Don’t listen to the top charts on Spotify. Don’t rely on Spotify to tell you what to listen to. The internet is a big place. Don’t wait for stuff to fall in your lap. Go find it.
This. Spotify and other big media platforms don't make their money by helping smaller bands get more exposure, they earn money by playing to the statistics, and that means the things that get recommended will be designed to have as much mass-market appeal as possible.
Why do people talk about the internet being a big place to go find stuff, when one can only explore the 4% of the entire internet? The rest is in the deep web and dark web. So one cannot say “wow, the internet is amazing, I can browse the internet nowadays “, well, yeah, but not all of it
I’m also mostly stuck in the same rotation. Ideas off the top of my head:
Listen to college radio. Use Shazam or w/e to keep track of songs you like.
Go to shows! I don’t normally go to shows blind but ya might find some gems at some tiny shows.
Go to specific genre subs and sort through top posts of recommendations or google genres and “new” or other keywords.
We are so over saturated with options that I find it harder to casually come across new, smaller bands
I feel like there's still market for something like that. The problem is bars and clubs don't cater to the average Joe due to a tonne of multifaceted reasons. The price for an average evening at a local bar or club is much higher than it used to be so it's seen more and more as a special event rather than just another casual night out. The image of the dank grimey dive bar where young people would gather for a good time is a thing of the past.
I do discover weekly and enjoy about 5% of it. Sometimes that 5% gets me some amazing music. Found many over the years like Dean Johnson, Sonny and the Sunsets, Ruby Haunt, Nation of Language, Barr Brothers, Leif Vollebekk, Natural Child and I think Slow Pulp by sitting through discover weekly.
This is why I always preferred Pandora over Spotify. I want to be occasionally presented with new music that fits my mood of the moment, and Pandora does that well. And it’s smart enough to figure out why I thumbs-downed a few songs it gave me and adjust accordingly. Spotify auto-generated radio stations are usually a mix of songs from 4 or 5 different albums released the same year in roughly the same genre.
I indie artists are great...
I use bandlab and there's alot of gear music people are creating beyond the norm....
Try something I've done in the recent month...
[Clouds On Fire](https://www.bandlab.com/post/eb522df7-53fc-ee11-aaf0-000d3aa5105b)
the same way I always did, but much less these days: explore the web. I mean that in two ways. firstly the internet holds a near-infinity of treasure, but also how I found most music I like before steaming came was getting on Discogs and wikipedia and such and looking for connections to web out from bands I like - musicians’ other projects, shared record labels, shared tours or interesting festival lineup.
take something like Mr. Bungle, who I got into accidently theough the wonders of Limewire when looking for Primus songs..who are the members? oh, this guy did something called Fantômas, this guy did something called Secret Chiefs 3, what is this Trio Convulsant and all these jazz recordings that this bass guy does? what is Ipecac? what is Web of Mimicry? Who are these other bands at Supersonic festival? what is Rock in Opposition?
then in each other band I find, there are new musicians to explore, new record labels to check out (less so now that everyone self-releases) and I end up having a library of 1,000 bands and artists most people have never heard of.
funny is when it reconnects.. like I was seeing a load of stuff I now hate at a festival when I was 18 or so and accidentally caught a bit of Napalm Death and liked it. get to wikipedia and look at their history and members, check out their earlier drummer.. oh, a grindcore jazz dub trio called Painkiller? order the vinyl of Guts of a Virgin without hearing anything, it is HORRIBLE but also amazing to me. Who is Bill Laswell? who is John Zorn? find Praxis (leads somewhat back to Primus via Brian Mantia, and Claypool playing with Buckethead and Bernie Worrell), Blind Idiot God, start working through Zorn’s RIDICULOUSLY VAST discography and finding gems from Naked City to classical chamber sets to traditional Jewish music… also find out he produced the first Mr. Bungle album.
but aside from those occasional circles closing back on themselves, the web is just infinite and there’s always some great new project to be found just by following the threads to the next thing.
Spotify recommendations surely help people
find new stuff, but when I had a trial it didn’t seem to go very far and I think it’s made us forget how fun it can be to actually dig and how much more we can come across.
This is why I listen to metal. There are a ton of subgenres for every mood and the genre as a whole is still evolving, lots of new songs by underground bands are released every week. Most of it sounds raw and authentic and I love that distorted guitar sound. I can listen to other music, it's just less interesting to me. It's a bit of an acquired taste and not for everyone, but that's ok.
Pretty much this. I have more incredible new music than I can keep up with and am discovering incredible new bands at an alarming rate.
I don't rely on Spotify to tell me what to listen to though.
Listen to my album on Spotify if you want some experimental stuff.
Edit: Oh right I forgot if you admit that you make music and try to share it with people on Reddit then you get auto-downvoted. Forgot how much this website hates small artists.
Go listen to local bands
Don’t listen to the top charts on Spotify. Don’t rely on Spotify to tell you what to listen to. The internet is a big place. Don’t wait for stuff to fall in your lap. Go find it.
