Discovering New Music? 572
captainclever asks: "As an avid music fan, I'm keen on discovering new artists that I will like. I have discovered a few by listening to internet radio, and writing down the names of songs that take my fancy. I had a play with The Digital Music Network, but it was very intrusive, full of adverts and only worked in Windows. I found it quite a hard topic to google for as there is so much stuff about music. Has anyone come accoss a decent system that can suggest some good artists to me based on my existing listening habbits?" Word of mouth, of course, is the tried and true method of promoting a new group. Are there weblogs that allow users to discuss music much like Slashdot discusses "news"?
News? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:News? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:News? (Score:3, Informative)
www.allmusic.com (Score:5, Informative)
Amazon (Score:4, Informative)
You never know... (Score:3, Interesting)
They might group you with others who prefer clean underwear [techweb.com]. Then again, maybe not [theregister.co.uk].
Tried this? (Score:2)
Used to be launch.com, but they got taken over by Yahoo. You need to go through a hoop or two to set it up well, but then you can get similar or 'recommended' songs.
It's not bad, there are a few ads, and the player is proprietary (and I can't vouch for Mac support), but it's been pretty good to me.
Re:Tried this? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Tried this? (Score:2)
Re:Tried this? (Score:2)
Too much trash out there for me to risk my money without being able to get a handful of tracks.
I still love Groove Salad (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I still love Groove Salad (Score:2, Informative)
Writing about music is like dancing to a book... (Score:3, Interesting)
Tool (Score:2)
It may not be the answer you were looking for, but Tool [toolband.com] covers just about everything I look for in music.
Of course if you were looking for other stuff that doesn't come from a record company then this place [mp3.com] has a pretty decent search feature of downloadable mp3s.
Re:Tool (Score:2)
Artists like Hermit Bastard [hermitbastard.com] and EDGEY [mp3.com] have plenty of material that I've used in my college radio show.
Their Gabber [mp3.com] genre (and the genre system in general) has a lot of new sounds to explore.
For non-electronic music I've yet to find anything that compares with the exposure to local/new music you get from working in a college radio station.
HOLY CRAP! LAME LAME LAME LAME LAME! (Score:5, Informative)
i'll be removing my tracks from online... albeit no cost to those that download, it was a source of income for myself, and such the case, i offered my music free of charge for download to anyone that wanted. The lack of commercial (or independent) releases i've had over the years, was justified by the fact that i still maintained an income off my music, from MP3.com... a goal i think every musician wishes to achieve (unless your one of those that likes to point fingers and call someone a sell-out for wanting to be heard and monetarily successful with their craft).
so needless to say... all my tracks will be removed from online, i can't afford the $20.00 a month to continue their premium artist service, i.e., i can't pay for people to listen to my music...
so, get your downloads before they're gone...
All artists on MP3.com will have to reduce their pages to a maximum of 3 tracks as of January 15th, or PAY for their once free-offered service.
quoted from mp3.com:
"P4P Promotion Will be Discontinued
It's our goal to offer Premium Artists the best service for their money and tools that benefit all members. But this was getting more difficult given the enormous accounting, engineering, research and fulfillment costs that went into both the P4P promotion and regrettably, the monitoring of individuals gaming the system. We have thus decided to discontinue the P4P promotion on January 15.
Artist Cash Program Will be Discontinued
Accounting and engineering resource issues associated with the P4P promotion apply also to the Artist Cash program. This has made it necessary for us to discontinue one of our more convenient Artist programs. If you are currently paying for any subscriptions with Artist Cash, please go to your My Account to easily create an alternate payment method. "
Re:HOLY CRAP! LAME LAME LAME LAME LAME! (Score:4, Insightful)
What's really sad is that this simply means the further demise of mp3.com. The site would be just awesome if they'd introduce some form of moderation.
As it is, you have some real gems mixed in with casio-keyboards-and-a-tapedeck style recordings... and it's just awful.
-Ben
AMPCAST AMPCAST AMPCAST!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
A musician friend of mine left MP3.com for them about a year ago because of MP3.com's shitty service...
Re:HOLY CRAP! LAME LAME LAME LAME LAME! (Score:2)
Re:HOLY CRAP! LAME LAME LAME LAME LAME! (Score:2)
I can understand forcing artists with fewer plays to pay... but not the content providers that make their site work.
why based on your listening habits? (Score:3, Informative)
Ask your friends what they like... download random songs, etc. One of my favorite ways is to browse other users' files on file sharing programs. Who knows, you might find something completely new and unexpected.
