4 ms·

By far, the best way I've discovered new music is through radio. Find a station with producers that you jive with and this will be a treasure chest. I was lucky

By far, the best way I've discovered new music is through radio. Find a station with producers that you jive with and this will be a treasure chest. I was lucky enough to grow up in Athens (GR), where radio is really, really good. A big disappointment happened when I moved to SF (which, aside of KCSM - a great jazz radio - is a music radio disappointment). I was lucky to come across KCRW from LA, perhaps the best radio station in the US. I've been a member since before it became my local radio station. Couple other notables are The Current (KCMP) and KEXP. The other big (meta-) source is surrounding myself with people with similar (or not so similar, but still interesting) music tastes. I've discovered a TON of music like this. Yes, I've discovered a few things from algorithmic recommendation systems (e.g. spotify). But: (a) the quality of the recommendations hasn't been even close as good, and more importantly (b) there is zero emotional connection (i.e. like saying "oh, this is the band that Eleni showed me when we were camping in Yosemite").

runarberg 7y ago
Came here to say the same thing. Human curated music podcasts (such as Bandcamp Weekly) are also a great way to discover music.
rphillips 7y ago
+1 to KEXP and KCRW (and KCRW's Eclectic 24). KEXP plays a ton of great music of different varieties of music, some of which, I wouldn't normally listen to.
- janee 7y ago
  I only recently discovered KEXP...strangely enough through a random youtube video of a live performance from Austra. I've also had some success with BBC Radio 1 in the past. Radio can be a good source but I still feel music recommendations is something that's gonna be cracked by algos in the future
  - atom-morgan 7y ago
    Tycho also did a really great performance on KEXP a few years ago: https://youtu.be/c_56qQqxvm4 https://youtu.be/c_56qQqxvm4
ssalazar 7y ago
In the Bay Area KFJC (Foothills College/Los Altos) and KZSC (UC Santa Cruz) are also both quite good at playing music many listeners wouldnt otherwise discover. You can't get them in SF proper, but great for tuning in when you're down south a bit.
LeoPanthera 7y ago
My favorite "unexpected surprises" station is BBC "6 Music", which might be called "Radio 6 Music" depending on what you use to listen to it. It's streamable worldwide. I might be a bit biased since I grew up in the UK, but I recommend it highly. And like all BBC radio, no ads!
jccalhoun 7y ago
Agreed. I love The Current. When they play a song I don't like I switch to something else whether it is kexp or another genre. (Sadly, one of my favorite hip hop stations beatbasement seems to have gone away. I still haven't found a good replacement for underground hip hop. Gtronic radio is good but not to the same level as beatbasement).
bloat 7y ago
Absolutely! Radio for me has always been the primary way I discover new music, whether that's back in the day listening to John Peel or Patrick Forge, or nowadays lots of WFMU.org (a decades old New Jersey free-form station) and NTS radio. I do listen to algorithmic radio sometimes, if I'm in the mood for something specific, but it doesn't feel the same as having a live DJ playing records.
gfxgirl 7y ago
No radio stations have ever played the music I'm looking for so no, this doesn't work for me at all. The majority of stations play top 40, or top R&B/Urban (no idea what the PC description is), top country, class rock. Maybe if you live in LA or NYC there are some other stations with more eclectic selections like say KCRW in LA but I have no interest in what they play.
- polk 7y ago
  While great radio stations solve the issue of finding new music, finding great radio stations is even harder than finding new music. I've been lucky to have moved a few times and discovered some great local radio stations along the way. They still make up the larger part of new music I discover. But I agree, mainstream stations are very unlikely to do this for you, and there's currently no good way to discover good radio stations.
- Angostura 7y ago
  If you are in the UK, try BBC Radio 6 Music. Or if you have a VPN (I assume its not available from outside the the UK) https://www.bbc.co.uk/6music https://www.bbc.co.uk/6music
  - silicon_wally 7y ago
    it is available from outside the UK on the BBC website. alternatively, most (all?) of the BBC radio stream URLs can be found here [1], and consumed with e.g VLC [1] https://gist.github.com/stengland/8705765 https://gist.github.com/stengland/8705765
  - fbelzile 7y ago
    Similarly, in Canada we have CBC Radio 3 which plays pretty good indie music: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-music-playlists/56-cbc-radio-3 https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-music-playlists/56-cbc-radio-3 There are other CBC Music playlists that are surprisingly good too: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-music-playlists https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-music-playlists
- ggregoire 7y ago
Louno 7y ago
Definitely radio, and I love that the music I hear had been choose by someone, not only an algorithm that knows exactly the songs that will appeal to me. May I ask you what the great radios from Athens (GR) are ? Also, if you can listen to web radio, give a try to the french station FIP (https://www.fip.fr/ https://www.fip.fr/) they are actually on strike so it's not as good as usually but it's definitely one of the best music radio out there. Hope you enjoy !
wreath 7y ago
This has been exactly my experience. The best music i discovered was by friend’s recommendation. Coincidentally enough, a particual individual called Eleni showed me a lot of interesting prog rock bands over the years. She is also from Greece haha!
jpbutler 7y ago
A lot of the college radio stations have HD2 streams which are really good, too: XPN2: https://xpn.org/xpn-programs/xponential-radio https://xpn.org/xpn-programs/xponential-radio KCRW Eclectic 24: https://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/eclectic24 https://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/eclectic24

runarberg 7y ago

Came here to say the same thing. Human curated music podcasts (such as Bandcamp Weekly) are also a great way to discover music.

