Hear It: Listen and Learn

MP3 Realm

Certainly the most user-friendly of the MP3 search engines out there, MP3 Realm links to sites around the world that host online MP3s. The home page is laid out much like Google, bringing an air of legitimacy to the site.

Searches, however, aren’t always the greatest here. Look for a brand-new pop song and you’re set, try something a little older, say Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough,” and you just can’t get a good version of the original. The random fingerpicked guitar version that shows up with no artist info is a pretty great surprise though.

Skreemr

Once past the home page, SkreemR isn’t the prettiest thing out there, but the search function is great. Not everything is on there and new stuff is a little hard to find, but most of the tunes those super-hip music-loving friends have listed on their Facebook pages are available at the touch of a button.

The great thing about this site is the AudioRank function, which rates the quality of an MP3 with decent accuracy. Find the song you want but it’s only a 42, chances are it doesn’t sound so great or is cut off. Other features include clickable links that search Wikipedia, YouTube and Flikr for the band.

mp3 raid

It’s ugly, it’s cluttered with ads and it’s kinda slow but, boy howdy, there sure are a lot of songs on MP3 Raid. The site offers an online stream but, to make things a lot easier, just click the download track link to get to the original online file. It loads faster and gets you away from all the ads. Be warned though, more link choices mean more dead ones. Fortunately, there are usually multiple links to the same song, so if one doesn’t work, put the back button to use and try another.

Santa Fe Reporter