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When it comes to music, there is no better place to keep up “with it” than in a big city. Due to the Internet completely influencing, shaking up and diversifying the music industry, more and more bands come out on a day-to-day basis. And unless you live in the thick of it, as in within an urban, metropolitan area, it is pretty much impossible to keep up with all of the current trends and new tunes. That is, however, until satellite Internet came out, providing high-speed connections to the masses living in the rural and mountainous areas of the country.

Look, it is easy to attribute the rising popularity of indie music to the Internet. Since the Napster era, the entire music industry has pretty much been torn apart. CD stores and chains have closed down or gone bankrupt and big name stars are selling less and less albums, all while small, independent, unsigned bands are utilizing social networking and media to slowly grow in popularity and break into the mainstream. And although keeping up with all of the gossip and rising stars is quite easy with a cable or DSL connection, people living outside of their infrastructures were without luck for quite some time. Dial-up and 56K connections did not suffice.

Now, however, satellite broadband has provided these “out of the loop” music lovers with the fast connection they need to keep up with the current pace of the new music industry. And no sites are better to keep up with all things indie than Pitchfork.com, Metacritic.com and Legalsounds.com.

Pitchfork.com – Although Rollingstone Magazine has traditionally been the bread and butter with regards to music related news, Pitchfork.com has slowly chipped away at the indie audience of its rival publication. Focusing on all things indie, the online music news Web site provides all necessary information for satellite Internet broadband users, including current news, album reviews, upcoming CD releases and concert listings. In fact, they even have exclusive recordings and videos from the “rising stars” of the genre, such as England’s The XX or Beach House.

Metacritic.com – Granted, when it comes to reading up on music reviews and monitoring their sales for the last week, Billboard pretty much has the competition beat. They’ve been doing it for more than half a century. But when it comes to overall reviews, Metacritic.com is the best place to check out. Acting as the Rottentomatoes.com for music, the Web site compiles the reviews of multiple publications and esteemed critics while interweaving user opinions as well. For satellite broadband subscribers, this means that no matter where you live you can keep up with the current opinions on specific music and even contribute your own thoughts to the overall ranking of a group’s new release.

Legalsounds.com – Downloading music has always been a questionable practice ever since the United States Government shut down Napster and other related music sites. Bit torrent Web sites exist, but they exist in the same illegal category as Limewire and Kazaa. Granted, iTunes is by far the largest online music download site, but a full CD can cost around $10, which in today’s economy is more than people want to spend. Well, thanks to the Internet and a grey line within international online law, Legalsounds.com provides all the music you crave at a cheap price – only 9 cents a song. The sound quality is actually better than the iTunes store and since the site is located in Russia, where copyright laws do not exist, there has yet to be any legal issues pertaining to United States users who utilize it – besides, the site has the word legal in it. With a high-speed satellite Internet connection, users are “legally” and quickly growing their music libraries and keeping up with the up-and-coming bands of this new, online indie generation.

Millions of radio listeners in the United States and all over the world have become so much happier with the introduction of satellite radio. Now, people can listen to literally hundreds of stations that offer music, news, radio talk shows and more in virtually real-time and at a much higher audio quality than that which FM or AM radio provides.

With conventional radio, land-based stations broadcast their signals to your boom box, computer, or car radio via the earth’s airwaves. With satellite radio however, providers transmit encrypted signals to satellites they launched in outer space; these satellites in turn beam the signals to customers’ listening devices. But you can’t use just any radio; you need a special receiver (which is available at electronics retailers) and a satellite radio set. You can also listen to satellite radio broadcasts in your car since many new cars rolling of the assembly lines have satellite-ready equipment already installed. All you would need to do is pay for your monthly subscription.

In the United States, service is offered by XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Sirius, a company based in New York City, has over 125 channels from which to choose, 67 of them dedicated to commercial-free music and the rest to various other content. XM, on the other hand, offers more than 160 channels, which offer content that is as diverse as that which Sirius extends to its customers. The services are available coast-to-coast, so geographical availability of programs is not an issue. A customer in Los Angeles, for example, can listen to the same talk show that another customer in say, Boston, is listening to at the same time, and with no degradation in audio quality. Remember that satellite radio also means digital radio—sound is crystal-clear. There’s none of the static or hissing you would sometimes hear on FM or AM radio. Non-US residents can also take advantage of the benefits of satellite radio; XM and Sirius offer their services in Canada, while WorldSpace broadcasts its service across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Australia has several providers of its own also.

Factors that attract people to sign up for satellite radio subscriptions are numerous. For one thing, there’s the pleasure of listening to commercial-free music. Since the providers make their money from subscriptions, there is still no pressing need for advertising revenue. Another attractive feature that this service offers is that information about the song being played at the moment is displayed on your radio set—a small convenience for those people who have to know about who is singing what song right-now. The fact that satellite radio programming is completely uncensored at the moment is also a draw for many people. Noteworthy personalities, such as shock jock Howard Stern (who was kicked out of network radio programming) has made satellite radio his new broadcasting home. Whether you want to listen to hip-hop music, stand-up comedy shows, or news programs, satellite radio offers them—all completely uncensored.

Because Sirius, XM, and other providers are the ones who set the channel selections, some people might find it a bit inconvenient that they won’t be able to listen to their local radio stations and get information on local goings-on. However, Sirius and XM do provide traffic and weather data for major cities, so that should be a bit of a relief for city residents. And if you think about it, not getting access to one local radio station wouldn’t seem to be such a bad deal if you compare it to the ability to listen to hundreds of channels of commercial-free music and unregulated non-regulated shows.

Sirius and XM plan to add even more features and functions to offer to their subscribers. Sirius, in particular, is readying the launch of a Windows Media Video 9 service and the company plans to offer several channels dedicated to children. That’s one more thing to keep the kids occupied and not distract their parents on long road trips. XM plans to release a similar video service. The two companies are anticipating that this will add to the number of their subscribers—Sirius has over one million, trailing after XM which has more than three million.

If you’re an avid radio listener and you’re finding yourself becoming fed up with the constant barrage of commercials on regular music stations or if you’re looking for more no-holds-barred commentaries or radio talk shows, you probably wouldn’t mind forking over the $12.95 monthly subscription for satellite radio service charged by Sirius and XM. And with the increases that the two companies see in their subscriber numbers, it’s evident that a lot of people feel the same way.