How do you find new music

[Vivek Batra]

Hi FMs

I have been thinking that how you guys find new music, could be new genre, a new artist etc. For me its always been FM ever since I started listening to music. For the people who stream music its more easy to just play any random playlist. But people who are spinning CDs/ Vinyls, pick up something new? somthing completely new.

If I try to play anything random, say a playlist of 100 tracks, hardly I would like 2 or 3 tracks that I would add to my favorites. I think if this is not feasible when buying music on physical media.

Just curious to know how to expand my taste of music

Hope to get some good pointers.

Thanks
Vivek

 

[jai1611]

Spotify
Their algo for recommendations is pretty good. Also use them to explore new genres

 

[Bloom@83]

Good qs. How do you think people developed their tastes and appreciation for a wide genre of music BEFORE the advent of streaming and algorithms, for more than 70-80 years in the CD, cassette and LP era ?
It’s simple - they had an active interest (as opposed to passive-or dictated - interest propagated by streaming culture ) in music. FM is one , but chiefly it was through communal sharing with friends , family members , long and excited conversations , attending functions , concerts , reading magazines , the latest lists , or for the more serious - biographies of favourite musicians and artists ,vinyl crate digging , CD rack browsing. I came to know about The Shirelles while reading about John Lennon , a good friend introduced me to the magic of John Coltrane and bebop in one of our night outs , an unplanned attendance at a live program of Dohar gave a totally new insight into the richness of local folk music.... this is how it happens and should happen , instead of a random bot suggesting me to play a bossa nova out of nowhere.

 

[AKT]

I use Roon. Their recommendation engine is pretty kick ass. Spotify comes close second. Tidal's is alright. However, all these are streaming services and your point about physical media is a pretty valid one.

Now, how did we do that in olden days?

I: We had a radio (remember Times FM!). We would note the nice ones that caught our attention and I remember I would go to my neighborhood music shop to 'dub' a cassette (piracy!) which I would listen to death. Then the fancy music stores opened and we could sample CDs before buying.

II: Then we had friends!! Share cassettes, recommend tracks, get albums on our birthdays, not to forget compile love songs for that 'special one'. Oh! what nostalgia!!

So my good man Vivek. Streaming services are your radio and whether you like it or not, we indeed are your friends!! There is a thread on this forum where we are sharing our favorite playlists. Let's get chatty...

 

[amitk777]

I have limited by musical taste to Indian classical, I listen to ragas known to me or which I am learning. There is enough to carry on for years.

 

[fLUX]

Good qs. How do you think people developed their tastes and appreciation for a wide genre of music BEFORE the advent of streaming and algorithms, for more than 70-80 years in the CD, cassette and LP era ?
It’s simple - they had an active interest (as opposed to passive-or dictated - interest propagated by streaming culture ) in music. FM is one , but chiefly it was through communal sharing with friends , family members , long and excited conversations , attending functions , concerts , reading magazines , the latest lists , or for the more serious - biographies of favourite musicians and artists ,vinyl crate digging , CD rack browsing. I came to know about The Shirelles while reading about John Lennon , a good friend introduced me to the magic of John Coltrane and bebop in one of our night outs , an unplanned attendance at a live program of Dohar gave a totally new insight into the richness of local folk music.... this is how it happens and should happen , instead of a random bot suggesting me to play a bossa nova out of nowhere.

Agree with your point on how growing your song collection was more engaging and natural in the past (CDs were too expensive for me, however had a fairly decent collection of audio cassettes), however currently with the lack of availability of physical media and further advent of streaming services with their algorithms , services like Spotify do more than a decent job in providing alternate suggestions ( I have found quiet a many decent songs thanks to Spotify suggestions). Pursuing active interests in present age is much harder & sadly even more expensive than older times and I see people across age groups using streaming services in parallel with other physical media sources.

 

[Deleted member 15865]

In the order of increasing effectiveness (as well as involvement and fulfilment):
1. Broadcasts: FM radios, Internet radio
2. Algorithms: Streaming services (I’ll add Bandcamp to the usual suggestions)
3. Socialising: Online (eg some threads here); and Physical (friends)
4. Exploration: Blogs (musical), Websites (eg Alllmusic), Magazines (eg Rolling Stones India), Books et al.

Also, as you go from 1 to 4, you tend to understand a lot more about the genre, the artist and music in general.

