Opinions on the music-discovery performance of current streaming services (and how to get the most out of them)?

[dtomamichel]

I use Amazon Music HD, their algorithm isn't great, but it lets me know when an artist I like releases something. I find a lot of stuff in the music threads here, and I will read about bands and musicians on Wikipedia.

I also use AMHD mostly alternative fresh and artist to watch

 

[jjk1]

I like the flow feature in Deezer HiFi, and the create station feature in Apple Music. Both work pretty well providing music I end up adding to a library

 

[quattr0]

Not an Apple fan but Apple Music is very decent with playing same genre and let me discover new artists. Same with Roon i guess.

 

[pseudoid]

Which was the service that originally coined the "If you like [myBand], try [myOtherBand]" ritual?
It sadly took the sails (and the fun) right out of foraging for music.
*FM needed to die because it got too commercial-ridden.
*RollingStone rag became too political rather than musical.
**SiriusXM is pretty genre-specific with plenty of channels
**InternetRadio is an admirable and alternative treasure trove for adventurers
**Our frenemies (= CableInc.) also provide totally (100%) ad-free listening of decent quality and many genres.
I guess I don't qualify to answer you because apparently I don't stream; although music is on in the house 20/7 (I 'generously allow' her about 4 hours of TV time).

 

[Chuckv]

i find a professional radio DJ forum and subscribe to it. They list their shows already scrubbed. They do the searching for me. All i have to do is play their list. Fastest discovery process to date and nets the best music.

 

[dasdoing]

unfortunatly no other can do what Spotify can do for me: a viral list for my city. might be unintresting for most, but for me who listens a lot to regional music it is a must have

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

I used to use Allmusic.com, but it is now an ad-plagued mess. As a jazz fan, I read a number of online jazz magazines (though many of them highlight the technically proficient “noodlers” who I generally dislike). Best method I’ve found to date is to follow the artists I like on FB. They very often post music and musicians that they admire, which rather quickly leads me down an endless rabbit’s hole of both historic and new jazz.

 

[quattr0]

I used to use Allmusic.com, but it is now an ad-plagued mess. As a jazz fan, I read a number of online jazz magazines (though many of them highlight the technically proficient “noodlers” who I generally dislike). Best method I’ve found to date is to follow the artists I like on FB. They very often post music and musicians that they admire, which rather quickly leads me down an endless rabbit’s hole of both historic and new jazz.

Could you share a few artists/albums then? Thanks.

Yes I'm aware there's a thread for Jazz music/artists, wanted to see something else/more.

 

[FrantzM]

unfortunatly no other can do what Spotify can do for me: a viral list for my city. might be unintresting for most, but for me who listens a lot to regional music it is a must have

Same here, to the point I have abandoned all other services except Apple Music which does a good job and is superb on Classical Music.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

Could you share a few artists/albums then? Thanks.

Yes I'm aware there's a thread for Jazz music/artists, wanted to see something else/more.

For a great range of current jazz artists, follow Emmet Cohen on FB. He does a superb weekly live show every Monday, featuring guest artists. Here's his YooToob channel, with all 74 (so far) weekly shows archived, with shorts from them as well: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKBb--0F0qT_deSpMLsFRA

Chris' Jazz Cafe also features some great current jazz artists: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChrisJazzCafePhilly

If you like an artist, follow them on FB, then see who their friends are, very often other great jazz artists.

 

[tpsogen]

I would rate Spotify the best, followed by Roon. For classical music? Spotify is a mess and so is Roon, even their search sucks … for Western Classical.. have to check out Deutsch Gramophone , they seemed to be decent for Classical and their catalog is immense but I haven’t used their services for the past 5 years or so …

For classical music on Spotify, check out www.tempso.com, it is free and solves Spotify nightmarish classical treatment.

 

[JanesJr1]

Sure, we all have a stash of cd rips and high-res content that was repeatedly vetted and benchmarked on various gear...
But nothing compares to the thrill of hearing something for the first time that fits so perfectly in the moment.

As someone who does ml by day (outside the entertainment industry), it is clear to me that the more we listen, rate, search, and curate an account within a given service, the better our music-discovery experience can be.

In light of these concerns, I'm just interested to hear other peoples' user-strategy regarding discovery: do you eg "try to sync your various accounts (I was doing this with tidal, spotify, amazon music hd, way too much effort)", "just go all in on one service (my current strategy with spotify premium)", "rely on genre-specific services", "I don't use automated music-discovery (see Ray's post below)"....

I want to add a side comment on Amazon catalog. After long experience using an excellent and huge classical search capability at Idagio, side by side with Amazon, I gradually came to admire the breadth of Amazon's catalog. Not as big as Idagio, but pretty good for mainstream classical. However, I found that many recordings on Amazon do not appear in the first or second search: you might get a page of albums, but if you re-jigger the search a little, you will come up with a different list. I can't tell you how many times I searched for a particular recording on Amazon, but it required 2 or 3 searches to identify the desired title. The performer-vs. composer-vs. orchestra-vs. conductor confusion in cataloging recordings (especially classical) seemed to get in the way a lot, for example, but I had the feeling that they were also limiting the number of search results.* The same classification issues also meant that sorts of my personal library, just to make navigation possible over a large number of titles, were often confusing and disorderly.

This is a compliment to their catalog, but a ding on their search service .... I can imagine them limiting choices for the average consumer, but if they do that, it is crosswise with the interests of people who like to sample particular performances, esp. on classical, where each piece may have many performers over the years.

*Sometimes that problem also affects Idagio, but they have good ways to help narrow the search built in.

 

[RichT]

Have you guys checked out <bandcamp.com>. They have great shows and you can listen to streams of different genres that you like. Fantastic

 

[NiagaraPete]

I for one love the auto discovery on Apple Music. I pick a song and when it finishes Apple Music finds and plays similar music.

 

[dasdoing]

I for one love the auto discovery on Apple Music. I pick a song and when it finishes Apple Music finds and plays similar music.

Spotify has this, too. it's called "play radio of the song" or something like that