That's how I discovered Apocalyptica [apocalyptica.com] - rock'n'roll on cellos - and Our Lady Peace.
Re:why based on your listening habits? (Score:2)
Most of the time you'll just hear about what bands THEY like. A lot of them will be truly awful garage bands your friends like just because they know someone in the band.
"Here, listen to this!"
"Good grief, that's awful! Just a lot of hackneyed grunge rock with substandard production values, an overly loud drummer, and a guitarist who plays the same 3 chords over and over again."
"Yeah, doesn't that sound sweet? -I- know the drummer, he's a good friend of mine."
Re:why based on your listening habits? (Score:2)
Re:why based on your listening habits? (Score:2)
Ok, back on topic. I find usually that the best way to find new bands is to go to websites of bands I like and find out what bands they listen to or are playing with. That's how I found two of my current favorite bands. (shameless plug time) Lucky Boy's Confusion -> Something Corporate -> New Found Glory.
www.digitallyimported.com (Score:2, Informative)
The web site has comment sections for discussing the current play list. The streamed mp3 format works great in Windows, Solaris, Linux, and Mac.
Have you tried P2P? (Score:2)
I have discovered many good new artists using my favorite P2P software. In fact, 5 of the 7 CDs in my last order were artists I discovered that way. You just search for stuff you like, and then look through the collections of the people that have the music you like.
Of course, I bet this works a lot better for smaller artists than the huge ones, so YMMV
College Radio! (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm actually in college, and I volunteer at one, so I'm probably a little biased, but college radio is by far the most progressive of all radio.
Re:College Radio! (Score:2)
Re:College Radio! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:College Radio! (Score:2)
The key is that they don't have to get huge numbers of listeners to listen to commercials (there are no commercials), so they can play good music. And the DJ's are cool so the music is good and they try to introduce people to some less-well known stuff.
How about KCRW? (Score:2, Insightful)
They also used to have some great evening programs that tended to vary. It was very much like the college radio that the original poster was talking about, but KCSB wasn't quite up to the usual task of college radio when I was at UCSB. I used to listen to KSPB up in Santa Cruz. It was a progressive radio station at Robert Louis Stevenson High in Pebble Beach. That's the first time I heard the Muffs, the Cure, Smiths, NIN, Strawberry Zotz, Sisters of Mercy, Front 242 etc.
KCRW has REALLY extensive archives. The Beck shows are great. He never plays anything from an album. Also, they used to play Joe Frank. The archives still exist there. Dang cool.
TTFN
Re:College Radio! (Score:2)
I had a few great semesters there
90.7 FM if you're in the south east/mid-to-north idaho area
checkout their charts, with a few exceptions they stick to independant music
KEXP Freeform radio! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:College Radio! (Score:2)
College Radio! (Score:4, Insightful)
If you can stomach newswires being read by teenagers who barely have any grasp of proper English or public speaking skills, college radio is a great way to find stuff off the mainstream, particularly if it's a station with a good-sized audience, like WSOU from Seton Hall [wsou.net]. For those outside the central-NJ area, they do web-cast.
Re:College Radio! (Score:2)
Oh, and they also webcast - wbjb.org.
Re:College Radio! (Score:2)
If I may make a recommendation try www.kexp.org from Seattle. They have a webcast, webcast archives, variety programing (all archived), great music, plus real-time playlists. And they are about the coolest radio station EVER. And they are part of the Experince Music Project, which is a fantastic museum/musicians resource. Listen for a while, or even just look over the playlists and I guarentee you will find great stuff. And I don't mean backstreet boys pop stuff.
SoulSeek (Score:2, Informative)
Taste isn't a science, you can't break it down. Just experiment.
Non-band specific parts of band-specific boards (Score:2, Informative)
For REM you have my site, murmurs.com which has a HUGE non-REM music section with very diverse tastes.
U2 has interference.com
Radiohead used to have greenplastic.com for boards, but I think ateaseweb is the best.
Most big fansites have something similar. You'd be surprised what you find.
Ethan
SBC Yahoo DSL (Score:2, Funny)
Try cdbaby.com, they have samples on-line (Score:2, Informative)
It's a small independent web-based distributor with a cool way for people to get hold of great music. They have lots samples and the money gets pretty darn directly to the artists (as opposed to those recording with the RIAA).
Do it the old fashioned way, (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Do it the old fashioned way, (Score:4, Insightful)
Go out to where music is played. The best music is not necessarily what end up on the radio or what your friends are listening to. The internet has a lot of stuff, but that it also has a lot of crap. There are a few places, like cdbaby, that seems to have some cool stuff.