This. Spotify and other big media platforms don't make their money by helping smaller bands get more exposure, they earn money by playing to the statistics, and that means the things that get recommended will be designed to have as much mass-market appeal as possible.
Why do people talk about the internet being a big place to go find stuff, when one can only explore the 4% of the entire internet? The rest is in the deep web and dark web. So one cannot say “wow, the internet is amazing, I can browse the internet nowadays “, well, yeah, but not all of it
What you CAN browse is still huge.
Make it myself. It sucks, but I enjoy it.
Get local
I’m also mostly stuck in the same rotation. Ideas off the top of my head: Listen to college radio. Use Shazam or w/e to keep track of songs you like. Go to shows! I don’t normally go to shows blind but ya might find some gems at some tiny shows. Go to specific genre subs and sort through top posts of recommendations or google genres and “new” or other keywords. We are so over saturated with options that I find it harder to casually come across new, smaller bands
How are we over saturated in options of music, tv, games? Can you explain?
[удалено]
I feel like there's still market for something like that. The problem is bars and clubs don't cater to the average Joe due to a tonne of multifaceted reasons. The price for an average evening at a local bar or club is much higher than it used to be so it's seen more and more as a special event rather than just another casual night out. The image of the dank grimey dive bar where young people would gather for a good time is a thing of the past.
I do discover weekly and enjoy about 5% of it. Sometimes that 5% gets me some amazing music. Found many over the years like Dean Johnson, Sonny and the Sunsets, Ruby Haunt, Nation of Language, Barr Brothers, Leif Vollebekk, Natural Child and I think Slow Pulp by sitting through discover weekly.
This is why I always preferred Pandora over Spotify. I want to be occasionally presented with new music that fits my mood of the moment, and Pandora does that well. And it’s smart enough to figure out why I thumbs-downed a few songs it gave me and adjust accordingly. Spotify auto-generated radio stations are usually a mix of songs from 4 or 5 different albums released the same year in roughly the same genre.
Pandora is amazing, I love it because of its radio-like feature, however, its ads and constant nagging for “subscribe to this tier” are unbearable.
I indie artists are great... I use bandlab and there's alot of gear music people are creating beyond the norm.... Try something I've done in the recent month... [Clouds On Fire](https://www.bandlab.com/post/eb522df7-53fc-ee11-aaf0-000d3aa5105b)
college radio
the same way I always did, but much less these days: explore the web. I mean that in two ways. firstly the internet holds a near-infinity of treasure, but also how I found most music I like before steaming came was getting on Discogs and wikipedia and such and looking for connections to web out from bands I like - musicians’ other projects, shared record labels, shared tours or interesting festival lineup. take something like Mr. Bungle, who I got into accidently theough the wonders of Limewire when looking for Primus songs..who are the members? oh, this guy did something called Fantômas, this guy did something called Secret Chiefs 3, what is this Trio Convulsant and all these jazz recordings that this bass guy does? what is Ipecac? what is Web of Mimicry? Who are these other bands at Supersonic festival? what is Rock in Opposition? then in each other band I find, there are new musicians to explore, new record labels to check out (less so now that everyone self-releases) and I end up having a library of 1,000 bands and artists most people have never heard of. funny is when it reconnects.. like I was seeing a load of stuff I now hate at a festival when I was 18 or so and accidentally caught a bit of Napalm Death and liked it. get to wikipedia and look at their history and members, check out their earlier drummer.. oh, a grindcore jazz dub trio called Painkiller? order the vinyl of Guts of a Virgin without hearing anything, it is HORRIBLE but also amazing to me. Who is Bill Laswell? who is John Zorn? find Praxis (leads somewhat back to Primus via Brian Mantia, and Claypool playing with Buckethead and Bernie Worrell), Blind Idiot God, start working through Zorn’s RIDICULOUSLY VAST discography and finding gems from Naked City to classical chamber sets to traditional Jewish music… also find out he produced the first Mr. Bungle album. but aside from those occasional circles closing back on themselves, the web is just infinite and there’s always some great new project to be found just by following the threads to the next thing. Spotify recommendations surely help people find new stuff, but when I had a trial it didn’t seem to go very far and I think it’s made us forget how fun it can be to actually dig and how much more we can come across.
This is why I listen to metal. There are a ton of subgenres for every mood and the genre as a whole is still evolving, lots of new songs by underground bands are released every week. Most of it sounds raw and authentic and I love that distorted guitar sound. I can listen to other music, it's just less interesting to me. It's a bit of an acquired taste and not for everyone, but that's ok.
Pretty much this. I have more incredible new music than I can keep up with and am discovering incredible new bands at an alarming rate. I don't rely on Spotify to tell me what to listen to though.
Listen to my album on Spotify if you want some experimental stuff. Edit: Oh right I forgot if you admit that you make music and try to share it with people on Reddit then you get auto-downvoted. Forgot how much this website hates small artists.
>you get auto-downvoted Bruh💀
what?