Tag: How to Discover New Music

How To Discover New Music (Part 4/4)

For the last installment of How To Discover New Music, we’re going to focus on social media (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and MySpace).

1. Ask your friends for recommendations and have them make you a CD of songs they like. Or, on Facebook, you can see what bands your friends have listed in their music sections.

Example: I discovered “Can You Tell” by Ra Ra Riot and “Our Deal” by Best Coast via direct suggestions from friends.

2. YouTube: YouTube’s right hand panel shows suggested videos, and these videos are not always other songs by the same artist. Sometimes the videos feature a different artist or band (perhaps one that the first band has toured with in the past).

3. On Twitter, you should be following artists and bands that you like. Many musicians tweet links to songs that they like, which is an easy way to discover new music that you may like.

Example: I discovered the band Land of Talk (and the songs “It’s Okay” and “Some Are Lakes”) when Holly Miranda tweeted  a link to the music video for “It’s Okay.”

4. Check out the MySpace page of your favorite bands, and listen to the songs on their “Top 8” friends’ MySpace pages. Bands are friends with other (often similar) bands. Also, supergroups introduce you to new members of bands.

Example: The formation of supergroup Tinted Windows encouraged me to listen to “1979” by The Smashing Pumpkins.

5. iTunes free songs of the week: Every Tuesday on record release day, iTunes offers 3 or 4 songs for free. After listening to the 30 second samples, download whatever you think you might like.

Example: I’ve discovered “Simple As It Should Be” by Tristan Prettyman and “All For Love” by Serena Ryder via iTunes free downloads. (This rule also applies to TV shows like White Collar and FlashForward).

6. If you like going to concerts, you probably have some favorite venues. Look at the calendar on your favorite venue’s website, and see who’s playing. MySpace or google any interesting sounding bands.

Example: I discovered Los Campesinos! by searching for what bands were playing at the Troubadour during a specific week in May.

7. Go to a used record store and browse their clearance section. You should be able to get an album for a dollar, so spend $10 and get 10 CDS (should be 100-120 songs). How do you pick what CDs to buy? You can get CDs from artists you’ve already heard of, bands that have interesting names, or CDs that have attractive album artwork…You’re bound to find some gems.

Example: I discovered Pete Yorn’s song “Strange Condition” by this method at the Princeton Record Exchange.

8. Read After The Show. Follow After The Show on Twitter here. Watch the concert videos on After The Show’s YouTube channel here.

To read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of How To Discover New Music, click here, here, and here.

How To Discover New Music (Part 3)

Part 1 of “How to Discover New Music” (read it here) was about music podcasts.

Part 2 (here) was about attending concerts.

Part 3 is about interviews and playlists.

Read, listen to (audio), or watch (video) interviews with artists you like, especially interviews that focus on having artists make playlists of music that they like.

Example #1: I discovered the song “Saturday” by Rachael Cantu and “5 Years Time” by Noah and the Whale by listening to Ben Lee’s podcasts and reading a playlist he made.

Example #2: Holly Miranda tweeted a link to “It’s Okay” by Land of Talk. A playlist by Lizzie Powell of Land of Talk featured the song “Re: Stacks” by Bon Iver and “One Man” by Eulogies:

Example #3: An interview with Brian Wilson and Zooey Deschanel led me to discover “This Will Be Our Year” by The Zombies.

How To Discover New Music (Part 2)

Part 1 of “How to Discover New Music” (read it here) was all about good music podcasts.

Part 2 is about attending concerts.

Make sure to get there early to catch the opening acts of bands that you already like. Sometimes, the opening bands are chosen by a band’s record label rather than by the band itself, but seeing opening bands nevertheless exposes you to music you probably haven’t heard before.

I’ve stood through my share of awful and/or boring opening acts, but I’ve discovered some of my favorite artists just because they were the opening band for another band I already liked.

Real life examples: Ben Lee opened for Phantom Planet, Eisley opened for New Found Glory, Brandi Carlile opened for Hanson, and The Bridges opened for Rooney.

On the flip side, say a band you like is opening for a different (bigger) band that you haven’t heard of before. Don’t just leave right after the band you came to see played — stick around for the headlining act, and you just might discover a new favorite band.

Real life example: The Like opened for The Sounds.

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