How do you discover new music?

[arnab_das]

I know I should be ashamed to say this, but I discovered Bobby Darin and his music only a few days back, thanks to youtube and lastfm. My only way to find out about singers/bands till a few years back was the local music store (you know where they sell actual CDs, pretty hard to find those arent they now? :P) but obviously that methodology has changed.

Would love to hear some opinions about how or where you discover or have discovered new music.

[winh8r]

There are quite a few resources available to allow you to hear new bands/artists.

These are a good resource for unsigned artists as they allow them to get their music across the world without having to pay big distributors and promoters a lot of money.

Here are a few links to places where you can listen to and/or download music from a variety of artists and bands, all legally and within the law.

Hope you enjoy them:


http://www.jamendo.com/en/

http://magnatune.com/

http://www.songsprouts.com/

http://www.sonicawareness.com/custom/philosophy.html

http://www.shithotrecords.co.uk/

[edm1]

I usually listen to BBC 6 Music, read some reviews online, search lastfm similar artists or just give some random artists a listen on bandcamp. Its pretty useful having friends that are into similar stuff too.

[Lucradia]

I watch minecraft videos, it's how I discovered hatfilms' music :V

[TheFu]

I don't really look for "new music."
I look for new-to-me music and find lots in my Dad's reel-to-reel collection.

[Dragonbite]

I listen to Pandora.com at work and it is not bad at pulling up similar music.

Since I tend to have widely varying musical moods, I have multiple stations set up. So the music that gets played in each station is fairly related to each other close enough for me to consider purchasing the music some times.

[TheNerdAL]

Pandora, Movie Trailers, friends.

[haqking]

watching one tree hill, house, californication.

Between these three i always have something new to download in the world of music.

[arnab_das]

Great! Looks like pandora is the place to go to find good music. For poor souls outside the US I guess grooveshark radio is the only option. Anyone used both of these? They are pretty similar right? Or are they vastly different?

talking of tv shows with good music, House MD has been consistently good in this department. Pity that the show's coming to an end. I loved The OC soundtrack too back in the day. Some great indie bands got featured there.

[venator260]

I've found that bands I like often have message boards, and they're useful. Heavy Metal at least has several websites and blogs deticated to showcaseing bands from that genre.

Worth a shot.

[BrokenKingpin]

http://www.metalreview.com/

[sffvba[e0rt]

http://www.metalreview.com/

http://openmetalcast.com/

Many ways to broaden your musical horizons :)


404

[devondashla]

A lot of the music I listen to comes from TV advertisements, lol. If you listen closely to background music on ads, you can usually find some cool new stuff.

[uRock]

I usually find new tunes via surfing radio stations. If I hear a song I like or a band with potential, then I look them up on YouTube to see what they have to offer. If they are good, then I buy their CD.

[ubuntu27]

Many ways.


But, one of my favorite ways beside browing the web is to listen to Online Radio of my favorite genere.

For example, if I want to discover new Japanes msuic, I will go to Japan-A-Radio (http://www.japanaradio.com/) and stream.

Now, since I do not have control over what music it gets streamed, I am forced to listem the whole thing. Which is not bad, in fact it is great!

This way I get to discovery great gems that at first few seconds seemed to be crappy [no skipping!] but it ends up being a song of great quality.


For great Chinese music, I like to stream "Love China Radio" (http://www.lovechina.asia/), stream link here (http://www.lovechina.asia/player.htm):

[BrokenKingpin]

http://openmetalcast.com/

Many ways to broaden your musical horizons :)

Cool, I will check that out.

[arnab_das]

A lot of the music I listen to comes from TV advertisements, lol. If you listen closely to background music on ads, you can usually find some cool new stuff.

holy! now that is seriously cool.

[Nixarter]

wow, I've bookmarked this thread. Those are some wonderful suggestions. I use pandora and word of mouth atm. :p

[arnab_das]

I've found that bands I like often have message boards, and they're useful. Heavy Metal at least has several websites and blogs deticated to showcaseing bands from that genre.

Worth a shot.

now thats a bit of a hit and miss. mostly because many of those have adverts in the guise of recommendations. but i will give those forums another go now.

youtube does a fairly good job at recommending music. its totally random and i dont think there's much of an algorithm in there, but u do come across occasional gems that way.

