How to discover new music?

[Pearljam5000]

There are just too many songs and artists /bands on streaming services and it's hard to find new stuff i like.
How do you discover new music?

 

[amirm]

Most of the time I rely on Roon radio service. It does a very good job of taking my starting point and then playing similar tracks.

 

[bluefuzz]

There are just too many songs and artists /bands on streaming services and it's hard to find new stuff i like.

How can there be too many songs?

I find Spotify's various recommendation features excellent. 'Discover weekly', Artist/Song radios, 'Made for you' etc. It helps if you have varied tastes and remember to 'like' new songs/artists to add them to your library (and to actually play them once added). Otherwise it can get in a rut of only recommending the same handful of artists/tracks. Tidal's recommendations were dreadful in comparison, so obviously not all streaming services are created equal. It's a bad day I don't discover at least one new artist or track I like on Spotify ...

 

[RayDunzl]

How do you discover new music?

I'm a bit "old school", listen to music and not sound.

That generally requires musicians to create the performance.

If the headliner is someone I like, and the sidemen are good, I'll see what else the sidemen have been involved with.

If the compositions are good, I might look to see who wrote the tunes.

An example of that trail was a budget disc of Paulo Moura (clarinet, I liked the picture on the $0.50 CD).

... and particularly track 2:

... Which led me to discover Hermeto Pascoal and his groups.

And I ended up buying most all of Hermeto's works.

Hermeto's usual bassist is Itibere Zwarg, who I'm tempted to investigate further.

 

[murraycamp]

Qobuz has good new music playlists. IMHO, YMMV, etc.

 

[Wombat]

There are general and genre threads on this forum. Search listening.

It would be more useful, though, if more posters put up links to the music or samples.

 

[Kvalsvoll]

Get recommendations from friends, see what friends listen to but don't recommend, watch youtube-videos from shows and reviews, play my own playlists or music on Tidal and look at what is recommended below.

The most valuable finds I have from Bandcamp. But you need to search and explore a lot, takes some time and effort.

 

[pjug]

some radio stations have useful info online. For example:

http://www.wumb.org/music/newmusic.php
http://wumb.org/cgi-bin/playlist1.pl

 

[dasdoing]

I use the viral lists on Spotify for regional music.
if you are not into regional music there are discover new stuff lists on a genre basis, too

 

[Sombreuil]

I mostly use websites with news and reviews and some music labels, the most difficult part is to find those that suit your tastes.
Some examples:

https://acloserlisten.com & https://www.ambientblog.net (Ambient/Drone, etc)
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/new-and-future-releases (Classical)
http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk & https://www.musicworks.ca & https://thequietus.com (Various)
https://www.folkradio.co.uk (Folk)
https://folkways.si.edu/folkways-records/smithsonian (Folkloric/World music label)
http://igloomag.com (Electronic/Techno, etc)

Also https://www.thewire.co.uk have a printed magazine (with a digital version) that is highly respected.

This ones are in French sadly but still very useful:
https://www.gutsofdarkness.com/god/home.php & https://pinkushion.com

Hope it helps!

 

[Pearljam5000]

I mostly use websites with news and reviews and some music labels, the most difficult part is to find those that suit your tastes.
Some examples:

https://acloserlisten.com & https://www.ambientblog.net (Ambient/Drone, etc)
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/new-and-future-releases (Classical)
http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk & https://www.musicworks.ca & https://thequietus.com (Various)
https://www.folkradio.co.uk (Folk)
https://folkways.si.edu/folkways-records/smithsonian (Folkloric/World music label)
http://igloomag.com (Electronic/Techno, etc)

Also https://www.thewire.co.uk have a printed magazine (with a digital version) that is highly respected.

This ones are in French sadly but still very useful:
https://www.gutsofdarkness.com/god/home.php & https://pinkushion.com

Hope it helps!

Thank you and to everyone else of course

 

[renaudrenaud]

Radio paradise?
Private torrents?

 

[Trouble Maker]

I find Spotify's various recommendation features excellent. 'Discover weekly', Artist/Song radios, 'Made for you' etc. It helps if you have varied tastes and remember to 'like' new songs/artists to add them to your library (and to actually play them once added).

Exactly the same, maybe too simplistic for some but this is my usual Spotify routine.
If I like a song, like it, that way the algorithm can work better to find music or artist I might also like. I download this list to stream and not use data in the car, traveling, etc.
Also download the Discover Weekly and Release Radar, I'll usually find at least a few songs/week in there to add to the like list. Sometimes if an artist really strikes my fancy I will also add their top 5/10 songs. Since these list a rolling over each week I try to remember to spin up Spotify one morning before the commute to download the new list.
If I'm really focusing on trying to find new music, I will go to Fans Also Like section of I'm really into at the moment. That's more miss than hit though and takes more work.

