I let YouTube's algorithm make me discover bands then listen to their albums
I watch a new anime and the op/ed is a banger
Start with an artist I already like, find out who inspired them and who they inspired, listen to them, repeat
Found a good blog called Hearing Things been a couple of good things off that.
And KEXP!! Radio out of Seattle, has an app too.
I listen to the playlists Apple Music makes me each week. Discovered tons of stuff
Currently working my way through 1,001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die with some friends using this website: https://1001albumsgenerator.com
There's been a decent amount of activity at !sessionjams@sh.itjust.works and the music is always all over the place. Popular music, obscure music, non American music, pretty much everything depending on the day.
I'm mainly interested in old time fiddle tunes. I get them from youtube recommends sometimes, or from going to jams and hearing a cool tune, or someone I play with wants to learn a tune. I often post tunes I like on my old-time music lemmy community.
I spent about 20 years getting stuck in the past while the culture got away from me; I just hadn't got into any bands since the early 2000s, and it was getting pretty sad.
I also have pretty bad ADHD - music fucks up my ability to concentrate on language-based tasks, so I can't just play stuff in the background while I do something else - and sitting there staring through multiple songs in a row just isn't going to happen.
So I had a great idea: turn it into a game.
I nuked my youtube data completely, started again from scratch, and set out, not so much to discover new music, but to train the algorithm to fetch me cool stuff. How well can I nudge the thing into a model of stuff I tend to like?
- Open the home feed, and start going through it
- Reaction videos, influencers, other garbage, hit don't recommend channel.
- Any music videos, open in new tab
- Rinse and repeat until I have a ridiculous number of tabs open
- Go through each tab:
- Skip through representative chunks of song, get at least 20 seconds of music in before making a decision
- If you just don't like it, close the tab and move on.
- If you do like it:
- If it's not posted by the original artist account, go find the original instead if possible.
- Hit like
- Save to playlists for whatever genres it seems to fit, plus a catch-all list (set public, for reasons I'll explain)
- Open a few new tabs off the sidebar
- If you find three solid bangers from one artist, subscribe.
- When you run out of tabs, refresh the home feed.
It's adjustable to suit my attention span at the time - if I need the dopamine I just skim more, if I want to chill I let it play longer.
It fits into spare minutes of downtime at work etc.
I have discovered SO MUCH amazing new music, and my tastes have expanded in all kinds of directions. I've started not only recognizing but actually having opinions on bands I see on posters as I walk down the street, which is just plain ridiculous for me.
I have gone down some weird and amazing rabbit holes, from Armenian music to Femtanyl.
Probably the best thing I've ever done, srsly.
Sometimes the algorithm can get stale, and you end up with a streak of bland, safe stuff that all seems the same.
When this happens, find one of the many third-party playlist-shuffle sites (because the built-in shuffle is still horribly broken), and feed it either your main playlist or some of the genre-specific ones you feel aren't getting enough love, and listen through a bunch of songs there to dredge up the silt. (you may need to open them in separate tabs; the embed doesn't always update your watch history properly). And this is why the lists need to be public, so third-party sites can browse your playlists.
Bandcamp mostly. They do writeups sometimes like "the best metal from Colorado" or "a deep dive into acid jazz". They seem to be human written too and not ai slop, at least in the past.
Also seeing who's playing with who. If I like band A, and band B is opening for them, well I'll check out band B. I saw "Year of the Cobra" play with "The Well" and it was a good show, and I bought their album.
Spotify radio mode
Honestly I mostly pull from the soundtracks in whatever I watch. Also Eurovision.
Bandcamp and Sputnik Music have been doing so since I was in school over a decade ago.
Stream online from various college music stations. Some even have themed shows so you can tune in for stuff that's your style.
Also, consider making a thread here about the genre you are looking for. I've participated in a couple here I think.
Edit: I went through my comment history so you don't have to go through that awful garbage to find what you're looking for.
Don't be afraid to make your own. Peace.
Find a stoner buddy whose autistic special interest is music and music history. You'll have endless recommendations for cool shit.