[ubuntu27]

A lot of the music I listen to comes from TV advertisements, lol. If you listen closely to background music on ads, you can usually find some cool new stuff.

How do you know what songs they are playing in the background?

[anaconda]

youtube

I listen music from youtube quite a lot.
And it is good at suggesting similar music... which is nice.

[Grenage]

I don't really look for "new music."
I look for new-to-me music and find lots in my Dad's reel-to-reel collection.

That's pretty much what I do. Considering that there's more old music (that I like) than I could listen to in my free time/life - backwards is forwards!

[arnab_das]

That's pretty much what I do. Considering that there's more old music (that I like) than I could listen to in my free time/life - backwards is forwards!

+1000

i completely agree with you. this is the autotune era and no singing qualities in a singer matter anymore. i was reading an article the other day about how many (if not most) of all popular singers over the years have used autotune and about how every single song these days sound pitch perfect. we probably dont even know what these singers sound like in real life. it is only when you accept this fact that the music by the beatles, simon and garfunkel, pink floyd, the searchers etc. etc. seem really, really amazing. imperfection is the new perfect and looking backwards is indeed looking forwards!

[Grenage]

I'd have to agree; with voices like Otis Reading, Louis Armstrong, and Cyndi Lauper (to name a few well-known artists) - good music is not about 'perfect' vocals.

[MisterGaribaldi]

I'm not really that much into music, to be honest.

For me, it's all just wallpaper or paint in the background.

[samalex]

I've found more new artists on Magnatune and SomaFM in recent years than anyplace else. Also I'm finding Spotify as a good source for new music as well.

[bjam6]

Radio is a great way to discover new music. Just have it playing while driving to work or something. Also iTunes genius is a good one to try. The best way I found is to get out there and go to gigs though! Went to a random gig in London a few weeks ago and discovered this excellent band called Virgin Soldiers. They combine contemporary and classical in an unusual but very interesting and cool way! Give them a listen and see what you think!

www.virginsoldiers.com :)

[zombifier25]

Via my friends.

[Bandit]

Shoutcast Streams for the most part.

[tartalo]

http://rateyourmusic.com

The design is ugly and it's heavily biased towards Metal and Indie from English speaking countries, which is fine if you like that, but using the available filters in the charts section I've discovered lots of incredible bands, even whole genres, that I had never heard about.

[mattfrog]

So many options..

I love going through http://thesixtyone.com

Also in the UK, Radio 1 on a Friday night is a bombardment of amazing dance/house/trance music for about 12 hours straight. The website provides a live tracklisting.

I've got some music blogs set up in Feedly that I keep track of. Soundcloud is also brilliant for discovery.

I've been trialling rdio.com since it launched in the UK last week too :KS

[MisterGaribaldi]

I had a song fall out of the sky onto me one time. True story.

[Guitar John]

I'm guessing that my musical tastes are a bit unusual. I listen to the Classical station on the radio. It is how I discovered, for instance, guitarist Xuefei Yang (http://www.xuefeiyang.com/).

[kevinmchapman]

Already mentioned, but in the UK, BBC 6Music, "the home of new music". Definitely a source of interesting stuff. I thoroughly recommend the Marc Riley show in the evening

[MisterGaribaldi]

I'm guessing that my musical tastes are a bit unusual. I listen to the Classical station on the radio. It is how I discovered, for instance, guitarist Xuefei Yang (http://www.xuefeiyang.com/).

Wow! She and her quartet are amazing!

[rich52x]

i use spotify and listen to friends' playlists; got into Bob Dyalan and Gorillaz that way

[Enigmapond]

I write it...

[phibxr]

Spotify (http://www.spotify.com)! Their client for Ubuntu works perfect under 12.04, and receives frequent updates.


# 1. Add this line to your list of repositories by
# editing your /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free

# 2. If you want to verify the downloaded packages,
# you will need to add our public key
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 4E9CFF4E

# 3. Run apt-get update
sudo apt-get update

# 4. Install spotify!
sudo apt-get install spotify-client

[jocheem67]

pitchork.com
guardian.co.uk

Most of all, I'm quite happy with the collection I already possess...I'm forty-plus and tend more and more to listen to the music of my youth ( reggae, ska, 80's synth, acid, some '90's stuff...)
Sometimes I just look for keywords on the web, like 'hacienda classics' > I do download torrents or p2p. Do I like it? Then I'll buy it.