 

[RayDunzl]

Not that I use it, but...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_Genome_Project

 

[Booker]

I think first and foremost is the courage and willingness to try something new. For example, just click on some unknown recommended albums in case of any streaming service. Because you never know if you will discover some gem for yourself.

The current way I am looking for new is through browsing via roon by visiting the bottom of the page of each album, where are recommendations similar to that album. And my best user experience is from the time where I used Spotify, this is unbeatable in comparison with TIDAL, Apple Music, and YouTube Music. Those are the services which I have experience with.

 

[RayDunzl]

"How to Discover new Music?"

Have somebody bring some over?

---

It's nearly enough for me to just try and digest a limited amount of music that already interests me..

Some pieces don't digest as easily as others.


Audio Buddy came over last night with a new old disc..

He brought Beefheart - Lick My Decals Off, Baby

It is rather difficult listening (we like that).

It's not suitable for everyone.

We paused at Track 7, Japan in a Dishpan, and went out to the garage for a bit, came back and resumed both the tune and our conversation about Free Will.

The CD player, for whatever reason, will occasionally autonomously set itself into repeat mode.

We sat back down, each with a new Stout, and listened.

I don't know how many times track 7 repeated, at least twice, maybe 3 or even more times, before we realized it was repeating.



I don't know which track, right now, but there is an amazingly tight interplay between two guitars that caught our ears.

I guess I'll have to get the disc, so I can taste it again.



Later we watched Sabine Hossenfelder explain why we don't have Free Will, and a few Penn and Teller Fool Us segments.


Just to be clear, it's The Magic Band that I like more than the Beefheart himself, though, he surely deserves credit for instigating the whole thing.

 

[pozz]

Discogs

If I like a piece, usually electronic and a one or two person creation, I look into their discographies and collaborations, then look into the labels they use to publish their releases, find other artists there, try their music and go from there. It quickly becomes a vast and expansive network. I'll read music journalism once in a while but usually don't find it very interesting. I like reading music manifestos and theoretical works, too.

I haven't streamed music much, other than occassionally choosing a track on a friend's rig, since listening to internet radio in the early 2000s. I like discovering pieces on my own and remembering all the stuff along the way. Makes it very personal. I can easily spend 2-3 hours shuffling through the stacks of a record shop for something unusual.

 

[weasels]

This isn't new per se, but was "new to me" - I started listening through the entire Rolling Stones greatest 500 albums list from 500 forward. I have found a bunch of stuff I had never really listened to before and the entire experience has been quite educational (I'm on album 155 now).

 

[Moderate Dionysianism]

I haven't had a really good experience with the recommendations from streaming services. Tidal is a disaster, Spotify is a bit better, but it doesn't take long to reach the point where they start to shove the 'trending' stuff down your throat instead of tailored suggestions.

My personal routine includes:

1. browsing the catalogs of the labels and distros that put out albums I liked in the past. Many of the smaller/indie ones are curated by super passionate people digging out real gems. Analog Africa, Finders Keepers, Numero Group, Forced Exposure, and Blume Editions are nice examples.
   
   
2. last.fm - the site lost most of its 'social' features and a chunk of the user base along with them, but personally I never cared about that part. The 'similar artist' sections are sometimes hilariously off, but when they aren't you can really find great stuff there. Also, digging through other people's libraries is often fun.
   
   
3. rateyourmusic.com - especially the rankings customization feature (e.g. 'best synthpop EPs from 1994') and the lists made by users
   
   
4. Bandcamp - home to many independent artists which you won't find on Spotify/Tidal, with music available in lossless and hi-res (24bit) formats and a fair revenue sharing policy. They have a browse/discover feature and do great, comprehensive write-ups on genres, local scenes etc.

 

[Robin L]

Just to be clear, it's The Magic Band that I like more than the Beefheart himself, though, he surely deserves credit for instigating the whole thing.

That's kinda like saying "I really dig the Vienna Philharmonic's playing, but I'm not too crazy about what they play". Beethoven came to mind. Beefheart was a composer, he taught those taut lines to his Magic Band.

In answer to the OP, Radio Paradise is pretty good to find modern stuff that rhymes with old. And there's lots of new and very different music posted on various threads here at ASR. I get all sorts of links to music I never heard of before on Facebook. Peter Stamfel [of Holy Modal Rounders and Fugs fame] frequently posts new, interesting music on his Facebook feed. Turned me on to this delicious musical insanity: