The Best of the Net For the true music fan, here are six Web sites you shouldn't surf without. by Mark Jordan here is a whole world of music on the World Wide Web just waiting to be explored. There are Web sites for labels, magazines, organizations, specific artists, and genres. The following sites barely scratch the surface, but they are a good place to start. Of course, your first visit should really be to one of the online music software sites -- Liquid Audio (www.liquidaudio.com), RealAudio (www.real.com), and MP3 (www.mp3.com) are the most popular and widely used -- to download any tools you may need to listen and download music on Web journeys. But from there, follow your ears. Addicted To Noise - www.addict.com One of the best online publications around happens to be a music publication. Updated monthly in both "hi-fi" and "lo-fi" versions, depending on the quality of your computer gear, ATN more than holds its own against the likes of Rolling Stone and Spin. It features the latest, breaking news from the world of music, well-written artist features, image galleries, extensive reviews of new releases, and regular columns by some of the most respected names in music journalism, including Greil Marcus and Dave Marsh. This is where to go to find out what's going on, and it's free. All Music Guide - www.allmusic.com An online companion to the popular reference book series, this is the first and probably most important stop you'll make in researching artists on the Web. In general, if they've ever released an album nationally, they're listed here in varying degrees of detail. Frequently, though, you can find at least a brief bio and a discography for whomever it is you're looking for, as well as individual CD reviews. The searchable database also makes it possible to track down session musicians, producers, and the like, so if you simply must know all the albums ex-Springsteen keyboardist David Sancious played on, this site can come up with most of them. The information is largely compiled by freelancers, and the site is so exhaustive that mistakes frequently slip through, so be wary of the more obscure entries. Festival Finder - www.festivalfinder.com For those who like the journey and the destination. Festival Finder is a database of more than 1,500 festivals in North America, most of them centered around music. The site is well-designed and easy to use and you can search by festival name, date, location, or individual artist. Or you can browse the festivals by musical genre and discover, for instance, that this weekend is the 25th annual Bill Monroe Memorial Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival in Bean Blossom, Indiana. Organizations can also add their festival to the database free of charge. NetRadio Network - www.netradio.net Of course, this free Internet network is really trying to sell you the music you're listening to, but nobody's making you buy a thing. And for the computer-bound, this Web radio is a great alternative to the real thing on your desk. Actually, it's better because you don't have any commercials or deejays to suffer through. Just select from among the dozens of "channels" covering every genre from avant-garde jazz to zydeco (be sure you have a Real Player), stick the browser in the background, and go about your day. If you want to buy something, you can interrupt at any time and purchase the disc from CDPoint. Pollstar - www.pollstar.com This site is the bane of promoters everywhere. Always looking to make a big splash with a concert announcement, promoters are frequently scooped by this site, an online version of an industry trade magazine, which lets the cat out of the bag to alert Web surfers days and sometimes weeks before the concert date is made public. Interesting and informative concert news, rumors, and profiles are reported in the articles sections, but the real attraction is the searchable database, through which visitors can find concert dates by artist, city, or venue as far in advance as they like, though concerts are rarely booked more than six months ahead of time. Ultimate Band List - www.ubl.com A search engine dedicated to music, you're likely to discover this site through its All Music Guide link. It's a natural next step for researching any artist. It works just like any other search engine. Just enter the individual or group's name and you'll get a list of Web sites and Usenet groups -- official and unofficial, corporate and fan-run -- dedicated to them. Of course, the quality of these sites varies widely, but as more and more music artists consider a presence on the Internet to be a must, the truth will ultimately be out there.