I have some friends my age still listening to the same bands they used to 20 years ago, complaining about how music today sounds all the same. However I discover something new almost every day and I’m not kidding.
It’s true that some of my discoveries are bands from decades before I was born, so they can’t be considered new, although they are new to me if that makes sense.
What about you? Still listening to the same tunes you used to listen to when you were a teenager?
Is it just me or is the process of finding new music also succumbing to the forces of enshitification? Like for me the sources went like this:
Like… How do we find new music now? If it’s up to an algorithm, it’s enshitified. If it’s up to people’s suggestions, idk where a userbase would even exist.
I literally used to run charting for a radio station and I STILL don’t know where to find new tunes. I’m still a baby, too, so some of you that think it’s harder just because you’re older… I have bad news lol
I’ve been finding most of my new music on rateyourmusic.com. Basically I rate/review stuff I like, then I spot some other users that like stuff I like, and I go through their other ratings looking for things I don’t know. It’s an algorithm free, 100% human process!
I still use last.fm, scrobbling pretty much everything I listen to from different platforms. The suggestions are usually spot on. Otherwise, the spotify radios related to specific groups or record labels help a lot too.
Well until yesterday my answer would have been “use reddit”.
But there’s still plenty of online forums (we’re in one right now) where I’ve found amazing suggestions. I also share a lot of music with my friends in real life which helps me expand my taste.
Also I’d argue that Spotify’s enshitification hasn’t really affected the ability to find new music on there. I still ocassionaly throw on the “radio” for an artist I like and I usually find some great new stuff
We probably need soemthing like r/listentothis here too.
I hade some success by using youtube in private browsing (avoid your bubble), and click on obscure music recommendations. 90% will be crap, but i found a few nice artists through that. To share a bit:
Kawehi
MoonSun
Wardruna
Andrew Huang
IWAL
KEXP.org is free streaming and has a huge variety of music. It’s indy, run by human DJs, and has an app. They play just about every music type and publish their playlist live. Try that for new music. I find new stuff to listen to every week ( I find stuff to like in every genre, but if you’re more particular, then you might have to scope out the schedule to see when the genres you like get play)
Props for the nod to enshitification though personally I’ve found a lot of bands from Spotify recommendations. I also like to just go find random bands on Bandcamp by genre and have found a few gems that way.
I think bandcamp is a pretty good way to find new music. I’ve gone down some lengthy rabbitholes finding a band I like then clicking various tags or links to other bands supported by their fans. You can stream a lot of the music, and if you buy something more of the money goes to the artists.