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What sites/ apps do you use for music discovery?

S

slackerinabox

Lifer
I've been pretty bored with new music these days and I'm realizing I'm just a lazy listener. What are some services you use to find new music? I'm particularly bored of indie music, and pitchfork. etc. seems to be covering kanye more than father john...

What I use:
* Pitchfork
* Spotify discovery, but has been loaded with rap for me these days (because I work out to rap, but I need more rock)
* Hype machine, but has been more house remixes than a straight male can handle
 
When I discovered Pandora back in circa '07, that has been and is currently the main way I discover new music.

If you use Pandora for an online streaming radio, I would add a mix of other stations to a current station otherwise you will hear recycled music and it can get quite boring.

I do use iHeartRadio as well.
 
Pandora works pretty well for finding similar artists. The only downside is that they don't mix in enough artists that are unknown to me. It's a bunch of good music, that I already own 🙂
 
youtube, that's enough for me to wander around. occasionally, musicmap, although while i applaud the concept, the implementation is rather poor - often i do not find almost identical artists but get recommendations for thinsg which are very different in style.
 
I use soundcloud a lot for electronica. For anything else I usually use the spotify new stuff playlists.
 
Google music - the "moods" stations are nice. Definitely learned about a number of artists through those channels I've never heard of.
 
James Corden's show... Seriously, discovered Chvrches and another band or two on his show. Otherwise, TV commercials and movie trailers.

In contrast, I mute the band usually on Colbert and Conan.
 
NPR is surprisingly good that way, haven't even been following it as much these days as much as I used to.

Good reviews there.
 
Google Music or Spotify "new" music lists in the genres I listen to.

Equally useful has been the MTV Live channel (previously Palladia). They have variety shows like the fantastic Later with Jools Holland and all the live Euro festivals exhibiting music that isn't as well known here in the States. Live From Daryl's House, Austin City Limits, etc are also winners.
 
I peruse new releases on Amazon or CDbaby. Also check out what others viewed or bought. 30 seconds isn't enough usually so I hit up YouTube to hear the full length track.

The type of music I stream isn't stuff I want to buy, it's just there for ambiance.
 
MongGrel said:
NPR is surprisingly good that way, haven't even been following it as much these days as much as I used to.

Good reviews there.
Click to expand...

2nd time I heard that suggestion - what show in particular? Whenever I listen to NPR it seems to be an old dude talking about lake minatoba or something
 
I use a mix of YouTube and Pandora.

I like NPR but their music-oriented stuff doesn't work for me. Reviews I come across are either uninteresting or not unfamiliar. The last I remember was some hilarious bit on Kanye's last album, where the word "genius" was used. People can listen to whatever they want, but when your album credits rival most movie casts, you're not a fucking genius...you're a figurehead.
 
Sirius/XM was pretty good for finding new stuff, probably the best IMO. Unfortunately I have not had a script in a while.

I will have to give Pandora a shot again. I was never impressed with it, too much recycling. I think I may have found 3-4 bands at best that I still listen to cause of Pandora.
 
Personally I use Pandora. It may not be the best (I haven't tried too many others) but it does the trick. Feed it a few things you like, when it comes up with something NEW, create a new station with that NEW band. Bingo, now you have a lot of stuff you never heard before. Rinse and repeat. If it is too repetitive, they have the add more variety option for each station.

I drive 1.5 hours per day, so I go through a lot of different music styles.

Being an American, I would never have found Indila otherwise:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indila

The only downside that I'm starting to see is that commercials are tending to come out with background music from my Pandora play lists from a few years ago.
 
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Pandora, with plenty of variety, and using the, "I'm tired of this track option," a lot. But, you also have to find artists that are hard to pin down, for it to start going outside of what you've likely heard.

Spotify radio, somewhat (I started using it because it was more stable under Chrome OS), and it's worked a little bit, but is not good about being able to force it to not recycle songs or artists (no amount of downvoting will get rid of them, unlike Pandora). With Spotify, you either start with a really good artist or playlist seed, or end up with something really monotnous, IME, and there aren't features to fix it, if it starts off poorly.

Youtube. Find oddball music (in the sense of being outside of the mainstream), and start reading comments and clicking. The side bar not only contains arbitrary suggestions, but items that others have also viewed.

People. Yes, other people are not fictions, and some listen to music that isn't topping the charts.

MetalMat said:
I will have to give Pandora a shot again. I was never impressed with it, too much recycling. I think I may have found 3-4 bands at best that I still listen to cause of Pandora.
Click to expand...
MetalMat said:
I will have to give Pandora a shot again. I was never impressed with it, too much recycling. I think I may have found 3-4 bands at best that I still listen to cause of Pandora.
Click to expand...
1. Downvoting twice bans (at least for awhile, if not permanently) an artist from a channel.

2. Adding variety works better than upvoting, for giving it useful info. You can add just songs, albums, or artists. But, the search leaves a lot to be desired (FI, if a search finds too many items, or the name includes symbols, you might not even be able to select the one you want, even if it is there to make a new station from).

3. Try to downvote a lot, and then only start upvoting again once it gets into narrowly-ranged moods.

4. Try to add some variety that is unusual for a station, to widen the scope. Give a metal station some country, funk, prog, singer-songwriter, etc..

5. There is an, "I'm tired of this track," option in the web and Android players, to help deal with the song recycling (though, it would be nice to be able to simply have a min time between any replays).
 
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