Pump up the volume. Streaming music is a great way to connect with older kids.

It’s not always easy to get teens talking. But when I became a young adult specialist at the Wilbraham (MA) Public Library four years ago, that’s exactly what I had to do. Although the library already had a thriving program for younger teens, my main mission was to bring in as many high schoolers as possible. So I needed to find out exactly what they wanted from the library. At first, the kids were quiet; after all, they didn’t know me very well. But as it turned out, all I needed to do was ask them about music. A few suggestions for new CDs soon turned into a flood of recommendations—from The Killers to Linkin Park to Lily Allen—and the passion in their voices was unmistakable. Before long, we were sharing music with one another on a regular basis, mostly through the power of streaming music Web sites. You may have heard of Pandora.com, Grooveshark.com, or Lala.com. And if you haven’t, just ask the kids walking into your library. Some of them probably use one of these streaming music sites every day. How do they work? Simply type in the name of a musician, band, or song to start searching for tracks, and these user-friendly sites spit out a huge library of tunes that kids can listen to on-demand via their Web browsers. Teens are increasingly turning to Web sites like these as an alternative to buying CDs or downloading songs from iTunes. That’s because the sheer range and quantity of music on most streaming music sites is staggering, and they won’t give you one of those nasty viruses that lurk on peer-to-peer networks like LimeWire or Kazaa. Best of all, they’re mostly free. And it’s not just the individual songs that keep teens coming back. These sites also offer additional services, like social networking features that let users create personal profiles, share playlists, and even upload their own music. Plus, almost all of them recommend new artists based on the songs that users like (or don’t like).

