10 Ways to Discover New Music

by Hugh Gallagher, 30th April 2008

I play music all the time; at home, at work, in the car, sometimes even in my bedroom to help get me to sleep. But without the skill to find new music, I would soon get tired of the same old tunes. I've tried many methods over the years to broaden my musical tastes, so hopefully some of these can be helpful to somebody else.

1) BBC iPlayer Radio

Now I'm not a huge fan of all that is played on mainstream radio, even the BBC ones, but I do enjoy using the BBC iPlayer radio. To my irritation the BBC seems to have the habit of scheduling all it's niche shows on during the middle of the night. Luckily with the iPlayer you can easily pick any of the shows from the previous 7 days, and listen to it on your computer.

2) Music store latest releases

I find my local music shop fairly uninspiring at times, but it doesn't stop me visiting to check out the new releases section. They often only have a half-dozen CDs in them at a time, but this makes it easy to pick up a copy of each CD, and walk over to a listening stand to check them out..

3) Last.fm

There are lots of social music web sites around, but most regularly I visit Last.fm. An small iTunes plug-in allows the site to track all the tunes I listen to on my computers and MP3 Player. The information is uploaded to the Last.fm website, where you are able to see some statistics on your listening habits. The Most effective feature is the ability to view the listening habits of people that are deemed statistically alike to you. You can scroll through your musical neighbors, checking out for bands that they often listen to but you are unfamiliar with. You can even listen to short sample tracks of them using the built in audio player.

4) Pandora

Pandora is an music recommendation service, and allows you automatically generate a radio station by inputting a band or track you enjoy. The songs on the station are picked based on being similar to the songs or artists you provide. I used Pandora for about a year until unfortunatly the service was restricted to only be accessible from the USA, although many similar sites have popped up since, such as One Llama.

5) Go to gigs

Going to see a band you love live is fantastic, but often it's easy to underestimate the support bands. Support bands tend to be up and coming, or local bands you wouldn't normally run into, so are a great source of new sounds.

6) Pick up a music magazine

I confess I don't often buy music magazines, as I find the articles a waste of time. It might sound cheap, but often in shops I will pick up a copy of Kerrang, or the NME, and flip through to the new releases section, have a quick read and then return it to the shelf. I make a mental note of the bands, and then look them up later on the Internet, when I get home.

7) iTunes

I often use the iTunes store to search for and listen to samples of bands I'm investigating, such as ones I found on Last.fm. You may only have the ability to listen to short samples, but the iTunes catalog is vast, which means you've got a good chance of finding what your looking for. Once in a blue moon I even purchase using the store, as I'm to damn impatient, and can't wait for a CD to be delivered.

8) Magnatune

I discovered Magnatune at work, where I use an Ubuntu based Linux box for my daily tasks. The latest version of Rhythmbox that comes with the operating system, has been integrated with the Magnatune service. Magnatune allows you to listen to all the music you want for free, and even purchase songs using a “Pay what you deem fair” system. The music isn't very mainstream, but selecting a bunch of tracks and playing them on random keeps me entertained.

9) Ask other people

Don't under estimate your friends or co-workers, even if they do seem to have awful taste in music. It's good to take interest in what other people are listening to, as it helps you diversify your listening habits, and explore something you wouldn't usually listen to.

10) Put you MP3 Player on random

I have a large MP3 collection, which played end to end would span many days. It's very easy to find you have songs you hardly ever, or never listen too. Putting your player on shuffle, can most often help your discover some hidden gems.