After the first amendment and the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, my favorite thing in the world is getting free music over the internet, and so it is my distinct pleasure to reintroduce everyone to Hype Machine. This website has been swimming around my consciousness for a few months now; after linking to it from a friend’s Facebook page and I was hooked, instantly. Hype Machine combs the best music blogs on the internet and puts all of the files available for download/streaming on those sites in one place. In the middle of Hype Machine’s homepage you will see a playlist of the most recent files posted on music blogs. You have the option to stream the song (click “listen”), buy it from Amazon or iTunes, or go to the blog where it was originally posted (click “read”). When you click listen, a new window appears and you will find yourself streaming a giant playlist of blogged tracks, beginning with the song you clicked on. If you choose to go to the original blog post, you can read why someone decided to post the track, and sometimes you can download it to your computer.

Listening in order to the blogged songs is a fantastic way to discover new music — people generally are blogging about the music that they love and care about, which means that the quality of music here is very high, and I’ve found that even the bands I have never heard of are worth a listen. Another nice feature on Hype Machine is the search function, where you can type in a band or a song, and the website will load a playlist of just that song or artist. Because blogged songs are often live or rare tracks that people in the know are sharing with the public, the search function is a good way to discover new material from bands that you already like. My favorite recent finds include Black Jack Davey by The White Stripes, Long Vermont Roads by The Magnetic Fields, and — of course — Girlfriend, by Avril Lavigne featuring Lil’ Mama. I encourage you to make you own finds, and to share.

–Dan Steckenberg