Searching for new music is still a tricky business. In Discover New Music That’s Perfect for You, I once presented a few recommendation systems which adopted to the personal taste of the user.
Critical Metrics walks a different path. It systematically spiders through music reviews in various media. The collected recommendations are then presented at the website. This way, you do not find music recommendations which are selected for you personally, but good music in general. Filtering the music to your personal taste remains your job.
You can listen to the music suggestions directly at the site (for free of course). All recommended songs are provided via a flash player in good quality and full length. You can’t download the songs, but there are links to various online shops where you can buy the music if you like it.
You can search the musical repertoire of Critical Metrics in different ways. Right at the top of each page is a menu where you can choose different sources for recommendations. You can also choose how up-to-dateness. Besides that, there are search functions and browsing by the providing source (like iTunes). There seems to be functionality for organizing play lists, but I didn’t test it.
Personally, I’m having difficulties finding the right music for me at Critical Metrics. This might be the fault of my weird musical taste. 🙂 Nevertheless, I like the idea of this platform.