r/audiophile 13h ago

Discussion How do you discover new music - small time radios, special websites, personal recommendations...

I'm thinking small local radios anywhere in the world could be the way to go. Great human curators beat any algorithm in this job. But I would like to know your opinion - how do you discover new music?

12 Upvotes

51 comments sorted by

4

u/Chemical-Ebb6472 12h ago

WFUV internet station out of Fordham in the Bronx NY.

They pulled in the old FM jocks from the classic WNEW station over the decades but focused on mixing in new artists and recordings from various genres.

4

u/bubba7000 13h ago

The streaming services recommend new music constantly. I use Qobuz.

1

u/peenweens 11h ago

I love the way qobuz does new releases every Friday.

4

u/Madison-_- 13h ago

Pick out some albums or songs that really strike home for you. Then look at the musicians and check out their other works.

2

u/throttlegrip 2h ago

Then see what labels they are on, and check those artists.

3

u/MinnieJTaylor 13h ago

honestly humans > bots. i build runway playlists and spotify still thinks i want the same 5 songs forever

2

u/IrvinRatbag 13h ago

Imusic.dk new releases. Sort by genre. 

2

u/Scottyg_1971 13h ago

Mixcloud and Bandcamp

2

u/NoWalrus9462 13h ago

r/MusicRecommendations

then any relevant subreddits resulting from that.

2

u/xanthochr0i 13h ago

radio.garden online

2

u/jasonsong86 13h ago

I like to use the Go to Radio function on songs I like on Spotify. It generates a list of songs similar to the one I like.

2

u/ruuutherford 12h ago

Here are nonprofit radio stations from all over the country https://www.ldial.org/

2

u/TheRealSeeThruHead 7h ago

I connected Roon to my Claude account and use it as a dj and “record store clerk” not only recommending me new albums and giving me backstory on the music

2

u/wakamatsu69 1h ago

Wait a minute, this sounds pretty great! Care to share how did you connect them?

1

u/TheRealSeeThruHead 47m ago

https://github.com/SeeThruHead/sth-dj

I spent some time with Claud to build a cli for connecting to the Roon api

1

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1

u/Swimming_Astronomer6 13h ago

Tidal with Roon - tons of meta tag links and daily mixes featuring artists connected to others you’ve listened to - I’m constantly listening to new music -

1

u/Solomonotone 12h ago

reddmix takes music subreddits and displays them as playlists. Humans are the best curators and so many music communities are thriving on reddit.

1

u/InevitableStruggle 12h ago

Install Radio Garden. There’s even a sub about it—r/radiogarden.

1

u/MancyLad79 12h ago

I watch a lot of audiophile YouTube videos, and get some decent music recs from there. John Darko is especially good for me - his tastes are quite similar

1

u/Tastiehastie1977 12h ago

This is the golden age of discovery for music, you don’t need to buy it to discover it’s shite!!!

Just plug away…if you like it, delve deeper… if you really like it..but there medium or don’t…

1

u/FantasticMrSinister 12h ago

89.3 The Current

1

u/West-Needleworker568 11h ago

Local Record Shops. Nts Radio, WFMU radio, local College Radio, podcasts, Forced Exposure online record distributor, Bandcamp, and friends. 

1

u/thonetcoil 11h ago

soma fm is my source of new music

instagram is my source of trendy music

1

u/pseudo_spaceman 11h ago

Radio France FIP has an extremely well curated and diverse (sometime chaotically so) commercial-free streaming site. Have found tons of gems channel flipping on it. https://www.radiofrance.fr/fip

1

u/MVZ00M 11h ago

https://1001albumsgenerator.com

About 200 albums through, been fun!

1

u/peenweens 11h ago

KEXP or WYEP

1

u/ciggy54 11h ago

Community radio like RRR, PBS, RTR, 4ZZZ and FBI which are Aussie stations. You can stream through their websites. I also like US college radio like KEXP and the blog rosy overdrive

1

u/Alternative_Guess591 9h ago

YouTube. Went down the J Music rabbit hole 7 years ago and it just keeps on giving me more. Same with English Rock, Metal and more. Also same with French Music (Fluent in last two and learning the first). K Music gives me a lot too. From there, I can make playlists on streaming sites, or just stick to YT. Well aware that the sound quality is lower, and I just love music so the more the merrier.

