A looming concert date can keep a smile on my face even in the most mundane, ridiculous and pathetic moments. Just knowing that I will be in a crowded room with hundreds of people who love to sing and dance to the same music as I do is enough to put up with anything else.

The volume is up way too loud, someone just stepped on your toe and the drinks cost $10 each, but who cares?

from dreamtimemix.blogspot.com

This time, the destination is the Fillmore in Miami Beach for Thievery Corporation. And my seats should be right about where that photograph is taken from.

I have been waiting to see Thievery Corporation since early 2007 when I discovered their greatness for myself at Langerado Music Festival, a three-day concert/camping extravaganza on an Indian reservation in Big Cypress.

I’ll never forget when I blindly walked away from my group of friends, unable to free myself from the hold the music on the next stage over had on me. And a love was born.

Thievery Corporation mixes a DJ spinning tracks with instruments from all around the world. While they could technically be listed as electronica, please understand that this is not house music or techno. Their songs span a wide array of genres and they have several different vocalists for their varied styles. They sing lyrics in seven different languages!

But above all that, the most important thing is that they can groove. The music is soothing, never boring and can make you dance your [bleep!] off!

I’ve listed some of my favorite songs of theirs in the right column, but I wouldn’t recommend stopping there. Their iTunes library currently holds 149 songs and yes, you should hear them all. And that doesn’t even include the countless remixes of their songs that people have done.

So, here’s to October 9…

The only sound in the apartment is the whirring of the central air conditioning. It is dark, save one light streaming from the laptop.

from myspace.com/djmoonlove

Yet inside the tiny earbud headphones, a modern symphony of instruments, voices, synthesizers and special effects is playing on full blast, and the listener is enjoying the rush of emotions that is experienced from discovering new music.

In this technological era where most of the world’s music is cataloged on-line, one would think that there must be at least a few websites and applications that allow eager music hunters to decide whether or not they like a song in more than 30 second snippets. And there are.

These are the places I visit on the internet when I am looking for another gem of a song, where my ears can play for hours free of charge and free of guilt, for all of these sites compensate the dear musicians for their hard work.

Pandora takes streaming Internet radio to the next level. It provides the most narrow-casted radio station one can hope to find.

Users sign up through the website and are then directed to choose an artist, song or composer that they love. A station is then created which revolves around that already-enjoyed music. Pandora will then stream songs that research shows go well together.

What research, you ask?

The research is done by the Music Genome Project, a group of 45 trained music analysts and musicians, that form the backbone of Pandora.

The website for Pandora Internet radio explains how the music is studied: “Each song in the Music Genome Project is analyzed using up to 400 distinct musical characteristics by a trained music analyst. These attributes capture not only the musical identity of a song, but also the many significant qualities that are relevant to understanding the musical preferences of listeners.”

from: NorCal Blogs: Dog’s Breakfast

“The best thing about [Pandora] is that you can sit back and just fully enjoy an artist you love,” said Alexandra Moller, a 23-year-old student at Florida International University.

Users can further customize the station by giving each song played a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down.” These ratings will alter which songs are played in the future.

The service will stream 40 hours per month for free. When 40 hours have been reached, the option to pay $.99 is presented pet, and once paid, the music stream is unlimited.

The Internet radio service began in 2004 and has reached 30 million registered users, according to an Agence France-Presse July 2009 interview with David Sze, one of Pandora’s investing partners.

The service can also be used on any smartphone, which takes music discovery on the road with you, wherever you go.

The intentions of Pandora Internet radio can be summed up in one line from their website: “At Pandora, we have a single mission: To play only music you’ll love.”

But Pandora is only one option.

The next website of note, The Hype Machine, utilizes the vast and varied world of music blogging.

The website tracks every single blog that displays an MP3 in a post. The MP3′s are then placed into the “latest” list. The song can move from there into the “popular” list, which displays the songs receiving the most “favorites” votes of the past three days.

Users can play any song on the site an unlimited amount of times or simply press play and go down the entire list of tracks. A heart image appears next to any given song, blog, search term or user, which when clicked, bookmarks the specific item.

Links are included next to any song that can be purchased on-line through Amazon, iTunes or eMusic. There is also a link to the song’s blog of origin, which allows for more perusal.

from: Bizzia.com

Miami Disc Jockey Obi Tawil, 25, uses The Hype Machine to find what is new and fresh in the music scene.

“There’s a lot of indie stuff that is really hard to find out there,” said Tawil. “The site gives small bands and DJ’s the chance to be discovered and loved.”

The website also offers users the chance to sign up for a mailing list with information such as concert dates or newly available songs that are completely customized based on the user’s “favorites” list.

The third website expanding the way music is heard over the internet is Napster Free.

Yes, Napster, the same word that will forever be connected with the beginning of the internet’s hostile takeover of the music industry. However, the times have changed and Napster users can now hold their heads up high.

Best Buy, the electronics retailer, purchased Napster in September of 2008 and has since created free.napster.com, where anyone can listen for free up to three times to the catalog of more than seven million songs.

However, for $5 per month, any song can be heard an unlimited number of times. The $5 also buys the user five downloads per month, which can be saved onto the user’s computer and MP3 player of choice.

from: Softpedia.com

The people at Napster have also created hundreds of playlists based on specific genres, decades or themes, such as “workout” or “party” music.

Subscribed users can create an unlimited number of their own playlists.

In a May 2009 press release from Napster, the company attempted to set itself apart from other programs such as iTunes, the mecca of modern music downloading.

“Music fans now have the best of both worlds: MP3s to keep forever, play, transfer and burn as much as they like, as well as unlimited music listening from Napster’s catalog of more than seven million tracks. ‘There’s no need to settle for 30-second clips to decide if you want to buy a song,’ said Chris Gorog, CEO of Napster. ‘For five bucks now you can have access to our entire music catalog and get five MP3s to add to your permanent collection.’”

These three websites are exploring the ways that the music industry and penny-pinching fans can compromise. They help anyone who loves music discover new songs, artists or even genres.

I wish you many, many hours of sleepless nights as you peruse these sites and find some magic of your own.

Hopefully, he can find at least one person that gives him a reason to smile every day. He has favorite television shows and probably a few sports teams that he would walk into battle for.

We line our shelves with novels with bent spines and others that we will one day get around to reading. Our magazines come to us in the mail, along with a few Netflix suggestions for our next favorite movie.

But one thing, at least for me, seems to bring the most joy to my heart. And that is music.

I love my favorite music more than I could love any show, movie or novel. All of these other things are well and good, but they cannot compare to hearing a beautiful, complex melody in your headphones.

There is nothing like driving the highway (with no traffic) with your windows down and a classic upbeat song streaming through the speakers.

Everyone likes music, but I don’t think everyone LOVES music. There are genres that turn us one and genres that turn us off. But I believe that great music can be found in any genre, some just hide their gems better than others.

In this blog, I will be on a quest to dive deeper into the music that makes me smile. I will explore genres, specific bands, specific songs or specific moments when one type of music is particularly necessary. I will also be trying to find new music all the time, and hopefully share some tidbits with anyone who decides to read this.