Discovering New Music: Strategies and Community Insights

Derek explores diverse methods of discovering new music, emphasizing community interaction and personal research.

### Discovering New Music: Strategies and Insights
* 🎶 This episode of the podcast explores various methods of **discovering new music**, sparked by a listener's inquiry about how to **keep up with the vast array of artists and tracks** available today.
* 💬 The host, Derek, shares that he asked his Instagram followers for their music discovery strategies, highlighting the **overwhelming challenge** many face in **finding new tunes** in the modern streaming landscape.
* 📊 A significant number of responses emphasized the importance of Spotify's features like **"Discover Weekly"** and **"Release Radar,"** with users noting that they need to **actively train the algorithms** to better suit their tastes.
* 👥 Recommendations from friends emerged as another popular method, with listeners sharing personal anecdotes about how they **exchange music suggestions and create shared playlists for mutual discovery**.
* 🔍 Derek also discusses the value of dedicated research, including **reading artist bios**, **exploring influences**, and **following artists on social media** to uncover **new sounds that resonate with one's musical preferences**.
* 📺 The podcast highlights the role of TV show soundtracks and live performances as effective ways to **discover music**, suggesting that attending festivals or shows can lead to **unexpected musical connections**.
* 📝 Lastly, Derek encourages listeners to be **intentional about their music consumption**, whether it’s by **setting a goal to listen to a new album each week** or even **experimenting with random searches on streaming platforms**.
* 🎧 Ultimately, the episode serves as a reminder of the **diverse and evolving ways we can engage with music**, urging listeners to **explore these methods to enhance their musical journey**.

how do you discover new music part two now if you've been an avid listener follower of this podcast you'll know that I've tackled this topic before but I had a different take on it this week because someone hit me up in the DMs and

it got me thinking what if I asked you guys how you discover music because I think not only is this if you could use this podcast in one of two different ways either you might want different strategies of how to discover new music because you find yourself in a rut and I

want to help you with that but it's not just about that I think this is a really interesting study into how people discover music these days maybe you're interested in it from an anthropological point of view maybe you're interested from a cultural point of view maybe

you're interested in it because you work somewhere that this could be almost a little focus group for you if you work at a streaming platform or an agency or a record label not that it's designed for for that this is more interesting for myself and it is more interesting

for how this is constantly a problem in this Modern Age of streaming where we have so much access to music that we are at this point where people are still struggling to find new music so I thought I'm going to do a part two hi I

am your host of the self-titled Derek G speaks volumes and we are going to go off this motivation that comes from Miles Miles said this DM'd me this I had this question on my mind that I never found the right person to ask it until

now I love music I have done so for about 5 years now but I struggle to keep up with everything fair enough how on Earth do you find the time to listen to everything how do I know so much about every single artist well he says you

sorry I spend hours each day finding new music artists and getting the lowdown on who they are but every time I watch one of your TikToks you bring insightful information an artist I've never heard of where do you find the time and how do

you know so much also would love a TikTok on how you discover new music and I can do one better for you Miles the second type of message I get is Derek how do I discover new music I find it very overwhelming kind of what Miles is

saying but a lot simpler to that first of all very kind of you to say Miles I appreciate you thinking that I know a lot about everything the fact is I know very little I just probably have studied it for longer or probably more obsessive

than the average person and so I have a bank of experiences that I can pull from when I'm talking about music I ask people on Instagram okay I should have started there I asked people on Instagram how they discover music it was a little question and answer in stories

if you don't follow me on Instagram you'll miss out on answering these questions but by the by that doesn't really matter I said specifically how do you discover music the more specific the better because I want to pass on that learning to everyone else so we have so

many different answers, and I have filtered them into particular buckets that we can pull from as we get inspired about how to discover music in 2023. But before we get there, you can listen to the previous podcast if you want to understand how I discover new music if

you are someone like Miles and you are listening to this podcast, my advice to you is this: like with everything, every technique, there's so many different ways to approach music discovery, so I would advise picking one route, try some of these out. Do not try to do all of these

because then again you'll feel overwhelmed by, like, I find it so overwhelming, there are so many different ways to discover new music, and you've told me too many, but I find it really interesting, some of these approaches. Next, I would like you to just sit back and find this

interesting nonetheless, about how we have evolved, but I think the most interesting thing, just before I start this, is just how few people in my Instagram comments said things like, 'I go to Stereogum, I go to Apple Music 1, I go to Radio 1.' I know, yes, I have a

