In this post I share how I hunt for new music to listen to, discovering new bands etc.

How I search for new music

Context

I listen to pretty niche subgenres of music, my latest obsession as been extreme subgenres of metal, namely brutal/slam death metal. Being a niche, probably means good or new artists are scarce and that there is only so much you can choose from. The reason is, niche is by definition not popular, and it doesn't get thrown at the forefront of any media publishers, radios etc.. Less people talk about and you really need to dig deep to find fresh supply, but let me tell you that is part of the fun. It's like looking for gold, and the gratification you get from finding your new favorite band is immense, that is why I can spend hours at night looking for stuff to listen to.

Hence I wished to share, my common ways for looking music up.

Note that I mostly refrain from using any algorithmic music suggestion, as I think this most likely makes people lazy in music searching (kind of like genAI does for programmers). I haven't delved in how those work, but I suspect they aren't very good as suggesting small bands, but I could be wrong.

methods

• Bandcamp
  • Following labels
• Metal-Archives
• Listenbrainz
• Youtube
• Friends

Bandcamp

This is where I spend most of the time looking and actually listening to music. I could shill for Bandcamp for hours, but in a few words here's what I like:

• DRM free
• can download music and really own it
• seems artist and independent labels are paid more fairly as opposed to spotify
• clear focus on independent artists/labels, in fact most of your big name stars and giant corpo labels aren't on here, which is actually a good thing
• radios with good hosts and guests
• has a old web, blogging vibe to it

Bandcamp has rekindled my love for listening and collecting music, and made buying music really simple (digital that is). The big downside is buying physical media, which can rack up to be really expensive with tax, delivery fees etc. Since you buy independently from labels, you have to pay fees for everyone of them separately. I mostly buy digital.

When it comes to finding music, following other users is a good way, preferrably users that buy the same album as you.

Following labels

This is not specific to bandcamp, but BC makes it easy to do. Independant labels tend to be specific and catered to subgenres. Getting to know labels and what band are signed is a really efficient way of discovering new releases. It also requires the least amount of effort, being subscribed to their news feed is all it takes.

Some labels I follow:

• Comatose Music
• 20 Buck Spin
• New Standard Elite
• Willowtip
• Unique Leader Records
• Corpse Gristle
• Season of Mist

Metal-Archives

The encyclopedia of metal, MA is a good way to find information about bands and labels, and gives good tools for discovery. My favorite is looking at what bands artists are related, in past or present. An other is reading reviews, although some are really silly, the review percentage is a rather good indication of album quality.

But the main criticisms for MA is elitism, and gatekeeping, hence why some bands are not considered metal and totally absent from the site.

Listenbrainz

Listenbrainz provides a couple of neat ways of finding music. Much like other platforms, Listenbrainz has a "Similar Artists" feature, which let's you view in a star graph what other bands are stylistically neighbors to the one you're currently viewing. This is pretty good on paper, in practice, it is often times wrong and suggests irrelevant artists.

Being a semi social media, you can follow other users, which is a good way of keeping track of what like minded people are listening to.

Finally there's a "Fresh Release" page which I really like in theory. Yet again in practice, the "For you" tab is rather finicky and only shows you future albums from which you've listened to a released track, and you don't get a lot of suggestions either. Whereas the "All" tab doesn't really work either if you use filters. For instance, as I'm writing this article, I filtered to include only Death Metal genre, and only got one album coming out... Pretty empty. My guess is that new/future albums aren't always tagged properly yet, but that's just a guess.

Youtube

Everyone knows how YT works, won't delve too long. I just like to watch small reviewers of a particular genre and see their suggestions. Some are really nerdy, those are the ones you want to follow, as they are the most passionate and do a lot of research or know a lot. You'll find some obscure gems! I follow https://www.youtube.com/@jimmyfromtheblock3714. I owe a few of my favorite albums to this guy.

Friends

Pretty self explanatory really, stay off the net a bit. Chill out and listen to some tunes together, and go to shows!