SoundTracking – Although currently available for iOS 4 devices only, this music app tries to offer an all-in-one bundle based on the music soundtrack of your daily life -the tunes that add a splash of color to your routine. SoundTracking comes with a built-in music ID feature, which is the standalone product of many music apps out there (such as Shazam and SoundHound). But SoundTracking doesn’t stop there. The app includes geo-tagging music snippets and sharing these with your friends along with a photo of the track’s artist or album.

Want more? SoundTracking lets you check in to Foursquare when you post a soundtrack with a location, and you in turn can follow friends’ location based on their tagged songs and check ins. SoundTracking is ideal for the iPhone users who love sharing in general, and sharing what they’re doing and what they’re listening to in particular. This app is free which is, considering all the perks it offers, surprising to say the least. In other words, go ahead and download this wicked app ASAP while it’s free.

Designers.MX – The concept of this divine site is simple: it’s where creative designers share the music that keeps them going. Designers.MX is not just about superb playlists, it’s also about large doses of creative inspirations and revelations.

Although all entries on Designers.MX are inspiring, I suggest starting with the Popular section for guaranteed sweet music. Each playlist comes with a ‘built-in’ player so you can start listening instantly and enjoy the tunes that fuel industry professionals. I particularly enjoyed Kick the Day Off Right by Daniel Waldron. Click the screenshot below to get to Daniel’s playlist.

GoBarbra – It would be fair to say that when the Barbra Streisand remix song came out, it made that year’s summer particularly sweet and fun. Now you have the chance to customize your own Barbra Streisand song with a choice of words (up to four syllables works best). To give you an example, I chose -as a tribute to Barbra herself- the words Woman in Love. Click here to listen to it.

NoiseTrade – What a sweet music site that offers a helping hand to both artists and music fans! NoiseTrade offers artists a sexy and practical web spot for them to showcase their music, and fans can listen to the music and even download entire albums for free! The sound quality is amazing, which is an added bonus and a valuable part of the NoiseTrade bundle.

Artists are welcome to sign up and set up their page, even create their own widget which can be added to any online venue they may have. Fans don’t sign up -they simply start enjoying the great music on NoiseTrade instantly. Here’s the page of The Vespers, one of the most downloaded artists here on NoiseTrade. Listen to them and you’ll see why!

Rome – As the browser war rages on (remember the brilliant Pac-Man collaboration with Internet Explorer 9 we reviewed a couple of weeks ago?), Google Chrome is giving a fantastic fight with ROME. This whimsical and fabulous film by Chris Milk -works only on Chrome, of course- is a “hardware-accelerated 3D graphics” built onto the Chrome browser and requires no download or install of any software. Don’t forget to move your mouse sideways while the film is playing.

This Google Chrome Experiment is a whimsical film with a beautiful soundtrack by Danger Mouse, who have a new album out called -you guesses it- Rome.

If you wish, you can add your own dreamy additions to this project by clicking ‘add to the dream’ and see how others have already contributed. ROME is an amazing collaborative adventure of creativity, 3D technology, great music and a powerful browser showing off for a good reason. Enjoy.

Noisey – Making the good kind of noise, Noisey is here to expose promising new music artists from all over the world to the global community. As the site claims, “Noisey is a video-driven music discovery platform, documenting the most talented emerging musicians from around the world. Curated by VICE, the site showcases bands and music scenes from over 10 countries.”

As you will see, Noisey uses Intel and Dell technology to make this digital platform a state of the art stage for new and upcoming artists to show off their talent.

Musictonic – Here’s a cool music consumption and discovery site based on videos. Musictonic allows you to “watch music videos and discover new artists, automatic continuous playback and other awesome stuff.”

Although I can’t declare Musictonic a game-changer, it is a cool place to visit to listen to your favorite artist, to discover related singers and bands using the right menu list, and to share each video on Facebook and Twitter. Each search prompts an automatic continuous play of the chosen artist’s videos, and you have the entire video list on the same page for your convenience. Here’s where my ‘David Bowie’ search took me:

WolframTones – For those of you unfamiliar with Wolfram|Alpha, it is Stephen Wolfram’s computational knowledge engine based on the British scientist’s New Kind of Science approach. WolframTones is an intriguing experiment based on the same scientific premise, and “works by taking simple programs from Wolfram’s computational universe, and using music theory and Mathematica algorithms to render them as music. Each program in effect defines a virtual world, with its own special story–and WolframTones captures it as a musical composition.” In other words, Wolfram Tones creates music from algorithms.”

The nice thing about WolframTones is you don’t have to be a computer science graduate to appreciate the beauty of composing melodies based on computational processes. The user interface is fun and easy, and the WolframTones magic really shines when you add more variations to your creation. Another great perk this experiment offers is a free download of your music creation which can be applied as a ringtone. To learn more about how to compose music on WolframTones, consult the FAQ page.

Nogeno – The team behind Nogeno has a calling. They want this website to serve as a home for the musicians who “need something personal – a page to call their own which will bring out their music, videos, upcoming gigs and much more.” Although there are many prominent sites for novel musicians (such as Bandcamp, MySpace and others), Nogeno’s added value comes in the form of lack of commercialization, or so its team claims.

To discover new artists that will suit your taste, you are invited to type in your favorite artist or band’s name in the homepage and the Nogeno system will automatically build a playlist made up of new emerging artists within the ballpark of your preferred genres. Musicians are also invited to create their own music space using Nogeno’s platform to increase their exposure.