rphillips 7y ago

+1 to KEXP and KCRW (and KCRW's Eclectic 24). KEXP plays a ton of great music of different varieties of music, some of which, I wouldn't normally listen to.

janee 7y ago
I only recently discovered KEXP...strangely enough through a random youtube video of a live performance from Austra. I've also had some success with BBC Radio 1 in the past. Radio can be a good source but I still feel music recommendations is something that's gonna be cracked by algos in the future
- atom-morgan 7y ago
  Tycho also did a really great performance on KEXP a few years ago: https://youtu.be/c_56qQqxvm4 https://youtu.be/c_56qQqxvm4

ssalazar 7y ago

In the Bay Area KFJC (Foothills College/Los Altos) and KZSC (UC Santa Cruz) are also both quite good at playing music many listeners wouldnt otherwise discover. You can't get them in SF proper, but great for tuning in when you're down south a bit.

LeoPanthera 7y ago

My favorite "unexpected surprises" station is BBC "6 Music", which might be called "Radio 6 Music" depending on what you use to listen to it. It's streamable worldwide. I might be a bit biased since I grew up in the UK, but I recommend it highly. And like all BBC radio, no ads!

jccalhoun 7y ago

Agreed. I love The Current. When they play a song I don't like I switch to something else whether it is kexp or another genre. (Sadly, one of my favorite hip hop stations beatbasement seems to have gone away. I still haven't found a good replacement for underground hip hop. Gtronic radio is good but not to the same level as beatbasement).

bloat 7y ago

Absolutely! Radio for me has always been the primary way I discover new music, whether that's back in the day listening to John Peel or Patrick Forge, or nowadays lots of WFMU.org (a decades old New Jersey free-form station) and NTS radio. I do listen to algorithmic radio sometimes, if I'm in the mood for something specific, but it doesn't feel the same as having a live DJ playing records.

gfxgirl 7y ago

No radio stations have ever played the music I'm looking for so no, this doesn't work for me at all. The majority of stations play top 40, or top R&B/Urban (no idea what the PC description is), top country, class rock. Maybe if you live in LA or NYC there are some other stations with more eclectic selections like say KCRW in LA but I have no interest in what they play.

polk 7y ago
While great radio stations solve the issue of finding new music, finding great radio stations is even harder than finding new music. I've been lucky to have moved a few times and discovered some great local radio stations along the way. They still make up the larger part of new music I discover. But I agree, mainstream stations are very unlikely to do this for you, and there's currently no good way to discover good radio stations.
Angostura 7y ago
If you are in the UK, try BBC Radio 6 Music. Or if you have a VPN (I assume its not available from outside the the UK) https://www.bbc.co.uk/6music https://www.bbc.co.uk/6music
- silicon_wally 7y ago
  it is available from outside the UK on the BBC website. alternatively, most (all?) of the BBC radio stream URLs can be found here [1], and consumed with e.g VLC [1] https://gist.github.com/stengland/8705765 https://gist.github.com/stengland/8705765
- fbelzile 7y ago
  Similarly, in Canada we have CBC Radio 3 which plays pretty good indie music: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-music-playlists/56-cbc-radio-3 https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-music-playlists/56-cbc-radio-3 There are other CBC Music playlists that are surprisingly good too: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-music-playlists https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-music-playlists
ggregoire 7y ago

Louno 7y ago

Definitely radio, and I love that the music I hear had been choose by someone, not only an algorithm that knows exactly the songs that will appeal to me. May I ask you what the great radios from Athens (GR) are ? Also, if you can listen to web radio, give a try to the french station FIP (https://www.fip.fr/ https://www.fip.fr/) they are actually on strike so it's not as good as usually but it's definitely one of the best music radio out there. Hope you enjoy !

wreath 7y ago

This has been exactly my experience. The best music i discovered was by friend’s recommendation. Coincidentally enough, a particual individual called Eleni showed me a lot of interesting prog rock bands over the years. She is also from Greece haha!

jpbutler 7y ago

A lot of the college radio stations have HD2 streams which are really good, too: XPN2: https://xpn.org/xpn-programs/xponential-radio https://xpn.org/xpn-programs/xponential-radio KCRW Eclectic 24: https://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/eclectic24 https://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/eclectic24