I’ve been looking for a way to discover new music. Spotify used to be quite good, but now I feel like 10% of the stuff it recommends me is AI slop.
How do you navigate the music-scape?
Listen to the billions of songs made before 2016 lol. You got a lot of catching up to do.
New does not equal good.
Beyond that, follow trustworthy artists. The only way to fight the slop is with community and trust.
It’s much easier to find organic art in a community, outside the art industries.
Sure, unless you set up a lot of subscriptions it won’t just come on a consumption conveyor belt, and some people might want or expect that, but it’s much better to be in a place where you’re actually interacting with artists.
- Bandcamp
- see who tours together. If you like A and they open for B, you might like B
- indie record labels
- see who’s playing at local venues.
I know quite a few people who use bandcamp, I’ll have to give it a shot
Curious how you are using Spotify.
I learn about new music by playing Spotify song radio based on a song I like, and then adding the good songs I discover to a playlist.
Any standouts I listen to the whole album and research the artist.
Its not as good as when I was in high school and cross pollinating with the other music nerds bit it is ok.
At first (+10 years ago), I would just play albums friends recommended or of artists I knew I liked; Then I transitioned to playlists I found, then I let spotify mix in songs and slowly let spotify’s algorithm take up more and more of my suggestions.
After a while I noticed it getting more and more stale, recycling music I already liked and looping it.
More recently, it’s just completely off 1/2 the time, and suggesting very boring music that I suspect they commissioned and own the rights for. The playlists are all “made by Spotify” and are similar to the auto suggestions.
So I stopped using Spotify suggestions, then, as the UI got more and more bloated with stuff I don’t care for (merch, podcasts, audiobooks), I straight up switched to Qobuz for its clean UI.
But now my recommendations come from Youtube or friends.
Which is why I made this post :) (which has turned out to be a gold mine!)
I don’t usually listen to anything newer than around 2010 anyway. 🤣
I get recommendations from real people, not algorithms.
I go to live shows and music festivsls and buy music at the merch table.
Blogs and small web stuff can be pretty useful.
I discover new music by listening to music themes radioshows. NPR New music Friday is pretty awesome, and there’s at least a dozen more in various public radio channels abound the world.
I can second NPR and further recommend wfmu. They have music podcasts! https://wfmu.org/podcast
Bandcamp
Record labels. For any band you like, go to their label’s website, browse the other artists on their roster or peruse the label’s past releases. The bands will likely be similar in style/sound, or at least worth checking out.
Bandcamp, but also get to know the artist behind the music. Maybe follow their socials and see if they have other friends that publish music.
i stopped using spotify altogether and limit myself to yt music with adblock and sometimes look at the “discover” playlist or just let the platform autoplay songs
so far I haven’t been recommended AI slop that way
outside
I mainly listen to electronic music for the past decade or so and have several artists I’ve listened to consistently, they’ll collab with some new artist or do a mix and include their music so I check them out and it grows from there.
