ReleaseWire

Underrated Music Artists Get Word-of-Mouth Spotlight As Recommendation Website MeLikeGoodMusic.com Celebrates First Anniversary

Posted: Friday, September 11, 2009 at 3:19 PM CDT

Atlanta, GA -- (SBWire) -- 09/11/2009 -- A few years ago, music lover James Rawls used to recommend undiscovered and underrated music by email to a small group of family and friends. In September 2008, he grabbed a few web design books from the public library, took that concept to the internet and created MeLikeGoodMusic.com. It's now a year later and Me Like Good Music has become a home for underrated music and artists.

"For years, I would rummage through the used CD and vinyl bins in the stores on St. Marks Place in New York. My favorites were the 88 cents bins at Sounds. The goal was always the same, to find something interesting and different. At 88 cents, it was worth taking a risk on a completely unknown artist," explains Rawls. "Whenever I found something that got me excited, I would email the group, telling them about the artist, attaching some of the music and recommending they pick up a copy. It became a regular thing."

The emails took a back seat after Rawls left New York City but the group, now hooked, continued to hunger for more music. "When I moved to Montreal, I no longer had access to St. Marks Place but the desire to hear and share new music remained. So I went on the internet to find sites that recommended music from lesser-known artists. I found several but most of them were single-genre sites. For someone who enjoys a variety of music, that can be unsatisfying. So I decided to create the site I wanted; a site where one day you'd get an R&B or jazz recommendation, then next time maybe a heavy metal, electronica or country recommendation or even an artist singing in German, Spanish, French or some other language. Being open-minded to different things is part of the joy of discovering new music."

Since its debut, Me Like Good Music has steadily developed a following of music lovers looking for something different from today's cookie-cutter offerings. "I'm extremely happy with the way the site has grown. I especially love how it's become more interactive. In the beginning, I was doing all the recommending and getting a little feedback here and there. Now, I get daily recommendations through the site and social media. Things like 'Check out this great underrated artist.' or 'Check me out. My music is the coolest.' The internet is packed with artists trying to find an audience for their music. I'm glad Me Like Good Music has become another option to help them get some attention. For me, underrated music is like indie film, it's the sleepers that hit you in a memorable way. So that's my purpose: to awaken you to the sleepers."

As for the future of Me Like Good Music, Rawls said "I live in Atlanta now and I'm discovering the diversity of Atlanta's music scene. It's a whole new candy store full of new flavors to sample. For now, I'm still a very small fish in a huge media pond, but that's okay. I'm here to share the music I like with people interested in different types of music, especially music from underrated artists. So, as long as those people are around, we'll be that school of fish...that tiny school jamming in the coolest part of the pond."

Visit http://www.melikegoodmusic.com/press.php to hear a few of MeLikeGoodMusic's favorite underrated artists.