Ask HN: How do you discover new music?

Believe it or not, Wikipedia.

Lately I did a burst of discovery around Japanese electronic music of the 1970s and 1980s such as Yellow Magic Orchestra, Isao Tomita and that in turn turned me on to the composer Claude Debussy.

I use an app called Giraf, which I built [0]. My friends and I use it to share the music (and culture in other mediums, e.g. books and movies) that we've been into lately. When something looks interesting, I can save it and it'll be added to a playlist in my Spotify account. I've found that this async format unlocks a lot of discovery that wouldn't have happened otherwise, because the recommendations wouldn't have risen to the level of sending them directly to each other in a text message.

I've worked on this for a few years now, and haven't really shared it on HN before. Any feedback is very welcome!

[0] https://giraf.app

A good way is to select any one artist you like (e.g. the Zambian Band "Amanaz") and then look the members up, the label, the wikipedia entry, the recording engineer etc. These connections are loose enough to let you find some new things, but not so tight that you find only the same things

I have both Apple Music and Spotify, and each have some neat music discovery features.

Spotify has an “Enhance Playlist” [0] option, which (reversibly) populates your playlists with similar songs.

Both Spotify and Apply Music have a “song radio” functionality which creates a custom dynamic playlist from a seed song.

Apple Music has live radio stations which are surprisingly good.

Both services have very great curated playlists, based on every mood / topic / genre / artist imaginable.

Outside of this, just the old-fashioned methods of (1) going to music festivals to discover new artists, and (2) sharing music with friends.

[0]: https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/9/22664655/spotify-enhance-f...

Tried and true: every once in a while I look at Billboard Hot 100 and other ratings. The top pop artists are not necessarily awesome but often further down the list is good stuff not in high rotation on the ‘trending’ lists.

Some methods I use:

- Spotify's "Discover Weekly" playlist - it's hit or miss and it gives me a lot of stuff I know about (and have listened to on their platform!). But, they also send me some cool stuff I haven't heard about.

- Genre specific subreddits - broad ones like /r/music aren't great, but more niche subs have a lot of good recommendations.

- Friends that also love music and know what I'm into - this one has the highest signal to noise ratio, by far.

When I was a kid, it was the AM radio. Then FM became popular.

Napster is how I really started to discover new content, and started buying CDs at a prodigious rate... then the record companies started suing customers, and I stopped buying CDs.

When disk space became cheap, I ripped all my CDs to MP3. I've been using those forever.

Since then, sometimes I'll hear something on the radio, but lately it's just YouTube play lists that people share.

I stopped using streaming services as I tend not to listen to music in the way they want. I always listen to full albums in order and tend to listen to albums on repeat. I tend to focus on my music, and want zero interruptions, so an offline, dedicated music player works best for me. I can't stand my music randomly disappearing, so I purchase it all. That means I am reliant on finding new recommendations based on something other than my listening history!

I primarily subscribe to the RSS feeds of a few smaller review sites and blogs. I listen to a specific subgenre of metal, and so angrymetalguy.com is one of my favorites.

I also heavily use bandcamp. Because I listen to a more niche subgenre, the labels tend to be small, independent labels that only focus on that genre. So I subscribe directly to the labels in bandcamp, as they advertise new artists and releases on their label.

Bandcamp only supports using their in browser feed or getting emails, which I find annoying. So I use imapfilter to automatically convert those bandcamp emails into an RSS feed.

I also follow a few subreddits that just post new music for very niche genres to help find some things I might have missed. I also pull these in via RSS.

Like I have since I was 15. I wander into town. When I lived in a small town without any real culture, there was a group of kids and young adults that threw punk shows at the local Masonic hall for $5. Being the charitable sort of group they’d rent their halls to the local kids pretty cheap until they got sick of them and then the kids would move onto the next hall and cycle back when they were forgiven. I was lucky that way.

And yes that kind of thing still happens, and yes it happens everywhere. You might have to catch a ride to the next town over or something, but it’s worth it.

