How to Discover New Music
October 23, 2022
Written by Ade Ramos (@vibewithade)
If your playlists need a new refresh or you’ve had the same five songs on repeat, you could be due for some music. I know, it can be intimidating finding new music, so let me help you out! From streaming platforms to social media and artist labels, there are plenty of ways to make it easy for you to find new music.
Curated Playlists on Listening Platforms
Whether you’re team Spotify, Apple Music, or SoundCloud, music discovery has been made a lot easier as these platforms create playlists that are routinely updated based on your likings, genres, or artists.
Spotify does a great job at generating curated playlists specifically tailored to your music tastes, like Discover Weekly and Release Radar, based on what you listen to. You can also search Radio playlists for any artist, song, or album to get songs similar to those.
Aside from those playlists, you can also dig into curated playlists by:
- Artists like John Summit’s Summit Selects playlist, Sullivan King’s Reckless Radio playlist, Music Evolution by Vini Vici playlist, and more.
- Brands like Beatport have multiple playlists with new music releases, weekend picks and more.
- Genre Specific playlists are easily searchable in Spotify whether you like house music, bass music, trance, lo-fi, and more.
- Labels like Ophelia Records have new release playlists for songs released under their label.
Apple Music also offers DJ mixes and sets from festivals that have setlists accompanied with it so you don’t have to use Shazam to find out the song. This makes it a lot easier to add those songs into a playlist. They also have Stations that will pair your favorite artists with other similar artists allowing you to find artists that fit the same vibe.
Finally, SoundCloud has a "More of What You Like" section, where they’ll suggest other tracks to check out in a playlist based on your listening history that is updated daily. If an artist has a mix or a set on SoundCloud, they sometimes list out the track list if you’re lucky or you can try to find it on1001Tracklists.
Full Sets on YouTube
Live sets being recorded, filmed, and uploaded to YouTube has risen a ton since 2020 due to the pandemic. You can likely find a set from your favorite artist from a festival or from a special recording simply by searching their name or you can follow YouTube channels that are uploading sets and discover new artists this way. Some favorite channels to subscribe to include:
Social Media
Follow creators who are sharing music to discover. TikTok has a lot of great creators that are providing new music to check out. Those creators also have playlists for you to follow with their picks and similar tracks.
Artist Labels
A lot of artists have created their own labels to push out not only their music, but also up and coming artists’ who create similar jams and beats. These smaller artists typically share similarities in sound so you are more than likely to like that music as well. These artist labels tend to have playlists as well as live events like Chris Lake’s Black Book Records events and Lane 8’s This Never Happened events. This is a great way to discover new artists that have similar sounds as your favorite artists.
Live Events
And of course if you attend shows and festivals, there’s nothing better than discovering a new artist in a live format. Get to these events early to support the smaller artists because you never know, you may walk away with a new favorite. At festivals, don’t be afraid to venture off to a different stage and break out of your typical genre favorites to discover new artists. You can also have Shazam on hand for any songs you don’t know to find new songs to jam to after the event.
Happy listening and vibing on your music discovery journey!
