Stop relying on Spotify to discover new music. Yeah, it’s blunt, but trust me, there are better ways to discover new music than relying on an algorithm to tell you what you should be listening to.
As someone who spent almost two decades solely using Spotify, I can safely say that there are way better ways of discovering new music than hoping the streaming platform is going to serve you something new based on your tastes. Don’t get me wrong, Spotify used to be great at recommendations, and I found a lot of good music through user-generated playlists and even Discover Weekly.
Now, however, Spotify is a bit of a cesspit for music discovery, especially if you’re looking for actual recommendations outside of weird AI DJs and “Mixes For You”. So what do you do? I understand that stepping foot outside of the Spotify ecosystem might be a bit daunting, but don’t fear, there are many ways to find your next favourite band or artist.
Music blogs are making a comeback
The age-old music discovery method of trawling and following music blogs remains a valid way to discover new music, especially as social media has made accessing and discovering these blogs significantly easier.
That being said, much like finding new music, how do you discover music blogs to follow? Fortunately, sites like Hype Machine have existed for as long as I can remember and have a long list of regularly updated blogs for most genres. Granted, the website is a little tricky to navigate, but take a bit of time to jump around or search for bands you already dig to find blogs that write about similar music.
Another way to find music blogs is through socials, as previously mentioned, or simply Googling music blogs, or *favourite band name* review.
Usually, you’ll find one or two that really fit your tastes, and from there you’ll be able to find a bunch of new music to listen to.
The influencer era
Social media comes around once again but this time in short form. Sites like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube have given platforms for music listeners to share their love for music. Content creators like The Yellow Button, mallscreamo, lost.after.death, or somewhere_soul are fine examples of those who share their love for music and focus on specific niches.
While the four are just a small example, these platforms are absolutely full of creators eager to share new music, share their favourite artists of all time, or share thoughts about trending albums.
While there isn’t anything like Hype Machine for content creators like this, social platforms like TikTok and Instagram have developed algorithms that, once you interact or engage with certain types of content, it’ll keep pushing similar content in your face – which is a blessing and a curse depending how you look at it.
There are also communities on platforms like Threads where people regularly share their music listening, a couple of tags to follow include Ten Random Listens, Now Playing, and Random Album Of The Day.
last.fm is a music recommendation machine
Now this one is more of a slow burn. The music tracking platform last.fm has existed since 2002, so it has over two decades of music listening data that it uses for its recommendation system, which, I believe, is mostly based on other users’ listening habits.
It does come with a caveat, though. You need to use last.fm in order to get tailored recommendations. Fortunately, platforms like Spotify has last.fm integration built in, so all you’ll need to do is sign up and connect your Spotify and listen as you normally would.
Once you have a couple of months of data under your belt, last.fm’s Recommendation page will offer new artists, tracks, and albums to discover. Some may be based on artists you already listen to, others might recommend albums or tracks from artists you already listen to, giving you the option to dive deeper into that artist.
Outside of music recommendations, last.fm also gives users regular updates on their listening habits, almost like a Spotify Wrapped but every week, month, and year.
Bandcamp, bandcamp, bandcamp!
Bandcamp. That is all.
No, but in all seriousness, Bandcamp is pretty decent for music discovery as you can deep dive into genres you love, or find labels that you vibe with and see their other releases. Bandcamp also supports artists way more than Spotify, sure, it still takes a cut, but the overall pay is way more than $0.00035 per play.
Bandcamp themselves also offer their own discovery blog highlighting new releases, but often I’ve found these releases to already have a pretty mega following.
Take some time to explore Bandcamp, look at different genres, see what artists you like tag their music as and take a deep dive from there. You’ll likely find a lot that you enjoy – as well as many you probably won’t, but that’s the fun, right?
You’ve got a friend in me
This has to be one of the more obvious, but friend recommendations will forever remain one of the best ways to find new music, whether it’s being reminded that an artist you follow has a new album, or someone saying how sick a support act was at a show they attended.
Why not take a stab at starting a shared or collaborative playlist or ask if they have any personal playlists they’ve been curating so you can hear the things they’re vibing with at the moment.
There are also hundreds, if not thousands, of active groups on Facebook that discuss music, as well as Discord channels set up for sharing music. It’s all about community spirit and these are two great ways to dive into a community and discover new music.
Support your local scene
It’s no secret that major artists’ shows are becoming almost impossible to get tickets for. They’re either too expensive or the Hunger Games’ mission you have to go through to possibly end up with nosebleed seats just isn’t worth it.
You know what isn’t any of the above? Local shows. Why not check out the calendar for your local venues, see who’s playing, check out their socials, see if it’s something you vibe with, and grab a ticket? Grassroots shows are usually £5/8 or shows at slightly bigger venues are £15/20. It’s a great way to find new music you may never have heard before, and you have a good time to boot.
Plus, if you really dig one of the bands, you can deck yourself out with merch and then be one of those people who “liked them before they got big”. You know who you are…
Speaking of your local scene, definitely consider local radio stations that support newer or independent artists. In the UK, every weekend, local BBC stations host BBC Introducing, which highlights local talent, for example. This one might be a little trickier, as some may only be available as online radio, but in some ways that’s pretty cool too, as it usually means they’re available worldwide.
Adding to this, why not kick it old school and head to a music or record store and go digging for something you haven’t heard yet? Way back before streaming existed, this was one of the ways many of us found new music, by trawling through racks of CDs and records, picking up anything that looked interesting. You’ll not only be supporting local businesses, but also helping artists pocket a bit more money, too.
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In an era where machines are feeding us recommendations, whether based on human data, based on what the highest bidder is saying we should be listening to, or based on manipulation from bots, we need to get back control of what and how we listen to music. Hopefully, the recommendations above will help with doing so!