Here’s the mixtape playlist Nogeno created for me, based on my submission of Arcade Fire and Modest Mouse, two bands I love to listen to. As you can see, the left part of the screen is the actual playlist, while the right part of that page is devoted to bio and background info regarding the artist/band playing.

QVIVO – Hoping to revolutionize the way we consume and share media content, QVIVO offers an impressive bundle of user actions and experiences, all focused on your favorite music, videos, films, and social network friends. Once installed, QVIVO will automatically create a mega library with cover art, trailers, actors, artists and more from the files on your computer. QVIVO has taken care of the format issue to allow you to play all files, regardless of where you purchased or imported them from.

All the great perks I’ve mentioned above are nice and dandy, but where QVIVO really shines is in the social sphere. When your friends are also connected and using this app, you can see what they’re watching at that very instant, see if they like it, post your own status, comment on and interact with them.

The Web offers hundreds of top quality sites where you can both listen to and discover new music and artists. Pandora and Grooveshark might be the most famous ones everyone is familiar with, but there are many other sites that offer great music for free you might not be aware of. Here’s my top 10 list of sites that offer free music streaming and music discovery.

1. Stereomood – This is by far my #1 music site. Stereomood is a free playlist-ready music streaming place that invites you to explore exquisite tracks based on the mood you’re in. The homepage is made up of a big tag cloud of moods for you to choose from; calm, happy, sleepy, lonely and in love are only a number of the vast mood options available. Once you pick a mood, a ready-made playlist appears and will start to play. You can also share each of the songs of each playlist on a variety of social networks. Beautiful design and perfect sound make Stereomood my top music choice.

2. Blip.fm – Built in the form of a Twitter-like micro-blogging service for music, Blip.fm is open to users from all over the world (as opposed to location-restricted sites) and puts a special focus on music discovery and social interaction. The homepage is essentially a feed list of ‘blips’ other users have submitted, and you can go right ahead and start blipping yourself. Simply search for your favorite artist or song and blip. You can create your own playlists, give ‘DJ props’ to users (Blip.fm’s “Like” equivalent), and follow favorite DJs.

3. The Sixty One – This music site is the most stylish one in the list, merging great music with gorgeous visuals and atmosphere. The interface of The Sixty One is unlike any other music site you’ve seen before. Each page represents a different artist and includes a full screen picture of the singer/band and automatically plays one of their songs. You can learn more about the artist by exploring the info box on the right (offering the artist’s website, recorded music and upcoming shows). Browse the artists on The Sixty One by simply clicking the right/left arrows and discover even more great music. The screen shot below is of Kori Pop.

4. Jelli – This music site has a special twist. It’s an online radio site (exclusively online), where registered users decide on the radio’s playlists -100% user-controlled radio. Each of Jelli’s channels (Red, Green and Orange, each representing a different range of music styles) is made up of a long list of standby tracks users can vote for (by clicking the V button) or against (by clicking the X). Returning users are equipped with heavier ammunition: rockets and bombs to vote for or against a selected track, respectively. In short, this site is about listening to great music, and having a hell of a time along the way.

5. Mixcloud – If you’re already familiar with the concept of podcasts you will appreciate this music site. Mixcloud is based upon the same podcast idea, and it contains a wealth of music styles and DJs for you to follow, listen to and subscribe to. In addition to the variety of music genres, you can also explore other channels including business, comedy, culture, education, news and more. Think of it as NPR’s first cousin.

6. 22tracks – This attractive music site offers free music streaming of 22 different music genres, each with a playlist of -you guest it- 22 tracks. The sound quality is amazing and you are invited to create a playlist with your favorites, and also share each of them with your social network friends. This is one of my favorite sites for music discovery, especially since all the tracks on this site are carefully curated by 22tracks’ team of professional DJs.

7. 8tracks – This Web radio service is totally free, and it offers creating, sharing and listening to user-created playlists, each comprising of eight tracks. The idea is simple and using the site is super easy and fun. Thanks to 8tracks you will undoubtedly explore new artists you haven’t listened to before. Here’s what the Jazz category looks like on 8tracks.

8. One Track Mind – Although this music blog is not a high-profile music site as the other big fish I mentioned above are, it offers a valuable service you should check out if you’re looking to increase your music repertoire. One Track Mind is the place for “music discovery, one track at a time.” The added bonus is you can listen to full tracks of new and recent releases, and download them (100% legal!) as mp3.

9. Hitlantis – I just love the innovative concept of this music discovery site. Instead of browsing lists of artists and songs, Hitlantis offers a visual experience where lots of bubbles are neatly organized by color. Each color region represents a different music genre (consult the legend on the homepage), and each bubble within that color area represents a certain artist or band. Simply click on a bubble and a mini player window will appear, offering additional info about the artist, and also showing what the user community thinks about that artist. This is a great out-of-the-box way to explore new music.

10. Music MiniFaves page on All My Faves – This fully-booked MiniFaves page offers all of the top resources I have mentioned above plus many others worth checking out. In addition to the best music streaming places you can find online, the Music MiniFaves offers top music news and magazine sites for you to explore as well as other music perks such as lyrics finders and much more.

Dubset – I’m always excited when there’s a music site in the Weekly Faves lineup and Dubset is, indeed, a great treat. Create your own music channels of your fave genre, browse through numerous DJs and their mixes, and keep track with the latest in the music scene, all in one place.

Once you’re logged in you can simply listen to the randomly played tracks of your preferred style, or pick a certain DJ or mix. Each of these can be shared via Facebook and Twitter which is nice and gives great exposure to the featured artists (hey, you get access to full mixes for free). Here’s the DJ page of my favorite, Marco Carola.