New Music Discovery
A friend asked how I go about finding new music. Thought I would post my response here...
For new music, I’ll give you a few ways I find and listen.
Find:
- Music social networks:
This is probably the easiest way to find music similar to your tastes then broaden those tastes with suggestions. Last.fm is free. Pandora is partly free, part subscription for more functionality.
- Read music blogs. – lots of great ones out there for many different genres. I subscribe to the feeds to a few of them: Stereogum , Gorilla vs Bear , My Old Kentucky Blog , Brooklyn Vegan
- Too overwhelmed by vast number of blogs, you can go to Hype Machine (www.hypem.com), a site that aggregates all music blog data and has a cool little player to play all the tunes they aggregate. You can use this player to listen to the bands that are being blogged about the most. This site is now the cornerstone of my new music experience. Any time I hear of new band, I immediately go here to see if anyone has blogged about them and if they uploaded any tunes for my listening pleasure.
- Find record labels you like; visit their sites. I go to indie labels like Subpop, Matador, Barsuk, V2, Merge all the time to pick up on new bands, new releases, etc… Many labels now have embedded music players on their sites, so you can listen right there.
- Listen to net radio. Most radio stations now simulcast on the web. Remember that killer radio station from your old college town, find it and stream it. iTunes also has several net radio stations. I work from home, so I’m constantly listening to radio or last.fm while working.
- Watch (or dvr/tivo) late night tv. I love indie rock and nobody has better music than Conan, period. I have been turned on to a bunch of new bands by the big Irishman.
Listen:
Hype Machine (www.hypem.com) – see above
Youtube.com – once you know what you are looking for, it's a great way to check out live performances and music videos
Myspace.com – just about every band has a myspace page. Good way to check out complete tunes.
Examples
Three new (for me) bands and how I found them.
Read Fred Wilson’s blog, A VC. He recommended and I like his taste in
tunes. I went to hype machine and
listened to 4 or 5 songs; dug it. Then went to youtube to check out some
live performances. I liked
what I saw and heard. Went to
Amazon, purchased the record and used amazon’s
very cool 1-click ordering... and the tunes were at my house in two days. (SB Dave post here: Vampire Weekend
Listening to last.fm. on my home page there are recommendations from folks with my taste in tunes. One recommended Okkervil River with an interesting description that went something like, “if this record was a boy, I would want to slowly make out with him for an entire Sunday” not how I felt about the record! but I was intrigued by the review. Listened in last.fm, then went to hype machine to download a few tunes to sit with them over a few days, then purchased two of their records.
On Conan, they just killed. Went on you tube to see that same performance and read about what other people thought. Went to a few blogs, from hype machine, and listened to more of their stuff.
Things I don’t do:
I don’t pay attention to what iTunes is pushing – feels too corporate-marketing, too label induced. I only use iTunes for a library of my digital music, net radio and podcasts.
I do not listen to terrestrial radio (radio is dead in my world. I want variety and no commercials, so Clear Channel can fuck itself). I will listen to some public stations online (KCRW, KEXP, KCSB)
I don’t pay for any subscriptions. I just don’t do it. I know people love Rhapsody and other subscription services. To me that’s a waste of money.
Soundflavor is another good aggregator, similar to Hype Machine, and it has a couple interesting features.
Posted by: Nate | March 01, 2008 at 08:41 AM
Thanks, Nate, for the Soundflavor tip. pretty interesting site with different features than hype machine. thanks again.
Posted by: SB Dave | March 04, 2008 at 09:50 PM