Music Discovery What Are Your Sources For Discovering New Music?

I Last.fm on an artist i like and then click on similar artists.

  On 8/1/2012 at 10:08 PM, beerwolf said:

good question mr joyrex,

 

I need more info into experimantal/alternative/guitar type bands. My usual sources don't seem to cover this too much. electronic stuff I have nailed but most of my guitar based recommendations came from mates who are all bringing up kids at the moment. One of which told me last week the last album he bought was SOADs Mesmerize which came out about 8 years ago!!

 

Stuff having kids then lol

That's sort of the stuff I'm getting into right now - dunno if it's exactly what you're looking for, but off the top of my head:

Caribou

Casiokids

The Naked and Famous

My Robot Friend

Heartsrevolution

Von Iva

Fat Chen

Cut // Copy

Abe Vigoda

Natalie Portman's Shaved Head (I shit you not - I LOLed so hard when I heard this song and liked it and then checked out who it was by)

Fan Death

The Big Pink

LIGHTS

Bear Hands

That's all I can remember - I'm sure there are others

the law of attraction

i usually just take an artist i like and find stuff through youtube related vid, or i go by genre and search all of the recent releases of the genre or the classics if im new

really i find some good albums to launch off of, this musical journey could probably be traced to 13 year old me sitting in my room listening to Sabbath... good times

but the best discoveries are the ones that no one told you to listen to, dig?

Essentially, i'm just waiting for the Rephlex website update.

I follow some musicians I like on twitter, they often recommend people they receive demos from or really obscure old records.

WATMM and people messaging me on Youtube. Sometimes I find stuff and I'm not sure how I did/don't remember it. Such as Foals or Klaxons.

Well!

Wikipedia & interviews - look up artists you like, find their influences, collaborations, remixes, appearances elsewhere, anything they've touched/been involved in really.

Social media sites - follow your favourite artists on twitter or facebook or whatever else you use. Not only keeps you up to date with them (without having to scout them out individually) and they post the occasional track/artist they like.

Music media sites - last.fm, soundcloud, allmusic, etc. Explore recommendations, see who the artist is following and even who's following them. Also check out websites exclusively dedicated to music reviews/discussions.

Online music stores - bleep, boomkat, 14tracks, bandcamp, etc. Sample whatever new stuff they're putting out or just casually browse their store.

Blogs - find a few good blogs where stuff you like is consistently posted, explore their friends, build your network.

Record labels - like the blogs, keep up to date with records labels that consistently pump out stuff you like.

Radio - the original way everyone discovered new music...? Anyway, find programs/stations that play stuff you like. There's a program here in Australia called The Sound Lab and the host is a big experimental/electronic music fan. Her 3 hour show often plays new and local releases and can be streamed online for a week after it airs. Discovered so many artists from her show.

Forums - WATMM's new releases, etc. Pretty self-explanatory. And as much as I hate to say it, a lot of fanboy forums occasionally post good recommendations.

Compilations - I used to hate Various Artist albums, but considering they stick to a "theme" or similar genre, it's a great way to find artists with a similar sound.

Local talent - check it out. Seriously. Go to random gigs. Actually listen to support acts. A lot will be shit, but you'll find a gem every now and then. Websites that promote local music definitely help [the wallet].

Friends - ask them what they're digging, go to gigs for artists they like, etc. And keep up to date with them. I have a friend in Trinidad and another in bumfuck-nowhere UK who often forward me plenty of obscure stuff I would have never heard of before!

Free stuff - never turn down free music! CDs at gigs, street vendors, websites or labels. To point out another Aussie thing: NewWeirdAustralia and its sister site Wood & Wire just give away free experimental/electronic/other music to help promote artists. Good shit!

  On 8/1/2012 at 11:49 PM, luke viia said:

man, boomkat spams one of my inboxes with pretty much a newsletter a day. every album is "a must have" "super rare" "HIGHLY recommended" "newly unearthed" "atmospheric gem" from an artist that i've never heard of or will ever hear of again outside the boomkat bubble. whoever is writing these emails, tone it the fuck down please.

Took the words right out of my mouth matey. If I was to pay attention to Boomkat I'd have no money and a pile of records nobody has ever heard of. Their descriptions of records is radically OTT

  On 8/2/2012 at 11:05 AM, beerwolf said:

  On 8/1/2012 at 11:49 PM, luke viia said:

man, boomkat spams one of my inboxes with pretty much a newsletter a day. every album is "a must have" "super rare" "HIGHLY recommended" "newly unearthed" "atmospheric gem" from an artist that i've never heard of or will ever hear of again outside the boomkat bubble. whoever is writing these emails, tone it the fuck down please.