particular niche, and within that niche, there's only a certain amount of niches of people that are going to comment on this question on my Instagram stories, but there was barely any—I don't think there was any of those particular publications or platforms that I mentioned, which says

to me just how much things have changed over the last 15 years, because you ask me 15 years ago, I would have said, 'I listen to Radio 1, I listen to Radio 6, I listened to these bigger platforms.' But now it's so spread out. So let's go with

the first method of discovery which is Spotify the number one answer that I got in my questions was Spotify specifically release radar and Discover Weekly and what's interesting is that people multiple people said that they use Discover Weekly but that you have to train it that you have to teach

the algorithm just like the YouTube homepage just like TikTok you have to teach it what you like and dislike so I didn't really know that because I didn't really use Discover Weekly so you have to tell it I don't like this track don't

give me this type of stuff again I like this stuff give me more of this and people have said I've trained it over many years to get it to be absolutely perfect so that's a really interesting first position cuz so many people said Discover Weekly props hats off to

Spotify for being able to achieve that at such a rate personally I've resisted it to my detriment probably I think when these algorithmic playlists started to come out I just kind of went that's not how you discover music I don't want a computer to aggregate what my taste is

and feed it back to me now I admit fully that is the wrong approach there is no such thing as a right approach unfortunately my head is so stuck in that particular point of view that I can't use Discover Weekly more objectively because whenever I play I

tried it out before recording this and I was like ugh this sucks ugh I don't like that ugh of course you give me that you know you can't win with me even if I do like it I'll be like yeah I like obviously I like that because I've

listened to it before, so I am the worst candidate for Discover Weekly, to be honest. The one thing I would say, and as a word of caution personally, would be that Discover Weekly is that it can provide you artists in quantity, and those artists can kind of become a little bit

of just these nameless artist tracks, you know, that you just cycle through to consume at a rapid pace without too much context. It's like, hey, person A, B, and C likes this, so you are person D, so you might like it as well. So, there is a risk that

you just absorb all the music without truly connecting with it. But that's just an opinion. I can't say because, like I said, I don't use Discover Weekly, but I would say if you really love an artist and Discover Weekly listens to their albums, try to take your time with those

albums because then you might become a bigger fan and go see those people live as opposed to seeing music as something that is just heavily consumed, like a candy. I will say Release Radar is something that I like more. Release Radar is something where it pulls from your

listening habits, what you like, what you listen to frequently, and you go there and it updates. I think it's once a week and shows you what these artists you're listening to have released recently, which I think is brilliant because it keeps you up to date with the releases

of the artists that you like. So, in there, it might be like, look at this, Nicholas Jars released a new track, and I might not have come across that. I might have come across it six months later because I'm busy, but I can go on there and be

like ah nice like this is fresh this is what I love and this is something new and exciting now I don't use that either but more so I don't haven't built the habit to use it so that is definitely one that I would recommend and I might

start using myself the next way that the community said is the best way to discover new music is asking friends so elen said recommendations from friends with similar but not exactly overlapping taste which I love and JoJo says ask people I find it's the best conversation

starter brilliant so smart I have a personal story on this I have a friend named Flora she is an ambient producer I'll leave a link in the comments I admire her taste very much because it is very much in the industrial and ambient well and whilst I respect it it is so

different from mine and I haven't done it in a long time but I used to hit her up I used to just DM her and say Flora what are you listening to at the moment and she'd be like I'm really obsessed with this mix I'm really listening to

this album and I'd be like I really respect your taste so I get into it I end up loving these things that I never would have because I think that her taste is really cool and I would want to go back to find out what she's listening

to just to get into a new world or get invigorated by a new sound on Friends one person said to me that they have a shared playlist with friends and what they do every week is they add one song that is new and one song that is old

that they discovered that week and they found it really really fun to be able to dive in there and everyone's contributed something new so it's this like almost potluck type scenario He did say though that as people got busy and people's lives got in the way it did start to

slow down but if you can find this rhythm with everyone as you start doing this and you want to discover new music super smart very wholesome I do think an extension of this asking friends thing is recommendations from record store owners which is a recommendation that a

lot of people had whether it's your local whether you're going to different countries which is brilliant which I haven't done before and you go to the desk and you say what should I get what do you recommend All right this next category is very close to my heart

because I related to so many of these comments and reminded me just how much work that I've put in over the years to discover new music so this category is called research research research research How people discover new music is through dedicated research so Chris Dogall says this I find an artist I like

and find an article about what inspired them This has been my whole life I think this started with me when I was obsessed with The White Stripes and then learned about like what inspired him whether it's John Lee Hooker or Sun House or Led Zeppelin