When I got a bit older and moved to the city I wandered around town, I checked the local papers or websites for show listings. Every venue lists their shows—usually in a central culture rag in town. If you’re lucky it’s good, if not then whatever—you spent the night out of the house and not on your phone.

Don’t look for recommendations and don’t lean on an algorithm. Get out there. When you do find something you love it is pure magic and no recommendation engine will ever come close again. It’s your life. Music is magic. Go for the magic.

rateyourmusic. It has a recommendation algorithm that is definitely better than Spotify's* (it's tweakable too!), but the real ticket is reading the endless user generated reviews and lists. You can browse genres by top-rated albums, there are featured reviews from all kinds of genres on the front page, there's a featured list page or you can find lists albums were mentioned in on their album page then check out that list to see what users categorized it with. If you get bored, you can click on a user's review on an album you like and see what other albums they rated highly. Maybe you have similar interests and find your next favorite album.

*Only issue I have with the recommendation algorithm is that once you rate an album it isn't removed from the recommendation list. Makes me doubt what the algorithm is actually taking into consideration when generating a list.

I'm not a huge fan of spotify or any streaming service for "music discovery" (maybe would've said different a decade ago). But I really like listening to the radio for music discovery - especially handy with the Shazam app. College and local radio stations are quite varied in the playlists so I'd recommend checking them out either on the fm dial or online - given my background I'd recommend KDVS and KALX college stations (available online too) along with "local" station KEXP (available online). KEXP also has a wide assortment of "live in studio" performances available on their website and youtube which can be good for digging more into an artist.

But some of the best songs/artists I've discovered have just been hearing the song somewhere and using Shazam - then spotify to dig more into the artist.

Good luck in your endeavor

I generally use Spotify.

I make heavy use of the weekly playlists that they automatically curate, to give me the latest from artists I follow as well as a weekly Discover playlist. If I find something I like, I go to the song's radio and listen to similar songs, as well as check out the related Artists, and the Artists related to them as well.

This process usually turns into at least a dozen new songs I like, each and every week. I go through them while chilling, and the relaxation combined with the new music is a very relaxing way to end and begin each week.

I don't understand your question. Is it ironic? All the bands you mention are fairly old. Most stem from the late 80s to mid 90s.

You might like Pandora then. They have a famously awesome song fingerprinting tech. Sadly their tech is proprietary and they're walled off in the states.

I just discovered King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard because some soul is using Ai to turn a line of lyrics into images in a slide show for some songs. And KG&LW happened to be one they picked.

If you're really rabid for new music I'd say manually diving through soundcloud might be a good idea. Additionally various genre forums and last.fm (probably buried the lede there Last.Fm is awesome)

In terms of letting the algorithm go nuts and be fed a radio-esque stream of content, I've found YouTube Music to provide the most enjoyable playlists. They seem to nail the mix of introducing new songs which have similar sounds to what I've been listening to and blending that with songs I really like.

Spotify started either playing playlists entirely of my own music already, or music so far off base I couldn't enjoy it.

I've been using Spotify for a very long time so maybe that much listening history has just fried whatever algorithm it uses, whereas in YTM I'm only a few months deep

I've actually been using BeatMatch (https://www.beatmatch.app/) recently. I've used it to meet people, but you also get to see and listen to their favorite selections, which are frequently newer or more unique finds. You can browse profiles, discover what people you're interested in are listening to and vice-versa, strike up conversation, and maybe make a connection. It also lets you know about concerts and events going on in your area.

Usually it's one of these:

- Spotify's "Discover Weekly" playlist.

- Spotify's "Enhance Playlist" feature applied to my playlists (including the "Liked Songs" playlist).

- Friends (lots of them love music, some of them are musicians).

- Live DJ Sets on YT.

- Music compilation videos on YT.

- Artists I follow on Instagram. Some make music in niche genres and started their movements, which onboard new interesting artists from time to time. I found several cool emerging artists this way, to answer your question.

