How to discover music in the digital age
Discover music you’ve never heard, even if you’re over 30.
Alright so we know why we are prone to stop discovering music past the age of 30, but this is the modern age and surely there are apps and tools to help us beat the statistic and keep discovering music for years to come?
I set out to find out what people are using these days and made a ‘poll’ on Facebook, getting responses from well-respected muso friends spanning across multiple genres of music taste as well as hitting the ol’ Google search to further establish what tools we can use to keep our discovery of new music alive.
What it all boils down to is ALGORITHMS.
Whether it’s a website or app, it uses algorithms to construct new music for you to discover based on what you like/listen to already. So, it may take time, but the results are symphonic!
Feel the (algo)rithm, feel the rhyme!
For popular as well as obscure genres, Spotify is the favourite to discover music you never knew existed. Users praise the accuracy of its algorithms. Obviously the premium version has more benefits, though the free version aint’ too shabby!
Another streaming platform favourite is Deezer, which is basically like Spotify- I checked it out and I must say I enjoyed their playlists a lot, though a lot of music was old and nostalgic- just the way my old age likes it!
Then there’s 8tracks, which was a firm favourite of mine before they reshaped and became a paid service. What sets it apart is you search playlists by mood, e.g.: Jazz + rain + happy etc, which gives you hours of listening fun without much effort at all; we may not know which artists we want to listen to, but we definitely know what mood we’re in.
In terms of electronic music, SoundCloud, YouTube and Beatport make a brilliant combo. SoundCloud gives you samples of upcoming releases from artists/labels you follow and then when it’s released you can hear the full version on YouTube before deciding if it’s good enough to buy on Beatport.
There’s also BandCamp, another online music store though it seems to be more artist-driven
At the end of the day, to discover music you’ve never heard takes desire and time; but hopefully these tools can make it a bit easier!