I'm like who are they who are they who are they and started to buy their CDs and go down that world so that is the best way because I have an emotional connection to those artists right and if they have been influenced by artists that they recommend this experience is

valuable almost twofold because not only do you love the artists that recommended it, then you find a bond with these recommendations because you want to like it because this artist said it was great, and then you discover that you like these artists on your own and then you

become a super fan of those artists that the artist was inspired by. Very circular, Bud says this: listening to my favorite band's favorite band and following them on Twitter, following their Instagram stories, which I am totally behind. I remember when I was a big user of Twitter, a lot of artists

like Tyler, the Creator for example, would share the music that they're listening to at the moment, then I'm like, "What's this Soul artist from the 70s that Tyler, the Creator is into?" And then I get obsessed. And this is where sometimes I

don't know where I found certain songs from because it might be a random tweet that went out at 1:00 a.m. by Tyler, the Creator that has turned me onto a whole new world, or say Philly Soul or something like that. This next example is a 2023

version of reading articles, which TooFa says, "Reading artist bios and Spotify suggested artists to find other related acts that I might enjoy, which I love because artist bios, less so, I think that's really rarely do artists put in their bios the people that inspire them, but I think

that Spotify suggested artist is a gold mine. My version of that would have to be the similar artists in Last.fm back in the day. I used to troll that because I don't know if it was algorithmically all recommended by others, but if you went to

lead Zeppelin and you went there and it would recommend all the similar artists that they think are in that same category. I ate that up, so go there, scroll down the page and look at what I suggested. I would caution though that sometimes this Spotify Carousel of

similar artists aren't that great because sometimes it's recommending similar artists in the same territory as them. So if you are a British artist but you're rapping in Hindi, they might be compared to underground British artists that sound nothing like them and you might be more equivalent to an

Indian-based hip-hop artist but because of how the algorithm I guess works, it will suggest people from the UK or from London, so it's not always great, but I think it's a starting point. On this research tip, Flux says, Wikipedia.  Click on the band members and find their

influences. This is really smart, really deep. It does depend on being more well-known as an artist, so Pink Floyd, you could go to Roger Waters, you could go down David Gilmour and find out what influenced them, but if you're going for

a newer artist that's around the last 5 years, it will be harder. So I would go to articles for that. As an example, let's talk about Ice Spice. If I was trying to find out her influences, I would rather read an article about her than go to her

Wikipedia page or the Spotify suggested artist because I think that those types of ones would be quite surface level and not deep enough where I would rather go direct to the source where Ice Spice might go, 'I listen to lots of psychedelic jazz from the 70s because of my mom, rather'

than going like oh you like Ice Spice you might like  Sexy Red which is like yeah cool fine but it doesn't really scratch the surface of what makes her her okay now we're going deeper GRZ says follow every record label and musician I like on IG that takes a particular load

and I don't personally do that because I like my Instagram to be about my friends to be about people that I'm close to and I want to catch up with visually I guess on the internet following every label whether you're following secretly you're following Matador you're following Dead

Oceans it's a lot it's a lot to take in and if that makes sense to you you should totally do it I just find it would be too intense for my feed to continually be served all this content and we go deeper still these two are

kind of interrelated I can't remember who said this but they said they browse Discogs for their favorite artists and they click on the different artists session musicians in that category comp said searching through genre tags on Rate Your Music I think that's a really

smart way to do it I think Rate Your Music can be a particular type of review style and hold up a certain type of music but I do think it's a good starting point if you're into industrial ambient from the 80s maybe you could click those tags and you will get a

consensus about what the quality albums from that era are Rate Your Music is a whole new well though that I don't know much about someone wrote this to me which I particularly love and I can't remember who stalking stalking is probably an underrated way to discover new music so

