Discovering New Music?

captainclever asks: "As an avid music fan, I'm keen on discovering new artists that I will like. I have discovered a few by listening to internet radio, and writing down the names of songs that take my fancy. I had a play with The Digital Music Network, but it was very intrusive, full of adverts and only worked in Windows. I found it quite a hard topic to google for as there is so much stuff about music. Has anyone come accoss a decent system that can suggest some good artists to me based on my existing listening habbits?" Word of mouth, of course, is the tried and true method of promoting a new group. Are there weblogs that allow users to discuss music much like Slashdot discusses "news"?

Writing about music is like dancing to a book...

[dagg]

I often run across blogs that discuss music, but most of them are specialized (lots of metal). And even from what I find, I've found it increasingly difficult to read about what others think about a particular song. I mean, writing about music is like dancing to a book.

Oh, i know this one

[balog]

It's gnod [gnod.net].

From the page:

Gnod is a self-adapting system that learns about the outer world by asking its visitors what they like and what they don't like. In this instance of gnod all is about music. Gnod is kind of a search engine for music you don't know about. It will ask you what music you like and then think about what you might like too. When I set gnod online its database was completely empty. Now it contains thousands of bands and quite some knowledge about who likes what. And gnod learns more every day. Enjoy :o)

use an expert system, of course

[StandardDeviant]

like this [gnoosic.com]. it's a really cool engine somebody built that takes information on what you like and suggests other bands. definitely click the "related bands" link under the suggested band it pops out. i realize that this is probably dooming somebody's server to a firey death, but maybe go back in a week or so. ;-) take what it suggests and pop over to shoutcast [shoutcast.com] to look for stations streaming those (sorts of) bands. if you like what you hear, go to your local independent CD shop and buy it, making sure to tell them "yeah, I heard this music online from an mp3 station and now i want to buy it from you". most of the record store owners I know think that mp3s are satan incarnate, helping them see the benefits of fluid, low/no-barrier music preview and discovery would be a good thing long term...

Get out of the house!

[aquarian]

Get out of the house and go to shows! Pick up a copy of the "alternative" newspaper in your town, see what's going on, and hit the clubs. When you find bands you like, buy their CDs, talk to them about what music they like, check out their websites, and take it from there. One thing will lead to another, and another, and before you know it you'll be plugged into another whole scene you never knew existed.

Who knows, you might even make some friends and meet some girls.

Two suggestions:

[NineNine]

I've got two ways that I do this:

1. Amazon (I preferred CD-NOW, but now everything is Amazon). Enter in your favorites, and it'll make suggestions based on what other people buy who like music similar to you. Works very well.

2. Launch.com. It's Yahoo now, but Yahoo didn't change the basics... it's still the best streaming radio out there. You continually tweak what songs/artists/albums/genres that you like for your own radio station, and you can also set how much "other music" is inserted into your radio station. That "other music" that's inserted is music that other people with tastes similar to yours also like. Even better than the Amazon thing, since you get to hear the music right away without actively doing anything. Also, I like Yahoo a smidgen more than I like Amazon.

I like EMusic

[rks404]

I've got a $9.99/month subscription to Emusic.com which I have been enjoying immensely. Although they don't have everything, like Napster or Audio Galaxy's glory days, they do have a surprisingly deep catalog and I've found a lot of really good stuff in their archives.

I also like the fact that I can get clean, nicely labelled, high-quality MP3s and don't have to deal with all the cruft and duplication of gnutella clients. I used to use LimeWire back in the day but found that the program was too heavyweight for my computer and it seriously burdened my computer when it was running.

Good luck finding some music. God knows the music industry isn't making it easier these days.

Gibraltar Encylopedia of Progressive Rock

[FunkyRat]

If you're into progressive rock, and even if you're not, and especially if you think you're not, then I highly suggest you check out the New Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock [gepr.net]. This is a simply awesome resource for finding new music to hunt down and listen to. In addition to the aforementioned encyclopedia, the GEPR has its' own webzine and you'll find links to many sites which review prog rock discs.

Although I have personally not listened to their Live365 stream (dial up line -- not enough bandwidth), ProgRock.com [progrock.com] has an informative website and a very active discussion forum.

One streaming radio station that I listen to a lot, often for hours, is Delicious Agony [deliciousagony.com]. They play a good mix of both classics and new progressive music. Highly recommended. A great benefit of streaming radio is that you can see the playlist while listening and in progrock.com's case, there will also be links to where you can buy the music and to the artists' homepages. Happy hunting.

Monkey Radio

[aSiTiC]

Monkey Radio [monkeyradio.org] is a great alternative for all the groovers out there.

Here's a Good Music Log

[Anonymous Coward]

http://ghotli.cjb.net/cj/musiclog/ [cjb.net]

It's nice because it only gives you one song a day to listen to instead of a gargantuan amount of songs linked on a main page. What's also cool is it covers a wide variety of music and isn't genre-centric.

Usenet.

[rickmccl]

Hate to say it, but I've found most of my new music by downloading semi-randomly from genre-related usenet newsgroups e.g. alt.binaries.punk or alt.binaries.mp3.heavy-metal. Download and delete, download and delete, eventually you find a group that you've just got to go buy every CD they've ever made. Sort of like when I was in high school and traded tapes with people.

AMPCAST AMPCAST AMPCAST!!!

[Ian Peon]

I wonder if he's heard of AmpCast [ampcast.com]. A moderation system (as someone else asked for), and I understand that the artist gets $0.05 per download.

A musician friend of mine left MP3.com for them about a year ago because of MP3.com's shitty service...

You never know...

[ronmon]

They might group you with others who prefer clean underwear [techweb.com]. Then again, maybe not [theregister.co.uk].

XM Radio

[Wateshay]

XM Satellite radio has a channel called "Unsigned", that plays nothing but unsigned bands from around the U.S. Most of it's really good. The also have links on their website [xmradio.com] to the websites of all the bands they play that have websites.

They have a sample stream of the station on their website, but I think it's in a Windows Media format.

Hmm...

[Misch]

Do as some creative Fruheads have done. Create a website [fruhead.com] for your favorite bands fans.

Then, create a section [fruhead.com] for recommending music.

For example, people who like Moxy Fruvous also like:
They Might Be Giants, Guster, BNL, Great Big Sea, The Beatles, Ben Folds (Five), Arrogant Worms, Eddie From Ohio, The Nields, and more.

Of course, that's a lot of work...

You could also check out sites like Diaryland.com or Livejournal.com. Look at music people like, and see what else they like. Livejournal has "interests" with which you can search for people.

It's not exactly automated, but, with some luck, you might be able to find a few different things.