[Face-Ache]

For new music, i tend to browse online reviews and get ideas as to what will best suit my tastes. I find the reviews sections of rollingstone.com and nme.com to be quite good.

My tastes are fairly eclectic, but i play electric guitar and have a penchant for the heavier stuff :)


http://www.metalreview.com/

That's a great website - have bookmarked, and will check it out regularly. Thanks.

Have you heard of "Protest The Hero"? I assume you probably have, as i understand that they are a Canadian band. They're my "New Favourite Band". Really liking their stuff at the moment.

If you like any prog-metal, i'd recommend "Animals as Leaders". It's kind of jazzy, but heavy, and fully instrumental. Have a look on YouTube for their song CAFO - it's mind blowing. 8-string guitars too; these guys are incredible musicians.

[ikt]

chronix
di.fm
Armin Van Buren - A State of Trance
youtube, clicking through various channels etc

[ys99x]

I know I should be ashamed to say this, but I discovered Bobby Darin and his music only a few days back, thanks to youtube and lastfm. My only way to find out about singers/bands till a few years back was the local music store (you know where they sell actual CDs, pretty hard to find those arent they now? :P) but obviously that methodology has changed.

Would love to hear some opinions about how or where you discover or have discovered new music.


Soundcloud for free new music; my latest tune here (plug plug plug) http://snd.sc/z4lCDc
or search ys999x on soundcloud.

There is a google widget to download whatever you can hear...
Happy listening. http://snd.sc/z4lCDc

[Swagman]

(BBC) Radio 2 has some late night new muso's on regularly and as I work nights I get to hear them too !!

Also I get to hear stuff from different forums I frequent.

THIS SONG (http://soundcloud.com/michael1000-1/girl-from-the-sun-the-lost-and) just got posted on a forum I Frequent (http://forums.atomicmpc.com.au/index.php?showtopic=49545)

[johnnybgoode83]

Last FM and Jamendo for me. It's such a shame that radio is very rarely a source of new music these days. It just seems to be a bastion of commercial, mass produced drivel.

[The Cog]

Went to a random gig in London a few weeks ago and discovered this excellent band called Virgin Soldiers. They combine contemporary and classical in an unusual but very interesting and cool way! Give them a listen and see what you think!

www.virginsoldiers.com :)

Oh man! I just followed your link, and I really like them. I had almost given up hope of ever finding new music like this. It's fit for a good listening session, quality sound and not compressed to death.

[Erik1984]

It's already mentioned about 3 times but such a great source: Jamendo. I Just downloaded another 6 albums there. Started with one particular artist and discovered more music via the "you might also like" feature. Everything on Jamendo is Creative Commons so perfectly legal to download for free, burn a copy and share with friends or family.

[johnnybgoode83]

It's already mentioned about 3 times but such a great source: Jamendo. I Just downloaded another 6 albums there. Started with one particular artist and discovered more music via the "you might also like" feature. Everything on Jamendo is Creative Commons so perfectly legal to download for free, burn a copy and share with friends or family.

God bless creative commons licensing :guitar:

[Erik1984]

God bless creative commons licensing :guitar:
Amen. Seriously it's so good to know a part of your collection is really yours and have the freedom to share without feeling guilty or fear a lawsuit.

[Irihapeti]

I'm a classical aficionado as well, and I find out about new music from my older son. He has a thing for unusual composers (part of his aspergers, I think) and shares CDs with me from time to time.

[ys99x]

I don't really look for "new music."
I look for new-to-me music and find lots in my Dad's reel-to-reel collection.

Hey thats exactly what I like to do; listen to this http://snd.sc/ITWHk1
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7022/6703252661_cf47fd9b3f_m.jpg

[bjam6]

Oh man! I just followed your link, and I really like them. I had almost given up hope of ever finding new music like this. It's fit for a good listening session, quality sound and not compressed to death.

That's what I thought!! :) Really refreshing sound, wasn't expecting it at all!

Looks like they're trying to get in the UK charts in August. I know I for one will be helping them get there! Think the public could use a change like this, open their ears to proper melodic music!