Are you constantly starving for new music to listen to? Not satisfied with what robots have to give you? There are plenty of ways to discover new gems outside of Discover Weekly that you would’ve never had the chance to witness otherwise. All of these ideas you can use any time with little hassle and no cost, so there’s no need to panic!

Take From What You Know

One method of finding new artists is to look at what you already love and build from there. How should you do this? A few ways this could be applied are to find people connected to musicians you listen to, look at playlists related to what you’re familiar with, and go into more albums.

Artists who have either collaborated with, or remixed/covered songs by, artists you currently prefer typically have at least somewhat similar music which might be interesting. If your beloved artist has gone, or does go, on tour, you could also look into anyone they’ve played with for more music in the same lane. Also, a lot of performers publicly list or state others which have inspired their works, or that they personally enjoy, and these can be great points to go off of.

Something else to try is to search for human-made playlists online that feature what you like. You could look for playlists covering genres or vibes that you’re interested in, or you could look for playlists specifically named/based on or featuring songs and lyrics you enjoy. And, if you’re into playlists and single songs over albums, a good idea is to listen to full albums with songs you’re into now, or even albums that you haven’t touched by artists you like. You could find great songs that you might not have encountered.

What Others Hear

You can also look to people you know for music recommendations to listen to. An individual who you’re familiar with will likely know a good amount about what you might appreciate. And, it’s a more meaningful approach to find music and connect to people rather than sticking to some AI.

You could even have fun little games with it. Maybe you could host a shared playlist or listening party with your friends. Or, you could host a music exchange event, adapting a system similar to Secret Santa or White Elephant for albums/songs. Just a handful ideas of things to do.

Another area you can look to find other people’s tastes would be online. Forums and communities related to music usually have plenty of artists to discover from what others say, even if you just watch from the sidelines as opposed to joining in the discussion. People on them are often very dedicated to music and might have a lot to say. Likewise, social media pages and content specifically for music are also decent routes to explore. Podcasts, videos, posts, and blogs are all forms of media that could easily introduce you to fresh acts.

On The Net

With that note, there are tons of websites particularly devoted to music hunting. A few examples include:

• Bandcamp – There are a good amount of routes that this could be used to find new music. One is its detailed tagging system, where you can search for music based on genre. Another way is to see what others listen to with user collections and recommendations. This is mostly focused on actual purchasing of music and merch, but if you don’t wish to spend the money, a good chunk of artists have their music free to listen to elsewhere.
• RateYourMusic – RYM has detailed charts and lists of albums for long digging sessions. Albums have very in-depth profiles with genres, descriptors, and other information, and they’re ranked from 1-5 by users who write reviews on them. This all can be very good for uncovering new music.
• Album of The Year – This is a music review website similar to RYM, but it’s definitely simpler and easier to navigate. Albums and singles are ranked out of 100 instead of 5. This is a more casual place that can be easier to enter than RYM, which is sometimes seen as more intense/rigorous and more difficult for newcomers to join.
• Every Noise at Once – This gives a huge map of thousands of genres, and you can click on a genre to get a sample and additional info on it. You can see a large catalog of artists in the genre as well as designated profiles for them. They also have Spotify playlists for most of the genres. It stopped being updated in 2023, so it is frozen in time, but it is still very usable. Yes, this did run on an “algorithm” with data, but it isn’t like the personal recommendations one would usually think of, so take that as you will.

All of these may be used to discover new music without any required sign-up or payment, even if a few of them do have options to do so. These are most certainly not the only websites online capable of guiding you to new musicians, either. There are more websites for discovering music if you look for them. Also, the land of music journalism is always open if you would like to read more publications relating to music. Magazines such as The Wire, Billboard, Consequence, Stereogum, and others are available any time for your interest. Cardinal Nation has its own number of articles on music, free for all to see!

What You Don’t Know

As for one final thought to consider for discovering new music, a great thing to do is to break out of your comfort zone and listen to genres and types of music you wouldn’t normally give a chance. If you expand your horizons, you can come across amazing artists that you really love and had no idea about before. Even if you don’t suddenly find anyone you’re super passionate about, it’s good to just see what’s out there and open your mind to new things, building your taste and views on music. This can really go for anything in general. A tip on how you might find this different music is to go for names you’ve heard of and remember, but haven’t actually taken the time to look at. Whether they be broader genres or specific artists, you definitely have things you’ve heard of yet haven’t heard.

So, however you want to go about discovering music, there are plenty of options for you any time. It can be a fun, exciting thing to go out and find it. If you like to stick close to home instead of throwing yourself out there, that’s perfectly alright too. Don’t feel like you’re forced to be on an eternal journey to the next artist. But, if you want to explore a bit, and want to do it on your own, hopefully this will give you some helpful pointers.