collegestudentsrule

9 Ways To Discover New Music...In No Particular Order

By Guest Author: Chris Spicer

Go To More Concerts

Concerts cost money.  You can pay 80 bucks to see Rush play at the Idaho Center, or you can pay 8 bucks to see four bands put on a show at The Venue in Boise.  No matter how great Neil Peart is behind the drums, you should save your money and go discover new music.  It won't take long before you recognize the name of a band coming through town, and you might be even like the opener better.  I can't remember how many bands I have discovered this way, but it is quite a few.  Example A: Mute Math.

  Last.fm

Last.fm is loaded with opportunities to find new music.  At first it seems like "just another internet community", but I think it is the best music-oriented community site available.  It uses "scrobbling" (a process of sending the artist and song information from your computer to the internet) to keep track of everything you listen to.  Apart from giving you awesome insight into your music listening habits, it gives you recommendations based on the thousands of songs you will eventually "scrobble".  Just click play on your recommendations radio and listen for hours without paying.  There are also detailed artist pages full of similar artist links, and yes, LEGAL full-length songs.  Why haven't you already signed up?

www.last.fm

Pandora

Pandora is so easy, and it's so cool.  Just type the name of artist or song, and there you go -- a plethora of songs that match your input.  The genius behind pandora, called the "Music Genome Project", uses 400 different attributes to match songs.  These include anything from subtle use of acoustic piano, to groove oriented approach or blazin' rappin'.  Pandora doesn't mess around.  By giving a song a thumbs up or down, or adding new artists and songs to a particular station, you can fine tune your radio to play everything you never knew you wanted to hear.

www.pandora.com

iTunes Music Store

The iTunes music store is the second largest music retailer in the United States, so Apple must know something about music.  When you search for music in the store, they offer a list called "listeners also bought", a great place to discover new artists.  On the main page of the music store, you can also find the free single of the week.  Though the song selection is eclectic, one in ten is a hit.  And who doesn't like free music?

Available in iTunes - free download on www.apple.com/itunes

DimVision's MusicMap

This is actually one the coolest things I have ever seen on the internet.  Using Amazon.com music information, the designers behind this website created a living similar-music flow-chart.  Start by typing the name of an artist you like, and a bubble will appear on the empty page.  Clicking more info will give you a rundown of information from amazon, but the fun starts when you click expand.  More little bubbles pop out from this bubble, each representing a similar album.  Over time, and many clicks on expand, you should have a moving, criss-crossing page of bubbles connected to other bubbles and artist names.  It sounds confusing, but you're wrong.  It's awesome.  Sometimes I go there just to play with the bubbles.

http://www.dimvision.com/musicmap

Amazon

Sure, Amazon is a great place to buy books, and movies, and lawn chairs, but what about music?  Well, of course, Amazon has a very large music library, and they know how to sell it.  As a user, Amazon offers me recommendations based on what I have bought on the site previously.  I can update these recommendations by rating other albums I already own, whether or not I purchased them from Amazon.  Amazon, like Pandora, has a good sense of what two albums sound alike, and will match recommendations to your taste.  Be careful though, this is an easy way to spend a lot of money.

www.amazon.com

Record Store Grab Bag

This one is simple.  Play Eeny-meeny-miny-mo, and buy the cd that your finger lands on.  Just do it.  Used record stores are great for this.  I like the Record Exchange in Boise.  A good indicator for the sound of the music is to look at the album art.  Cheesy band poses and cartoons are a good indicator of punk pop records.  Earthy tones and subtle titles will often lead you to acoustic guitars and folk-leanings.  Anything that looks like it took less than one minute or longer than two weeks for the artist to make is also probably indie.

Film Soundtracks

Watch more movies.  Although many blockbusters contain original scores that are hard to listen to on their own, there are plenty of films that contain great music.  Indie films are a good place to look.  Garden State is a popular example, as the movie heavily relied on the soundtrack to tell the story.  If you're the type that likes to stick around for the credits, you'll be awarded with a list of every song played during the movie.  IMDB.com also has complete soundtrack listings on almost every movie site.