Go to a festival where you can here 30 unknown bands for $20. Bring enough money for a CD or two. Go off the main stage and listen to the newcomers. Also, many cities have festivals that bring in local music for free. Go to them. If you are young you can con your parents into taking you by citing 'family time'.
IRC is old fashioned!? (Score:2)
You want to listen to some bad ass electronic/jazz/hip-hop music, try ninjatune.net and they aren't appart RIAA. NIce.
Here's one I like (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Here's one I like (Score:2)
IUMA is a great place to get info and music samples from new artists (unsigned) from almost every genre. It's surprising that not too many know of it (maybe that's a good thing). It's been around since before 1996 when I first found it.
Re:Here's one I like (Score:2)
I didn't know they've been around that long, 1996 is like year 0 for the 'net, haha. I wouldn't have known about it except that my bro put some of his work on there.
Amazon lists, Band sites (Score:2, Informative)
Also check out interviews with band members and check their homepages. They often talk about other bands they like or people who have influenced them. Depending on the music you like, certain members may play in a few different bands, or may sit in on concert sets of other bands. I listen to a lot of live music [etree.org] and many of the artists I like to collect I discovered by grabbing shows that an artist I already knew about sat in on.
Message boards and fan sites probably make decent ways to hear about people, as well as topical magazines (ie, GuitarPlayer, BassPlayer, maybe ComputerMusic, etc.).
Don't forget to ask other people at the shows you see what they listen to. CHeck out the local listings of bands in the area. Take the plunge and go see a show of an unknown that plays in a club that often hosts music you like.
Etc, etc, ad nauseam, and so on.
gnod (Score:2)
Re:gnod (Score:2)
It can be hard to find bands on smaller labels, especially when most of your friends don't listen to the same music you do, but this and a local cd shop have been good tools.
Napster (Score:5, Funny)
Of course, it's been a while since I used it, so your experience may vary.
--Mike--
Borders (Score:3, Informative)
It made for a very pleasant and educational half hour of music browsing for me (annoying, though, that about 2/3 of the stations were mal/nonfunctioning).
Oh, i know this one (Score:5, Interesting)
It's gnod [gnod.net].
From the page:
Gnod is a self-adapting system that learns about the outer world by asking its visitors what they like and what they don't like. In this instance of gnod all is about music. Gnod is kind of a search engine for music you don't know about. It will ask you what music you like and then think about what you might like too. When I set gnod online its database was completely empty. Now it contains thousands of bands and quite some knowledge about who likes what. And gnod learns more every day. Enjoy :o)
Re:Oh, i know this one (Score:2)
This site was pretty cool, although when I put my 3 suggestions in, it just came up with a list of artists I already had. I tried again with several different scenarios, but it always came up with stuff I already have and like. I wasn't able to get it to give me anything that I had never heard of before.
Re:Oh, i know this one (Score:2)
I entered The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Ween
All it came up with was a bunch of stuff I already knew about:
The Rolling Stones (like some)
Freddie Mercury (like some)
The Who (don't like much)
The Doors (who doesn't like them?)
Neil Young (bleh)
Paul Simon (eh, alright I guess, but was better with Arty)
Creedance CR (a little dated, but good)
Radiohead (can't stand the little posers)
Thank god it didn't say Oasis. Bottom line, of course somebody who likes pop sixties bands is gonna like other pop sixties bands. Some of them even like Radiohead (I know some, really). I wanna hear about bands I've never heard of. I'd think at least something like The Velvet Underground should come up to make it interesting, but instead I ended up with a lot of chart busters I'd already heard of.
p2p suggestion (Score:2)
This doesn't help you at all but I've always wished that people would fill out the "description" field of mp3's they trade on p2p services like KaZaA with suggestions of similiar artists. After all, there's not much need for a description field for an mp3 file anyhow -- it's just free space to write something. I'd personally love it if people would take the time to write something along the lines of "Very similiar in style to Band1, Band2 and Band3" or Song1, Song2, etc.
What I've resorted to is using Amazon.com to look at what other bands could be similiar and then search KaZaA and seeing for myself. You know how Amazon lists "people who bought this item also bought albums by Artist1, Artist2, etc.", right? Of course, this method wouldn't work for artists so obscure that amazon doesn't feature them.
I'm interested to see what other suggestions people come up with here. But I think filling out those description fields for mp3s on p2p services would really help a lot.
