For those who pirate songs, how do you discover new music?

I know the question is rather awkward at first and I am possibly overlooking something, but I would like to know something I really don’t understand.

In the past I have used modified versions of Spotify and they are fine but obviously no modified version allows you to download songs because it is a premium function at server level and honestly I would like to have my songs on my device, so if I don’t have internet I can still listen to them.

After those modified versions of Spotify, I have used apps like ViMusic, Spotube and SimpMusic which are basically Youtube Music apps but without ads and with more features, including downloading music, the problem is that they do that at the level of the app itself, not in a separate file. And I love these apps and I can not recommend them enough but my phone is a little old and I see 0 need to change it since I use it for basics usage and although this can sound dumb the interface of these apps are full of blur and unnecessary effects that make my device slow, including Spotify, and I don’t like Spotify Lite because I feel it is a very trimmed version of Spotify.

So this is where my question comes in, for those who exclusively download music, how do you discover new songs? Spotify’s recommendation system is great and Youtube’s radio mode is very good but obviously I need to use Spotify or Youtube Music to use it and I prefer to use light apps for local playback because of what I already mentioned.

Edit: Thanks for all the recommendations! I never thought this post would get so many answers and there are too many comments to answer one by one, but I admit that the old-school method of reading blogs or magazines works well, and I also like the idea of sites like Last.fm or discogs.

Floey,

I use Rate Your Music but I use it in a very peculiar way. Most of my listening is from scrolling through Latest Reviews for something that stands out and listening to it.

The second most common way I use RYM is to go to the page of an album I think is really special and click on user made lists that album is a part of and scroll through for things that look interesting.

The third way is when I notice I’ve liked a few things from a specific scene I like to go to the page for the record label that often represents artists from that scene. Currently I’m exploring Dischord Records.

Fourth, is if a genre is obscure or specific enough I will look at the charts for that genre. This is most common with electronic music, because it’s so heavily taxonomized. Take for example Purple Sound which only has a couple hundred releases associated with it.

This definitely isn’t how I recommend everyone find new music. But I do recommend freeing yourself from an algorithm and forging your own path. I find that algorithms often funnel a person into some kind of local maximum where most music presented is palatable but the chance to discover something revolutionary to their tastes decreases immensely, and to me that’s just a bummer.

hglman,

Today, I learned about clown core.

Ilandar,

I mainly listen to Japanese doujin music. It’s naturally good for discovery because many artists group together to form circles (independent labels) and release compilation albuns. I listen to the various annual compilation series I like, and every now and then there will be a new artist featuring on them so I’ll look up that artist and discover circles they feature on regularly. And when I discover a new circle, I naturally discover new compilation series and new artists.

The primary piracy resource for doujin music is Doujinstyle. One of the unique things about the doujin scene is that the pirates and the artists generally have a fairly good relationship. Most circles let Doujinstyle share their music because they understand it benefits them, and the minority who don’t submit requests to Doujinstyle who will always comply out of respect. As an alternative, these circles allow their music to be shared in the Doujinstyle Discord channels. Some of the artists even hang out in the Discord with the pirates. It’s a really interesting community that has formed over decades but never lost its tightknit feel.

t0fr,
@t0fr@lemmy.ca avatar

Talking to people

Youtube

Listenbrainz (or other scrobbling service)

Subscribing to communities of the genre of music you like

Music-map.com

Following artists you like on social media

rmuk,

BBC Radio 6 and ABC Triple J are two ad-free radio stations that play a lot of new music and are staffed by passionate and qualified DJs. A lot of my music discovery is from listening to those.

WinterAir,

Man I gotta listen to 6music again. Thanks for reminding me.

WhoPutDisHere,

Usually I look to my private trackers top 10 of the day/week.

Rarely does something new slip by me.

mindbleach,

RIP rs.4chan.org, which compiled every RapidShare and MediaFire link on any board. You could scroll through and snag anything that sounded remotely interesting.

dillekant,

IRC

hexagonwin,

which channel/server is active and good for this sorta stuff?

dillekant,

I used to be on dalnet’s metal channel. Guessing there are active channels somewhere. Now I actually use my work slack.

My broader point is that you need a community, not a tool.

Couldbealeotard,
@Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world avatar

Gnod

Type in 3 things you like, and you get suggestions that you yes/no as it tries to narrow down your vibe.

HerbalGamer,

the map function is pretty neat as well. Thanks!

SwampYankee,

Great topic. A lot of my discovery was through /r/listentothis, but I’m 100% off reddit now, so these recommendations are helpful.

lucho,
@lucho@lemmy.world avatar

i really wish there were an alternative to that sub in lemmy

SwampYankee,

There is, but it’s not very active at all.

!listentothis

Navarian,

Be the change! On a real note though, I feel your pain.

ByGourou,

Youtube, cracked spotify, collab with artist I already like, rythm games, friend recommendations…

Abd then I download with soulseek, sort and send to my phone with musicbee and listen with musicolet

Irkam,
@Irkam@jlai.lu avatar

Mainly local radio broadcasts, sometimes thematic webradios such as Radio Metal. Recently I’ve been linking my music player to LastFM so we’ll see how it performs.

ByteWizard,

Mainly local radio broadcasts,

I’m guessing you’re not in the US? 'Cause here nearly everyone is owned by Clear Channel/iHeartMedia. Nothing of value is being discovered there.

Irkam,
@Irkam@jlai.lu avatar

I thought there would at least be local community radios held by associations in the US. The way you’re describing this we’ve got pretty much the same situation in France where all the mainstream radios are owned by one of the few media groups, but that doesn’t stop local community radios from broadcasting for more than 50 years for some of them.

ByteWizard,

Well look at that, there are some in the US - en.wikipedia.org/…/List_of_community_radio_statio…

Underwaterbob,

It requires a lot of filtering, but I find Pitchfork.com reliably has something decent in their “best new …” pages. Just don’t actually read the reviews.

RGB3x3,

Pitchfork reviews are always so funny to me. They’re very clearly just writer’s exercises to practice overflowery and pretentious descriptions.

Underwaterbob,

Yeah. They certainly tend towards arty bunk. I guess I get it: it has to be hard to come up with ways to describe music that haven’t been used a billion times before, but they lean so hard into trying to be unique, it all comes out meaningless.

brezelradar,

tunefind when I hear something I like while binge watching, and occasionally to see what others seem to enjoy these days (although that only matches in say 10-15% of the cases).

Gooey0210,

Not for music, but there’s github.com/Fallenbagel/jellyseerr

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