[POLL] How do you discover new music?

This ongoing thread is invaluable for finding out about new music:

Best New Albums of 2018

 

College stations, the internet and the Hoffman forum.

 

Streaming

Specifically Pandora.

 

Lately, I have been finding new music in the Thrift store. Usually it will be a name that I am familiar with, but have never purchased anything by that artist. Got some country music, some rock, Got A BTO CD, a Jackson Brown,
One by Bill Mumy, An REO Speedwagon, and a Ramones Greatest Hits

 

Sometimes playing video games like GTA or Mafia II introduced me to a variety of music.

Mafia II I found about Little Richard, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters etc... With GTA, I found out a large portion of music from different eras from multiple variations of their games.

 

I rarely hear anything in the mainstream that interests me.
The zeitgeist & me went out separate ways many years ago.

 

I imagine this happening for 99% of us, here.

 

Modern Music | WDET

 

Here!
Pink Fish Media,
Friends,
Very occasionally Radio Scotland,
Very, very occasionally TV.

 

Seems like 90% of the new music I discover is music I hear on TV these days. I don't listen to much music on the radio (NPR or classical is all I listen to on the radio in the car), and I don't subscribe to streaming services, so it's usually random chance that I'll hear something on a TV show and Shazam it, or I'll (very occasionally) hear something in a public place that sounds interesting. From time to time I'll find something that someone has posted on social media that I like, but that's quite rare.

I have somewhere in the vicinity of 10,000 CDs, so I'm not really on the lookout for new stuff; I have plenty to listen to already. New stuff is always found by chance with me.

 

I was actually wondering what it means to discover music on TV nowadays, didn't take TV shows into account.

 

One of the biggest ways I find new music is to survey all the year-end best lists. I will try to check out stuff that either comes from specific critics or publications that generally track to my tastes, or look for records that show up on lots of lists.

I don’t have the time or energy to seek out the latest stuff all on my own, so I like to let the people who do it professionally separate the wheat from the chaff for me.

 

Album of the Year has an in-depth list of new releases with links to amazon samples. It's my go to page.

New Album Releases, New Music

You can also find full streams of releases before their drop on NPR's First Listen.

First Listen

 

Most recently, it has been from these forums.
My friend who listens to a lot of newer indie things will suggest I hear something as well a lot of times.

 

This forum!
YouTube
Allmusic

For “new” I include new to me, from pretty much any decade. YouTube and Allmusic are good places to sample music before buying.

SH.tv is essential to track down the best mastering. I refuse to buy loudness wars victims. Dynamic Range Database is helpful too.

 

This isn't exhaustive, but these are the main ways that I discover new(-to-me) stuff.

(1) I regularly look at both the overall and genre-specific (re about 50 genres that I like the most) charts on rym (rateyourmusic) (I usually search by year on rym, not by decade or all-time, because you get a lot more by year) and check out everything listed. I also regularly look at a variety of Billboard charts and check out everything listed. I look at both new and historical charts--the entire historical run of both rym and Billboard charts.

(2) I'm very OCDish re being a completist. So I use Wikipedia, rym, discogs and AllMusic to not only collect complete discographies of artists I like even moderately, but I also collect "appearances." So, for example, I don't just collect every Bill Bruford, Earthworks, etc. album. I collect every album that Bruford has played on. That leads me to a lot of artists I wouldn't have found out about otherwise, and that extends to the new artists. For example, I first checked out David Torn because of Bruford. Well, then I loved David Torn, too, so I collected all of his albums and everything he played on. That keeps leading to new artists I wouldn't have discovered otherwise.

(3) I collect labels in some cases, as well as series, such as the Chronological Classics series (and not just the jazz, but the R&B and country Chronological Classics, too--that led me to a lot of artists I wasn't already familiar with). Collecting labels is particularly helpful as a world music fan, as a lot of world music is easiest to find if you just focus on collecting particular labels that specialize in it, since so much world music isn't artist-oriented. Re series, that's also helpful for world music--stuff like the Rough Guide series, for example. Series have been really helpful for some other genres, too, via various artist collections. For example, the WOW Gospel series. Re world music, I'll also just regularly search for any music from various countries, and I'll search for specific types of music as I learn about them--particular instruments, traditions, etc.

(4) I discover some stuff via word-of-mouth, including via posts on this message board.

(5) Radio (some Sirius-XM stations as well as non-commercial terrestrial radio), TV and films. Re TV, both soundtrack appearances and talk show etc. performances might lead me to someone. A couple examples: I discovered Junip because a song was featured on the show "The Brave," and I first heard Alabama Shakes via their "Saturday Night Live" performance.

(6) I discover a not insignificant amount of stuff by "accident." That can happen in a number of ways. For example, if I enter a search for something on Amazon streaming, other stuff will pop up, too. I keep my eyes open for things that look interesting, and I'll add them just to check them out. Another example--if I'm searching for a particular artist or title on rym, other stuff will be in the results, too. Same thing there. I'll add things that look interesting.

(7) In the vein of being an OCDish completist, when I'm reading stuff about or comments from favorite musicians, I'll check out music from other associations they had, stuff they plug, etc.

(8) I look for CDs at the library that I'm not familiar with (which is aided by the fact that I'm able to use the New York Public Library). The library has also been a great source for world music.

(9) Musical artists I run across in person, of course.

Avenues that I used to use but that I haven't used at all in awhile include browsing retail stores, buying stuff from garage sales and thrift shops, and buying stuff from eBay. When I was doing that regularly, I would always be on the lookout for stuff I wasn't familiar with that looked interesting, OR, if it was really cheap, including cut-out bin stuff, I would buy ANYTHING I wasn't familiar with just to check it out.

 

I haven't discovered anything from commercial terrestrial radio in a long time, but I still discover stuff from non-commercial terrestrial radio stations--public radio (including WBGO; I don't just mean NPR and the like, but that, too), as well as college radio and stations like WFMU.

 

Same here. I should have included video games with my radio, TV and film category.

 

Re discovering stuff on TV, by the way, when we're talking about incidental/soundtrack tunes, it helps if you watch with subtitles on (which is something I've long done, partially because mumbled/slurred/etc. dialogue is so common in the modern era and I'm also OCDish about not missing any dialogue). The subtitles will often announce the artist and song title of tunes playing in the background.

With films, you can check the end credits or check the soundtrack credits on IMDb (though those are often missing or incomplete on newer or more obscure films). With TV shows, the credits go so fast, and often they squish them, they're often blurry, etc., so sometimes the only way to see what a tune was is via the subtitles.

Occasionally, as with the recent "Black Lightning" series, which has had an excellent soundtrack, you can find soundtrack listings online. But that's rare.

 

I discover most new (and new old) stuff mostly from recommendations here.

Youtube and word of mouth are about tied for second place.

 

Mostly from magazines and online publications, occasionally word of mouth from friends or from this forum. I don't really listen to radio anymore and it's a very long time ago that I've discovered an artist on television. I do use streaming to give something a listen first before buying, but I very rarely discover new music that way.

 

Here, thanks to all of you who post clips...

and a couple of other forums.

I sit in front of a computer 8 hours a day so that makes it pretty easy

 

The debacle of printed magazines is somewhat surprising. Or maybe not.

 

Radio for classic rock that I may not already be familiar with, and streaming for newer artists. I'm constantly impressed with how good streaming services are at matching my favorite bands with new artists that are similar.

 

I voted Printed Magazines - mainly Mojo for new rock releases and the Wire for anything else - and Other.

The Other is going to gigs. I've lost count of the artists I now follow though looking at listings (mainly at cafe Oto or The Vortex in London )and thinking "That sounds interesting"...