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One of the biggest joys of finding new music is stumbling onto something you like unexpectedly, like when Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist nails it and there’s more than one song that you don’t skip. Of course, this can be a rare occasion for many of us. Algorithms haven’t figured out how to give us an unending stream of personalized hits just yet, so we’re left to find our new jams in other ways.
Here are a few ways to find new music when you’re absolutely completely out of ideas.
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Finding New Music
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Twitter
The little blue bird is a great music discovery tool. Just amass a following of several thousand people who know your interests and tastes. Then simply send out a tweet asking for song recommendations. Easy.
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DJ Classes
Perhaps attending a DJ class could get you some new tunes? You'd be exposed to a wide variety of music, one five-second sample at a time.
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Pitchfork
The tasteful indie website does album reviews from time to time. If you're looking for adventure, sort from lowest to highest and start at the bottom. Pitchfork hates fun, so there's probably something good there.
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Exchange Mixtapes
Nobody's going to go to the work of recording anything on a cassette, but swap a playlist between you and a friend whose music tastes genuinely baffle you.
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Radio
Believe it or not, radios still exist and sometimes they even play music. If you're interested in finding some not-so-hidden gems from the mid-'90s, FM has you covered.
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Passing Cars
People love listening to music while driving. If you're walking around near a highway, keep your ear open to any music that catches your fancy and look it up later.
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Ask the Parents
If you're truly hard up for new music recommendations, go back to the classics. See what kind of music your parents were listening to at your age, and then fire up Spotify. Everything old is new again, right?
