Stones Throw Records gets it — their website is the proof. Just look at it. Everything is clean, well spaced and orderly. The confident, elegant use of the grid organizes all the visual hierarchies nicely and leads the eye from section to section. The minimal color palette (just orange, grey, black, and white) re-enforces the site’s visual identity, as well as isolating a consistent, single color for action (buy, learn, play, read etc.) The photography is tasty, and shows a deep love for their own design work (they shoot their own packaging very lovingly) and their artists’ music.

Taken all of this together, it’s easily one of the classiest music-focused sites on the internet today (Muxtape, RIP).

What would Madvillian do? (WWMD)

What’s so striking about the site, however, isn’t just the design. It’s that the whole site has such a confident focus on function — it was built by people who wanted to use it themselves and share their passion for music with others. Everything on the site is easy to find, simple to use, and fun to explore. Technically, the site is very well built (peep the html), offers ultra-high quality 320kps mp3s (most releases are digital first), but you don’t see or feel any of it. It’s all seamless, and in service of the experience of finding new music, and supporting their artists.

Even more surprising, this is a “community” site that lacks any of the typical social features. There’s no harrasing email-to-a-friend links, digg this, flickr that — no high-octane, freakshow music players that kill your browser and first born, no live chat, no personalized fan pages, no nothing. No bullshit. It’s just music and information, well presented. It’s old school simple, and I love it.