Great Music to Program To

Here’s a list of the top places I get my music, which I develop to:

1. Nectarine Demoscene Radio (http://www.nectarine.fr)

If you’ve ever watched a cracktro, and intro, or a demo, you know exactly what this is all about: the Demoscene!

2. Rainwave.cc Videogame Music Radio (http://www.rainwave.cc)

There are quite a few video game stations around the net but none offer the quality of music that Rainwave does. Each user can vote for songs as well as create an account that tracks all kinds of neat things. Definitely a hidden gem of the internet.

3. Modarchive – The internet’s largest collection of music modules (http://modarchive.org)

Many of you may not be familiar with the file formats that this website provides. WinAMP will play all of them, though. Give it a try. Music modules are similar to MIDI music in that they contain the electronic “sheet music” of the music inside them, but they also go a step further and include samples of each of the instruments used in the music. This was very helpful at a time when home computers could not handle large compressed audio (such as MP3) and MIDI quality was poor.

4. Demoscene.tv – streaming video of demos (http://www.demoscene.tv)

Though it seems a bit of a waste to stream video but only listen to the audio, this site really shines if you have a second monitor that you blast this site’s streams on fullscreen. Great graphics, fast streams. Perfect for programming.

5. Kohina – Old School game and demo music (http://www.kohina.org)

Kohina is a good station that plays tracks not found or often played on other stations. For this, it’s not a regular on my speakers. But, it is nice to sometimes leave the beaten path and explore some new sounds.

6. Digitally Imported – di.fm (http://www.di.fm)

Digitally imported is one of the largest streaming radio sites on the internet today. They have a ton of different stations ranging from Trance (my favorite) to things like Ambient and Chillout (also good). Plus, they offer high-quality streams for only $4.95 / month.

I’m always on the lookout for more internet radio stations or demo/videogame music sites. Does anyone have any not listed here? Please tell me!