8 places I turn to for my daily soundtrack

I don’t see the sun much — or gray sky, we do live in Ohio — during the day.

But hey, how much can I complain? I have an office, a real space with plaster-backed grey walls and desk, but, alas, with no windows. This is my first noncubical workspace ever. I’m actually starting to feel like a grown-up, a thought I don’t want to dwell on at age 27.

While it will be awhile before I nab one of the coveted offices at work with a window, there are things I can do to liven up my workspace and spirits. In my new role as full-time Web guy, I find myself sitting at my computer in my windowless office a lot. What propels me beside caffeine? Music.

I can’t stand much commercial radio, except NPR and an occasional trip to stupid land paying attention to one of the A.M. or P.M. drive-time shows. While in the office where I have no, nor want a, radio, I listen to a variety of Internet music/talk sources to fuel my daily soundtrack. Among my favorites:

• Soma-FM: Indie Pop Rocks – Available via iTunes or the station’s Web site, Soma plays a decent variety of indie artists, sometimes even personal indulgences like the Shins or Arcade Fire.
  
• Pandora – Based on the Music Genome Project, Pandora pairs its listeners with artists or songs like the ones they already like.
• Muxtape – The dead and resurrected site previews several indie artists’ albums in an easy-to-use interface. More music is  coming.
• Blip.fm – At Blip.fm  you can spin your own mix of songs like a DJ. Think Twitter for music affacianos. This isn’t the best option for when you’re working, but is useful if you’re looking to hear a specific song. Find a DJ you like and listen through his or her playlist.
• NPR music archive - NPR regularly broadcasts live concerts of awesome artists like Ted Leo and the New Poronographers. But if you live in Northeast Ohio, you would no know better, thanks to the very conservative programming of the local NPR affiliates. Even if your station doesn’t play these concerts, you can listen to them live via NPR’s All Songs Considered archive. The library’s easy-to-use interface allows you to pick a song or concert and put them into a playlist. You can also download the full concerts for later listen on your iPod.
• iTunes podcasts – iTunes has all sorts of podcasts that I never pay attention to but probably should. Nerdy-awesome NPR Science Fridays alone makes the iTunes store worth a glance.
• Others – I’ve read AOL has a good repository of music, although most of it seems too mainstream for my tastes. And don’t forget Pitchfork Media, purveyors of all things awesomely indie.