Yess! Thank you for commenting. I am very interested in this topic. Please do share with me if you find any interesting ways to explore new music for your taste
Same as GP. It takes times. Unless it’s party mode, I only listen to albums. To find new music, it takes time mostly. I decide to listen to a new genre and I seek a playlist or a compilation curated by someone. If I find someone I like, I check their albums. I also checkout the recommendations on bandcamp (people vote with their wallet there). Then there are forums and polls, and I may decide to try something out of the blue.
The more you curate, the more you define your own taste. It’s then easier to describe what you like in a music and triage.
This probably won't work for most people, but as I mostly like metal, I simply check all metal releases that seem slightly to my tastes according to the subgenre. Then when this sampling seems at least somewhat positive, I play the full album after release. That usually ends in sampling songs from 30 albums, listening to ten albums, and buying 1-2 every Friday. Never had an algorithmic recommendation system that worked for me.
local record store. talk to the people who work there, tell them the 5 albums you’ve been hooked on lately.
at the end of the day no matter how many times we beat our heads into the same wall, we’re not even close to an accurate discovery model, music nerds are far better at recommendations than any discovery models. far better.
don’t let their insufferability discourage you. you will be too once you start diving into and going on rants about music which is outside of mainstream fluff. it’s like this with any $subject involving wonks. we’re insufferable to anyone who isn’t into our particular genre of technology. food wonks are insufferable, car geeks are insufferable, gamers are insufferable. that’s ok, if you’re looking for someone who is a geek in a topic, you’re likely to become one too :p just be normal around $subject non-wonks and you’ll be fine.
but yeah, music nerds working in a good record store really do know their stuff.
other places:
- music nerd streams on twitch
- music reviewer youtube channels
- college radio stations (most have an online presence) 770 radiok out of minneapolis is incredible
- kexp out of seattle is absolutely amazing (they’re heavily online as well.)
- just about every mid+ sized city has some amazing radio, usually found in the low FM areas.
at the end of the day though, it’s other people. there are far too many variables for every individual which drives why they may or may not like a song at any given moment. other humans are still absolutely unmatched when it comes to navigating this.
> local record store. talk to the people who work there, tell them the 5 albums you’ve been hooked on lately.
Unless your interests are niche. A fun game I used to play as a teen was going with my parents to the record store and seeing if they had any music I listened to online while my parents shopped. Never found a single CD (but they couldn't be that niche, this story is about bands I found out about from my friends at school!). Employees tried to be helpful, but there's only so much they can do when someone comes in and asks for a list of bands they've never heard of.
The more you curate, the more you define your own taste. It’s then easier to describe what you like in a music and triage.