This post was originally going to be titled “How does music discovery on Apple Music compare to Spotify these days?” but I want to make it more broad.
All advice and ideas appreciated!
- thru TikTok reposted to Instagram. People laugh about it, but sometimes I get to hear new stuff from other regions of the world.
- musicians who post their practice videos, often they are songs that I’ve already heard, but from time to time, I will be exposed to more obscure / older stuff. Especially in genre that I’m not too familiar with, e.g. funk, black metal, etc. It’s even more fruitful when the musician is not from English speaking region, e.g. Brazil.
Phew, I’m glad I’m not the only one. I feel like a weirdo frantically googling lyrics I’ve heard on tiktok but it works! And it’s often cool stuff from other regions, you’re right.
By paying attention to bands I already like.
Do I know who they’re touring with? Are they posting about other bands in their scene? Maybe they like to post about cool music they’re listening to.
I’ve discovered music from an artist posting bandcamp friday recommendation thread, instagram story AMA’s, q&a moments with musicians at shows, showing up for openers at shows, etc.
These are so damn cool! Thanks so much for sharing these links! You’ve got me all excited! :)
The hivemind hard at work. I am keeper of tidibits, curator of useless facts.
thanks for sharing gnoosic, it’s already given me some unknown stuff that is right up my alley :)
You’re welcome and happy hunting.
I think they are powered by the same AI, but music map shows you how closely they are related
Thank you! I discovered some new music via these suggestions!
I search genres I enjoy on rateyourmusic and grab a few albums from there :3
Honestly? TikTok.
I have found more good music and culture on TikTok than anywhere else on any other platform. Remixes, up and coming artists, classical, jazz, hippie, pop, subculture. You name it.
I think this has to do with how TikTok’s algorithm nails you down to similar interests and stuff, but also not so much like YouTube where it’s literally ONLY more of the exact same.
Spotify sometimes hits a good station, but you largely have to find your own vibe-of-the-moment.
TikTok now, though, for years, has been turning up some of the most interesting and good to listen music. I get northerner civil war anthem remixes, super genuine pop piano music that I’m blown away by, culture videogame anthems, and more.
The one drawback is that it’s not fast. If you search through music on a service, top lists and “audiophile” lists, you’re bound to find tons of cool new things that you probably never would have found. TikTok cannot compare with doing your own actual mass searching. But, as a platform of just using it, it’s been otherwise by far the best.
My girlfriend has found a lot of great music there as well over the past couple years. She doesn’t even search it out, really. She doom scrolls like normal but the culture of tik tik has a bent towards soundtracks and people seem to like to show off their cool music that way. Good call
NPR Tiny Desk and KEXP’s live performances (both on YouTube) have both helped me discover amazing musicians.
- Soundcloud feed: I follow people I like and they repost people they like. Also, the related tracks are usually very good.
- Youtube channels: I don’t know what the proper name is, but channels that get permission to post or ask for demos from artists and focus on specific genres. I’ll find a genre I like, sub to these channels, and find many new artists to enjoy.
- Bandcamp genres: Go to bandcamp, click a genre, and see all the top albums. Guarantee you’ll find some new names.
Depending on what I am looking for:
- BBC Radio 6: mainly new stuff, although I have been surprised with very good oldies.
- The newsletter To the teeth for all things metal https://totheteeth.substack.com/ The playlist in spotify is really good too.
- Last.fm, even if it’s not as used anymore, I still find very good recommendations there.
- Spotify Discovery playlist has surprised me a lot in the past, but not that much lately. It suggests me what I was in the mood to listen to last week, maybe not that much today. The daily mixes are fine, but it’s pushing the same songs too much.
- The website https://1001albumsgenerator.com even if I am not a fan of some genres, it’s good to learn about some records.
From this same thread I am sure I will use https://www.gnoosic.com in the future.
Sometimes YouTube or NPR but my favorite visual way to do it is with Music Map. You type in the artist and it brings up a map of similar ones. The closer an artist is to the one you searched for, the more similar they are.
A variety of ways, but probably most commonly by browsing Discogs and rateyourmusic.com. Discogs is great for looking through labels that release the music you already like, finding side projects of your favorite artists, or just diving into random genres.
Rateyourmusic, is an interesting one. The website as a whole certainly has a certain preferences, but its genre charts are great for getting started with new genres of music and getting a foundation in genres you aren’t familiar with.
Last.fm is also a great tool as others have mentioned.
They are currently my local NPR station and have great music programs and DJs that align with my tastes. I will miss them dearly when I move next month but their music streams are available for free on other platforms too.
High five! I find a lot of new music through my local NPR/college radio station too: https://kglt.net/
Mostly YouTube Music - the recommendation features are much better than spotify’s (and it has much better UX). Also regular YouTube suggestions, but I only get jazz and kexp recordings from there.
I used to have a shared playlist with a friend where we’d casually add any cool tracks we’d discover, which was a weird small motivator to discover new music on my own (so that I could show off). Sadly, that person is not a friend anymore, so the playlist is dead.
That’s wild to me that you like YT music’s ux more. What recommendation things do you like about YT music?
I find Yt music to be really frustrating. I liked Google play music, but the awkward integration with YouTube is weird. Why are my liked YouTube videos, by default, mixed up with my liked songs? Who would want that ever?
Few places:
- Sputnikmusic
- Youtuber recommendations (people into the same kind of music I am into)
- Youtube Music suggestions
- Instagram pages dedicated to specific niche genres I am into
Most of the time it’s just YouTube and last.fm (I want something similar to something I like or find something new I like - I go through similar artists).
A little less, but still a significant amount - Radio Garden, I have a handful of stations favorited (Shoutout to ‘Radio is a foreign country’, they’re on YouTube and soundcloud as well among others), but sometimes I just “roll the globe” and point and check out what they have on in like, Ghana or something.
Another internet radio thing is SomaFM, though out of their stations I tend to stay on DroneZone the most for some great ambient picks.
i like traditional musics from around the world so when i fancy something new i start with wikipedia articles on instruments i like and rabbit hole through links to get terms and countries and things to put into search strings on youtube. One day i started with tar (precursor for both sitar and guitar) and ended up grooving to Philippine boat lutes, which are brilliant. https://piped.simpleprivacy.fr/watch?v=K7hYfnG7mJM
Trad musicians tend to play in several groups so that’s another source of rabbit holes to explore. And just keeping an eye out for interesting things other people post. Mostly individual clips but sometimes happen into treasure troves like at the start of the first lockdown when someone I followed on Twitter posted about Met Opera in NYC streaming a different opera each day for free. It was a great opportunity to learn about a new-to-me type of music so I grabbed it, thinking it would be a couple of weeks at most. A year and a half later they finally stopped and I was an addict :)
Also libraries. Libraries can be fantastic for exploring new musicians and types of music.
Even when algorithms are good, there’s still a lot more out there waiting for listeners ❤️
