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Finding new music

wfoster

wfoster

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 16, 2009
696
38
Plymouth, UK
I'm starting to get sick and tired of listening to the same music all the time but for some reason, I don't tend to look around for other styles of music. I'm into a whole variety of music but just want to hear artists that aren't well known.

Does anyone know of any places to find new bands/artists? Or even if people know of any artists, feel free to post them here!
 
Check out the Free iTunes 2012 thread. Every Tuesday Apple provides a free song or two and over time you'll get every genre available. Hopefully you'll find something new you'll like.
 
SandboxGeneral said:
Check out the Free iTunes 2012 thread. Every Tuesday Apple provides a free song or two and over time you'll get every genre available. Hopefully you'll find something new you'll like.
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Do this and plug a song you find and like in Pandora to see if it will branch off from that. Finding new music is really not hard but it is time consuming. The rewards are great though.
 
jessica. said:
Do this and plug a song you find and like in Pandora to see if it will branch off from that. Finding new music is really not hard but it is time consuming. The rewards are great though.
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Unfortunately, Pandora isn't available in the United Kingdom. I'm a premium account holder of Spotify but that doesn't really give me any recommendations as such. Would last.fm be an alternative to Pandora?
 
wfoster said:
Unfortunately, Pandora isn't available in the United Kingdom. I'm a premium account holder of Spotify but that doesn't really give me any recommendations as such. Would last.fm be an alternative to Pandora?
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F--I completely missed your location. Yes, I'd venture lastfm may be an alternative but I am not an avid user. Spotify is good, as you said, but you're right ... no recommendations really. Also, does iTunes make recommendations based on the album you're looking at? Check out the indie section and see if you can't branch out from there.
 
wfoster said:
Unfortunately, Pandora isn't available in the United Kingdom. I'm a premium account holder of Spotify but that doesn't really give me any recommendations as such. Would last.fm be an alternative to Pandora?
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If you don't have access to pandora, Last.fm is a really good website too that suggests recommendations from music you listen to (they call it "scrobbling")

Try it out, there's really nothing to lose as it's free. I have been using it for about four years now and it has really helped me discover new artists. And unlike Pandora, you can discuss music with other people on the artists' pages. And most people on there are really nice. Some of them might give you their own recommendations.
 
Check out the 'What are you listening to' thread on this forum. People post interesting stuff... I usually click on the youtube videos to see if there's something I'll like.

You could also tell us what you're into at the moment. Maybe we could suggest something similar.

Also... do you listen to radio? Find a station you like on DAB and make a note of new tracks you haven't heard before & like.
 
wfoster said:
Unfortunately, Pandora isn't available in the United Kingdom. I'm a premium account holder of Spotify but that doesn't really give me any recommendations as such. Would last.fm be an alternative to Pandora?
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Spotify has radio stations and playlists now. You could listen to "Coldplay radio" for example, and hear music by Coldplay and artists that sound like Coldplay (much like Pandora).

Last.FM isn't really a replacement for Pandora (as it requires more actual labor), but once you build up your charts after using it for a while (I've been using for exactly a year now), you can see your "neighbors" which are people who have similar taste in music, see what they listen to and explore new songs.


NZed said:
8tracks.com
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+1 for 8tracks. I've discovered a lot of new music through it... and I always come across it through StumbleUpon (which may be another option for you in itself... Stumbling just the music category).
 
I use spotify and when I want to hear new stuff I put it on the radio setting with one of my favorite artists. I have been introduced to a lot of new bands that I really like using the radio feature, which is similar to pandora.
 
-Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

-The dodos

-Gotye

-Bombay Bicycle Club

-Fleet Foxes

-Foals

-Foster the People

-Metronomy

-The Morning Benders

-Mumford and sons

-The Naked and the Famous

-Noah and the Whale

-Two Doors Cinema Club

Have fun having an ears organism. :)
 
Zman5225 said:
www.pitchfork.com it's a good site with reviews and links to listen/itunes. I've found a few artists there that i've come to love now. sorta mainstream though.
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I'll second this. They do have a definite vibe, but they review all kinds of music, as long as it's somewhat indie or alternative on some planet or other.

They also have lists like "Top 50 Albums of 2004" that you can run through.

There is a media section where they have performances and videos, and they occasionally preview a track for listening.

http://www.allmusic.com is also good for looking at reviews and seeing followers, precedents, and similar artists. I believe many albums have track previews.

I use iTunes mostly for previewing, but the customer reviews there can be so spotty. The "other people bought" list for albums is good every once and a while. Being able to link to what someone else bought and then preview it and research it more or rule it out quickly is nice.
 
I like Blalock's Indie Rock Playlist, he does one every month with 100+ songs, just do a Google search for the site.

Here in Seattle, you'd have to be in a coma to avoid the music scene, I have several performers that I've gotten to be friends with, they followed me on FB, which then led to connecting with even more artists.

I also love the Bumbershoot music festival for discovering new stuff.
 
I try to listen to a lot of internet radio stations from different countries in different genres.

This is what I would recommend:

German

M94.5 (alt): http://m945.de
on3radio (alt): http://on3radio.de

France

FIP (Jazz/world): http://sites.radiofrance.fr/chaines/fip/endirect/
Paris One (trance): http://www.paris-one.com/trance/player

Sweden

P3 Metropol (street): http://sverigesradio.se/sida/default.aspx?programid=2842

Just for starters. I find that the FIP plays excellent jazz and has some ecletic content (and I can brush up on my rusty French ... thanks American public education). I find that the Swedish station (brushing up on my Swedish) plays a fair bit of R&B/HipHop and mixes it with contemporary pop/electronica which is very popular in Stockholm. P1 is all trance and it's good to hear the classics. While the German stations allow mw to work on my German and hear a lot of new music that not super mainstream yet.

Hope that helps.

----------

Also I find SoundCloud to be superior to Spotify (great when it was only Swedish and not very clunky) and Pandora (crappy interface and bloated) for introducing people to new music that's not mainstream.

I also find last.fm quite nice and i used to use it a lot because it's been around forever, which is why I support it.
 
I found a few good bands just flicking through music channels, and using Shazam to find out who the songs are by if I miss the band/song name at the start of the music video.

If you buy stuff off iTunes, sometimes genius reccomends some good stuff.

I've used last.fm for about 4 years now, and it reccomends some good stuff based on what you already listen to :)

Related videos on YouTube also sometimes give good new stuff if you're listening to a song on there!
 
firestarter said:
Check out the 'What are you listening to' thread on this forum. People post interesting stuff... I usually click on the youtube videos to see if there's something I'll like.
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Agreed.
Maximal said:
-Mumford and sons
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They're good.
Have fun having an ears organism. :)
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Ear organism?!

Do you like specific genres? You might want to check out jango.com (if you can, I'm not sure if it's available in UK). You put in a band, then they play bands that are similar. You can add bands that you want to play too. You can also alter the settings to whether you want to listen to popular artists or not. I've found a lot of artists from jango.

I've also found a lot of artists from talking with friends and looking at bands' Wikipedia pages to see who they performed with on tours.
 
I've actually found a lot of good new music from Twitter. I'm a fan of a lot of bands who aren't exactly famous - and they're always sharing and recommending bands they like and bands they've played/toured with. Same with their followers.
 
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