How to Find New Music • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Find New Music

#241

Post by MildlySerious » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 3:56 PM UTC

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…

I agree with Youtube, more specifically, channels that focus on bringing attention to new music.

MrSuicideSheep has got to be the most successful instances of this, but there are hundreds more and if you find the right ones for your taste this can be a great source of new music.

The recommendations on the other hand have been so useless that I have been hiding them along with comments for a while now.

Re: How to Find New Music

#242

Post by lcall » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 3:57 PM UTC

I've found that the "radiodroid" Android app (no affiliation), with very many (thousands of?) internet radio stations listed, is a fun way to explore or find things I know I want to search for, or random things. It is built from the free source code by the f-droid.org app store (which I also like, also no affiliation). I wrote a few more facts here (no sales, simple): http://lukecall.net/e-9223372036854574943.html .

Re: How to Find New Music

#243

Post by ishanjain28 » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 4:20 PM UTC

I am surprised no one mentioned https://discoverquickly.com/ yet.

It's basically Spotify's recommendation system with a bunch more parameters for you to play with and the UI is designed so you can go through the recommendations quickly.

Re: How to Find New Music

#244

Post by rchaud » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 4:28 PM UTC

chiefalchemist wrote: post #171

Uhhrrr wrote: post #67

Rather than subjecting oneself to the whims of recommendation engines and random people, I recommend starting with the artists you like: -Find out who they've toured with - this is one of the strongest signals possible -Find out who produced their albums, and check out other albums produced by those folks -See if people in their band(s) have released their own work -Read interviews to find out who their influences ar…

All good points. But why doesn't Spotify, Apple, etc. either make this node options available to traverse the library? Or at least incorporate it into their algorithms to improve suggestions? I find Spotify's suggestions closer to "Here's things we're confident you won't hate." Which makes sense if "engagement" is their measurement. But by my measurement, it's yawn-city. Beige. My best source used to be BBC Radio Mus…

I'd say it's because Spotify and others don't have an incentive to let users dig that deep. They want to keep things simple, whereas sites like Discogs and Rateyourmusic are designed to let you go deep into the details.

Streaming networks need users to be able to see something they can hit Play on, not have the user click on a producer's name and see no information and no tracks.

Re: How to Find New Music

#245

Post by jslabovitz » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 4:29 PM UTC

Does no one here actually go out to see live music?

I’ve found much of my favorite music through going to shows of bands I liked, and discovering some amazing opening band.

Re: How to Find New Music

#246

Post by rchaud » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 4:30 PM UTC

cm2187 wrote: post #194

dorian-graph wrote: post #87

I would add: - Radio stations, especially triple j [1] and SomaFM [2] - Hype Machine [3] with Plug (macOS) [4] - Similar artists (e.g. on Last.fm [5]) - Other artists on the same label (e.g. Ghostly [6]) - Wander through a record store - Search for one of your favourite songs and see what other user's playlists it's on - YouTube chanels (e.g. David Dean Burkhart [7]) - Bandcamp—just wander around, and also check out…

In the old days there was a service offered to radio stations, they were sending them regularly large curated compilations CDs of the latest potential hits. You could find these CDs on torrent websites and usenet. There must be something similar today.

Plus music magazines (remember those?) would come with a free CD compilation of new tracks by artists featured in the issue.

Re: How to Find New Music

#247

Post by rchaud » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 4:35 PM UTC

garretthenry wrote: post #30

soylentcola wrote: post #29

Other than the stuff already mentioned (subreddits, blogs, playlists, word of mouth) I discover a ton of music via human-programmed streaming "radio". I know it's not as big a thing as it was in the mid-late 2000's but there are still thousands of Shoutcast/Icecast/etc. stations and many of them are programmed by DJs, music enthusiasts, and fans. A good set of bookmarks is like having a radio dial filled with 10 or 2…

That's awesome. I totally agree, nothing substitutes human curation

Ironically, very little of the conversation in this thread is discussing the actual link, which is a mailing list of human-reviewed releases.

Most of the comments appear to be about the best algorithmic recommendation engine. I've used them all and still think it doesn't compare to the experience of human-curated music. Even a 1 paragraph review of the record tells me more than a "You might also like [___]" message.

Re: How to Find New Music

#248

Post by o_nate » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 5:04 PM UTC

rbongers wrote: post #9

I love to use rateyourmusic for this. It is great for finding related artists and for exploring new genres.

Agreed. Their charts are a good way to find recommendations, especially if you filter by particular genres you like. Also good is to look at lists by users who like something you like.

Re: How to Find New Music

#249

Post by chx » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 5:35 PM UTC

sharken wrote: post #181

chx wrote: post #172

My biggest gripe in this area is I can't search on similar sounding music. This is an an algorithmicaly solvable problem. I mean, Shazam and Google recognizes 'em and that's very old news. I have heard very long ago Sirenia - Seven Sirens and a Silver Tear. Now, Sirenia is a metal band and this is anything but. It's basically a not too distant relative of the Moonlight Sonata but I didn't realize this until a kind re…

One suggestion is to go looking for playlists with the song you like. In your case it turned up this playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0IubbAKiMSr6tzt5Zjlmrv Personally i have a playlist that new/interesting songs are added to, so perhaps some site where playlists could be uploaded and then searched would be useful. Also, i can recommend the Track Radio feature of Tidal.

Is there a feature where you can search for a playlist containing more than one song?

Re: How to Find New Music

#250

Post by slothtrop » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 6:21 PM UTC

gfxgirl wrote: post #198

aloukissas wrote: post #147

By far, the best way I've discovered new music is through radio. Find a station with producers that you jive with and this will be a treasure chest. I was lucky enough to grow up in Athens (GR), where radio is really, really good. A big disappointment happened when I moved to SF (which, aside of KCSM - a great jazz radio - is a music radio disappointment). I was lucky to come across KCRW from LA, perhaps the best rad…

No radio stations have ever played the music I'm looking for so no, this doesn't work for me at all. The majority of stations play top 40, or top R&B/Urban (no idea what the PC description is), top country, class rock. Maybe if you live in LA or NYC there are some other stations with more eclectic selections like say KCRW in LA but I have no interest in what they play.

public / college/ indie stations. They usually have online streaming. For all the digging I've done online, radio yields the most unexpected, unheard results. Not always what you want, but still, interesting. Irreplaceable.