 

[Vivek Batra]

Thanks guys for all the inputs.

So in gist collaboration with fellow minds and quest to try something new is important to explore more and more and pick the one you like.One thing that I am not doing is, trying random playlists for a considerable time length (I do this with FM though). On my system. I always want to listen what I already like so kind of restricting my self.

I may be highly mistaken, but still would like to bring this up. Most of the threads started here are about "sound" not music. I would propose starting specific threads about specific geners, threads for atists could be an overkill. We all can share what we like in those pinned threads. What say?

 

[blackscorpio]

IMO, Pandora is mother of all in music discovery.

 

[rpmahale]

Earlier days I used to visit Planet M, Rhythm house, Groove etc music shops just to listen and buy
music CD. They had few systems which were playing new arrival CD so that it was quite easy to listen few tracks and if like purchase that CD. Browsing through PlanetM, Rhythm House, Groove store collection and suggestions from their staff also helps to pick few good titles. " Av max " was one of the source of information on new arrival and their reviews help a lot for blind purchase. Some online sites also helped in this regards. Few friends with similar interest also suggests new titles and shares their music collection or CDs which helps later on for purchase . Later on I become more familiar with my test of music like R&B, Hip-Hop genre then artists like Mariyah Carey, Sade, Diana krall,Beyonce etc. Then it becomes easy to purchase as per genre or artists but it limits you upto certain kind of music only.
Now the time of streaming music come which open the wide doors of music from any genre to artists. Experimenting with different music type becomes very handy , easy and less costly .
Now on Tidal , mostly I search new releases as per my test. Instead of trying different things, I used to select few releases or playlist and enjoy they for longer time say week or more, then I switch to next one. Now days with such huge collections available it becomes difficult to concentrate on certain genre of music or your favorite artists . Instead of just hunting, I keep myself limited to certain genre and artists which I enjoy the most. I like Artist Radio, Tidal Playlist, previous months listened music for random listening. For most of the MQA releases I give try and if like I add it in my favorite for future listening.....for

 

[moktan]

I find new music by reading up on my favourite artists. Mostly such music is old but because I am listening to them for the first time, I guess it becomes new for me. I have listened to many Duke Ellington albums but it was a pleasant experience to listen to his Sacred Music for the first time.

 

[mannukiddo]

I try new releases that is a separate line item on the Tidal HiFi app. Have found some pretty good stuff in this way.

 

[Deleted member 15865]

I may be highly mistaken, but still would like to bring this up. Most of the threads started here are about "sound" not music. I would propose starting specific threads about specific geners, threads for atists could be an overkill. We all can share what we like in those pinned threads. What say?

Vivek, there are threads on some genres. As I remember, on Jazz, Indian classical, 90’s Hindi songs, Fusion/World music, North-East music... Where there’s none on a genre that interests you, please create one and seed it so others will participate.

Agree that there’s much more focus on sound than music in the forum, but that’s expected on a forum named ‘Hifi’vision.

 

[Passive_audio_enthusiast]

Watching YouTube audio system demos. It's pointless to understand a speakers sound vthrough yiutube.but most of the time the demo songs are of good quality when listened later on some online streaming platform. Also from series. Most popular series will have a great ost playlist or atleast they silently introduce us to new artists

 

[Vivek Batra]

Agree that there’s much more focus on sound than music in the forum, but that’s expected on a forum named ‘Hifi’vision.

 

[Bloom@83]

Let’s not forget films , especially classic Indian( not talking of Bollywood where anyway I’m a RD fan ) , European and American films from the sixties and seventies ( that personally I’ve been devouring for 20 years now ) - they often are portals into absolutely mindblowing artists I’d otherwise might never have discovered.

 

[firearm12]

Take help of google


Top 100 blues songs or albums
Top 100 rock songs or albums
Top 100 jazz songs or albums
Top 100 underrated songs
Top 100 overrated songs
Top 100 artists
Top songs to listen before dying


.. so on and so forth

 

[ssf]

I ask Alexa to play music I have not heard before.

 

[dinesh1201]

I use Apple Music subscription use it on Desktop and on android. Their recommendation algorithm is also very good.

 

[Vivek Batra]

Is there a thread for country songs already? I couldn't find any. If not there, I want to start one and be consistent on the naming for every such new thread.

Please share what should be the thread title so it's easy to find.