One of my favourite websites is The Hype Machine, a music blog aggregator. What it does is search through a directory of music blogs, allowing you to listen to the tracks without visiting each site individually. Think of it as an MP3 RSS reader. Start using it, and you'll become more common with CSS standing for "Cansei de Ser Sexy" (which translates from Brazilian Portuguese into "I'm tired of being sexy") rather than Cascading Style Sheets.
I've discovered a ton of new music through the site, and have even ended up buying a few albums as a result of listening to songs first through Hype Machine. I've even started my own music blog with dreams of hitting it big and getting listed on the Hype Machine
In looking over the site earlier today, I noticed one of their older blog entries that has the results of one of their users surveys. It is from the end of May, only has a sample size of about 2000, but provides a great look into the way people are using music online.
Music has always been the predecessor to the way other types of popular media (movies, books, video games) are used and consumed, so this is a fascinating little survey. Among the findings are the 91% of HypeMachine users find new music online, and that 47% of them buy their music online.
So what are some other cool things that you can do with Hype Machine? Well, like all Social Media sites you can add a badge from Hype Machine showing what you've been into lately on your blog, and you can also integrate Hype Machine with Twitter so that every "heart" a song, your Twitter followers will know. I wish more people used this feature, and I promise to start doing so in the near future.
I also just learned from the comments on this Tech Crunch post that you can easily browse all tracks listed on the Hype Machine via Del.icio.us at Http://Del.icio.us/taggedhype. Not only can you browse them from here, but you can also stream them - that's Web 2.0 action at its best.
And while we're on the topic, a recent article in the Financial Times about a recent study (paid for by the music industry!) says that the big record labels should embrace piracy and start offering tracks for free (via Slashdot).
Have you used Hype Machine before? Do you read music blogs at all? If so, recommend some good stuff in the comments.
-Parker
PS: Definitely check out Yelle on Hype Machine. My roommate got me into this French discobelle a few weeks ago and I've been digging her ever since. And also check out some tracks by the aforementioned CSS. They do electro right.