I grab a song I like on Spotify and do the “go to song radio” and it will usually give me some alright stuff. I’ll usually keep playlist of ones I like and add good songs to it.

This is a combo of user error and changing fashion in music. Since there is currently no big "Nirvana" type band, there aren't 100 near-copies floating around.

The suggestions below work for me: Wikipedia entries (band members, sources of cover songs the band does), AllMusic (but ignore the staff reviews), Discogs.

Once you have your "new possible favourite new band" list, Youtube Music or your other favourite streaming service for a listen.

I don't tend to find 'new' music as I find current music on any chart(country, rap, pop) reprehensible.

I do discover new to me music, mainly through YouTube recommendations and the radio. Mainly 60's-80's. Yep, I still listen to plain ol OTA radio when I drive anywhere.

There's so much music there to discover still, I've never felt the need to discover today's stuff further.

My weird way is by looking at what my Tinder matches listen to. My Tinder matches have something in common with me and I notice that through their music. Thinking about it, I've learned quite a few things thanks to chats on Tinder. I jokingly call it "Tinder University"

I guess I just see lessons and stuff to learn wherever I am.

Bandcamp. The "x items in common" subheading on other profiles has been a very strong indicator of other people with music taste I may also vibe with. As a plus, they seem to be one of the more fair companies with artist distribution payments and their "Bandcamp Fridays", so buying music has a bit more of a feel good factor.

I use YouTube for music. Sometimes I type in things like 'retro programming synth music' , 'music while cleaning', modern mixed 90s electronic minimal' etc etc. You get dozens of music and whenever I hear a good song, I checkb the comments for the tracklist. Once every month I find a new song which I add to my like list.

I fell into a hole where Spotify just couldn't recommend me things that I didn't know that I wanted. I ended up building a little app that selects a random album based upon genre, related artist, or something reviewed by a publication.

https://album-mode.party/

https://www.jqbx.fm/ Is a good site to listen to and share music with others if you have Spotify. An alternative if you don’t have Spotify is https://turntable.fm/

I pick a genre like "Russian Doomer" or "French Electronica", then listen to the many hours long compilations on YouTube and save the songs I like.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_genre

I usually go to “Artist Radio” on spotify. It will get you similar artists. Not sure if this is curated by a human or generated by an algo

1. Search for your favorite artists/songs/genres on https://volt.fm

2. Click on any of the top listeners

3. If you like their taste, save their top songs as a playlist (and select the option to always keep it up to date)

Disclaimer: I'm the founder of volt.fm

Bands like the ones listed only come once upon a time. There is no "new" Nirvana and there never will be. If you're looking for genre, there are plenty of grunge and metal bands to discover, all you have to do is Google "grunge" or "metal."

I make sure to avoid apps, streaming, YouTube, and the rest. If I want to find new music I generally read about what musicians I like are listening to.

Payola is an even bigger problem with streaming than it is on the radio, which is, as we all know, trash.

You could do it they way we did it when the bands you listed were big:

- go to the record store

- talk to friends and family (and strangers) about your shared musical interests

- track down the artists and albums that influenced contemporary artists you like

BBC Essential Mix + Essential Mix Classic. Fortunately the BBC Sounds app is not geoblocked like iPlayer so don't even have to look for alternative methods to listen them.

Dupe:

"Ask HN: How do you discover music?"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32835559

8 hours ago, 112 comments

I found a lot of new music in the early 2000s with last.fm, their suggestions algorithm was incredible, and I haven't found anything like it ever since, unfortunately.

> find new music these days like Nirvana, GNR, Metallica, or Kula Shaker?

> new music like Nirvana, GNR, Metallica, or Kula Shaker

> Nirvana, GNR, Metallica, Kula Shaker

Yikes.

I discover my new music mostly through friends telling me about their finds.

- Spotify discover weekly or song radios

- Wikipedia Album release lists

- reddit /r/listentothis

Bars with live music, nightclubs, music festivals.

last.fm : Search for an artist you like and look for the "Similar to" bubbles.

At the left end of the dial