Illustration by Augusto Costhanzo

The first streaming music site I used with my teens was Finetune.com, which I had heard about through friends. (Finetune has since changed its model so that users can no longer create their own playlists.) When I wanted to promote all the new CDs I’d purchased for the library, I decided the easiest way was to create a playlist of songs from the new albums and put it up on our library’s blog. I also made playlists to listen to at teen advisory board meetings when I would ask for their advice on new artists; more than one meeting was interrupted by a visit to YouTube to watch a new music video. Inevitably, whenever the topic turned to music, there was a lot of great discussion. The first step in promoting and using streaming music sites is to identify the ones most suitable to your library. You may want to consider how long a site has been around. If it has survived for five years or more in basically the same configuration, like Pandora, which started in 2000, it’s less likely than a newer site to disappear tomorrow. That doesn’t mean, though, that less-established sites aren’t worth using. If your teens enjoy listening to music on one of the newer sites like Grooveshark, which started in 2007, it may be worth the risk of possibly losing play-lists in the future in order to make a connection with your kids today. You may also want to think about how a site allows you to share your content (your playlists or radio stations). In other words, can you embed your playlists elsewhere, or do listeners have to visit the site to hear them? Finally, if you’re worried about copyright issues, you may want to check the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) Web site, where a list of approved music Web sites is maintained at www.riaa.com/toolsforparents.php?content_selector=legal_music_sites. But even if a site doesn’t appear on the list, that’s not necessarily cause for alarm. For example, although the Internet radio site Last.fm isn’t listed there, the RIAA has mentioned it favorably in other places. Once you’ve decided on the Web site that works best for you, it’s time to start involving your kids in creating playlists and sharing music. Playlists that revolve around certain themes or holidays are always a big hit, whether they appear on your Web site or end up as background music during a program. As a bonus, streaming music sites provide flexibility in musical choices. I had a teen volunteer create a playlist for our release party for Breaking Dawn, based on song suggestions from author Stephenie Meyer’s Web site (visit www.finetune.com/playlist/2278558 to see the playlist). And even though the group got tired of it about halfway through the party, several kids ended up making a new playlist with some more popular songs. It’s not too early to promote your summer reading program—just post a play-list with summer-themed songs on your blog, Web site, or Facebook page. Why not ask your teens to create book-themed playlists to share online, or simply hold a program to teach kids about streaming music sites? All that’s needed is a librarian who knows a few streaming music sites—and I’ve outlined several below that you should keep on your radar. Grooveshark www.grooveshark.com This kid-friendly newcomer has an appealing layout similar to iTunes, which may be easier for both librarians and their patrons to navigate. Grooveshark’s sharing capabilities and intuitive interface make it one of the most useful sites for discovering, organizing, and promoting new music. Kids can build their own playlists, mark their favorites, and add songs to their personal libraries. Users can also share songs and playlists with other Grooveshark users, as well as with nonusers on sites such as Facebook and MySpace. But Grooveshark, which doesn’t appear on the list of RIAA–approved sites, was sued in January 2010 by Universal Music Group, so it may have to restrict access to its content at some point in the future. Lala www.lala.com Purchased by Apple in December 2009, this site has raised its profile among casual fans, who can use it to fuse their music collections with the site’s massive licensed catalog to play, buy, and share music easily on the Web. Registration is free and allows an unlimited number of playlists. The free Music Mover software allows users to sync their Lala accounts with the music libraries on their computer hard drives, giving them unlimited online access to every song they already own, as well as to free trials of any other song in Lala’s catalog. Curious about Eminem’s new single, “Music Box”? Lala allows you to listen to the song once for free. After that, you’ll have the option of purchasing the tune for unlimited online play (only 10¢) or buying an MP3 download of the song (89¢), which can also be played on a portable MP3 player. Lala also lets users embed playlists on other Web sites. However, because of licensing agreements, non-Lala users can only listen to each full song once, and, after five days, they’ll have to sign up for a Lala account to listen to any songs on a Lala playlist. If you’re considering using this service with a group—such as a teen advisory board—you might want to require that all group members sign up for a free Lala account. Last.fm www.last.fm Although its recommendation tool is less sophisticated than some (like Pandora’s), Last.fm’s social networking features are much more advanced than those of many other streaming music sites. Users not only can create radio stations based on particular artists or songs but also share personal information and photos in their profiles and easily find and interact with others with similar interests. The site’s most noteworthy feature is its ability to generate charts that track a user’s most-played songs. These charts can then be posted elsewhere, giving users the opportunity to share information about their changing musical tastes without having to edit their MySpace or Facebook profiles every few days. Last.fm provides a great way for librarians to connect with teen patrons. For example, using the top-10 charts provides a wealth of opportunities for librarians and teens to start a conversation about their current musical favorites. MySpace Music www.myspace.com/music No article about music Web sites would be complete without MySpace, which started in 2003 as a way for bands to promote everything from bluegrass to hip-hop to pop. Although the site has been open to nonmusicians for years—and has become one of the most popular teen social networking sites in the world—music is still very important to its mission, and almost all users have songs embedded in their profiles. The MySpace Music feature is completely free with registration and lets users create playlists of up to 100 songs each, which can be shared on the Public Playlists section of each user’s profile page. Currently, there’s no way to embed MySpace Music playlists on other Web sites, but that won’t pose much of a problem to libraries with an established MySpace presence. Kids logging on to your library’s MySpace page will be pleased to hear songs from Taylor Swift, Jay-Z, and Kings of Leon and to know that they can check out those songs from your CD collection. The playlists are a natural conversation starter, and they offer librarians an opportunity to get a sense of the musical tastes of their patrons, making them a great collection development resource. Pandora www.pandora.com This was among the first Web sites to allow users to create their own personal radio stations. Simply type in the name of an artist or a song, and the site will create a station that plays similar songs. Pandora’s recommendation service is one of the best in existence because it relies on a finely detailed analytical system that categorizes the many attributes of each musical work in Pandora’s library, with descriptions like “a vocal-centric aesthetic,” “mild rhythmic syncopation,” and “major key tonality.” Users can tweak the recommendations further by giving each song a “thumbs up” or a “thumbs down.” Although Pandora seems more popular with adults—perhaps because its social networking features are fairly minimal, or because it’s completely unconcerned with the coolness or popularity of the music it recommends—its vast library and excellent recommendation feature should be of interest to older teens looking for new music, as well as to librarians who want to expand their own musical horizons. Playlist.com www.playlist.com This site is similar in function to the old Finetune, in that it allows users to create streaming playlists that can easily be posted elsewhere. It has a large catalog of songs, and its “Playlist Player” is simple to use and to embed in other Web sites. With a free account, users can add a total of 200 songs to as many playlists as they want (for example, you can create one playlist with 200 songs or four playlists with 50 songs each). Playlist.com has many advantages over other sites with more restricted access to content, like Lala.com, but based on the history of Finetune and other similar Web sites, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this site significantly revise its business model in the face of potential legal challenges. But that’s not reason enough to avoid it—just be aware that you may lose access to some of your content if the site undergoes major changes. YouTube www.youtube.com You’re probably familiar with YouTube as a way to share videos, but did you ever think about using it for music? You can create playlists of music videos and use them the same way you’d use playlists from another site like Grooveshark, playing them at teen advisory board meetings or during programs, or you can post a music video on your blog to find out what your teens have to say about Lady Gaga’s latest single. Best of all, YouTube has become such a major part of kids’ online experience that there will be almost no learning curve at all when you ask them to use the site to create their own playlists. Streaming music sites made it extremely easy for me to share music with my teens, and talking about music, both in groups and one-on-one, provided a great way for us to connect. I bonded with one girl over our love for My Chemical Romance, and she would often send me to the MySpace pages of new bands she found, like The Dreaming, so that I could enjoy them, too. Another of my teens gave me a CD with songs by We the Kings, Metro Station, and Boys Like Girls, because she knew I loved similar bands like Fall Out Boy and Cobra Starship. (I still listen to it!) But even when our tastes differed, I know my kids appreciated the chance to talk about a topic they love. For many teens, the music they listen to is a vital part of their identities, so it means a lot to them when you show an interest in that part of their lives. Don’t be afraid to ask your kids about their favorite music and online destinations for music, or advice about ways to promote music in the library. You might open up a lively discussion, improve your services and your collection—and even find a new favorite band or two along the way.

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Kate Pritchard (pritchkate@gmail.com) was the assistant reference librarian/YA specialist at the Wilbraham (MA) Public Library. She’s now the nonfiction editor at BookPage.