Hype Machine Blends Blogging and Music

With the enormous amount of music discovery, internet radio, and music subscription services available, the ones that have a unique idea deserve a little extra attention. The Hype Machine is a hybrid between a music blog aggregator and a music radio service.

While the Hype Machine just released their iPhone app, the service has been available online for a while. Hype Machine handpicks a variety of music blogs (and from the looks of it they use a large amount of them) and uses links to MP3s on those blogs to cook up radio stations in the app. It’s possible to actually read the source blog post within the app while the song it came from is playing. And since the very nature of most music blogs is to talk about relatively unknown, new and upcoming bands, the radio station turns out to be a powerful discovery tool.

The Hype Machine crew is selective on what types of blogs make the cut. On the Hype Machine blog they explain, “We look for genuine voices; people excited about music, thinking, drawing, experimenting, creating. We want people who would blog whether or not they were listed on the Hype Machine.”

The Hype Machine app allows users to listen by genre, popular music on the Hype Machine, recent posts, by blog, by friends, and also has a radio show highlighting the months’ best music. Also, by picking favorite blogs and songs, Hype Machine can create a Pandora-esque mix station.

Hype Machine already boasts over one million monthly visitors and has some interesting demographics. Users tend to be musically inclined with 20% of them being bloggers, 20% DJs, and 24% musicians. Before buying the app for $2.99, check out the type of music available and sign up at hypem.com.