Source: One of my best mates' autistic special interest is music and music history.
As for me personally, I like looking up music and genres specific to local areas, particularly those from other cultures. Afrobeat's been big on my mind ever since I discovered it, and I've been having good luck searching through old Zamrock albums.
Year-end best of lists. Allmusic, pitchfork, and whatever other sites come out with best of year rankings.
Anymore it's either through yt recommendations or sometimes I'll see other people recommending songs and decide to look them up.
I buy music on bandcamp. I check out other suggested artists from the music I've bought on bandcamp. I check out bandcamp dailys. I read a couple of music blogs. I look into artists who are touring with artists I already like. I look into the record labels of artists I like. That sort of stuff.
Listenbrainz has decent recommendations
I go on Pirate Bay, search through new uploads, then check their videos on YouTube. Found plenty of gems I'd otherwise not have encountered. Also on LastFM. Type an artist you like and it will suggest similar artists.
I have a large list on bandcamp that I follow to try and stay up with as many releases as I can, also following relevant genre "tags" on there to get recommendations from artists I may not know about. The genre tags can be hit and miss though due to artists often being unable to tag their work properly.
I'll also listen to shows on SoundCloud and will search out tracks and new artists I hear on there. I'll also occasionally check the Juno charts if I have run out of new music to listen to and in the last year started building up a follow list on Spotify to check new releases there that I may have missed from all the other avenues.
I subscribe to the digital stream of radio stations through my podcast app. WFUV out of New York City, WXRV out of I don't know where, some random station out of Sydney, Australia I stumbled on that has an EDM DJ on at the same time I'm waking up on the weekends.
I also have Spotify, but I tend to get better recommendations from real human DJs at radio stations.
I follow a bunch of hash tags on Mastodon.
A simple combination of Spotify, searching for recommendations, as in "artists similar to _____," checking out AllMusic for a brief overview and maybe which album to start with.
Awful.
Theuppermostinlife curates a bunch of music they like, and I share some of their taste so that's where I get a bunch of new stuff from.
Mostly through movies/tv shows or sometimes NPR Tiny Desk
Formerly through TikTok and YouTube, but now only SoundCloud (especially through Daily drops) and Bandcamp.
Nts.live Internet Radio made by music nerds and I love it
Talk to other music nerd friends, sift through the algorithmic recommendations of spotify/ whatever, browse music forums that match my tastes, use a song identifier to catch random ones in public...
There are lots of ways to find new tunes in 2024. I mostly listen to albums rather than individual tracks so hearing one good song usually leads to several from the same album/ep/lp
I started a Facebook group called New Music Only. Nothing older than a fortnight is allowed. It allows others to share brand new music they haye found and it forced me to go to YouTube and start hunting for recently uploaded music so I can supply material for the group.
checking out random stuff I see on Rate Your Music or going to shows at small local venues.
Bandcamp Features
College radio
I used to use r/listentothis, haven't in a long time though, not even out of "fuck you reddit" just busy I think.
Youtube nprs tiny desk concert. Got so many banger musicians and GREAT music.
A friend recommended pitchfork yesterday to me. Haven't gotten around to it though
I suppose it depends on your tastes, but I read Pitchfork reviews and check out the artits on Spotify. I do not limit my tastes to one genre, so that makes it more interesting when exploring. I'll also leverage the Related Artists section of an artist's page if I find a new artist that I like.
Through my Apple Music “New Music” weekly playlist before I canceled my subscription. It does a good job so long as you actively love and dislike tracks.
Now I have a local library that syncs with last.fm for every play and you can discover new music and artists through there.
I’m no longer on it but instagram was actually a great way to discover new artists. Seems that meta will be a significant player in the music industry (major UMG deal) soon as well so who knows what’s coming there.
Community radio, my kids (and they find music through me too), YouTube music recommendations, opening bands at concerts, and sometimes NPR.
youtube shuffle works great, its truly random, give it a try.
I just listen to a lot of Triple J
Bandcamp follows and whatever is playing on CBC music.