I used to stalk people's SoundCloud likes. You'd go to their page, you'd go through all their likes, listen to it cuz I loved their taste so much, so I would stalk their page. Hey, it's public. Sometimes people don't realize that their Spotify playlists are public so

you can type in their name, whether you know them, whether it's a DJ, whether it's a celebrity, and you can find their Spotify playlist that they think are private and you can stalk them that way. To be fair, I think it's a pretty harmless way of

stalking, but if you admire the taste of someone that they don't have any playlists out in public, stalking lowly is an amazing way to discover new music. I had this comment as well. I didn't write down their name, so apologies, but they said award shows. They said, 'Don't laugh

at me, but the Grammys, that's where I found out about Casey Musgraves, and I think that is one of the good things about award shows. I don't love award shows generally, but I do think that for an audience that wants to discover new

music and there's too much to filter through, this is a filter. I would say though if you look at say the categories, and sometimes the hip-hop albums, it's not always the best stuff that's in there, but it's a starting point. Okay, lastly, in research, I can relate to some

of this for sure. Someone said Pitchfork and Fantano reviews, but I don't want to admit this to anyone, which is fair because I used to find some things from Anthony Fantano. I used to definitely find some things from music reviews as well. I don't have a problem with that at

all I think that reviews are a gateway it's a way for there to be a filter to put music in context to celebrate music as well and put you on to things that they particularly enjoy obviously with Fantano or Pitchfork they have a particular worldview and a particular

way to filter that music and they miss out on a a ton of music because they want to present you with a curated offering that is in their world that's completely fine but hey if you like a particular personality then you should follow them and their reviews will be

worth more to you often people talks about NTS radio well which was quite cool because obviously I used to be a resident on there but also it wasn't BBC Radio One it wasn't KISS FM it wasn't Capital it was NTS which means that

sometimes often especially in my world people when they want to discover new music that is more interesting and more left field NTS seems to be the one of all the different radio stations I didn't get any balam me I got a bit of the lot from New York as well granted so

the lot would be second place to NTS radio in terms of of what people were saying interrupting the podcast to bring you the sponsor this week which is me and my Patreon listen to Solid Air my custom-built radio show every single week it comes in video form audio form I

bring you my new music finds every single week for $5 a month you can do $10 a well for a mini some extra benefits some Discord perks but if you go to patreon.com dere you can support me support the Pod support support the

future of creating all of this and more, but but first and foremost it's about enjoying the radio show that is exclusive to Patreon. Back to the episode. Okay, so the last method that people use to discover new music is through Discovery. What do I mean by Discovery? 

It's not research and desk work, it's not algorithmic and Spotify and things like that. It is the exposure to music in different ways. So first and foremost, TV show official soundtracks. Look at the de hind soundtrack for Luca Guadagnino's *We Are Who We Are*. Look at different TV shows. 

The OC was hugely influential in the 2000s for a ton of people and their music taste, so TV shows are a great way. If you're into that TV show, you're going to discover new music because it puts it in context in a visual world that you 

can understand. Similarly, it goes for video games. Similarly, it goes for people's live streams. People talk about their favorite streamers playing playing music and that's a good passive way to enjoy music because they're attuned with that personality, so they can also enjoy the music that they play them. The 

next one that came up a lot is live, seeing things live, and the intention behind the absorption of new music. So a lot of people said to me they go to see opening acts and want to go early to a show to see the opening acts to discover 

new music because myself, because I'm so jaded, I probably just turn up for the act. I don't see the opening acts, but I think it's a really nice way. Go with your friends, have dinner early, you go have a drink, see what they're about and 

enjoy the show similarly I think that's the best Absolutely the best thing about festivals you've got this massive board of people I would never have seen Fred again if it wasn't for seeing him at a festival cuz I'm not a Fred again guy

but seeing him live was incredible and I'm like damn man like you deserve everything that you've gotten because the show was incredible and clearly the best show at that festival so it really opens up your mind so if you want to build a relationship with an artist

quickly and deeply I would highly recommend going to a festival this festival season if you want to go even deeper and you want to be really in and amongst her I do think that there are so many openings to be part of a local music scene go to a local hip-hop show

go to a local punk show talk to people maybe you need to go to a few to start recognizing people and go oh hey nice to see you again but you're on a deeper level at that point because then you start meeting people who are making the

music live you'll start to listen if you become friends with these people you'll start to hear demos of their work you'll start to hear murmurings about what's going on in their life and hey if you go to enough you will catch someone that

blows up you will make friends with someone that becomes somebody because you're part of the community and you get to see it early which I think is really lovely and one of the more gratifying things that I've experienced as a music fan on this discovery tip I also had a

bunch of tips from people saying things like they've set habits to discover new music. I made a video once about huki Murakami choosing an album to play in the morning before he goes to bed at night, so he chooses it, puts it on the

player, puts it on in the morning, so you could do the same. Someone said to me, Belle said to me, that they listen to a new album every week, so how do they do that? I don't know how they find or filter that album, but they go, okay, I'm

going to listen to an album, and I think being intentional about listening to an album is really important because Discover Weekly as singles, right? Actually going out there and going, oh, if you, if you go looking for new music, it will come to you, and you go, ah, the new

