Your method for discovering great music.


I'm in a slump. It has been a while since I've discovered new music that I really like. And when I say "new" I mean new to me. Maybe even rediscovered would count as new.

I do not have a method. I usually stumble into new music that I like. I also don't have loads of hours to sort through tons of stuff I don't like. Plus I find that random sort of pursuit to be frustrating and unrewarding most of the time.

Amazon Music had half decent 'recommended for you' lists but I don't recall if that ever paid off. I use Qobuz now which sucks in that particular department.

I've found a few bands that I like from recommendations here at Audiogon but I have not been here much lately.

So I'm curious as to how some of you approach that search for great music that is either actually new, new to you or rediscovered.

n80

Searching for new music is my favourite thing to do with streaming. With a good app (I use Auralic Lightning DS) it becomes a journey from one artist which has recommendations of similar and down the rabbit hole you go. I find with the huge amount of music, I will just play the opening 20 seconds of a couple of songs on an album and if I like the flavour that album goes into my favourites. I spend an evening doing that until I have a load of music I haven’t properly listened to yet, but sounded promising. Then the next evening I’ll sit and play those albums properly and delete those that I’m not into and keep those I am, hey presto I’ve just added 3 albums to my collection.

Aside from that, I will listen to YouTube mix’s and Shazam certain songs, or music in hifi demo videos, on tv or noted in print reviews. If it’s individual songs, wherever I am I’ll save them into my ‘test’ Qobuz or Tidal playlist, again ready to listen to properly at a later time. I don’t use the providers streaming apps much (other than to add songs when I’m out) as most of my listening is at home, but I remember when Spotify was my go to I would find lots of new tracks when it would continue playing at the end of your playlist.

For me though, finding new music takes the time spent doing it, I don’t think there is a simple way of having it served up. So I’d suggest dedicating 1 or 2 hours a week looking through artists and listening to snippets to build a catalogue of ‘potential’ new music before doing the critical listening, that has been the fastest way I have grown my digital collection.

I use Roon often for this.

I'll pick a song at the end of an album from an artist and the genre I am interested in.  I make sure that I have Roon Radio checked as Yes.  Then Roon just chooses music of the same genre & style, within reason.  The great thing is that Roon choses HiRez tracks that all sound great.

Found so many wonderful recording this way.  Some, not so much, but other have been added to my collection, via Roon.

KCRW.com from Santa Monica CA. Though I listen via FM. My TIDAL and Qobuz library has grown a lot when I hear music on KCRW.

 

The newish TIDAL deep dive playlists are also something I like to discover old music/

I've been listening to my Spotify Discover Weekly playlist this morning. Half way through the 30 song playlist and I've already added 4 of the tracks to my persistent "discovered" playlist. Music discovery is really easy in the internet age...

Okay, I’ve got Spotify, the free version. Like it so far.

I like Radio Paradise a lot too.

Now for some tech questions with these:

1) I do not see Spotify Discover Weekly. Either it is staring me in the face or it must be only with a paid subscription.

2) With free Spotify you can select "high" in the qaulity settings but not "very high". Does anyone know what "high" and "very high" mean? To my ear "high" sounds decent. I’m assuming "very high" comes with paid version.

3) My main system is old. I listen to Sonos through an old Sonos Connect. Works fine in that capacity. It does not work with AirPlay. So I access AirPlay through an old AppleTV module. It SUCKS. Audio breaks up and skips constantly. Because of this I can only do Radio Paradise on this system through the Sonos app. For some reason the SQ is a bit flat and you cannot skip through songs within Sonos. AirPlay and the Radio Paradise app works fine throughout the rest of the house because all those Sonos components are newer. What would be the cheapest way to get my main (old) system integrated with AirPlay? I could buy the new Sonos Port but that’s $450 and the only thing I’d get over the old Sonos Connect is AirPlay. There has to be a cheaper option.

4) Happily Spotify works through the old Sonos Connect without AirPlay. I have no idea why. Maybe it came with Spotify integration?