The second link is the one to read (the first is just the DiS homepage) - scroll down past the bit about the latest podcast to read it.

Points to anyone who says, "why, every second post from deeker is one way to discover music..."
posted by deeker at 8:20 AM on August 7 [1 favorite]

I currently get my music from Slacker radio/Pandora, and will periodically go through my lists of liked music and buy the songs that I really like. There's a local pub known for live music. I really should check out their schedule, and see if there's anything interesting coming up.
posted by Spike Glee at 8:38 AM on August 7 [1 favorite]

If magazines don't have their vinyl moment, I'll eat my vintage edition of Beastie Boys Grand Royal magazine."

I am WORKING ON IT, DAMMIT
posted by thecaddy at 8:38 AM on August 7 [4 favorites]

Creem magazine is back. My favorite article so far is about generator shows--bands setting up in places like under-construction overpasses and getting a show in before the cops come.
posted by LindsayIrene at 8:42 AM on August 7 [2 favorites]

Creem magazine is back.

Boy howdy!
posted by Thorzdad at 9:03 AM on August 7 [4 favorites]

I'm 54. In the before times, I learned of new music through friends, but mostly through movie soundtracks and MTV.

Nowadays, it's youtube and some spotify recs. I do go searching for music, sometimes. I still consume a lot of new music, but I'd love to have a better way to find the kind of music I like.

I think part of my problem is that I listen to mostly female-fronted metal and k-pop, with some indie, folk, country, and a bit of 5th-wave emo, so the algorithm doesn't really know what to make of me.
posted by signal at 9:21 AM on August 7 [3 favorites]

I used to find new music in Exclaim!¡î@# (which started in 1991 - tempus fugit...). I would get a copy, find a cozy place to settle in and read it from cover to cover, including the advertisements. It was a lovely 2 hours that I really looked forward to every month. Times have changed and I don't do that anymore, unfortunately.

These days I hear a lot of new music that I like from the Eclectic 24 stream. It's a little vanilla at times and a little repetitive as well but then again, so am I. There's often some mildly unusual stuff that comes on, though which often makes me perk my ears up.

I know that Spotify and it's ilk are frowned on in these parts and for very good reasons but I've found that the algorithms are actually pretty decent at finding me music that I like. Sometimes that makes me squirm and feel a little icky, to be honest but I also like hearing new music so....shrug.
posted by ashbury at 9:29 AM on August 7

honestly, i make a list of 3-5 artists in a genre i like and i ask one of the generative ai's to respond to "if i like these artists, who else should i listen to. oh, and no cis men." and it comes up with names i either already know or really should know. don't knock it, it works.

in between these requests, i'll troll through Apple Music's "similar artists" recommendations.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:32 AM on August 7

I¡¯m just mad at Grand Royal being ¡°vintage.¡± It¡¯s only 30-ish years old¡­.

Dammit.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:39 AM on August 7

For a lot of years, I simply haven¡¯t listened to new music. I hated the radio, and the various apps are worse.
Due to circumstances, I listen to the radio on occasion. I get to hear new music once in a while. Also some of the younger folk here will post stuff. Sometimes I like it, sometimes not.
I find the evolution of country music to be very interesting (in some instances, hilarious). I heard a song a couple months ago that was straight up glam. Turned out to be a tune from a new(ish) country artist.
I hate a lot of things going on these days but I¡¯m loving the music.
posted by evilDoug at 9:44 AM on August 7 [1 favorite]

I'm an old fart in that I listen to the radio more than anything else. LPFM has gotten me a bunch of places to listen to, which brings along a lot of new and interesting stuff, curated by real people who care about music.

There is/was a full power FM station here, run by a 70+ year old retiree, after 30 years as a FM station engineer, who decided to start his own damn station and play whatever he wanted. Sadly he passed away a few days ago and his station is just static now. That was my main "quick grab the Shazam app even though I'm driving" source of new music.

Oh -- the other place I get new music from is those free Cable TV radio stations, up in the 900s on your cable box. They can actually be quite good for programming a mix of new and old stuff with a common genre.

One more, but less effective: I do listen to the Pandora app on my smart TV in my office, and there's a "deep cuts" option on the channels. This is the only way I listen to the music. It still seems to loop through the same 20-30 songs, but that's about the state of radio stations too.

Other than that one case, I've never really gotten into listening to music online. It either feels like you need to already know what you want to hear, and when you tell it what you want and the algorithm quickly migrates to garbage, rather than equally-good stuff. I'm intrigued by the idea that you can use a video service to find music? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, MTV was that for my formative years, but video streaming apps (YouTube/TikTok) are horrible at rapidly enshittifying my timeline.

Also, I'm open to finding good stuff I've missed -- like, give me deep cuts from the early 2000s that I'd like. It doesn't have to be cutting edge.

