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How do you mateys and folks deal with the sheer amount of music available out there?

There's an ever-growing amount of music available today, a few taps (or clicks) away. I for one feel like there's a lot of great music in many genres and styles, coming from many countries, and in many languages. And there's always new, interesting stuff coming out regularly.

Whether a new release from an artist you like, or an old one you want to go back to, there are so many options to choose from at any given point in time. Yet we can only hear one at a time, so we must choose. So…

How do you choose what to listen to, and how do you keep up with everything you want to keep up with? Do you manage to listen to everything you want to on a regular basis? Do you instead choose to articially limit yourself to keep sane? Or is your music taste narrow enough this is of no worry?

44 comments

  • In the old days, Last.fm was good for discovering music I might like based on what I listen to.

    Nowadays I have this method (hear me out) that consists of drinking a bit too much, listening to favorites on YouTube and opening multiple tabs with what I suspect are good suggestions. This leads me into multiple rabbit holes where I occasionally strike gold.

  • Mid 40s here - I mostly listen to stuff I'm already familiar with (albeit a pretty wide range, or at least I think so), and/or stuff which is from the same eras/genres/etc, particularly if it's something acknowledged as influential on something else I know I like

    Eg 1 - I'm a huge R.E.M. fan, and via them I discovered (some time ago, admittedly) artists like Patti Smith, the Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, etc.

    Eg 2 - I am very much into house/techno, and have discovered so much great stuff old and new via a regular recommendations event on BlueSky (#RaveyardShift, Saturday nights from about 10pm, UK time, if anyone is interested!)

    Eg 3 Although I don't do this so much any more, I found that getting Tidal to generate a radio station based on a single song I like is often a great way to discover other great music in that genre whether it's funk/soul, hip hop, post punk or whatever.

    In all of the above, almost none of it is new... but it's usually new to me, and that's good enough.

    I used to worry that I wasn't keeping up with new music, but after a while I realised that that's ok - there's really no need to worry about that as it's literally impossible to hear everything, so just find stuff you enjoy, let others do the same and don't worry about it.

    As an aside, I'm not religious at all, but I've long had this concept of "heaven" as a place where you simply have the time and resources to experience EVERYTHING you could ever want to. Every song, every movie, every flavour, every sensation, etc.

    That'd be kind of cool. Although I'm conscious that that's the Côtes du Rhône talking... 😁🍷

  • Public/college radio broad cast. Also never fell for mainstream data traps and apps. These broad casts stream for free from their websites and have corresponding spinatron links for playlists. May I recommend: WWOZ new orleans or WMUH Allentown

    That's pretty much all you need. For world music Try putumayo world music hour on ever weekday around noon on WMUH for a great source of curated world music by region. For a deep dive on world music there is a crazy detailed World Journey with Logan on Saturday on WWOZ.

    Also for fun some times I write down stuff I like with a pad and pen, then promptly lose said notes.

  • I originally subscribed to Spotify because its suggested music playlist continuation after playing some songs you already liked was really good at finding stuff similar to what I wanted.

    But it stopped being good at some point and I only keep it because I also haven't been charged anything in 3 years now but still have premium service. 🤷‍♂️

  • I listen to music entirely based on what I already know and like, what I randomly stumble across, and what others recommend to me. Sometimes if I am at a bar and hear a song I like, I'll ask the bartender what it is. This sort of thing. I don't typically go searching and all the times I've tried it hasn't gone great.

    Anyway I have recommendations. Here are some bands that have been recommended to me and stuck with me for atleast a year:

    • Reagan Youth
    • Motorama (>5 years ago)
    • Dead Kennedys
    • Kino
    • Kneecap
    • Rage against the Machine (>5 years ago)

  • I really like the Discover Weekly queue on Spotify. I'll find a track I like, then listen to the album, and if that's good, I'll listen to the rest of the discography. I've found quite a few Most Favourite Bands Ever this way.

  • There will always be more content than anyone can keep up with in a single lifetime. I've long since lost the motivation to race along at the front edge of new shit.

    I pick up new artists from shows, movies, youtube videos, and games. I also regularly let youtube music (revanced, so no ads) run past the end of my playlists and suggest new stuff. I used to use Pandora for this as well.

    On super rare occasions (been over a year now) I'll check out you groove you lose threads on 4chan and discover a few more artists.

  • I acquire music either through saving what I hear being played around me (if like it), by recommendations from people, by using Spotify's recommendations algorithm, or by saving all the music from an artist that I've found and filtering later by shuffling my library. The last one can become a little overwhelming as I've found that it can quickly balloon the size of one's music library, and the size can be daunting for me to filter through, but it does help me find some obscure music from artists that I like.

  • The best music is from when I personally was in high school and the genere has never been improved on.

    • 90% of people
44 comments