So a lot of stuff on this forum are popular bands, top 100's, your favorites, and halls of fame, etc.
Please post some good stuff you think people have never heard of.
I shall start with:
she
http://www.shemusic.org
Electronica/Chiptune/Ambient
This guy published a handful of albums under a Creative Commons license, free to download, as well as two proprietary ones. Very nicely mixed and layered. He's probably the first CC-licensed artist that I listen to regularly.
=======================
Christopher Tin - Calling All Dawns
http://www.christophertin.com/callingalldawns.html
Orchestral/World Music
I only noticed this composer recently. He worked on the well-received main theme for Civilization 4 (which got the spotlight as the first track on this debut album), as well as a bunch of tracks for films, games, and software.
This album has 12 songs, each in a different language. It starts very uplifting, progresses to a beautiful sadness, and back to a strong end.
The link has 2-minute snippets of every track in the album. I listened to just that for a few days before I was moved to buy it.