At Contrastream.com, indie music fans and musicians can share information about independent music, hype their favorites, and discover new artists. Any member can submit an indie album to Contrastream, which currently focuses on three genres: indie rock, underground hip-hop, and indie electronic. The community – not the music media - filters out the best albums, since the most-hyped ones appear on the front page of the site. You can also browse through Fresh Albums (those climbing the ranks and seeing a lot of activity from members), Upcoming, and New Releases. Members can ‘hype’ or ‘drop’ and album, make comments, share with friends, or follow links to the artist’s MySpace or webpage (which is where you can actually listen to samples of an album). If you like an album, Contrastream will suggest similar albums you might enjoy. There is a community discussion forum still lacking much by way of activity, but it shows potential with such thread topics as “Upcoming Concerts,” “Best Album of 2007,” and “What’s the Best Indie Magazine?”
