Years ago when YouTube first came around, no one could get over how amazing it was. But now there are many other sites out there offering cool new ways for students to discover new music.  If “Friday,” by Rebecca Black, is now one of the most popular songs listened to on YouTube, then how reliable is YouTube?

Any musician can get their start on YouTube. There’s never a shortage of new and exciting music to be found on YouTube.

Finding this new and exciting music does prove to be difficult sometimes. Although there are suggestion videos, it’s always a gamble whether or not that video will prove to be a complete waste of time or not. The amount of variety available leads to difficulty in filtering through the videos to find one that is really worth watching.

A viewer could easily spend hours on YouTube making their way through low-quality homemade videos until they find a new artist worth listening to. The most competent way to find good music on YouTube is to rely on the artists you already know and like.

Pandora uses the music genome project to create a playlist that the listener will enjoy.  This makes Pandora more convenient. You just have to type in the name of one song and hundreds of songs similar to that song will appear. With Pandora you will not need a filter.

Songs and artists that may be entirely new to the listener will help expand their music library.

However, Pandora is not flawless. The songs begin to get repetitive after an extended amount of time on one playlist. After all, how many songs can they find that are musically similar? Repeats are bound to happen.  The music is also interrupted by the commercials.

Pandora also doesn’t allow the listener to pick which song to listen to. Just typing in the name does not guarantee that that song will pop up early in the mix. If you hate country music but find one Taylor Swift song captivating, Pandora may not be for you.

Each site offers something to the listener whether it’s a cool new video or the perfect mix to write a term paper to. But of course these are not the only sites available to listen to music on the Internet. Maybe a less popular site such as Stumble Audio, 8 Tracks, or Musicovery is for you.

Lindsay Powell is a Reporter for “The Patriot” and jcpatriot.com.