Taylor album was out, I'm going to spend some time listening to that. And Belle is listening to 52 albums a year, more than the vast majority of people out in the world. Another person said that they listen to and new friends Discover Weekly every single workday of all the

strategies, I love this idea. I think you will be exposed to stuff you would never ever listen to because that's their world, that's what they listen to, and so you get to be exposed by something, you get an insight into how they work and how they think, but you're also every

single day being exposed to a totally new genre and collection of music. I think it's a really smart strategy, and I think I'll leave you with this at the end of this podcast is Elliot's mode, the chaotic mode, the last chaotic way you can discover new music is through he

says he would enter random letters into Spotify so let me look around the room I could type in earphones I don't know if anyone would call themselves earphones maybe there's lots of songs called earphones hey I've discovered some new music from people that made a song called

earphones remote control there's a record label called that but maybe someone's called themselves that as well I'm sure there are albums called remote control so that's another way what nail clippers hm I don't know if I'd want to listen to a song called nail clippers

probably in the darker more industrial world but still but as there are a billion different songs there are millions of ways to discover new music and Elliot all power to you if that's the way you're going to do it it's chaos but I respect it so there you go that is

a collation of how you can discover new music at worst I hope you were entertained I hope you just were interested in the different methods that people use to discover new music they're so methodical in some instances some are chaotic but some are really intentional

and some really speak to how I have discovered music in my world over time at best take some of these on board let me know how you discover new music of the ones that I want to enact myself I want to try out release radar because I

don't use it I will go to another Festival this summer because that Fred get experience I haven't listened to his music since but I respect him so much more after seeing it and I think I might ask a few friends for their Discover Weeklys just to see but who knows I

might judge them more if I don't enjoy it so maybe that's a bad invasion of privacy go have fun go stalk someone's music taste that you like and I hope you discover some new music go listen to some music now stop listening to me see

How YOU Discover New Music

Derrick Gee

Introduction and listener question about music discovery

The host introduces the topic of discovering new music, mentioning a previous podcast episode on the same subject.

The host explains the podcast's dual purpose: providing strategies for finding new music and exploring how people discover music culturally.

The host suggests the topic is interesting from anthropological and cultural perspectives, and potentially useful for those in the music industry.

The host highlights the challenge of discovering new music in the age of abundant streaming services.

A listener's DM inspires the podcast episode, questioning the host's extensive music knowledge and discovery methods.

Methods of music discovery based on listener responses

The host shares responses from an Instagram Q&A about music discovery methods.

The responses are categorized for discussion.

Spotify's Release Radar and Discover Weekly are highlighted as top responses, emphasizing the need to train the algorithms.

Asking friends for recommendations is another popular method, with examples of shared playlists and seeking advice from record store owners.

Music discovery through dedicated research

Researching artists' inspirations and influences is discussed as a valuable method.

Following artists on social media to discover their shared music is another approach.

Reading artist bios and using Spotify's suggested artists feature are mentioned.

Using Wikipedia to explore band members' influences is suggested, with caveats about the depth of information for newer artists.

Following record labels and musicians on Instagram is mentioned as a method, with a personal perspective on its intensity.

Browsing Discogs and using genre tags on Rate Your Music are mentioned as research methods.

Stalking public music profiles (SoundCloud likes, Spotify playlists) is presented as a surprisingly effective, yet potentially controversial method.

Award shows are suggested as a filter for discovering new music, although the quality may vary.

Music reviews from sources like Pitchfork and Fantano are mentioned, acknowledging their curated nature and potential biases.

NTS Radio is highlighted as a source for discovering more left-field music.

TV show soundtracks and video games are mentioned as sources of passive music discovery.

Live streams and attending live shows (including opening acts) are highlighted as effective methods.

Engaging with the local music scene is suggested for deeper immersion and potential discovery.

Intentional listening habits, such as listening to a new album weekly, are discussed.

Listening to friends' Discover Weekly playlists is proposed as a strategy for diverse exposure.

A chaotic method of entering random words into Spotify is mentioned.

The host summarizes the various methods, highlighting their diversity and intentionality.

The host shares their personal plans to try out some of the mentioned methods.

The host encourages listeners to explore the suggested methods and share their own approaches.