know what to play.

Improvements can be made

Nothing’s perfect. I always want another feature my main qualm being w/ the favorites streaming player. It would be great to favorite a bunch of tracks and be able to use it as a legit music player w/ controls like shuffle/repeat etc. Also, being able to create multiple listening playlists would be sweet. Last.fm has their downloadable music player client that I’ve used - if Hype Machine came up with a downloadable OS X App or iTunes integration with their favorites/playlist feature that’d be awesome.

If you haven’t heard of it before check it out, let me know what you think. If you have, let me know whether you agree or my assessment is way off.

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