 

Took the words right out of my mouth matey. If I was to pay attention to Boomkat I'd have no money and a pile of records nobody has ever heard of. Their descriptions of records is radically OTT

Boomkat's favourite word is 'ESSENTIAL'. To be fair, they used to serve me right during the '00s. I would always scour the new releases section religiously, and hoover up some great stuff, but in recent years I became jaded with the tedious fawning over practically anything and everything new. I prefer the down to earth nature of Norman Records' write-ups, always quite fun but more importantly, they're brutally honest (even if they think something is shit!)

- Soundcloud: following a few favourite known artists and using them as a springboard to their favourites is a gold mine;

- Bandcamp: terrible for locating something specific, but that's the beauty of it, finding something you didn't even know you were looking for;

- Unspecified naughty blogs: yes, it's frowned upon, but I've discovered so many artists this way that I would rarely have sought out through other means. Definitely a good 'try before you buy' method (and yes, I do go on to buy the music that I like).

WATMM is my main source. Newsletters from labels/shops also but not as much. I've found that I have stopped looking for new music as much as I used to. I follow so many groups and artists that just keeping up with their releases is enough.

  On 8/1/2012 at 8:50 PM, Joyrex said:

I've been finding a lot of good new artists and music from the online radio station out of San Francisco called Somafm.com - they have a streaming app for IOS (not sure about Android) as well as streams off their site directly - they have good diverse "channel" lineup geared toward specific genres and listening types. The iOS app has a good bookmark/find on iTunes feature that I can mark songs as I hear them, then go seek out the artist/music later.

yes, soma.fm is great. i donate to them occasionally. i'm actually drinking from my soma.fm matte black mug right now.

  On 8/2/2012 at 2:30 PM, jasondonervan said:

  On 8/2/2012 at 11:05 AM, beerwolf said:

  On 8/1/2012 at 11:49 PM, luke viia said:

man, boomkat spams one of my inboxes with pretty much a newsletter a day. every album is "a must have" "super rare" "HIGHLY recommended" "newly unearthed" "atmospheric gem" from an artist that i've never heard of or will ever hear of again outside the boomkat bubble. whoever is writing these emails, tone it the fuck down please.

 

Took the words right out of my mouth matey. If I was to pay attention to Boomkat I'd have no money and a pile of records nobody has ever heard of. Their descriptions of records is radically OTT

 

Boomkat's favourite word is 'ESSENTIAL'. To be fair, they used to serve me right during the '00s. I would always scour the new releases section religiously, and hoover up some great stuff, but in recent years I became jaded with the tedious fawning over practically anything and everything new. I prefer the down to earth nature of Norman Records' write-ups, always quite fun but more importantly, they're brutally honest (even if they think something is shit!)

Too true on all counts. Boomkat still introduces me to new and interesting stuff - I usually check out their 14tracks.com selections, as some of those are pretty good. But I just feel like a lot of the stuff they big up these days is so obscure for a reason: it's fucking dull.

One more, Sonar festival.

Every year I go I find a few more people that I now follow, listen to and purchase off. It's just so damn good.

I do listen to Soma I found it on my list of iTunes stations. I listen to cliqhop a lot. My friend listens to a bunch of stuff that I've not heard of, so I get some from him too. I look around on Last too.

the internet, friends and record stores. i love walking into amoeba and just checking covers or listening to what's playing in the background. i've ran into a couple of favorite artists that way.

Google, Juno, Beatport...

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Tsugi Magazine, sometime Trax Magazine & others magazines which interest me

Facebook

A lot of blogspots

Beatport

Bleep

Artists officials sites

WATMM

MusicMe

qobuz

Bandcamp

Juno Download

Soundcloud

Some sites from : http://www.head-fi.org/a/high-res-music-download-sites

Sometime YouTube

Some friends not only from France

Google

Compilations from internet or magazines

Labels Records sites like Monkeytown, Warp, Planet Mu...

Sometime Wikipedia

Sometime magnatune.com, HDTracks & resonancestore.com

sometime iTunes (not 2 buy, only 2 C the news & streaming), Deezer & Spotify

etc.

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lol

nodata

here, bleep, factmag, planet-mu, igloomag, random soundcloud scouring, couple of blogspots and for the masochist in me, i also await rephlex site updates.

watmm/what/waffles/slsk/discogs

Bandcamp[i`m always finding quality stuff]

Various forums

Igloomag

Sonic Immersion

Rate Your Music[mainly older stuff, but it`s new to me]

Rephlex!

oh wait...