The Music Alliance Pact Promotes Music Discovery

Music Discovery is one of the buzzwords of Music 3.0, but while other such phrases might be more technobabble than description, this is one phrase that carries a lot of weight in the music business for one reason - no music discovery, no new music business.

For most of recorded music's life, consumers discovered new music through a single source - the radio. With music radio listening decreasing in importance every day due to the tight playlists and takeover of talk-radio, consumers have had to look elsewhere to discover new music and that has mostly been from a variety of sources online.

Music-related blogs have increasingly become more and more important to users trying to find new hot music, and they act in the same way that the FM DJ's did in the 70's. You listened to the DJ's show because you trusted their taste and knew that you'd probably like what they played. Same with many music bloggers. You read them in the hope that you'll probably be introduced to something you like.

Now comes a new twist on the music blog idea. Every month on the 15th, 34 music bloggers from 34 different countries cross-post an identical list of hot bands from their nation along with MP3s. This blog group is called the Music Alliance Pact (MAP) and is the brainchild of Scotland's The Pop Cop as a way for the acts that he writes about gain exposure beyond Scotland.

It's a great idea that once again shows how small the world has become. While acts have sometimes gained exposure in other countries in the past, they always required the enormous infrastructure of a major label to do so. Now, an unknown local band in an overlooked corner of the world can gain exposure around almost everywhere in practically no time at all. Good job, Pop Cop!

Here's a list of participating bloggers, thanks to Hypebot.

• ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
• AUSTRALIA: Who The Bloody Hell Are They?
• BRAZIL: Meio Desligado
• CANADA: I(Heart)Music
• CHILE: Super 45
• CHINA: Wooozy
• COLOMBIA: Colombia Urbana
• DENMARK: All Scandinavian
• ENGLAND: The Daily Growl
• ESTONIA: Popop
• FINLAND: Glue
• FRANCE: ZikNation
• GERMANY: Blogpartei
• GREECE: Mouxlaloulouda
• ICELAND: I Love Icelandic Music
• INDIA: Indiecision
• INDONESIA: Deathrockstar
• IRELAND: Nialler9
• ISRAEL: Metal Israel
• ITALY: Polaroid
• JAPAN: JPOP Lover
• MEXICO - Red Bull PanameriKa
• NETHERLANDS: Amsterdam Event Guide
• NEW ZEALAND: Counting The Beat
• NORWAY: Eardrums
• PERU: SoTB
• PORTUGAL: Posso Ouvir Um Disco?
• ROMANIA - Babylon Noise
• SCOTLAND: The Pop Cop
• SINGAPORE: I'm Waking Up To...
• SOUTH AFRICA: Musical Mover & Shaker!
• SOUTH KOREA: Indieful ROK
• SPAIN: Oscuro Magazine
• SWEDEN: Swedesplease
• UNITED STATES: I Guess I'm Floating
• VENEZUELA: Barquisimeto Musical