Your Favorite Ways to Discover New Music?

[kxra]

Some of my favorite ways to discover new music is through Discover Weekly, Release Radar, Daily mixes, artist/song radio stations and United States Viral 50. The United States Viral 50 is a daily updated playlist of the most shared and talked about songs in the U.S. This is different from United States Top 50 because the Top 50 is simply the current most streamed songs. I enjoy the Viral 50 more because it opens the door for finding unique songs and discovering talented artists that are not very well known.

I would really like to hear some of the ways that the Spotify community is discovering new music. In addition, do you have any tips on the side for anyone who is struggling to discover music they will love? Thanks!

[AWildYouth]

Hey,

I mostly use Spotify-based discovery tools too. Here are a few more strategies I use:

1. Seperate YouTube account only for music (remember to switch if you are watching something else!). It gives surprisingly good recommendations. 

2. LastFm suggests gives song/artist/album suggestions. However, the most useful thing is finding your music 'neighbours'. Looking at what they listen to is great for discovery.

3. Social media e.g. music discord channels can allow you to directly get suggestions from others. 

4. Random music discovery websites. Check out this list if you're interested.

Happy listening!

[Ivan]

Hey folks, 

Since I started using Spotify this question has appeared to me many times and I'm glad it comes up in the Community as well. There's no universal way of finding new music, considering every time you search you're looking for something specific. Let's say your next search and your previous ones are never alike. 

However, with time I noticed I tend to use certain features when looking for new discoveries or just for some sounds for the moment. I never got used to Discover Weekly or the Release Radar, so here's what I do to find new music on Spotify: 

Spotify Radio

I was born in times when radio was still a thing and I was using this technology until some late teenage years of mine. The transition from analog radio stations to Internet ones was so smooth I couldn't even notice. But the radio has always been a great way to find new music randomly. Spotify makes it even easier - you can narrow down the kind of music you want to discover by defining the genre of the radio station. I'm still amazed by the possibility to start a radio station based on any Spotify item (artist, album, song, playlist). As of today, I still use the radio as a first resort way to get some music shuffled every time I'm online. 

Web player recommendations

As I'm a big fan of any kind of app versions suitable for a web browser I use the Spotify web player on a daily basis. I also find very useful the features suggesting new content I should try out (For fans of, Recommended radio, Based on your recent listening and More like) since they offer some variety in choice.

Organic search

And of course, the good old traditional way - just go as you feel it. The Search bar is always up there on my disposal when I think of something I want to listen to right now. I find it pretty convenient how the search results are distributed in Songs, Artists, Albums, Playlists, Podcasts and Profiles. 

Hope I've given you some good ideas. Cheers! 

[musicorumgenius]

wth, it says it posts but doesn't... Let's try this

• Spotify
  • Discover Weekly & Release Radar
  • New Releases (I go through every listed song like clockwork on Fri)
  • Your Daily Mixes (I only play songs that I haven't heard before)
  • Family Mix (For those of you who have a family plan)
  • Missed Hits (Always some good gems I missed)
  • Friend Activity (Sometimes find a song from someone on the friends list)
  • Fans Also Like (In Artist profile I click on this button to see other artists)
  • Popular/Latest Release (In the Artist's Profile)
  • Search Game (I will type a word or phrase and find a ton of hits) 
  • Genres & Moods (I will find a playlist and check out songs)
  • Podcasts (My least used method but have found one or two that are ok)
  • Charts (USA and other countries Top 50 and Top 50 Viral)
  • Spotify Recommendations (Bottom of playlist / find new songs)
  • Radio (Same as Pandora)
• SubmitHub 
  • Hot or Not (I rate people's music.  Very underground)
  • Popular (It's a top 50 type thing but it's only people who submit music)
  • List of Curators (Blogs ETC. that I might check out)
  • Chat (An AOL style chat room)
• Last.FM
  • Play Your Recommendations (Music suggestions based on my Spotify)
  • Following (The Social Aspect of this is great.  Find a ton of songs)
  • New Releases (Also contains songs that will be released in the future)
  • Charts (Same thing as Spotify's Top 50)
• DrownedInSound Community
• Pandora
• YouTube
• Shazam
• Fragrantica (The Forum's)
• The Wire Music Chat Room (Some really weirdo's in there though)
• Radio, TV, Movies, ETC

*Edit*  

Just thought of this one too... When musicians have concerts check out who they bring on because usually they are solid too.

[musicorumgenius]

If anyone was wondering, you can't write a novel lol!! Probably a word limit

[Sebasty]

Lmao 😂 the list itself is already huge!

Regarding music discoveries and last.fm, it's unofficial community server ran by one of its mods has given me so much cool content to listen to.
The amount of which means I no longer rely on spotify to discover new stuff.

I also check out stuff my favourite artists swoon over.

I'm also a bit slow when it comes to digging, I mostly only do the above.
Less often:
- looking up genre playlists in everynoise.com

- using Spotify search by entering something like

track:white NOT christmas NOT noise NOT genre:metal NOT genre:pop-rap

and listening to the resulting songs.

[AdamDamon]

While I don’t discover music at a particularly fast pace either, here are the ways by which I’ve typically found music on Spotify that is new to me and that I enjoy:

• Check out the recommendations on the Home screen and on Browse -> Discover
• Check out other Spotify users’ playlists that are listed on the “About -> Discovered On” sections for the profiles of artists whom I enjoy listening to
• Check the new posts on Facebook from the World of Psychedelic Music group and The Obelisk blog site, as well as for news of new releases by artists whom I follow on Facebook
• Browse the Playlist Exchange and Music Chat boards of the Spotify Community for threads of interest
• See what the last.fm users whom I follow have been listening to, by checking out their recent scrobbles
• Check Friend Activity and listen to unfamiliar artists that Spotify users whom I follow are listening to
• Listen to Spotify’s playlists for genres that I’m less familiar with, by selecting Browse -> Genres & Moods
• Check Discover Weekly each week (mine sometimes has recommendations that I enjoy listening to)

Cheers!

[Ege-S]

I would recommend following the topics in this community and people too (on Spotify ofc :D). If you open up the desktop app and keep an eye on friend activity on the right side of the page you can discover many songs from many people.

[user-removed]

Release Radar, Discover Weekly , and Digging through the reccomendations at the bottom of the artist pages. Have found some great music from band's with >100 listeners 🔥

[musicorumgenius]

Question for the community...

How do you divide your time listening to music?

For example for myself, 40% percent of the time is discovery of new songs, 45% listening to songs I already heard and love, 15% of my time is focused on playlist creation, running my Facebook group, and sharing  my songs with you all here