Your method for discovering great music.

As bdp24 sayeth...

I read classical and jazz threads here in audiogon...

I like to  READ why someone enjoy some music and not only listen to the music first...

Why?

Because i like to explore out of my first reflex personal taste...

Then i prefer reading about music before listening to it or during my first listening .... If not, i will entertain only my innate or acquired actual taste... Reading why someone like this or that can awake some unknown fiber in my brain/soul/heart...

I discovered this way, persian music, indian music and more...

My first persian music was a discarded bad recording of persian tanbur album..

The one who own it discard it to me saying that it was horrible music with horrible sound..

For an unexperimented  north american  ears it was not false... 😁😊

But before listening to this album i read the text inside the cd...

And to my suprise the great classical violonist Yehudi Menihin  said that listening to this persian master of the tanbur was one of the greatest musical experience in his life... I was thinking why it is? Spiritual and rythmic, and harmonic, melodic  consumed  virtuosity in improvisation...

I was stunned... Especially when i listened to this album for the first time and my first persian music album by this sufi master... the sound was not very good but it was listenable...

But guess what?

After 2 listening i was completely flabbergasted....I used this music to meditate time to time and i bought many others persian music on different instruments... Same for India...

The rest is my personal musical history...

Most of my discoveries over the years have been through Pandora, Spotify radio, Linn Jazz radio, Radio Caroline, PowePop Criminals site and reading reviews.

Now you can try before you buy.

I album surf and research, get tips from friends. I had a Qobuz account for a little while and found that it hit the bigger titles, but not the rare groove stuff in post-bop jazz. I think the process of discovery is itself quite rewarding and I enjoy doing the research as well as "the hunt" for a good copy. You learn something about the musicians, the genre and perhaps the cultural context in which they created. All fascinating to me, beyond the simple enjoyment of the music, performance and recording itself. 

My method for discovering great music: I walk over to my record shelves, grab an LP and put it on my turntable. Works every time.