[POLL] How do you discover new music?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by pathosdrama, Apr 22, 2018.

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  1. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    Many of the people on this board, of course, and they're proud of it.

    I discover almost all of my new music from online publications and message boards like this one. If I hear about a new release that sounds like something I might be interested in, I whip over to YouTube or Spotify to check it out. If it takes hold for me, I'll go ahead and order the CD. There's a lot of trial and error, but it's a good resource for sampling unfamiliar stuff.
     
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  2. Ivand

    Ivand Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    Spotify and the SH Music forum.
     
  3. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    Online publications like Spin and Pitchfork and IMWAN, plus newspapers like the NY Times.
    NPR.
    Streaming.
    Here.
     
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  4. mwheelerk

    mwheelerk Sorry, I can't talk now, I'm listening to music...

    Location:
    Gilbert Arizona
    I selected Streaming but do get many recommendations on this site also. Streaming has just made it so easy to try a wide variety of things.
     
  5. tinnox

    tinnox Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    This forum !
     
  6. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    All of the above, plus simply walking into a record store and buying an album on implode based on its cover art, label, producer and other credits, and/or general hunch has been working for me for the last 40-plus years, so why stop now?
     
  7. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    I like to think of it as happy accidents. Over the years i have used all things listed. I havent listened to the radio for years, because it seems to go nowhere fast and discovering something "new" seems unlikely.
    I guess these days it's often word of mouth and then some youtube referencing.
    For example, if i read someone raving about an artist here, i may well search something of theirs on youtube and give it a listen whilst doing my paperwork at work.
     
  8. ToneLa

    ToneLa Forum Resident

    They're not fans of music, then. They're fans of nostalgia, fans of themselves, they're tired and afraid of change. Anything as long as it's reassuring and familiar, huh? I'd better duck... ;)

    I am as likely to castigate those who don't listen to the past though. That's juuuust as ignorant...
     
  9. wiseblood

    wiseblood Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston, MA, USA
    I think you should have 2 different options for radio. FM and Satellite are two remarkably different mediums. I can honestly say that since 2005 I've listened to FM rock radio for a grand total of 60 minutes at most. It's all trash.

    Satellite on the other hand? That's where it's at. Not for sound quality, but definitely for discovery and general listening. I also like Spotify for the car. And podcasts.
     
  10. Davey

    Davey NP: Hania Rani/Dobrawa Czocher ~ Inner Symphonies

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    Mostly reading online reviews and hanging around here, this morning listening to the great Carla Dal Forno You Know What It's Like from 2016, which has become one of my recent favorites since reading about it around here, I could tell a lot more stories like that ... Carla Dal Forno - "You Know What It's Like" (2016)
     
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  11. cgw

    cgw Forum Resident

    Location:
    Upstate NY
    This forum.
    Youtube.
    Once in a while I'll just goggle "best new bands" or something of the sort
    (Not only do I look for new acts, but acts I missed in the day)
    Researching bands that are coming to town.
    I spend a fair amount of my evenings doing this.

    I listen to a modern rock station at times in the car but I don't know if I have aver picked up on a new band that way (maybe once or twice).
    I haven't picked up on a band in a magazine since I subscribed to Rolling Stone in the early 80s.
    Definitely not TV (probably ever)
    No streaming
    I don't know many people that pass along good acts to me (historically it is the other way around)
     
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  12. pathosdrama

    pathosdrama Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Firenze, Italy
    Damn, you're right :eek:
     
  13. YardByrd

    YardByrd rock n roll citizen in a hip hop world

    Location:
    Europe
    Research is my preferred method... and if that sounds academic, it's more along the lines of a) "they were influenced by ______" b) "they came out of the same scene as ______" c) "once he left _____ he hooked up with ______"...

    More like a game of degrees of separation...
     
  14. Wally Swift

    Wally Swift Yo-Yoing where I will...

    Location:
    Brooklyn New York
    New to me? Digging in the crates. New as in just made? If it comes to me fine but I don't seek it out.
     
