On youtube and spotify I'd usually just get a list of music from the same artists, or from artists who operated in the same genre that I liked, but had a very different sound to what I liked. Somehow, discovering new music on youtube/spotify is a bit of a chore, endlessly pressing next on songs that I'm not feeling, and only sometimes striking gold.
Somehow, 8tracks was different, I could pick a genre and I'd just listen to a whole playlist of mostly new, great songs. Likely because it was curated by DJs and musicians themselves, not record labels or algorithms. Second, because there's a lot of upcoming talent that's not on Spotify yet for lack of an album or label, but had a single mixtape or single record out on e.g. Soundcloud which was great. I don't know the exact mechanics, just that it was the best place to discover new music for me, and I haven't seen a good replacement yet.
I agree with what everyone is saying here. My years of using it led to some of my best music discovery, and the ease of finding playlists with which I could just put on and be happy with the music coming out for hours. I rolled off it a bit when they went to the paid subscription model though, as it was never quite the same for me after that. I didn't really realize how great it was, until years later when I still didn't have any replacement I was happy with. (And I got old..)
8tracks launched a few years earlier than Spotify. 2008 v 2011 (Spotify US).
So for a few years if you wanted to share a playlist this was THE way. The early day of Spotify also had a limited library and not a lot of people used it.
Somehow, 8tracks was different, I could pick a genre and I'd just listen to a whole playlist of mostly new, great songs. Likely because it was curated by DJs and musicians themselves, not record labels or algorithms. Second, because there's a lot of upcoming talent that's not on Spotify yet for lack of an album or label, but had a single mixtape or single record out on e.g. Soundcloud which was great. I don't know the exact mechanics, just that it was the best place to discover new music for me, and I haven't seen a good replacement yet.