(Back in the 1990s, I subscribed to CMJ New Music Monthly, which mailed you a CD with like 30 new-release songs on it every month. A lot of garbage, but it really sharpened my music taste at the time)
posted by AzraelBrown at 9:45 AM on August 7 [1 favorite]

I've discovered a lot of great music by just going to allmusic.com, typing in an artist I like, and listening to their influences/followers. This'll show my age precisely, but Nirvana was particularly rewarding. I never loved Nirvana like that, but Cobain had exquisite taste and was super vocal about how everybody should listen to his friends.

I've tried to do similar with Spotify etc but I think algorithms try really hard to match aesthetics without matching artistic context or intent or something like that. Like The Good Stuff's there, but I definitely think Spotify is going out of its way to soothe me rather than expand my taste. Or else to showcase artists it partners with rather than artists that match what I would like. There are a lot of shared playlists on there curated and shared by actual humans that are great, though.

Also KEXP recently expanded to my area and my friends and I have all joined its cult following. It's actually pretty great to have a curated musical experience with knowledgeable, passionate DJs again. I'd forgotten how much I missed that.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 9:49 AM on August 7 [1 favorite]

mltshp is pretty much my sole source of new music
posted by scruss at 10:03 AM on August 7 [2 favorites]

I'm 54. In the before times, I learned of new music through friends, but mostly through movie soundtracks and MTV.

I'm of the MTV generation as well -but I didn't really get into MTV until they were branching out into (IMO) terrible tv shows and only played little bits of music as parts of bumpers or in-show music to their tv shows.

Anyways, since I'm of the MTV age some content farm produces MTV playlists from the early 1980s to 1990- and many may not know that MTV had "rotation-tiers", or how many times they'd play certain songs, with the max being several times a day and we may think that MTV was this free-for-all, but tons of classic tracks were on the 'once a day' MTV rotation. So while we may think of MTV as innovative, it's equally correct to think of it as nothing more than your average lousy radio station today (not then, radio generally had far wider playlists) who played the music their execs wanted to hear a whole bunch and everything else just a tiny bit.

Luckily for me, there are two radio stations that are pretty independent, and in different genres, so I still listen to quite a bit of new music. My kids do spotify, but I barely listen to it. I burned all my old CDs and get new tracks off Amazon. I buy a few every month.


Of course since I'm of the older generation, I think of all the methods they identify as pivotal for identifying new music as kinda subpar:
"I'm thinking things like Gonzo on MTV2, MTV VMAs, MySpace's homepage (and Coca-Cola's very similar project), The OC, NME's Radar, SBTV, MP3 blogs, Tumblr, Black Cab Sessions, Careless Talk Costs Lives, All Tomorrow's Parties Weekenders, RDIO, Xfm, iTunes Festival, Queens of Noize, Mary Anne Hobbs' Dubstep Warz, Radio 1's In New Music We Trust, New Music Friday, "Twitter", etc and many more that emerged, were highly impactful, and then slowly faded away."


And while I'm ranting, can I piss on Pitchfork which has been putting out 'best of the 90s' or whatever, and the top are mostly just the big pop hits? Thanks pitchfork, for telling me that instead of listening to my own favorites and the records you reviewed, I should have just been listening to the big sellers. That's a super valuable service you are providing.
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:06 AM on August 7 [2 favorites]

I find a decent amount of new-to- me music via the algorithms on youtube and pandora, and KEXP, bandcamp, my kids and tinydesk help.
Seeing the crowds in Golden Gate Park this past week and understanding how much the communal experience of being a fan of the Dead meant to me and my friends makes me somewhat sad to lose that era. I'm sure Ozzie fans feel the same way.
posted by OHenryPacey at 10:09 AM on August 7

My big problem with discovering new music is remembering the new music I discover the next time. :)

I think the last one that stuck was Dexter and the Moonrocks.

But even playing things on the Amazon/Pandora/Youtube to say "hey, play Artist X's station" so much of it slips off my noggin.
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:57 AM on August 7

I use Youtube Music as my streaming provider and once in a while I'll have it make a radio station starting with whatever song I'm currently listening to. It'll reliably get me new music that I can then decide to hear more of if I like it. The other main way of me finding new stuff is the music reviews on The Guardian's website. They don't actually have a high success rate with me but I'm reading the site anyway.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:15 AM on August 7

I have so much music I¡¯m not too terribly on the hunt these days, but I pay attention to Tiny Desk Concerts, scroll through Bandcamp as well as follow a few labels there (Drag City is very actively releasing new stuff [yes I am slightly affiliated, but am just learning how vast their catalog is]) and I occasionally surf radio.garden which is amazing.

