Bringing Musical Kindred Spirits Together 

Over the last few years, the dating scene has become an interesting playground of options. Some people hook up through friends and acquaintances, a good portion check out online dating sites and others Facebook stalk after hitting the bar (okay, maybe just a few of us). Either way, it can be hard to find that special someone who shares your interests. And, for those who are serious music lovers, the wrong preferences can be a deal breaker or end a budding romance before it has even begun.

Luckily, an online dating website that focuses on musical preferences was launched last year. Tastebuds.fm allows you to input three or more bands that you love as well as your age range, location and gender into its interface, and it delivers potential matches according to these criteria. But, in order to get in contact with a match, you’ll have to sign up through the site or go through your last.fm account.

Wanting to get a firsthand experience, I tested out two different profiles to see how many potential male suitors I could find. I tried two approaches. First, I created a not-so-serious profile, listing Spice Girls, Aqua and Extreme as my music tastes. I also created a more realistic profile, where I used Atmosphere, Ryan Adams and the Reindeer Section as my taste-defining artists. Both gave back a fair amount of results, but it was my “serious” profile that yielded more (117 vs. 747 matches). Each page showed nine matches—complete with an age, location, picture and short autobiography for each match.

The more bands you add, the more concise your results will be. Interestingly enough, it doesn’t matter what you have listed, as there is bound to be someone out there that shares your love. I swapped out Spice Girls for Creed and my results doubled. There were actually men out there who loved both Aqua and Creed equally – granted, a majority of them lived in Brazil. Even more so, my matches quadrupled once I added in bands that have recently trended among music connoisseurs.

As a free service, there is little to lose by browsing and entering your own favorites. So, if you’re looking for a hip alternative to dating, give Tastebuds a try.