Finding music (this title must be 15 characters long)

#1

self explanatory title: share how you find music

#2

GREAT idea for a thread! I used to have much better systems but I feel like they’re slipping a bit lately haha. I’ve been trying to avoid spotify etc… but youtube is sorta a necessary evil for me at this point. If something is available on bandcamp/resonate I definitely go there but otherwise yt tends to be my go to. Recommendations from friends and coworkers tend to be good for putting me on to stuff I wouldn’t hear otherwise, and then if I like it, good old fashioned research can steer things from there (who played on this? Mixed? Mastered? Interviews & influences?). We have a communal playlist at work that can turn up all sorts of stuff I wouldn’t think of listening to, as well. Some other ways I’ve got into cool rabbit holes recently have been through checking out the bandcamp fan accounts of people I see buying the stuff I like, newsletters (Martyn Pepperell’s Selected Works and Todd L. Burns’ Music Journalism Insider are personal favs), music writing in general (heeeaps of great books and articles out there), youtube comments, people selling records on discogs/facebook marketplace, radio shows (nts midnight marauders w/ Marshmello is /fantastic/, as is a lot of stuff on Radio Alhara and some local stations in my city) and forums like this one. I also try to be very aware of how I’m feeding the youtube recommendation algorithm but that can get a little draining after a while haha. Curious to see what other people do!! I’m feeling a bit old fashioned atm lol

#3

I like to ask my friend Al what he is listening to. Usually, it’s something I haven’t heard of before. Al seems to have a good music taste. Then, I ask my friend Brian what he has enjoyed lately. Brian’s taste isn’t as good as Al’s, but sometimes I enjoy the tracks he recommends. I don’t ask Robert as often, but when I am in a sad mood, I ask him for songs. Robert’s music taste is mostly shit but when I am sad his songs make me feel comfortable being sad.

#4

I also enjoy going to the local record store to find out about new music. The last time I was there the man working at the counter was playing some good music. I asked him what it was, and he told me. It was a song called Krusty by Papa M. It’s a good song for fall.

#5

Al made me a Spotify playlist last week and I really like the songs he chose for me. I’ve played them over and over on my commute to work and they make me pretty damn happy. It’s like he knows that I like a certain kind of music and chose it specifically for me!

#6

soundcloud. I don’t use the discover channel - it’s stupidly out of touch. most music there is stuff I don’t listen to. instead I go through other artists / producer’s likes and reposts. I find that to be a more fun way of discovering new artists to listen to than an automated system, because it feels more like a scavenger hunt.

Sometimes I go to Redeye records (online) and listen to any new stuff there. Some tracks I really like I end up buying.

#7
#8

Love this show, real talk

#9

I should clarify, Al stands for Alvaro. Not Artificial Intelligence :wink:

#10

i love it too! just real new york shit…

#11

It’s one of the last places I’ve found on the internet where people actually ARGUE about music, so refreshing

#12

lately? I follow individuals with interesting tastes and other artist friends on Bandcamp. some are people I know in person and some are just random folks who seem to always find cool things. Most of the stuff i like to listen to comes from smaller artists there.

I don’t read a ton of the usual music/culture blogs. For example I still get the DUMMY emails but they usually don’t grab my interest. i’d be much more likley to check out an artist if they got featured by people who make music technology, like Ableton or Elektron

#13

For me Bandcamp has become the biggest source lately, it’s exhilarating to find someone who’s purchased something I also did (and few others), go to their profile, and see that we have similar tastes. I get to so many things outside of my field of view this way.

Soundcloud is also good, but I find going back to it very rarely lately, and that only for uploading private tracks.

#14

I just hopped on Soulseek / Nicotine+ and getting the same rush finding an album I enjoy, then going through a users folders and finding lots more good stuff. Seeing that they’ve been drowsing and downloading my folders as well. The kicker is if we get to chatting, those antonymous internet 1.0 warm feelings 🥰

#15

As others have stated, Bandcamp and Soulseek. Also Discogs is a great tool as you’ve got entire discographies, aliases, record label releases etc. also Wikipedia can be decent too.