Ask Friends

We all have friends that are more musically inclined then us, it's true.  All you have to do is ask.  I'm sure that someone around you is listening to at least one band that you have never heard of.  Isn't everyone curious what's being played through the headphones of people all over America?  I know I am.
__________________________________________
Chris Spicer is a walking wealth of new music wisdom. He is currently finishing up his undergraduate degree at a private University in Idaho. Chris is a screenwriter. Someday...he will get paid to do it for a living.

College Students Rule! - One Month Young!

I realize that this post may sound a little bit like an adolescent school girl who obsessively counts the weeks, days, minutes, dare I say...seconds - that her and her young love have been "going out."

Well, College Students Rule! has now entered the "month" category.

As of February 1, CSR! has logged an entire month on the internet and so I want to give a State of the Union type post about it. This is for my own benefit, but also for those of you who might be thinking about starting their own online project. I've always found it interesting to see how these types of resources develop over time.

So I'm going to let you see the first month stats...something that I would like to affectionately call PROGRESS:

• 46 posts (the goal for 2008 is 500...so this we're on track here)
• 34 comments, 2 trackbacks
• 1,773 pageloads, 1,082 unique visitors, 211 return visitors
• 6 GUEST AUTHORS! Big thanks to Phil Gerbyshak, Kathryn Burns, Michael Leddy, Joanna Young, Nathan Fairchild, & Karen Pearson for so graciously investing in this project.
• Most Popular Post: 12 Super Web Apps For College Student Success In 2008

A heartfelt thank you to all of the people who have subscribed and tapped into the RSS feed for CSR! Regular readers are the bread and butter of any blog project. Your own word-of-mouth publicity for CSR! is greatly appreciated.

I'll throw another one of these posts up on July 1, 2008 which will the half-year mark for CSR! Until then...keep reading, writing, and doing what you can to help college students succeed.

Sometimes The Best Resource Is A Great Resource List

One of the best websites at the top of my "Must Read Blogs" is Lifehack.org. It contains a daily dose of well-written articles dedicated to helping people take better control of their schedule, their organizational skills, and their sense of self.

Dustin Wax has just posted The Ultimate Student Resource List.

The list includes the following topics:

+ 10 Free Applications Every Student Needs
+ 11 Online Tools Every Student Should Check Out
+ 15 Websites For Students
+ 30 Pieces of Advice From Lifehack.org
+ 7 Online Research Resources

The only thing that I could think of to add to this amazing list is College Students Rule!

Read the entire article here.

LifeHacker Offers Top 10 UnderHyped WebApps

If you don't have Lifehacker in your RSS reader or visit the site at least once a day...then you're missing out on the BEST practical website on the Internet. They just posted an article with another great list of web apps that you'll get a lot of use out of. Here's the list:

10. Qipit
9. Ning
8. Jott
7. Anywhere.FM
6. Doodle
5. Netvibes
4. Zoho Suite
3. Meebo
2. TiddlyWiki
1. Remember the Milk

I've personally tried each of these recommendations and use about half of them on a regular basis. To read the descriptions of each site, visit the Lifehacker article here.

Other Blogs That Help College Students Rule!

When you buy a new car - let's say, a Volkswagen bug - something happens to you. You begin to notice all of the other Volkswagen bugs on the road. You start reading Volkswagen bug articles and watching Volkswagen bug movies (go Herbie!).

You become one with the Volkswagen bug universe.

Same kind of thing happens when you start a blog for college students. You realize that there are already so many great ones out there.

So here's some of the better blogs I discovered that already do a great job helping college students succeed. I'm also including a little blurb from their "about" pages or tagline to share how they explain themselves. While there are a lot of blogs being written by a lot of college students, the blogs I list here seem to be better aimed at reaching and helping a wider audience.

STUDY HACKS
Written by Cal Newport. Study Hacks seeks to explain how the most successful college students do what they do. Cal also promotes a couple of books he's written called How To Become A Straight A Student and How To Win At College. His blog contains a lot of great articles on student success strategies and productivity tips.

THATCOLLEGEKID.COM
TCK is written by Sydney who is currently in college. Her tagline reads, "Just another tech blog written by a college kid, her Mac and lots of Dr. Pepper." This blog has archived a bunch of practical ideas and strategies to help you be a better student.