So much of my buying lately has been filling up my back catalog of bands I like a lot but only have a few releases of, or staying up to date with old bands that are still working. Steven Wilson and The Mommyheads alone are putting out more music than I can keep up with.

And a couple of cool email lists- Dust To Digital & Night After Night.

I gave up FM radio the day I got my first iPod 5 gig, and am a Spotify boycotter. No lack of discoverability for me, but sure would love to see mid-level acts not have to claw so hard for a damn buck.
posted by Devils Rancher at 11:45 AM on August 7 [1 favorite]

I've said this before, but I'll repeat myself: Why should I seek out new music? I haven't listened to all the old music yet.

I've recently been introduced to Andy Stewart (recommended by a Scottish acquaintance), Pearl Bailey (spotted on vinyl at the thrift store), the Buffalo Bills (likewise) and Oscar Brand (found when I was trying to determine the provenance of the song "Backside Rules the Navy"). There's more than enough music out there to keep me entertained, inspired and informed for the rest of my life.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:53 AM on August 7

Faint of Butt: "I've said this before, but I'll repeat myself: Why should I seek out new music? I haven't listened to all the old music yet."

Genuinely curious: do you have the same approach to novels you read and films you watch?
posted by deeker at 11:57 AM on August 7

I've said this before, but I'll repeat myself: Why should I seek out new music? I haven't listened to all the old music yet.

Old music you've never heard before is new music!
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:04 PM on August 7 [3 favorites]

Genuinely curious: do you have the same approach to novels you read and films you watch?

On the whole, yes. How can I engage fairly with any new art without a firm grounding in the historical and cultural context that gave rise to it? I was only born forty-five years ago; I have a lot to catch up on!
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:08 PM on August 7 [2 favorites]

For me, there are several routes to new music:

- periodicals including Drowned in Sound, obviously; readers of my music posts will know I'm a huge fan of The Quietus; Electronic Sound. They send out weekly digest emails you can sign up for.

Record shops: Norman Records; Bleep; Monorail Music. Again, you can sign up for weekly emails with staff recommendations.

Specific label emails: Erased Tapes sent me one of their semi-regular emails today.

The Brain Radio and some choice Mixcloud stations like Low Light Mixes or Access Underground.

Straight up online radio stations like NTS or Rinse.

I listened to Tom Ravenscroft's amazing Ravers Hour on BBC6 music until they inexplicably dropped him. Luckily, he's been on Rinse since then. If you're not fussy about legality, the whole archive of The Ravers Hour is out there.

Bandcamp sometimes suggests something I didn't hear about elsewhere.
posted by deeker at 12:29 PM on August 7 [4 favorites]

Oh, and occasionally gnoosic.

Input three bands/artists you know you like and it'll generate a map with bands/artists you might like. I think that's the only algorithm-y thing I personally use.
posted by deeker at 12:36 PM on August 7

A lot of my favorite artists now have weekly 'radio' hours on YouTube that is my music discovery now. Nora En Pure's purified and Above and Beyond's group therapy are real hits, as is Dialekt radio. But that's when I discover a lot of the new stuff I get to listen to. I don't know if I'd have found Dan Sushi for instance without it
posted by Carillon at 1:13 PM on August 7

Faint of Butt: "Genuinely curious: do you have the same approach to novels you read and films you watch?

On the whole, yes. How can I engage fairly with any new art without a firm grounding in the historical and cultural context that gave rise to it? I was only born forty-five years ago; I have a lot to catch up on!"

Coolio. So do you have a cut-off, a year beyond which you tend not to venture? How far back do you go?

I mean, you're not doing it all in order, surely? Gilgamesh, clair de lune and that train coming towards the screen and giving you a fright - then onwards? That would be weird.
posted by deeker at 1:29 PM on August 7

Does anyone remember who it was that posted about Radio Garden? Thanks to them I've been discovering new music every day and I love it!
posted by snsranch at 1:36 PM on August 7 [2 favorites]

Coolio. So do you have a cut-off, a year beyond which you tend not to venture? How far back do you go?

I rarely go much further back than around 1450, and quite frankly I focus mostly on the 1750s to 1950s, but¡ªand here's the important part¡ªI feel really guilty and hypocritical about it.
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:45 PM on August 7 [4 favorites]

To those looking for new music, one favorite thing I've been doing is going to the bandcamp page of an artist or album I like and looking at the recommendations there. They seem more organic and interesting, since (I think) it's based on more of a network of buyers score. People who bought Blood Incantation also bought New Frontiers sort of thing. I've bounced around the site and found artists I'd never heard of, the way I used to on Audiogalaxy, and it's just as easy to sample the music and buy it if you want. It's not the only way I find new stuff but I have had success and fun doing it!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 1:48 PM on August 7 [1 favorite]

Faint of Butt: "Coolio. So do you have a cut-off, a year beyond which you tend not to venture? How far back do you go?

