[Spivak]

Yes, are you crazy? 12 songs is such a low bar I find at least 12 new artists every month. The music scene is so huge that tiny niches in relative terms can get sustainable followings. I just went to a sold-out show last week where the headliner had 50k monthly listeners.

Did you just decide on your 30th birthday that you aren't allowed to listen to new music anymore? I can't even imagine listening to the same music collection on repeat forever.

[tourmalinetaco]

Crazy? Maybe, but I also know that within my anecdotal data Spotify prefers to show you popular artists and/or songs you are already familiar with, making finding new niche artists a struggle for me. And most people will stay within what Spotify recommends them, meaning they are, in my experience, barely reaching the 12 new songs/mo minimum. I also have found that yes, most people do decide to stop finding new music as they get older. It’s very common for people to both overstate their desire for new media and to simultaneously slow down their intake of new media over time.

Me and you are both at least one to two standard deviations above the mean in terms of artist acquisition rates. And Spotify hasn’t been able to help me with music acquisition as much as exploring physical music selections or Discogs, BandCamp, or eBay has, and in those cases I end up with higher quality listening experience as well.