Finding new music used to be easy: listen to the radio or find a talkative clerk at the local record store. Now that the Internet has changed everything, how do you find new music?
COMMENTS
Fun? Definitely! Easy? Not really, in my experience at least. It used to include record reviews by trusted reviewers, cross-referencing producers and labels, listening to WHFS (in the '70s, when it was a DC "rock" radio legend) and WGMS (classical), and, of course, being impressed by the LP cover art. Now it includes the above minus any radio (I moved, and, in any event, radio ain't what it used to be) and checking out (lots and lots of) samples on B&N or Amazon.
If you can't find any new music, you're not looking very hard. As I lurch toward 50, I'm buying more brand-new albums by brand-new artists (all on brand-new vinyl) than at any other point in my life. Thanks to bands' message boards, music blogs, and constantly checking the "what's new" listings at online retailers, I'm finding more new music than I can afford.
Pandora.com You can make your own radio station using a band name or song title, etc. You put a band name in that you may have heard of but aren't that familiar with and the station will play songs from that band and also songs from similar bands. Another good way is to put in the name of a band you really like and then hear other similar bands.
It's not very easy these days to find new music that I actually want to buy. Since commercial radio evidently has no interest in the 50+ group, it's pretty much left to chance. I guess the recording industry is okay with this, so who am I to complain? Except perhaps, because I'm the potential customer!
The number of "quality tracks" available is extremely limited. The so-called "best" music (in all genres) has already been made, which, sadly, is being reworked by current artists and passed off as "new." Creativity, in general, has all but disappeared.
I'm definitely old school on this, as I rely on the advice of friends and on a single show on my local public radio station (Ann DeLisi's Essential Music on WDETFM, 101.9 in the metro Detroit area). WDET used to have a much better musical lineup until they dropped almost all their music programming for crappy news/talk radio with an NPR twist. I do go to www.martinbandyke.com to see what he's talking about (a great DJ who got let go when WDET changed formats).
Still use the same types of research: magazines, friends, TV, etc. But now I will Google them instead of listening in the record store. MySpace music is great. In the end, I get more music but less that I do not care for. We lost another KC record store this month. RIP Need More Discs.
Mostly from the Internet from label sound clips. I like personal referrals, but I do not seem to see many of them. MF's "Music Angle" helps some for vinyl releases, as does the R2D4 section. It is sad that broadcast radio is playing such a small part these days. What is worrisome is that I look at the Billboard charts from time to time and realize how far out of the mainstream my musical tastes are these days. This is when I realize how irrelevant I have become. You knew it, but I am just learning it. Slow, I guess.
Internet radio, which often has the added advantage of listing the details of the song so that I can identify it even if I miss the DJ's follow-up. Perhaps fittingly, the streams I listen to are primarily online versions of existing FM stations. The difference is that I can still listen to all of them, even if I'm halfway around the world!
God knows. When the software changed before, at least you still went to the same shop to buy a 78, 45, LP, tape, CD, whatever. Now the physical vendors are gone, or just about defunct. (So much for making friends at the record store in our little audio community). Of course, now it's all supposed to be downloaded—bitty files on a hard drive—which is as much fun as going to the dentist. Or purchased online from big warehouses like ArchivMusic. I guess this is progress, I dunno. More like Heidegger's technological determinism. Maybe the day will come when we'll never have to leave our houses to do anything face to face. Progress, I guess—I dunno.
The Internet has changed neither "everything" nor finding new music. I don't download music, and find new music as I always have found it. On the radio. At the record store and audio shop. Word of mouth from my audio buddies. Print media. Reminders of vintage tunes and artists I pick up while watching old movies and TV shows. Online verbiage and samples simply add another pipeline of info, they don't replace anything. And sadly, no, there's not much new music these days for which I will pay good money.
I listen to FM radio—to stations that play the kind of music I like. Plus, I browse my favorite artists' websites or record labels' sites to find new info on any new tunage! Occasionally, I do check out the used CDs at the local CD places but lately, it's been slim picking there too. Online shopping, like at Amazon or eBay, has a much more abundant selection with used stuff and new stuff!
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