Ever since the day that Grooveshark died, millions of music fans are feeling lost. Where should they discover new bands?

It depends on what kind of music you want. If you want to listen to music from the big labels, you need to look into Spotify or Rdio. But if you want to discover new, independent musicians you should check out SoundCloud and Bandcamp.

We've made the argument that music lovers should all obsessively use SoundCloud, which is in practice everything Grooveshark pretended to be: a site where independent artists can share their work and users can find a never ending supply of free music. Bandcamp is another site with tons of independent offerings, and it basically powered our Sound Sunday column of music giveaways for years.

If you're curious about the music all these sites might offer, but have no idea how to get started finding music you like, today's Cool Websites and Apps has you covered. We've got five services that make it easier, or just better, to find and enjoy new music.

Noise.Supply (Web): SoundCloud Powered, Ad-Free Alternative to Pandora

We begin with an extremely simple way to start exploring SoundCloud. Find a song you like on SoundCloud – any song – and paste the URL into Noise Supply. You'll hear that song, followed by similar music.

noise-supply

It's a really simple design right now, but creator Jackson Palmer (also behind DogeCoin) plans on adding a bunch of new features in the months to come, including a list of previous songs. I used this for an afternoon and enjoyed it a lot, give it a shot yourself if you want to discover new bands.

Another Pandora-esque tool, this one is powered by YouTube. Just type the name of any band or performer and Music Suggestions Ninja will create a YouTube playlist for you, full of artists it thinks you might enjoy.

music-suggestion-ninja

Here's how the site's creator summarizes Music Suggestions Ninja:

Music Suggestions Ninja is not a music recommendation service. It offers no guarantee that the generated playlist is favorable or the best possible selection. Instead, like sampling the different sounds at a music festival, it collects music for your consideration and gives you the opportunity to explore

Go ahead: do some exploring.

QCast (Android, iOS, Chromecast): Collaborative Playlists For Parties

Picking a playlist for a social gathering isn't easy, especially if people have differing music tastes. QCast makes things easier for you by allowing everyone in the room with a smartphone to add tracks from Google Play Music or Spotify.

qcast-collaborative-playlist

Don't worry about that crazy cousin who likes country, though: everyone at your party can down vote songs, and the host has veto power.

Songhop (iOS): Tinder-Style Music Discovery

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Discover new music on your iPhone. Song hop doesn't play full versions of songs, just short samples, meaning it's less of an online radio station and more of a discovery service. The idea is to quickly listen to a bunch of music, then make a quick note of the songs you like.

song-hop

The familiar Tinder swipe mechanism is at work, and you just might find your next favorite band. Give it a shot.

Spotifree/Blockify (Mac/Windows): Mute Ads in Spotify

Spotify offers a free, ad-supported version of their service – meaning you can listen to all the music you want without paying. If you'd rather not hear the ads, though, Spotifree and Blockify can help. They're not ad-blockers per se; instead, they mute Spotify's volume while ads are playing.

The ads still play, but instead of hearing them you get a few moments of quiet. Of course, some people think Spotify will make everyone pay soon enough, and apps like this aren't going to help matters. If you like Spotify a lot, pay for it.

How Do You Find New Music?

We've outlined plenty of ways to discover new music online over the years, but we're always finding more. So we want to know: how do you find new music on the modern web? Let's talk about the apps, sites and services you've found in the comments below.

Image Credits: Electric guitar via Shutterstock