What’s your current process for discovering new music?
replyCommunity and listener supported radio stations can be a great resource. I discover a lot of music via a local station I discovered by surfing on the FM dial. Most stations offer online streams these days and some even produce video content too (Live at KEXP is one favorite, and NPR's Tiny Desk is in a similar vein). Non corporate coffee shops are usually playing some music selected by the baristas and I found some favorites that way too.
replyWhen I find something new, I like to look up live performances from that artist on YouTube. Sometimes people in the comments mention other similar artists or the source that led them to the video. YouTube's algorithm is a bit of a dark and dangerous thing overall, but I do sometimes follow a suggestion for music that I end up loving.
Maybe a more producer/DJ-focused way of finding new music, I use the "Most Recent" view for my favorite genres on Beatport, literally listen through / skim all of it, particularly for the more niche genres. Then also follow smaller music labels on Bandcamp (that some of my favorite artists are signed with sometimes too), as they tend to specialize in some niches, and basically does the discovering for you.
replyFind your local music venues -- the smaller the better. Listen to the artists that are coming to play. When you find something you like, see where they are touring and look up the other venues because a lot of them specialize in different types of music. Rinse and repeat.
reply(I know you didn’t ask me)
replyI think a willingness to listen to unfamiliar albums and unfamiliar genres is all you really need. I look for “best of X” lists, which get posted everywhere from actual newspapers to niche sites nline forums, Twitter, and personal blogs. Type in different values for “X” and you get exposure to more music.
There is another reason some people prefer vinyl, which is that they often used a different master than later releases. The medium, be it AAC, vinyl or CD really doesn't matter as much as what master has been used. There are CD pressings that don't sound as good as the vinyl, because they used a different master tape. A lot of this was the result of the loudness wars and the resulting reduced dynamic range, or even downright clipping (eg RHCP).
replySome albums you cannot get digitally with the best sounding master version.
I was talking about modern mastering, not what had been done back in the analog era when digital media had first been introduced.
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