This post was originally going to be titled “How does music discovery on Apple Music compare to Spotify these days?” but I want to make it more broad.
All advice and ideas appreciated!
They are currently my local NPR station and have great music programs and DJs that align with my tastes. I will miss them dearly when I move next month but their music streams are available for free on other platforms too.
High five! I find a lot of new music through my local NPR/college radio station too: https://kglt.net/
I listen to my local college radio station, as well as a handful of others on TuneIn. It’s nice having an idea of what people under 30 are into.
Thanks for the TuneIn callout. For some reason I’ve never bothered with a radio app but this is pretty slick. I should probably RTFM but it looks like like you can tune in nationally/globally? I gotta figure out where the cool kids are enrolling these days.
Yep! You can listen live to whatever is hosted on there. It’s definitely not everything, but I bet a solid 75% of US-based radio stations are on there. Can’t speak much to non-US radio, but I have listened to some stuff out of Germany before.
Another cool one is the site n10.as. It’s a volunteer radio station out of Toronto (I think). It’s primarily reruns these days, but there are still some folks doing live shows.
All of the BBC stations used to be on TuneIn, but they got pulled a couple of years ago, which pissed me off.
As a Brit, your college stations always fascinated me. We have student radio here, but it’s a completely different vibe. From what I’ve heard of your stations, they sound almost professional, with good presenters spinning the tracks they want to play, whereas our student radio is mostly just people learning how to talk into a mic, reading news bulletins poorly, and playing whichever tracks happen to already be on the playout system.
And I speak as someone who was involved in my university’s radio station when I was there, studying for a radio production degree…
My university’s college radio station runs the full gamut of what you described. It’s kind of interesting how they do it.
Broadcasting students get to have a show after completing certain core courses. They begin over summer, when listenership is very low. Listening to the station in late June/early July is adorable. I should actually tune in today, now that I’m thinking about it, because it’s around time for all the baby broadcasters to be doing their beginner shows.
Students must have the option to end their show at some point, because a lot of student broadcasters just kinda disappear. Others, though, will stay on for 2 or 3 years as they finish their degree. Some of them become VERY good.
If you’re happy to reveal such information, what’s your local station, because I’d like to hear it.
I haven’t listened in a few months, so now I’m nervous that there won’t be any cute, terrified new kids this year lol.
Either way, it’s a good station. Enjoy!
EDIT Listening now. We’re good… Mathea B. seems pretty flustered 😅
Cheers!
When I am actively looking for some new bands to check out I use https://www.gnoosic.com/ It is surprisingly spot on, at least for me
Doing it now! What’s the strategy for the initial recommendations it makes for artists? Are these the primary suggestions, or are they meant to dial in recommendations later? I’m not sure if I should be searching them or responding “I don’t know” when I’m not familiar with them.
Depending on what I am looking for:
- BBC Radio 6: mainly new stuff, although I have been surprised with very good oldies.
- The newsletter To the teeth for all things metal https://totheteeth.substack.com/ The playlist in spotify is really good too.
- Last.fm, even if it’s not as used anymore, I still find very good recommendations there.
- Spotify Discovery playlist has surprised me a lot in the past, but not that much lately. It suggests me what I was in the mood to listen to last week, maybe not that much today. The daily mixes are fine, but it’s pushing the same songs too much.
- The website https://1001albumsgenerator.com even if I am not a fan of some genres, it’s good to learn about some records.
From this same thread I am sure I will use https://www.gnoosic.com in the future.
Honestly, YouTube for exploration and Bandcamp for purchases and additional suggestions.
Sometimes YouTube or NPR but my favorite visual way to do it is with Music Map. You type in the artist and it brings up a map of similar ones. The closer an artist is to the one you searched for, the more similar they are.
Most of the time it’s just YouTube and last.fm (I want something similar to something I like or find something new I like - I go through similar artists).
A little less, but still a significant amount - Radio Garden, I have a handful of stations favorited (Shoutout to ‘Radio is a foreign country’, they’re on YouTube and soundcloud as well among others), but sometimes I just “roll the globe” and point and check out what they have on in like, Ghana or something.
Another internet radio thing is SomaFM, though out of their stations I tend to stay on DroneZone the most for some great ambient picks.
A variety of ways, but probably most commonly by browsing Discogs and rateyourmusic.com. Discogs is great for looking through labels that release the music you already like, finding side projects of your favorite artists, or just diving into random genres.
Rateyourmusic, is an interesting one. The website as a whole certainly has a certain preferences, but its genre charts are great for getting started with new genres of music and getting a foundation in genres you aren’t familiar with.
Last.fm is also a great tool as others have mentioned.
YouTube’s videos with interesting tittles.
Another question: what’s your strategy when approaching a new band that catches your attention?
Listen to most popular? Pick an album and ride?
I just had the though that picking from an artists 1st - 3rd album might be a good alternative to looking at whatever is most recent.
I check Wikipedia or wherever first, not for reviews but just to get a sense of when they were most active or just to get a full discography. Sometimes I notice Spotify just straight up doesn’t have some bands oldest stuff, so it helps me figure out where I want to start
I listen to music the most in bed so that’s when most of the discovery happens and Tidal and Bandcamp are my platforms of choice, thinking of dropping Spotify.
On Bandcamp I’ll look at artists that have worked with artists I know I enjoy as well as their production companies.
When I’m using Tidal, I’ll have a playlist full of stuff I like, make an empty playlist, add things to the new playlist that I’m thinking of adding to the old one, listen to and modify it until I feel like I enjoy the playlist, and then merge the two.
Once it hits like 500 I do a little cleaning, keep the favorites from particular artists, and look for other stuff to add.
Pretty much only use Tidal for ambient/experimental electronic music so theres plenty of stuff to rummage through.
I tend to use a combination of youtube/bandcamp and music blogs to source new music.
Have also set up [email protected] as a community to record any recommended links. It’s looking a bit sparse at the moment.
Few places:
- Sputnikmusic
- Youtuber recommendations (people into the same kind of music I am into)
- Youtube Music suggestions
- Instagram pages dedicated to specific niche genres I am into
Bandcamp + music played in cafes/bars + Shazam
The Daily Mixes from Spotify have done a great job of figuring out what I enjoy, and finding more of it from different artists
