I’ve used both Apple Music and Spotify in recent years and while their discovery is okay, it always plays it safe. As if they’ve made a genre that is just for me and won’t play anything outside of that. How do I expand my music horizons?
Interestingly, I feel like I’ve found more “new” music using Spotify’s Release Radar playlist instead of their Discover Weekly playlist. I’ll typically (and aggressively) mark things as like/don’t like in those playlists and add what I like to my own “Testing” playlist to see what sticks to me. Release Radar tends to have more likes than Discover Weekly does, despite what the two are named, and it’s providing new artists on top of existing ones I’m already a fan of.
That’s usually good enough for me, though the occasional time I’m listening to the radio or a song comes on over the speakers when I’m out and about gets a quick Shazam from me to know what it was.
To add on to that. Their enhance playlists or similar songs found at the bottom of your playlist page can be really relevant and I’ve learned about a ton of new artists that way.
music zines, friends, going to concerts (opening acts), watching Indy movies (soundtrack). am also interested in ideas from others as I’ve also seem to have reached the end of spotify’s suggestions
I’ve been using the 1001 Albums website. It’s definitely not foolproof since you won’t find anything extremely recent or niche but it forces you to listen to albums you wouldn’t normally choose and they are all generally pretty solid (or better). You can also use it in concert (so to speak) with friends so you can listen to the same album on the same day and discuss it together.
It’s not a huge number, but I’ve put 5 albums into rotation just because of this website.
https://Last.fm is another service that will track what you listen to and suggest tracks that other people enjoying the same music you do.
It’s basically the same, but it’s 3rd party. I’ve been using that for several years, and it’s given me many great suggestions.
Man, that’s a site I haven’t thought of for ages, but I think I actually did find myself there (or somewhere similar) a couple of years ago for something very specific.
I remember like over a decade ago when iTunes was “just” a media player and later an album/track store. Really, it was there for transferring shit to your iPod, if we’re being honest.
Anyway, I remember that it was one of the media players that you could hook into Last.fm and you’d use the “scrobbler” (is it still called that?) to find new tracks and artists, with a nice interface which showed the stuff you listen to most. Didn’t (doesn’t) it also sync with your media player and display what you’re currently listening to as well?
I remember people also made custom lists to share. Not necessarily playlists, but lists of artists who fit a certain theme or genre, all that stuff.
Then I ditched music for a few years and forgot about it. I should take a look again. Might be helpful.
Radio Paradise They have Main, Rock, Mellow and Global streams. Been listening since they started and Global is currently my favourite.