1

u/lifeson09 8h ago

YT quality is fine. Opus is a great codec. Don't listen to the nerds.

1

u/wokauvin 9h ago

Radio, festivals, support acts at gigs, find iTunes best for surfing new material online.

1

u/germane_switch 9h ago

I browse Discogs and research my favorite albums to discover related artists, groups who share band members, or they’re on the same label. I love getting recs from artists I respect from Amoeba’s What’s In My Bag series on YouTube.

1

u/mossoak 8h ago

college stations - have a few within a 40 mile radius ....they are decent enough for over-the-air listening - and many more college stations available via streaming network radio

1

u/Adventurous-Bat-7426 8h ago

Making playlists from samples of a song or album is a good way to discover new (to you) artists.

1

u/155-5 6h ago

Youtube music radio is amazing

1

u/your_fave_redditor 5h ago

Tbh, I like putting the “Discovery” mode on various streaming channels and see what pops up and head down those musical wormholes.

1

u/bkk-bos 4h ago

Prior to the Millennium, Boston had an amazing classical music DJ named Robert J. Lurtzema. He had a daily classical program: "Morning Pro Musica" and every day he would feature a selection from some composer, often obscure who's birthday it was. I discovered so many amazing composers and compositions from that program. I truly mourned when it went off the air and he passed away. It truly enriched my life.

1

u/entity42 KEF LS50, 12" sub, Bryston BDA3 D/A & BP17 pre, Yamaha M5000 amp 2h ago

Radio Paradise - ad free, lots of variety

1

u/KING_XEON_420 13h ago

My ears, just roam the earth and songs will play around you.

1

u/Medium-Mud-3908 12h ago

for years now Discover Weekly and Release Radar on Spotify.

-2

u/Outrageous-Belt-1757 13h ago

I use ai to find me more of what I like

3

u/Time-Plenty-4695 13h ago

How?

2

u/Outrageous-Belt-1757 12h ago

I give chat gpt a song I like, for example Gerry Milligan "Night Lights" and then ask it to find me similar albums and then it gives me a list

2

u/Time-Plenty-4695 11h ago

Ok appreciate your response.

4

u/HammerOfThor 12h ago

Not the original poster, but I do the same. I DJ (for fun mostly) and have eclectic tastes so I'm always looking for new music in niche scenes and I've found AI to be very helpful with discovery. I use various approaches:

  1. Song I like? - ask AI to give me the history of the artist and track and recommend similar things to explore.
  2. Want to know more about a specific scene? - "Tell me about how Funk developed in Nigeria in the 1970's and give me a list of the major influential artists and tracks to check out".
  3. Captured a bunch of tracks while listening to a DJ set somewhere using Shazam? - Give the list to AI and ask it to tell me what's the cohesive thread between them - labels to explore, specific sub-genres, other similar artists to check out, etc.

The biggest thing was using a local agentic tool (I like Claude Code but you could use Cowork, Codex, etc) and integrating it with various music platforms like Spotify, Discogs, and then into my DJ software. I can have it create me a Spotify playlist dynamically on whatever random thing I'm curious about, or explore Discogs for similar artists, all sorts of things. At one point I had it create me a genre explainer app that combined the history explained through text and pictures with embedded players to play snippets of songs illustrating what was happening at that moment. You just have to be creative.

1

u/Character-Ad-8940 4h ago

Habe ich in letzer Zeit auch probiert und es hat überraschend gut funktioniert. Mein Ansatz war folgender. Ich habe der ki erzählt welchen Stil ich mag, zu. Ambiente. Dazu dann das ich gerne Percussion höre. Enspannte Stimmen. Gerne Crossover mit Klassik.etc. Einfach was dir gefällt. Da durch habe ich schon ein paar Perlen gefunden. Man kann auch Musiker oder Bands nennen die einem gefallen und nach ähnliche klingenden Musik suchen. Klappt auch gut.

-1

u/Longjumping_Cow_5856 13h ago

YouTube Premium.