Hey folks!
One of my life goals for 2025 was going back to single purpose devices and avoiding algorithm-based media consumption. No smartphones, no AIs, no Spotify.
I’m quite happy with my offline music library, even if it took a while to organize. I use MusicBee (it FINALLY runs perfectly via Wine, if you install some dependencies in your prefix) to listen, find artwork, find lyrics, create playlists and so on and I sync them to my Innioasis, a little iPod Classic clone that supports modern features like USB-C charging.
But here’s the thing… how are people finding new music nowadays? I’d assume TikTok and automatic suggestions from your music streaming services, but are there alternatives?
TikTok would probably work for me if I didn’t stop using social media, but I did. Apple Music’s algorithm sucked tremendously when I used it in the past - it always recommended me Ed Sheeran, an artist I strongly dislike and not anywhere near adjacent to my taste in music (and tapping ‘Not Interested’ a million times never worked) and Spotify’s worked well for a while, but then it started getting extremely repetitive and pushy, “Shuffle” became essentially “Your 10 most recently listened to songs, repeated often, and sometimes we sprinkle two suggestions you already didn’t like but we think you should like actually”
https://listenbrainz.org’s weekly exploration
Last good new (to me) music I found was by going to music festivals and by YouTube randomly recommending something to me I had never heard of before.
I just go on youtube music (don’t need an account) and search “songs like x”. That will get you a bunch of algo and user created playlists. Then I listen to them and take note of the ones I like.
Go see bands live, look up who is opening for bands you like and check out their music, talk to people who go to those shows and see what they like.
Never used the site myself as i’m still “plugged in” but i’ve kept this in my pocket for if i ever cut ties with music streaming. If you try it report back with your thoughts?
I find more good quality music on community radio stations compared to the algorithmic recommendations from Apple Music. I wonder if this is because the community radio host is just playing music that they genuinely like as opposed to whoever pays the most to be on a discovery playlist.
Community/College Radio is such an under utilised source IMO. No pay to play artists. Often a focus on local artists. Gigs and events focussed on the community. It’s the best. Do you have radio station recommendations?
BBC Radio 6 Music has a very eclectic playlist, and DJs who only vaguely stick to it, playing whatever they feel like most of the time. And the DJs are obsessive music-fans as well, hunting out new music to play
I switched to Tidal because of the issues you had. I’ve been loads happier with the artist radios, and their “New Arrivals” playlist tailors to listening habits really well. The daily mixes can be hit or miss with serving new stuff, but overall I’ve been happy with the results. On top of that their audio streaming quality is excellent, especially if you have good audio equipment or care about that sort of thing.
I still find music the old school way, either through people I know recommending it or hearing it randomly in my travels.
Bandcamp has given me some good recs if you go to the bottom of the page of an album you like it will have some suggestions.
I like qobuz as my streaming service. It has terrible algorithms but well written human articles about genres, bands, labels with links to important albums.
I also like browsing the record store and picking up an album based on cover. I think you can 100% judge an album by it’s cover.
Bandcamp, then I go to my favorite genres, and then look at the new stuff.
Bandcamp
Second this. I don’t really listen to a lot of mainstream stuff, so Bandcamp is really awesome for finding really great indie stuff.
RateYourMusic, Gnoosic, and the old school way: on the radio. I have one curated music program that I listen to and discover new stuff.
The YT algorithm also sometimes recommends good stuff that has few hundred views
Well for example I saw this on mastodon recently: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2025/07/jwz-mixtape-253/
Record labels… there are many but keeping up with a few that your favorite artists are already signed to is a great way to find similar music.