HACK COLLEGE
HackCollege aims to assist students of our generation “hack” the elderly generation of our professors and school officials. Work smarter, not older. Technology can either help your cause or hinder you from your goal: graduating. This blog is also written by students.

GEARFIRE PRODUCTIVITY
GearFire is a daily productivity blog. They write many productivity related articles that include such things as tools to      help you get organized, online      productivity tools, such as To-Do lists, and Calendars; and random      tidbits of wisdom, that will help you in certain situations.

THE STUDENTS BLOG
Sponsored by NextStudent, this blog is highly practical and full of quick lists and ideas to ease college life. The articles point out useful tools and provide links to resources that will benefit college students.

I know that there are many more resources out there that I could have listed, but I feel like I'm offering you five GREAT blogs to check out. If there's one that you feel I missed, please add it below in the comments.

FreeMusicZilla Let's You Preview Music On The Web

FreeMusicZilla is a simple software program that sits on your computer and catches any music that you listen to that is streamed across your desktop. Whether you're listening to Last.fm, Pandora, MySpace, etc - this program allows you to download a preview copy to check out the song before purchasing.

Of course, we don't advocate the illegal downloading of music and violating copyright rules and laws. FreeMusicZilla could be dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands.

The software allows up to 10 downloads a day. It appears that they're getting people interested in order to release a premium version that gives you unlimited service in the future.

Found via: TechCrunch

12 Super Web Apps For College Student Success In 2008

College students are online a large percentage of the time. Sometimes the computer can be a toy, but it can also be a valuable tool. With the growing number of Web 2.0 applications out there, it can be difficult to know what's out there.

So College Students Rule has compiled a list of Web Apps that are extremely useful for college students. Most of these will be familiar to you if you spend anytime online. The beauty of creating a list like this is that you can add your own favorite web apps in the comments below.

1. Facebook - It is my belief that Facebook has surpassed MySpace as the social network of choice amongst college students. That's probably due to the origins of Facebook, starting out with access to only those people with a .edu email address. Since they've opened up their registration and open-sourced their application development, Facebook has exploded.

2. Word Processors - I can't seem to land on just one. Besides, these apps aren't necessarily college student specific. So here's what I consider to be the top three online word processors:

• 
  Google Docs - an easy to use word processor that integrates presentation and spreadsheet possibilities as well.
• 
  Buzzword - This site is simply beautiful. It is based off Ajax and has been recently released by Adobe. I love the way my documents look on this site.
• 
  Zoho Writer - This site accepts a wide variety of word processing formats. It also works with a variety of programs that are offered in the Zoho Suite of applications.

3. Meebo - If you do any type of Instant Messaging, meebo is your one stop site to access all kinds of IM accounts. You can use AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ and Jabber.

4. myNoteIt - online note taking and class schedule organization tool. There's a lot of these types of apps out there. This one is very well organized. Share your work with others in your class or community.

5. Del.icio.us - Social Bookmarking tool. You will be doing research and want to note a certain website. Store your links online and apply tags so you can find them quickly.

6. Google Calendar - I think the best organizing tool for a college student is a calendar. This is a super calendar with lots of add-ons to easily access your schedule through email or SMS.

7. Bookfinder - Never look anywhere else to find a textbook that you need. This site searches the entire internet and shows you the best price for what you're looking for.

8. Wikipedia - Most of your professors won't let you quote or cite any type of Wikipedia articles in your research. But it's still incredibly useful to give you an overview of most subjects.

9. Bibme - Here's an online application that will create correct bibliography entries for books, magazines, newspapers, films, journals, etc. If you register, it will even save your entries.

10. Divshare - Unlimited free online storage. You can upload files to your divshare account up to 200MB in size. Easily share files with others.

11. Craigslist - This site is better than Ebay. You can even buy and sell textbooks here.

12. Schoolr - A unique search engine that combines the search fields of Google, Wikipedia, Dictionary, Thesaurus, Acronym, Urban Dictionary, Encyclopedia, Citation Builder, Book Summary, Text Translator and also has a Unit Converter.

All of these web apps are free and that's a good thing. All you need is a computer and a connection to the internet. If you have a web app that you prefer to one of these in the list, let us know. One of the great things about the internet is that it gives us options.