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Finding great new music can be the most rewarding experience, but sometimes the effort that goes into music discovery often thwarts even the most determined of us. Pandora is great for listening to music online, but without having any foresight or direct say over upcoming tracks, it’s certainly not the best there is if you’re looking to achieve playlist perfection.

So we’ve put together a list of the top music recommendation services available to help you hone in on new numbers, old favorites, perfect playlist partners, and visual matches. These 5 stellar services will transform your music listening experiences into music learning courses, and help you expand your auditory horizons.

1. MyStrands

The MyStrands website isn’t a great solution for actually listening to music, but if music discovery is your goal then the recommendation engine is top notch. Based on songs or artists you either upload from your iTunes playlists or add as favorites on the site, MyStrands will recommend similar songs, albums, and artists that you can add or exile as you go.

But it’s the MyStrands desktop app that really rocks our socks off — you can pretty much skip the web experience entirely. The application works similar to Last.fm’s scrobbling software, reworking your iTunes experience and synchronizing with the MyStrands recommendation engine.

With the app, you can start managing your library of music with tags, keep track of the music your friends are listening to, and get multiple recommendations per song played. Plus, if you start messing around with some of the buttons, you’ll find that you can sync iPod play counts with MyStrands, filter recommendations by decade, genre, and popularity, as well as build fabulous playlists.

The Playlist Builder is MyStrands’ take on iTunes Genius-like functionality, except it’s actually a little better. Instead of building smart playlists based on a single song, you can fine tune your playlists based on several selections, and even add in additional advanced filters. New playlists are ported over to iTunes with a click of the button and can also be shared with MyStrands.com.

MyStrands isn’t accepting new members, but if you have a Strands account, then you’re good to go and you’ll definitely want to reap the rewards of the robust recommendation engine.

2. iTunes Genius

Genius’ playlist and sidebar combo pack a nice one two punch when it comes to song recommendations within iTunes. In fact, given the portability of iTunes via iPods and iPhones, my personal experience with Genuis’ super intelligent formula has proven that this is the best way to remaster your library into the perfect gym mix and keep you from entering into a music coma.

You’re probably already using Genius (automatically available via iTunes v.8.0 or higher) and loving it, but if you’re not you should take a closer look at what iTunes can do for you.

Some key features that make Genius rock our world include the ability to select any song in your library and have Genius create a custom playlist based on the musical elements of that song (click the icon in the lower right hand corner to get started). You can then save that playlist, adjust the number of songs displayed, or start all over with a new song. What Genius is great at is not just finding songs you’ll like, but playing them in an order that is complimentary to each other, hence the ability to create workout worthy playlists.

Of course the other component to Genius is the sidebar, which suggests relevant songs and artists, based on your iTunes behavior (rating, play count etc), that you can then purchase from the iTunes store. And if sharing your Genius playlists with Twitter is a must, there are scripts available to help you do just that.

3. iLike

With an incredibly user-friendly website and even more impressive iTunes and Windows Media Player add-ons, iLike is a definite must try for music aficionados looking to discover new music, keep track of friends’ listening habits, and find free downloads. iLike uses a wisdom of the crowds philosophy to display related artists and songs based on the listening behaviors of other iLike members, which means that the more people who use iLike the more precise their formulas will be.

The iLike software piece is the real deal. Just download the iTunes or Windows Media Player software to get started, and you’ll notice a new addition to your media player. Now each time you play a song, the iLike sidebar will let you add the song to your iLike profile, view related songs, find and grab free downloads, and see what your friends are playing.

iLike also offers a boatload of other features and tools, including the ability to sync your playlists with the website, and a pretty popular Facebook app, which makes sharing your music preferences with your friends even easier then updating your Facebook status.

4. Last.fm

The incredibly popular Last.fm is a favorite with social media and music lovers everywhere — the on-demand listening options, iPhone app, and social sharing features make it universally loved.

Even though the website has some fantastic music discovery tools, if you want to get the most out of the music recommendation features, you’ll need to download the Last.fm Scrobbler which works with Mac, Windows, and Linux media players. The desktop software compliments your media player of choice and lets you choose between streaming Last.fm songs or playing songs directly from your library.

With the desktop tool you can create and manage playlists, view related artists and songs, plus love, share, and tag tracks. Playlist creation is not quite as perfect as MyStrands or iTunes Genius, which is why it’s number 4 on our list, but when combined with the mobile app, website features, and social sharing options, Last.fm is an awesome way to find and share new music.

5. Musicovery

Musicovery, which takes a visual approach to recommending new music, offers a really fun and unique way to listen and interact with you your custom playlists.

It’s pretty basic to get started, just select your mood or tempo, eliminate genres that you’re not interested in, and you’re off. Musicovery populates a musical road map with songs that match your interests. You can add favorites, block songs, and narrow in on specific songs to repopulate the map. Of course you can also purchase songs from eBay, Amazon, and iTunes.

Some of the profile features are a little hidden, but clicking on the heart icon at the top left of the page will take you to your profile where you can view and manage your history, favorites, and excluded songs. The free Musicovery account gets you lower sound quality, but it’s definitely not bad for streaming music, and a free account just may be the perfect supplement to your other online music sites.

The Social Music series is supported by Bacardi BLive Share Beta, a platform for online music sharing. BLive Share members get access to exclusive tracks from the Groove Armada mini album free of charge. Learn more about BLive Share Beta.