If you’re like me, sometimes the good ol’ Top 40 list can get a bit boring, and you end up wanting new music to listen to–or you want to hear music first without having to buy the track and end up hating it. Thankfully, there are websites out there which cater to us musical explorers; the following list are sites I’ve happily explored. And believe me, your music collection will thank you!

	Musicovery.com is responsible for exposing me to about 15% of my music collection. It gives you a little interactive module which lets you visually choose between various moods of music (Energetic, Dark, Calm, and Positive), and between all sorts of genres. You can even choose a blend of different moods–for instance, clicking the little graph somewhere between Energetic and Dark will likely get you a thrumming trance track, whereas clicking the graph between Calm and Positive will probably get you a lovely, soft instrumental piece. Try it out!
	SoundClick is one of those nifty little sites that helps indie artists share their music, but it also serves as a way to find songs that aren’t available anywhere else, no membership required. Search through the genre lists to find new favorites, or check out the “Hot on Soundclick” list to find out what others are listening to. (This is where I’ve found most of my video-game-music collection, as well as some beautiful trance and driving techno songs.)
	SoundCloud is kind of like SoundClick’s big sister, because it has more than just music on it–it’s also got podcast-like audio featuring comedy, audiobooks, business and technology talks, and even educational audio. It’s kind of like an auditory TED, in that way. Though you have to be a member to access anything, it allows members to repost audio clips they like to their “stream,” which means that you can find it again easily later. (I’ve found several wonderful song mashups through this site, since there are several different users who specialize in sharing mashups.)
	Newgrounds’ Audio Portal is an unusual place to look for music, since Newgrounds is usually known for flash videos of all sorts. But here, you can find lots of different musical genres, plus remixes and experimental tracks of all sorts (including voice acting!). (Though the audio player seems not to like Firefox (keeps crashing), I still found some cool remixes, including a techno mix of “He’s a Pirate” from Pirates of the Caribbean that is AMAZING.)