Every day, thousands of people around the world write about music they love
— and it all ends up here.
The Hype Machine aggregates the most recently posted songs from a selection of music blogs (about 1,500 blogs) and lists them on the website‘s main page. Essentially, it keeps track of and promotes the music bloggers write about. The creators of Hype Machine succeeded in finding a way to empower and promote bloggers who are passionate about music, while at the same time also promoting the songs they write about.
The website has a music player that shows up on the bottom of the screen when you play a song which is designed in a way that you can keep listening to songs while browsing the site for other tracks. By creating a free user account it’s possible to favourite songs and music blogs which all show up on your profile page. You can create playlists and limit your searches to your favourite genres.
The Hype Machine doesn’t let you download songs for free, but they provide links to purchase the music from places such as ITunes or amazon.com. Users are encouraged to enjoy the music online and support the artists by purchasing the songs afterwards. Each download supports both the artist and Hype Machine. This is a great place for upcoming artists to gain exposure, there is no catch or hidden fees, and you don’t have to pay for anything if you don’t want to. I really admire this type of marketing, where it is clear that the creators of the site are doing it for their love of music and not for the money. In 2009 the site made it to The Guardian’s (a British national daily newspaper) list of 100 essential websites.