I know the question is rather awkward at first and I am possibly overlooking something, but I would like to know something I really don’t understand.
In the past I have used modified versions of Spotify and they are fine but obviously no modified version allows you to download songs because it is a premium function at server level and honestly I would like to have my songs on my device, so if I don’t have internet I can still listen to them.
After those modified versions of Spotify, I have used apps like ViMusic, Spotube and SimpMusic which are basically Youtube Music apps but without ads and with more features, including downloading music, the problem is that they do that at the level of the app itself, not in a separate file. And I love these apps and I can not recommend them enough but my phone is a little old and I see 0 need to change it since I use it for basics usage and although this can sound dumb the interface of these apps are full of blur and unnecessary effects that make my device slow, including Spotify, and I don’t like Spotify Lite because I feel it is a very trimmed version of Spotify.
So this is where my question comes in, for those who exclusively download music, how do you discover new songs? Spotify’s recommendation system is great and Youtube’s radio mode is very good but obviously I need to use Spotify or Youtube Music to use it and I prefer to use light apps for local playback because of what I already mentioned.
Edit: Thanks for all the recommendations! I never thought this post would get so many answers and there are too many comments to answer one by one, but I admit that the old-school method of reading blogs or magazines works well, and I also like the idea of sites like Last.fm or discogs.
I don’t like using recommendation algorithms, I always discover music by human recommendations from blogs like bandcamp daily, warez websites and featuring artists
This is pretty interesting. I’ve read that page but I’m not sure I get the value. Is the idea that I rate the music in my library and the ratings go to this website and I get some analysis or recommendations back?
The reviews and genre charts let’s you explore the music quite deep, use the charts they are really great to get into each artist or genre
I came here just to say this. I usually now just download shit on my ipod so its godtier to get away from the soon to be overpriced streaming services
I don’t I am stuck ekth the same albums send help
listen to college/indie radio and follow their playlists.
KUOM KCPR WFMU
Follow all of your favorite artists via an app named “MusicHarbor” or “Music Butler” (web app, so you can track new releases on any device). It literally changed my life and every Friday is like a holiday since most artists release their tracks then.
Doesn’t this just tell you about bands you already know? How do you find new bands?
It tells you about their releases. I follow over 200 producers, it would be almost impossible for me to track all of the new things they’re putting out. As for discovery, features and collaborations mainly.
Thank you for this. Usually I go to my universities’ underground radio station but this works just as well :)
I like their “neighbours” tab of people with similar listening habits. I’ll choose a few accounts and look at the tracks they listened to most frequently in the last 365 days. You can find some real gems that way
Listen to the internet stations that are local to you, and have actual programmers daily. Some of the bigger ones in the US are KCRW, KEXP, WFMU, and any college radio station. Places that have guest bands come through and play a bit so you can hear how it sounds outside of a studio are the best in my opinion.
Got my KEXP bank card. Gotta rep the best.
I follow a few blogs/sites that review the music genres that I like. I also read and comment in the tracker’s forums, where people suggest new music or discuss about new and old music. And I found that it’s much better than getting suggestions on spotify/tidal.
Gnod
Type in 3 things you like, and you get suggestions that you yes/no as it tries to narrow down your vibe.
the map function is pretty neat as well. Thanks!
Recommendations are a must for me since I listen to genres which do not do well with western audiences in terms of organic recommendations.
If you want an automatic way to discover new music before you actually stumble upon the music itself,
listenbrainzmight be a decent FOSS alternative tolast.fm. I would also uselibre.fmon a personal server to check my own habits.However, I also use YouTube music a lot, especially when I want to find something new. This does need one to be active on YT music with specific cookies set (in case you’d like to transfer listening history and habits across browsers/computers without signing in) to give you good recommendations. The good part is that it can likely show you good recommendations inside a few hours of you showing it what you like by playing your favourites.
For example, it was on YouTube music that I found
Today is a beautiful daybySupercellandEt si tu n'existais pasbyHélène Ségara & Joe Dassin.Cheers
Aside from what others have said, I look at what other bands the bands I already listen to tour or collaborate with.
Review sites for genres I like. I find a lot of new music on Angry Metal Guy. That one’s just for metal, but there are all kinds of different review sites
Youtube, cracked spotify, collab with artist I already like, rythm games, friend recommendations…
Abd then I download with soulseek, sort and send to my phone with musicbee and listen with musicolet
I was surprised to see only one other reference to Twitch. I have found Twitch to be AMAZING for new music discovery. MOST of the time when I listen to music, it is actually through Twitch. I have many good hosts saved and checking the who’s on now page is the first thing I do when I want to turn on music. And when the apocalypse comes, I have a good library myself now…
There’s a catch, of course. A lot of Twitch streamers are fucking irritating! It takes time to find channels that meet my needs…
- Plays my kind of music (classic rock, 80s, industrial, darkwave, synthpop, electro, gothic rock, some dance genres like filth… to name a few). If anyone wants channel recommendations I am happy to list some.
- Ideally, the video feed clearly shows the track ID (so I know what music to grab!)
- The host isn’t on mic all the time. It just kills me when I find someone playing good music with track IDs and they talk too much. The more of the video frame taken up by the DJ, and the bigger the mic, the greater the chance that they won’t shut up, haha.
A good host will namedrop and raid hosts with similar taste, so once you find a couple that you like, your list of follows will expand quickly.
Here are a few more tips…
- If you follow someone on Twitch, there is a separate toggle for receiving notifications when they go live. For 95% of the people I follow, notifications are OFF. A few are so good I want notifications.
- “Alternative Player for Twitch” in the Chrome extensions is a cool alternate client that MUTES ADS. There are a few such extensions, this one has been the most reliable for me. However, for some reason it does not support taking you on a raid (that is when your channel ends and sends all the viewers to someone else).
- There is a cool alternate client for Android TV called S0undTV.
- Some Twitch hosts will put their shows on Mixcloud too, so check their details
- Even if a host does not list the track IDs for what they are playing you may have success IDing music with something like Shazaam. On-screen ID is so convenient though.
- Get to know a mass tagging tool like mp3tag, and you can RAPIDLY expand the size of your music library.
- It seems impossible to tell Twitch to not suggest channels that you are not interested in. You can spend hours trying to kill off bad recommendations but it doesn’t matter. For example I do not care about game streaming or people playing live music but I CANNOT get them out of my Recommended list. You just have to learn to ignore them.
