Long gone are the days of trawling through vinyl after vinyl at the local record shop. The internet provides hundreds of free tools to find and own new music. Here’s six of my personal favourite that I use daily.

Youtube – An oldie but a goodie, Youtube’s new features make it now easier than ever to discover new music. Classic features such as related videos and subscriptions mixed with the new “all activity” section on the homepage can waste hours of your time as you go from new tune to new tune. Here’s a few of my favourite channels to start you off; Masjestic, OutlifeUK and Tammyszu 

Spotify – With spotify’s constant improvements its quickly becoming an excellent way to discover new music. The ability to follow your favourite artists along with there extensive music collection (a lot of small local labels) justifies the $10 per month. Though, if you’re feeling a bit stingy and don’t mind the occasional ad, you get access to spotify for free on your pc or mac. Keep an eye out for stoney road’s own profile in the near future!

Soundcloud – Unsigned producers love uploading tracks to their own soundcloud. Once you build up a nice list of producers and labels to follow you’ll be bombarded with new tracks daily. Though, new changes in design have slightly complicated soundcloud. I personally avoid it unless I’m downloading tracks.

Hype Machine – At a glance hypemachine lets you know which tunes are making the rounds through the blogosphere. Favoured by many hypemachine is a useful tool if you’re seeking out the next big thing.

Social Networks (Facebook, twitter, etc..) – Following artists is undoubtedly the fastest way to snag their latest tunes. Sites like facebook and twitter allow you to jump on a new track or demo as soon as it’s released. Lack of related tunes and searching ability brings social networks down against other services though.

Stoney Roads MP3 Blog! – Right here at Stoney Roads we run an awesome mp3 blog! If you haven’t already, check out the mp3 section of the blog. Our contributors all these techniques and more to bring you the latest tunes so you don’t have to.