GMD
suggestions (Score:2)
My site [3fingersalute.net] has an artist of the month section but we just started it a few months ago so there isn't much there yet.
Re: (Score:2)
Audio Galaxy (Score:5, Informative)
I really like the drum n bass duo Lamb [amazon.com] and thanks to this feature at audio galaxy I was introduced to the Sneaker Pimps [amazon.com] and Hooverphonic [amazon.com].
Err, I mean I rushed right out to my local national chain music store and purchased the CDs.
You kind of get this when you browse through Amazon.com's [amazon.com] "other people purchased" links.
Suggesting music based on listening habits (Score:2, Informative)
besonic is a site mostly populated by obscure artists, a heap of them electronic music makers, too. if you sign up for a listening account with them, they'll email you once a week (or something?) with tracks and artists they think you'll like based on how many tracks in different genres you've listened to. it's not a very intelligent system, but it kind of fits what is being asked about.
of course, sites like besonic (and the original big one, mp3.com) are dying off. the most promising new one is electronicscene.com [electronicscene.com]. any electronic musician can sign up to have their tracks on electronicscene. there are ample links between genre pages and artist pages so that if you find one artist or genre you like, you can easily find another similar one... or lists of the artists and genres that influenced them. provided you like electronic music, it's an excellent place for finding new stuff.
use an expert system, of course (Score:5, Interesting)
When it came to discovering new music... (Score:2)
Audiogalaxy couldn't be touched. Not at all. Back before the restructuring I would download music that I was curious about, deciding whether or not it was worth purchase. I deleted the stuff I didn't like, and bought a few CDs. As I'm not a mass consumer of recorded music, this is saying a lot. And a handful of those CDs I would have never heard about if not for the "If you like Sunny Day Real Estate* try this other band" feature. (*Insert name of band you actually like here) At least one of the bands had legitimate hosting on AG with a few legal music samples, but I downloaded other tracks in the normal manner in order to get a better feel for the quality of the album I was looking to buy. As far as I know AG still has their categories, suggestions and forums, but the lack of free access to gablilitizillions of mp3s puts a bit of a damper on this method. Of course, I also rejected a few CDs by this technique, in finding that there were not very many good tracks other than one I'd heard before. This is the only purpose I used AG for that would probably piss off the RIAA, and in that case it's definitely worth thinking about. I doubt they're too keen on consumers getting to rate their merchandise before purchase.
Won't work. People are idiots. (Score:2)
Newsgroups (Score:2)
Try google's groups [google.com].
-Berj
Shoutcast. The one and only. (Score:3, Insightful)
Mp3.com, EmergentMusic.com, others: lots of work. (Score:3, Informative)
In general, I find using any of these sites, including and especially MP3.com, to find decent music you haven't heard elsewhere is a ton of work. I continue to contend [slashdot.org] that, when someone comes up with a decent business model, services which suggest new music will make more money than companies which sell music. I have yet to see one that I think actually works. This is a difficult task: music is an intensely personal decision and relying on suggestions of others takes trust. I really wonder what ever happend to firefly, and the host of other sites that purported to use neural networks to suggest music based on you rating stuff you know you liked. I think these agent based approaches are more likely to succeed than something like a web log or zine.
Get out of the house! (Score:4, Interesting)
Who knows, you might even make some friends and meet some girls.
ummm ... if you want net radio ... (Score:2)
But shoutcast's website has a search engine to classify the channels by bitrate or genre or whatever ... might be something worth checking out. Plus you pick the software you want to use, and platform.
And if you get bored a shoutcast server is always fun to play with, possibly set your own up.
A couple of blogs and other tools online (Score:2)
A google search for "music recommendations" turned up some interesting online tools to find music you might like.
ListenUp [sooz.com]
Emergent Music [emergentmusic.com]
The Library Blog [chickeninthewoods.org]
Otherwise I recommend using google to search for bands that you do like, browse through the listings and you're sure to turn up something you might like. Then search for it on P2P, and if you like it, buy it. Simple.
Amazon.com (Score:2)
Customers who bought this title also bought:
* A Picture of Nectar ~ Phish
* Lawn Boy ~ Phish
* Rift ~ Phish
* Junta ~ Phish
* The Story of the Ghost ~ Phish
Granted, this is only going to work for commercial releases, and may only give you results for the same artist, but it's a good way to expand your web of music. It's also a good way to abuse Amazon.com by not paying for anything from them and still gaining benefit from their site.
