Ask HN: How do you discover music? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you discover music?

#101

Post by technonerd » Wed, Sep 14, 2022, 3:39 PM UTC

sshine wrote: post #19

I discover music through Spotify. You could say "Spotify's algorithm", but you need to help it. It is more their links between artists that I use, and the general availability of a lot of artists. (Not as many as on YouTube.) If I have found a lot of great, new music this week, next week's "Discover Weekly" and the albums recommended in "Home" are better. Most of the music I find is by looking at the tracks I'm alrea…

I never really liked exploring music on Spotify the back catalog was non existent for DJs putting out amazing stuff in the 90s and 00s. You get like 2010 all the way to current year. Worthless.

Re: Ask HN: How do you discover music?

#102

Post by dvlsg » Wed, Sep 14, 2022, 3:52 PM UTC

Blogs and websites that post curated lists of new releases for the genres I like.

The way I find those sites is by searching for an album I know I liked and seeing which sites have posted about it - release dates, reviews, etc. Works the best when you can find sites with a more specific genre though, to cut out some of the extra noise.

Then I just check back in to see what is getting released when, and look it up on whatever streaming service.

Subreddits work occasionally, but it seems like more often than not those are used to post old albums and old songs for free upvotes.

Re: Ask HN: How do you discover music?

#103

Post by ngerzon » Wed, Sep 14, 2022, 4:00 PM UTC

Formaviva.com

Re: Ask HN: How do you discover music?

#104

Post by acomjean » Wed, Sep 14, 2022, 4:15 PM UTC

10729287 wrote: post #20

I've been involved in punk/hardcore community for decades now and I've got my sources : friends, blogs, forums, last fm follows... For anything else I listen to the radio, especially fip.fr who expose me to Music I wouldn't think I could love. Also, i mainly listen to albums, never playlists, automated or curated ones. I don't believe in recommendation algos and don't feel the need to get into that way of discovering…

"Late Risers Club" on WMBR (MIT radio) is pretty good. They're daily 10-12 EST, but archive the shows for 2 weeks. Its less pure "punk" than it was but (Some DJs have more rock like tendencies...), but its still great.

https://wmbr.org/cgi-bin/show?id=6785

they post there set lists to "Track-blaster". They have a "listen" button if its within the 2 week archive period.

here is last mondays show: https://track-blaster.com/wmbr/playlist.php?id=47208

Re: Ask HN: How do you discover music?

#105

Post by p1peridine » Wed, Sep 14, 2022, 4:29 PM UTC

For underground & rare music: YouTube playlists, SoulSeek, VK.com and Blogspot.

Re: Ask HN: How do you discover music?

#106

Post by drewcoo » Wed, Sep 14, 2022, 4:52 PM UTC

WFMU https://wfmu.org

It's like college radio from the 80s, but with the cartoony enhanced powers granted by gamma rays in a horrible accident in New Jersey. Every DJ does their own thing. Station manager Ken claims there's always at least one show on the schedule that anyone can hate, even if they hate different shows.

Re: Ask HN: How do you discover music?

#107

Post by t0bia_s » Wed, Sep 14, 2022, 5:03 PM UTC

stefanos82 wrote: post #75

From time to time I have fun with https://www.gnoosic.com/ So far I have found incredible bands that I would not even imagine finding otherwise.

Second that. Results are more competent than spotify's algorithms from "discover music".

Re: Ask HN: How do you discover music?

#108

Post by t0bia_s » Wed, Sep 14, 2022, 5:08 PM UTC

Nic0 wrote: post #44

I listening only classical music here is some search I do. - Filter with compositor, rachmaninoff, mozart... - I filter with record label in spotify, with very specific and quality like "hamonia mundi", "erato" and others. - Select orchestra (London Symphony Orchestra, Choir of King's College) - Select musician (Baremboim, Argerich...)

Which label do you recommend for classical on Spotify? Except Deutsche Grammophon.

I noticed that some recordings (ie Rachmaninoff's Vespers) are poorly recorded. With amount of dynamics, especially in choir pieces, they are overdubbed. I do not use volume normalization.

Re: Ask HN: How do you discover music?

#109

Post by Am4TIfIsER0ppos » Wed, Sep 14, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

It used to be: watch something new in a cinema or on TV or play a new video game; hear good music; find soundtrack (one way or another). But I neither watch nor play new things so I am not expanding my music library.

Re: Ask HN: How do you discover music?

#110

Post by Bleibeidl » Wed, Sep 14, 2022, 5:14 PM UTC

For a long time Soulseek (p2p platform similar to early napster) by bulk-downloading artists releases which released on labels labels i know. Then look for other artists on the label, or another label an artist releases on and repeat the process.

This turns out this was very effective to not stay in a style or comfort zone bubble. Nowadays I collect vinyl and find new stuff via bargain bin deals and on flea markets. That said, this approaches are probably better suited for people who are not fixated on particular styles.

Discogs.com is a great resource to look around and find new stuff on label level. I'm not affilatednwith them, but use their service for over a decade for the database, and more recently to buy some vinyl I couldn't find locally.