by JAY WATTS III

The sudden arrival of morning frost and constant draftiness is just around the corner, meaning your Power Station greatest hits CD is about to get played a whole lot less.

I decided to peruse the Hype Machine music blog (http://hype.non-standard.net/) for some fall-themed music. Hype Machine is a Web site that agglomerates hundreds of mp3 blogs and sites, linking posted music files directly to their own page. If you have no specific preference, you can submit to their will and download a readymade playlist that will last for hours, or you can search the individual blogs for likeminded music fans.

There are no membership hoops to jump through, and the songs are only available for streaming or Flash—the site is specifically for previewing music (both new and old). Unfortunately, archive searching is quite fruitless, since most bloggers tend to not store large music files. On Tuesday, I was treated to a couple of introspective tracks from Thelonious Monk’s catalogue (his birthday was Oct. 10), and “Majesty Snowbird” from Sufjan Stevens, which, at 10 minutes, is far too gaudy for my tastes, yet was a suitable companion to watching the leaves change.

Hype Machine is for those with a broader taste in music, but there is a search engine for specific bands or songs.

Based on Google’s recent purchase of YouTube for $1.6 billion, the lucrative market for social networking sites might gravitate towards the music industry. YouTube will probably be sued back to the Stone Age in a year (even though they reached partial deals with major corporations who want to use YouTube as a promotional tool, but bitch when users upload without consent), but a site like Last.fm could be the next billion-dollar Internet idea. It’s currently just an internet radio station, and there’s no downloadable content, but using YouTube’s Flash method, users could one day upload their favourite songs in addition to “scrobbling” (last.fm’s catchphrase for a user creating a music profile).

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