Two suggestions: (Score:3, Interesting)
1. Amazon (I preferred CD-NOW, but now everything is Amazon). Enter in your favorites, and it'll make suggestions based on what other people buy who like music similar to you. Works very well.
2. Launch.com. It's Yahoo now, but Yahoo didn't change the basics... it's still the best streaming radio out there. You continually tweak what songs/artists/albums/genres that you like for your own radio station, and you can also set how much "other music" is inserted into your radio station. That "other music" that's inserted is music that other people with tastes similar to yours also like. Even better than the Amazon thing, since you get to hear the music right away without actively doing anything. Also, I like Yahoo a smidgen more than I like Amazon.
Electrogarden for synthpop/electronic (Score:2)
I like EMusic (Score:2, Interesting)
I've got a $9.99/month subscription to Emusic.com which I have been enjoying immensely. Although they don't have everything, like Napster or Audio Galaxy's glory days, they do have a surprisingly deep catalog and I've found a lot of really good stuff in their archives.
I also like the fact that I can get clean, nicely labelled, high-quality MP3s and don't have to deal with all the cruft and duplication of gnutella clients. I used to use LimeWire back in the day but found that the program was too heavyweight for my computer and it seriously burdened my computer when it was running.
Good luck finding some music. God knows the music industry isn't making it easier these days.
Re:I like EMusic (Score:2)
Plus, its a treasuretrove of jazz rereleases, and they have a good selection of off the beaten path underground hiphop.
Of course, theres alot of shit, but hey, I'm getting on the order of 10 to 15 CDs I like per month for 9.99
furthur (Score:2)
Used (Score:2)
Here are a few... (Score:2, Informative)
2) AllMusic.com : Excellent reviews of albums. If they rate something five stars, chances are you'll like it. I guess this is more of a reference site, but it's the ultimate reference
3) Rateyourmusic.com : You archive your cd collection by rating your albums, then you get amazon-style recommendations. It has more of a community focus than amazon or other sites (message boards, private messages, etc) so it's easy to get direct recommendations from other users.
4) Emergentmusic.com : Basically, someone writes a recommendation, and everyone else gets in on it, making corrections, adding new information, and making it better. By the end of the process, you have a well-written recommendation that gives you all the information needed to decide whether or not you like the artist/album.
John Peel (Score:2)
Trust me - once you get into him you'll never look back. Actually R1 has quite a few good interesting evening shows to check out it's well worth your time.
Or if you live in San Francisco you could just come to some of my DJ gigs and listen to what I play
File Browsing (Score:4, Informative)
So if you're not averse to using file-sharing programs such as Gnutella et al, I would suggest looking for songs you already like and instead of downloading the songs you find (or in addition to), browsing the files of the people who have those songs. This way you can make as big a leap as you want.
Since this is human-based I think you'll find similar tastes that jump genres, something that even the most clever algorithm is likely to miss, and will do precisely what you're seeking; introduction to new sounds.
Also, you might consider stuff like MP3.com. I've found a lot of stuff that is unknown only for lack (or refusal) of a record deal.
garageband.com (Score:3, Informative)
Garageband.com [garageband.com] has great selections of independent bands. There's a big mixture of quality on the site, but you can find some of the best stuff in the charts there, and check the playlists recommended by bands you like.
They also have a ridiculously cheap subscription service that allows you to get CDs of some of the best tracks on the site on a monthly basis.
Amazon is wonderful... (Score:2, Insightful)
Postcard Listserv (Score:2)
Try to find a listserv or newsgroup (better than Yahoo! Groups! With! All! The! Spam!) devoted to a band you already like and then see what you can find out from there. Lurk for awhile, don't just go in and blurt out stupid shit 5 minutes after you subscribe and you'll probably learn a lot. I bought about 40 CDs this past year when in the past I would have purchased 3 or 4.
BFL
Two ways: (Score:2)
-Ted
music sites (Score:2)
Ages ago (1996-ish) there used to be a site that would give you a list of recommended artists based on a list of yes/no questions about other artists...firefly.com I think it was called and I can't find it any more. These days I usually get new music via word of mouth on p2p networks and mix tapes. Yes, I still listen to tapes.
KCRW - Santa Monica College radio station (Score:5, Informative)
IPM Radio? (Score:3, Informative)
They've been broadcasting for over 4 years now, and I have to say that in the year I've been attending broadcasts, I have found a lot of new types of music I like.
There is a weekly 6-8 hour live show, that starts at about 8:30 PM EST every friday, with real audio and MPEG-4/AAC versions showing up in the archives [ipmradio.com] a few days later.