  15. bamaaudio

    bamaaudio Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    That's pretty sad if so. I've regularly attended 'indie' shows for a while with artists artists who are almost always younger than me. At first I assumed I'd be the oldest guy in the crowd but it hasn't appeared to be the case at any shows that I can recall. Many have had plenty of guys in their 30s and 40s and might have had more if not for people wanting to be out late on a work night and/or family obligations. There's plenty of great new music and I'd hate to ignore it just because I also happen to enjoy other music from the past.

    As for the OP's question I've mostly been using online publications, review sites, and discussion groups since at least the late 90s to discover new music. And once the places like Youtube and the streaming services gained traction those have been extremely handful in both previewing and running across great, 'new' music. So really not much has changed in the last twenty years in that regard for me. since I've been gravitating for online help with finding music since junior high. If anything, I'd say now is much easier with the sheer amount of resources.
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2018
  16. snepts

    snepts Forum Resident

    Location:
    Eugene, OR
    While on the one hand, I hate to admit my passion for music has waned a bit, but here I am ! So I guess I'm still interested.
    When I was younger me and my buddies had older brothers and free-form radio to listen to. I'd always read the credits on LPs and try to connect the dots. Plus good ol' Rolling Stone and other rags. I ended up working in record stores and fellow employees were great at turning me onto stuff.
    But since the 90s I don't seem to run with a very interesting bunch. Just about everybody seems to stick to the old stuff, the stuff they know, or they just don't care about music much.
    However, not long ago I did run into a guy who was big into Drive-By Truckers, Jason Isbell, Dave Rawlings, plus he was getting into jazz.
    I turned him onto Butterfield and Hot Tuna and Mingus Ah Um, and pointed out Spirit and Spooky Tooth when they came on the radio.
    He likes Iris DeMent so I tried to get him to listen to Greg Brown, but I'm not sure he got that far.
    And he liked a band called Lucero that I'm still unfamiliar with.

    I'll quit blabbing, but I'd like to shout-out one of our local public radio stations, KRVM. They mix in new music that fits with CSNY, Joni, Dylan, Steely Dan, etc. Plus free-standing "boutique" shows like Country Classics and Son of Saturday Gold, where they play some pretty deep cuts.
    They actually teach high school students how to run a radio station, and often they don't know how to pronounce the names (DYE-lin, RAY-itt, haha).
    Even if I don't jump on the music I'm not familiar with, it's great hearing stuff that's appealing but not hackneyed.
    And of course, there's still a ton of old music that's new to me. Then Play On.
     
  17. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    "Peer services", such as the little strip on an Amazon product page that says, "purchasers of this item also bought...", as well as the one at the bottom that said, "purchasers of this product also looked at...". I spent about 7 rears researching a format I was writing, for the online station I did for 5 years. I spent probably half of my life under headphones during those years.

    I was looking for specific types of music, trying to avoid the obvious choices and artist connections, and titles that were compatible with the countrours of the music I'd already determined would be the core of the station's sound. So, automatically-picked lists seemed to me like a great way of getting familiar with genres I'd not even seen named yet. I smashed a lot of music styles together one doesn't usually think of as being compatible. It was a pretty smooth product.

    I also payed attention to the other song links at the side of a YouTube page when you bring up a music video, seeking for artists and songs I was unaware of.

    My wife and I are Couchsurfer hosts, so a lot of people from far-away places would come throuogh our doors. I would tell them about my station, and ask them about foreign artists America is "missing out on", and researched every one. I also have a very aware friend who has a great ear for artists under the radar that "sounds like it should fit" on my station. We have a couple of friends from BBC Radio who would visit yearly, and would always bring something they were high on at the moment. As one convention I roomed with a guy who was practically dead-on doing what I was, only as a syndicated Sunday-Morning-type show pitched to Smooth Jazz stations.

    I even put this forum into service on several occasions, whether through PM's, or starting whole threads, with vague requests such as, "Do you remember a female artist from the '90s, I think it was several years before Lilith Faire, but would have fit that mold...she wasn't a well-known talent..." Lot of good feedback off those.

    And finally...various-artist compilations from libraries, record fairs, label promos sent to get airplay, chill compilations from Ibiza-esque locales: wherever I might find unfamiliar artists paired up with artists I knew that were part of my format already.

    Now remember, this was just to discover NEW and UNFAMILIAR artists for the playlist; I was also very proactive in keeping tabs on the artists with high profiles. My wife said she never saw so much music move in and out of our house so quickly.
     
