How to Find New Music • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Find New Music

#51

Post by AdmiralAsshat » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 8:44 PM UTC

My admittedly old-school way of finding new music is the following:

1) Put a link to my last.fm profile in my forum signature.

2) Ask people to review what I listen to and make recommendations.

This has been infinitely more useful than the standard machine-generated recommendations, particularly when it comes to specific sub-genres and the like. A human who sees I have Black Sabbath, Sleep, and Pentagram in my rotations but not Pantera, Korn, or Slipknot in my list is probably going to implicitly understand that I don't like nu-metal, and will recommend something within the traditional heavy metal or doom metal genres.

The machine algorithms, on the other hand, think it's all just "heavy metal", and will then send me bogus recommendations for Marilyn Manson and other crap that I'm never going to touch.

Re: How to Find New Music

#52

Post by fetus8 » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 8:44 PM UTC

thatcat wrote: post #38

fetus8 wrote: post #28

Anyone remember back on what.cd the related artists "web" system? That was my favorite way to find music, and since the site's demise, I have yet to find a comparable way of discovering similar artists. Luckily back then, I started following many of my favorite artists and labels on social media, which sort of created a new wave of recommendations based on what those artists are talking about. It works, but it's not…

The similar artist map is still around on the successor sites of WCD.

Got an email address? I've got a question about the successor sites...

Re: How to Find New Music

#53

Post by joseph » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 8:45 PM UTC

slouch wrote: post #36

This is a terrible guide that ignores the best algorithmic recommendations that spotify provides, the "Related Artist" feature from the artist page. If you are a life long music explorer, why didn't you mention the last.fm Similar Artist feature? Concert reminder services like songkick are great for learning which bands are touring with your favorite artists, too, in addition to suggesting artists based on your curre…

Spotify's algorithmic recommendations aren't very good. I use Spotify, but always build my playlists by hand, after finding music elsewhere. Typically that's Youtube, but I also follow the artists I like on twitter and get new songs from them.

Re: How to Find New Music

#54

Post by EvRev » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 8:46 PM UTC

I go to SoundCloud and start following young producers who have the time to repost what they encounter. It is not based on an algorithm, but rather real people who have the time to explore more new music than I have to listen to.

These guys do a great job manually aggregating new music and putting it into mixes. The jokes and fake ads are racy so listen with care: https://soundcloud.com/thunderstone-labs

Re: How to Find New Music

#55

Post by bigwheeler » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 8:50 PM UTC

WeAreHunted was the best, until Twitter put a bullet in it's head. I think it was reincarnated as wonder.fm, but never really seemed to regain the mojo from those early days...

Re: How to Find New Music

#56

Post by zahma » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 8:53 PM UTC

CrackpotGonzo wrote: post #45

fetus8 wrote: post #28

Anyone remember back on what.cd the related artists "web" system? That was my favorite way to find music, and since the site's demise, I have yet to find a comparable way of discovering similar artists. Luckily back then, I started following many of my favorite artists and labels on social media, which sort of created a new wave of recommendations based on what those artists are talking about. It works, but it's not…

Yes! Completely agree that it was the best and nothing has filled the gap since. Such a shame.

Redacted has filled the gap. Orpheus too. Though maybe the webs aren't as fully developed as WCD's came to be, these sites are definitely maturing in the same way.

https://interviewfor.red/en/index.html

Re: How to Find New Music

#57

Post by MisterPea » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 8:54 PM UTC

nickthegreek wrote: post #20

lostgame wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But YouTube's quality is such hot garbage, and the ads, oh, God, the ads. Nothing ruins the experience of a perfectly good album like Miles Davis' 'Kind of Blue' more than a jump from cool jazz to an ad for Grammarly that's a full 5-10db louder than what I was listening to. If YouTube's audio quality was worth listening to, YouTube Premium might be a thing, but Spotify and Apple Music have it down to a science, and,…

I pay $10 a month for Youtube Premium, which gives me ad free youtube, access to Google Play Music and the Youtube Music app.

I have the family plan for $15 which I think is a great deal considering how much my family and I use Youtube.

Plus free google play music! Although its iOS app is absolute trash.

Re: How to Find New Music

#58

Post by pmoriarty » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 8:55 PM UTC

lostgame wrote: post #14

pmoriarty wrote: post #7

I'm surprised this article doesn't mention youtube, which is a major way of finding new music for me. Not only can I find new music through videos that youtube selects as related to ones I like, but listening to playlists that contain music that I like is another great way to find new music, and so is listening through the other music posted by people who post music that I like. And then, of course, one always has th…

But YouTube's quality is such hot garbage, and the ads, oh, God, the ads. Nothing ruins the experience of a perfectly good album like Miles Davis' 'Kind of Blue' more than a jump from cool jazz to an ad for Grammarly that's a full 5-10db louder than what I was listening to. If YouTube's audio quality was worth listening to, YouTube Premium might be a thing, but Spotify and Apple Music have it down to a science, and,…

I just use youtube-dl[1] and never see a single ad.

Also, downloading videos with youtube-dl lets me archive them for myself, which is useful insurance against when (as all too often happens) the video gets pulled from youtube for some reason.

As for quality, this thread is about discovery, where quality shouldn't really matter. But if quality matters a lot to you, after you discover some music that you like, you can go to bandcamp and buy a FLAC of the tracks you like from the artist. Or you can go to whatever other music service that you think has better quality and get them there.

[1] - https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/

Re: How to Find New Music

#59

Post by kristofferR » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 8:55 PM UTC

Spotify has this really great alternative app called Stations:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/spotify-stations/id1453043471

You just type in artists/genres you like and it'll play music that matches your tastes. It's like a better Pandora, with the things that makes Spotify great, like Spotify Connect.

It's only in the US App Store for dumb reasons, but it works fine elsewhere once you get it downloaded with a US account.

Re: How to Find New Music

#60

Post by l3db3tt3r » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 9:02 PM UTC

On the word of mouth front: I started music group on various platforms; Play 3 Playlist Fridays

Basic premise is that on Fridays people share their own 3 song playlist of whatever genre, theme, etc that they care to. I'd say it has been moderately successful. 3 songs once a week is a low enough bar for contribution, but still high enough that people tend to put some actual thought into it.