Ogg streams might be possible, if someone can direct me to an OGG streamer that lets clients skip around in the streams, like Quicktime/Mpeg-4/AAC does.
here [ipmradio.com] is the link to the mpeg-4 version of the 4th anniversary show as a sample.
Gibraltar Encylopedia of Progressive Rock (Score:3, Interesting)
If you're into progressive rock, and even if you're not, and especially if you think you're not, then I highly suggest you check out the New Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock [gepr.net]. This is a simply awesome resource for finding new music to hunt down and listen to. In addition to the aforementioned encyclopedia, the GEPR has its' own webzine and you'll find links to many sites which review prog rock discs.
Although I have personally not listened to their Live365 stream (dial up line -- not enough bandwidth), ProgRock.com [progrock.com] has an informative website and a very active discussion forum.
One streaming radio station that I listen to a lot, often for hours, is Delicious Agony [deliciousagony.com]. They play a good mix of both classics and new progressive music. Highly recommended. A great benefit of streaming radio is that you can see the playlist while listening and in progrock.com's case, there will also be links to where you can buy the music and to the artists' homepages. Happy hunting.
Stepping Stones (Score:3, Insightful)
Finding new music is like stepping stones; you go from one to the next to the next. So when you find music you like, you look at similar music.
Fundamentally, you will need to sample bands and be disappointed a lot. The proof of the pudding is in the tasting.
Buy a few CDs from Amazon... (Score:3, Funny)
And watch how their recommendation bots bring you the latest in totally irrelevant-to-your-taste artists, and steer you toward kitchen gadgets and other sundries you never knew you needed.
XM Radio (Score:3, Interesting)
They have a sample stream of the station on their website, but I think it's in a Windows Media format.
Hmm... (Score:3, Interesting)
Then, create a section [fruhead.com] for recommending music.
For example, people who like Moxy Fruvous also like:
They Might Be Giants, Guster, BNL, Great Big Sea, The Beatles, Ben Folds (Five), Arrogant Worms, Eddie From Ohio, The Nields, and more.
Of course, that's a lot of work...
You could also check out sites like Diaryland.com or Livejournal.com. Look at music people like, and see what else they like. Livejournal has "interests" with which you can search for people.
It's not exactly automated, but, with some luck, you might be able to find a few different things.
10 Reasons you should check out CD Baby (Score:5, Informative)
10 Reasons You Should Check Out CD Baby [cdbaby.com]:
Some ideas (Score:3, Informative)
- Using Kazaa, search for a favourite artist. Go and browse the collection of someone with a lot of that artist. Download one track from every artist whose music/name you don't know
- Look up favourites on Amazon, and as well as reading the "other people bought..." section, read the comments, they often mention other bands. I've found a few this way.
- Search on Google Groups. See who is talking about a favourite artist. Who else are they talking about?
- Try and find like minded friends. I find this hard as my tastes are fairly esoteric, but I've got one or two friends who aren't too far off, and I have some good discoveries through them.
- Use Launch [launch.com]. It takes a while but once you've customised it enough it does make pretty good suggestions every now and again. I've discovered at least 2 favourite bands via launch. Also good to listen to at work.
- Find a radio station that plays interesting music. My personal favourite is WFMU [wfmu.org] - mostly shows are rubbish, but a few real gems in there (your mileage may vary). Browse the playlists. Some of the radio stations have "top 100 most played songs for 200x" lists - these are great.
- Just keep your eyes open. You'll find stuff when you least expect it.
Happy hunting!Re:cdnow / amazon (Score:2, Informative)
I like Indie Rock / Emo / Punk / Hardcore and I have found that just by browsing alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.indie I have found lots of new, very good music to listen to and explore.
Interpol just rocks the Casba
Outside? (Score:2)
Re:How About Getting Outside? (Score:4, Informative)
I'd love to see a service like Citysearch [citysearch.com] (which posts, amoung other things, listings of bands playing in your local area, as long as your local area is somewhat metropolitan), but that actually linked to samples of the band's music, and had the ability to quickly listen to a bunch of samples for bands playing tonight. You could do a ton of tie-ins: buy CDs, buy tickets, buy shirts, send mail to the band, etc.
Re: Japanese Music Recommendations (Score:2, Informative)
MOD PARENT UP (Score:2)
Re:Why don't you start one? (Score:3, Informative)
Some folks have been known to get weirded out by this.
Sometimes the old ways are effective (Score:3, Insightful)
This is still how I find CDs to buy. (Net radio is rather difficult when you can only get 28.8 where you live.)