I rarely go much further back than around 1450, and quite frankly I focus mostly on the 1750s to 1950s, but¡ªand here's the important part¡ªI feel really guilty and hypocritical about it."

You ought not to feel that way!
posted by deeker at 1:59 PM on August 7

I've tried to do similar with Spotify etc but I think algorithms try really hard to match aesthetics without matching artistic context or intent or something like that. Like The Good Stuff's there, but I definitely think Spotify is going out of its way to soothe me rather than expand my taste.

I really think Pandora does a better job of exposing new artists to you, especially if you have your stations set to Discovery or Deep Cuts. Anyway, it¡¯s constantly surprising me with new stuff.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:29 PM on August 7

I¡¯m almost entirely only getting good new music from KPCC¡¯s syndication / re-stream of The Current from Minneapolis/St. Paul on KPCC¡¯s HD2 channel, with a bit of KXLU and KCRW thrown in (though IMO KCRW went downhill a bit in recent years). Anyone by chance know if there¡¯s a station in the LA are that rebroadcasts KEXP on one of their digital channels?
posted by tclark at 7:01 PM on August 7 [1 favorite]

Faint of Butt: "I rarely go much further back than around 1450."
I understand... much farther and you'll end up in that Notre Dame organum with its long long drones and repetitions that can give one troubled dreams.
I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned small-budget community FM stations with volunteers doing much of the work. An outstanding one is KFAI, 90.3 FM in Minneapolis which, though I moved away decades ago, I still regularly listen and donate to online.
KFAI.org and they have their own app.
Dan Rein hosts "A Century Song"Sunday mornings 8-10 Central time. Baroque, US Ragtime, Arabic¡ª Rein is fluent in them all & dips his toes elsewhere to boot (to misegnate metaphors).
posted by Watt C Madda at 10:14 PM on August 7 [2 favorites]

+1 for gnoosic
posted by Didymium at 3:37 AM on August 8

New music discovery is both harder and easier now. Back in the old days I would discover bands from friends (mixtapes!), from the radio (WOXY was cool), from record stores, from concerts. But it could be difficult finding albums from obscure artists.

Now it seems like every track is always available, it's the sorting that's the issue. I haven't much relied on the algorithm to discover new music, but if I hear something I like, I will go searching for recs based on that. But human recs, on websites or reddit.

There's a lot of great pop music worth listening to right now, and there's a lot of equally great music bubbling under, mostly going unheard. Building a fan base was always hard, and it's equally hard now. Going viral on TikTok is the new getting airplay on the radio.

I wish I had more time. I have to listen to an album a few times for it to stick, usually, and when I like something, I like to listen to it a lot, enough to shove other things out of the mix. So accruing new music is a slow process, and there's always so much more out there than I can take in. But I'm really happy to be consciously discovering new music again after many years of mostly coasting.
posted by rikschell at 6:56 AM on August 8

Haven't felt that I was really discovering much in the way of new music from the algorithmic firehose of Spotify in quite a long time.

I also liked the idea of enjoying music with some intentionality and without the fussiness (and expense) of vinyl, so enter the $25 CraigsList discman and the nearby public library. Still have YouTube music includded with premium so haven't gone full luddite, but it's nice to have options.

(And nthing the thanks for Radio Garden, how neat!)
posted by area.man at 8:11 AM on August 8

Is college radio not a thing anymore?

Because I'm gen X (but also lazy) and that was always my go-to.

We have a good local independent radio station and also stream FiP during the day which is so random it surfaces the new and exciting.

My main complaint is how difficult it is to get services to algorithmically sew together multiples of artists.

Like they are fine with 'I like Lorde; gimme more' (and then it's just pure crap) but what I want is 'I like Lorde and Patsy Cline and Gillian Welch.'

Those are just examples. Don't nitpick, Metafilter.

I know how bad the state of such algorithms are by the things Apple Music suggests for me. With all of those resources, all of that knowledge, all of that knowledge about my personal data, and they have never once surfaced a single thing I'd be into.

Anyway, going to listen to Big White Cloud by John Cale until I go into a coma. (How did I find it? They used it on The Bear.)
posted by A Terrible Llama at 4:33 PM on August 8

I've been listening to CKUA, a radio station out of Alberta that you can pick up from their website. They play a lot of smaller, upcoming artists - frequently Canadian, which the algorithms don't seem to have subsumed as yet.

To buy music / as another discovery vector, there's Bandcamp.

Then throw in some serendipity from music shows, where part of the appeal is showing up to listen to music that you didn't choose yourself, kind of the veg that's on the plate with the protein you picked.
posted by The Outsider at 3:40 AM on August 9