  18. mtvgeneration

    mtvgeneration Forum Resident

    Location:
    CA
    Music TV, where of course there's much sifting through trash to find, for example, a Hozier.

    Online streaming, mainly AudioTree and some specific YouTube channels.

    A bit of Billboard and (not sure if this counts as a "publication") the online write-up side of MTV. It's engaging (unlike most of the alternatives) and not low-brow.
     
  19. mcchocchoc

    mcchocchoc Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oregon
    I picked "other".

    I discover new music various ways, but my go to for decades now has been WAYSIDE MUSIC. Steve has run a tight ship for years and years. Just the other day while sorting things I found a bunch of old forms from when I'd fax him my orders. I can thank Steve for turning me toward what became many of my favorite artists.
     
  20. carlwm

    carlwm Forum Resident

    Location:
    wales
    I'll still buy stuff randomly if it's not too expensive. I might be intrigued by the band name or artwork, possibly the instrumentation with pull me in and sometimes the producer or guest musicians are enough to get me to take a punt.
     
  21. Monosterio

    Monosterio Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Florida
    By watching The Voice.
     
  22. neo123

    neo123 Senior Member

    Location:
    Northern Kentucky
    I discover new bands (new for me even if been around for a while) by either word of mouth or from seeing them perform as an opening band at a concert I attended.

    Some of the bands I discovered that way over the years I knew nothing about prior:

    DragonForce (word of mouth) - Knew absolutely nothing about them and saw that they were coming to a local club by the grad school University I graduated from. Asked around and was told nothing but good things. So, my brother and I went and saw them. Been fans ever since.

    Vintage Trouble - Saw them opening up for The Who five or six years and was blown away. Went out and bought their debut album the next day. And after that I kept up with them, watching them on various late night talk shows performing and bought their second album when it was released a couple years ago. Anticipating their next album.

    Iced Earth (word of mouth) - In the late '80s through the mid 90s, I was in grad school while they were starting out and making a name for themselves. During that time, since I was busy with grad school, I didn't have time to keep up with music except for new releases and concerts from my established favorite bands. So, I really didn't know anything about new artists during that time. Didn't have time to listen to the radio (except when driving and that was just my usual classic rock radio station,) watch MTV, etc. Well, by the time Iced Earth's Something Wicked This Way Comes album was released, I was out of grad school and saw that they were coming to a local club to perform. So, I asked around and was told they were great and were very similar to Iron Maiden and some of the Power Metal bands around. So, my brother (who already had some of their albums) and I went and saw them. I was blown away. The very next day, I went out to the local record stores and bought their entire back catalog along with the new album. Been a big fan ever since.

    Jag Panzer (opening band for Iced Earth at same show) - Their 1984 debut album, Ample Destruction, is a classic early power metal album and I do recall it back then (more than the actual band itself.) Then they dropped off the face of the earth after losing members, breaking up, failed comebacks, etc. Though, I never knew about any of that. Then in '97 when they reunited and started recording again, they decided to tour. They were on the same record label as Iced Earth and that is why they were touring with them. Needless to say, they were new to me and I was blown away. Next day, I went out and bought their current album. Then I frantically searched and searched for their previously older stuff from the '80s and early '90s (all out of print by then.) Took me a while to track it all down, but I eventually did. Been a big fan ever since. Of course they've broken up and reunited a couple times since then. Their newest album that was released last September is a great power metal album. It's just too bad that these guys have regular jobs too and really can't make it a full time gig. So, basically now, they make new music for themselves and longtime fans without much support from the label.

    There are many other examples of bands that I discovered, who may not have been new but were new to me, in similar ways by either word of mouth or seeing them live, opening up for another band.
     
  23. A mix between radio, spotify, and word of mouth from friends. If a friend constantly talks about how good a band is, I will check them out.
     
  24. vinylontubes

    vinylontubes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Katy, TX
    You know, I've often seen an opening act that was better than the headliner. Going to festival concerts will give you opportunities to see acts, you would have otherwise not bother to see.
     
  25. bluesky

    bluesky Senior Member

    Location:
    south florida, usa
    GW / SA
     
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