For the past few years Spotify’s Discover Weekly has been the main way I discover new (to me) music. Secondarily I guess just from browsing the related artists of the ones I already listen to. Looking for other strategies inside or outside of spotify.
TheNeedleDrop’s weekly track roundup on youtube is my go to when i want to hear something new. Checking upcoming shows at music venues around me also works wonders.
There’s a bunch of youtubers that feature new music and albums.
- Morphy for stoner rock.
- 666MrDoom for stoner and sludge
- The Prime Thanatos for synthwave.
- Nightride FM for synthwave.
I’ve been a last.fm member for 15+ years but all I’ve ever used it for is a giant listening history library lol. I see a play recommendations option, I’ll give it a shot.
My taste is mainstream enough that I just go with Wikipedia from artists I already know, and once a year, the Grammys.
I’m going to hop on the rateyourmusic bandwagon. I’ve been using it for many years and documenting the music you’ve heard by virtue of rating them is incredibly helpful to understanding your own taste and finding bands in a similar sub genre as your favorite music. The chart function is incredible.
Another way I discover new music is simply jotting down albums discussed in forums like this one that I haven’t heard before. The trick is not be too picky and just jump into anything and everything. Not everything will be a winner but I’ve discovered some of my favorite music ever by simply checking out projects that other users mention.
I’ve tried both Spotify and Tidal and found them to be a bit lack luster on recommending new music. Youtube can be a bit more diverse. Although if you keep clicking on the same artist, it just recommends more and more of that artist. If I’m feeling adventurous, go to an artist’s bandcamp page and see what is recommended from there.
Mainly YouTube, their algorithm is pretty good about what I get recommended although I do tend to see some songs more than a couple of times. I find Spotify recommends songs that I’ve already got in a playlist far too often
Go to shows and check out the openers. I’ve found some of my favorite music this way
YouTube Music’s Start Radio from a song seems to be pretty good at showing similar styles for me.
@MothraCultist shared the website www.rateyourmusic.com in another thread the other day. I spent some time there and found it quite helpful to find new albums and see their community ratings.
I’m using differents algorithms Spotify 3rd apps and websites like skiley.net, or canonical path on every noise at once but usually I’m looking by myself directly.
Old school way blogs and piracy website
It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but TikTok! Once the algorithm knows you enough, you can usually get really great music recommendations on your For You Page. And sometimes, you may even get small bands/artists themselves promoting on there.
It might be a bit old school but I listen to the radio…
I made a Python script for my CS50P course that takes up to 5 different artists and makes a new playlist based on similarities. I use it for road trips, collecting artists from different people so we all have something to listen to that we might like.
It works pretty well for a cobbled together script. It’s interesting that the Spotify API has all these features that aren’t implemented very well in Spotify.
There’s an app that does something similar on Android called Groovify, so I never pursued my own app.
In addition to some of the music sources listed here, my personal hack is to create monthly playlists where I drop literally everything (new and old) that I like. After the month is over, I check the spotify playlist suggestions to discover even more stuff related to what I’m already enjoying.
At the end of each year I just compile all monthly playlists into one, which is a fun time capsule for music I discover. Been doing this since 2015.
I do similar, it definitely makes spotify better for discovery. I read an article a while back on their algorithm and how it utilizes playlist-ed songs. I wish I was as organized as you, I pretty much go in one playlist until it gets too annoying long then “archive” it into a 1 or 2 year chunk.
