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

Xirup@lemmy.dbzer0.com to Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ@lemmy.dbzer0.com – 270 points –

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.

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This is what honestly sold me on streaming. The access to music is unprecedented and so is the discovery.

To put it in perspective, I have added more 5-star songs to my library in the past 4 years than the previous 20. About 30% of most of my favorite songs were recommended by the system.

I love music. Unless I go deaf, I can’t see my life without it. And I’m glad on some level that it’s not as lucrative as movies so I’m not upset shelling out the monthly fee. Likely the only service that that’s good piracy can’t even come close for me on this one.

This is why Spotify is the only streaming service I have. Is there a server with >1TB of lossless audio in my basement? Sure, allegedly. Do I want to organize it and build playlists in Plexamp until my fingers bleed? Fuck no, I'd much rather pay $5/mo for a student subscription and tap a few buttons on my phone. Even though as a musician myself it's nice to know the artists are getting a little kickback, it's not so much that I'm paying for the music as I am paying for the software.

Also with tidal-dl I can download all of my songs in high res flac quality with lyrics and everything. So I make regular backup all few months.

Are you me? I've been going wild the last 4 years. Mind sharing a top 5 or something? I'll show you mine if you show me yours.

Yeah, the music people were dying to piracy for a good while there.

Spotify is streaming done right. It's all there, no need to search for which service has it, or pay 99p a track for it.

The TV and movie people should take note, because their streaming services are fucking dire in comparison. For all the stuff Disney owns, there's a surprising amount of fuck all new on Disney+. It mostly seems to be milking old shite into TV shows nobody asked for.

https://rateyourmusic.com/

This is the correct answer :)

sputnikmusic.com is also good for metal, punk and indie music

This is pretty interesting. I’ve read that page but I’m not sure I get the value. Is the idea that I rate the music in my library and the ratings go to this website and I get some analysis or recommendations back?

The reviews and genre charts let's you explore the music quite deep, use the charts they are really great to get into each artist or genre

I came here just to say this. I usually now just download shit on my ipod so its godtier to get away from the soon to be overpriced streaming services

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You could look at everynoise.com to find artists close on the map to ones you like, and to discover related genres. It's based on Spotify's database.

I don't like using recommendation algorithms, I always discover music by human recommendations from blogs like bandcamp daily, warez websites and featuring artists

surprised nobody has posted soma.fm. they're a listener-supported, commercial-free internet-only radio station. i love their "fluid" channel

Thank you for this. Usually I go to my universities' underground radio station but this works just as well :)

Last.fm Ever since I've created an account on last fm 15 years ago almost every song i listen to is scrobbled(last.fm fancy way of saying "put into database for statistics").

When you listen to enough bands it can actually provide good recommendations

This is the way. I stopped for many years after I stopped using Winamp. But it is back on after setting up Plex to last FM scrobbing.

I like their "neighbours" tab of people with similar listening habits. I'll choose a few accounts and look at the tracks they listened to most frequently in the last 365 days. You can find some real gems that way

i don't. i'm stuck with the music i listened to 20 years ago. 😐

Please do something about it!
Personally, I mostly listen to Instrumental/Vocal music since it has less psychological and informational warfare associated with it.

Chatgpt-3.5 prompt

Q: How can music stimulate the brain?
A:

Music can stimulate your brain in several ways:

  1. Emotional Response: Music can evoke strong emotions and feelings. Listening to music you enjoy can release dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward.

  2. Memory: Music can trigger memories and associations. Certain songs or melodies may remind you of specific moments or experiences, which can activate your memory.

  3. Improved Focus: Some people find that listening to music, particularly instrumental or ambient music, can enhance concentration and focus. This can be helpful for tasks that require sustained attention.

  4. Stress Reduction: Calming music can reduce stress and anxiety. It can lower cortisol levels, a stress hormone, and promote relaxation.

  5. Motor Skills: Playing a musical instrument involves coordination and motor skills, which can stimulate brain regions responsible for fine motor control.

  6. Brain Plasticity: Learning to play an instrument or engaging with complex music can enhance brain plasticity, which refers to the brain's ability to adapt and reorganize itself.

  7. Enhanced Creativity: Music can inspire creative thinking. Composing, improvising, or simply listening to music can stimulate creative processes in the brain.

  8. Social Connection: Making music with others, such as in a choir or band, can enhance social bonding and cooperation, which has cognitive benefits.

  9. Language Development: Exposure to music in early childhood can support language development and literacy skills.

  10. Cognitive Training: Some studies suggest that music-based cognitive training programs may improve cognitive functions, such as memory and problem-solving.

The effects of music on the brain can vary from person to person, but it's clear that music can have a powerful influence on your mental and emotional state.

Hmm I don't listen to music much. Like almost never as they get stuck in a loop in my head that I can't sleep at night or get headaches. I don't know why and I just isolate myself. I never bothered trying to get help with it as it only seems to happen when I listen to music a lot vs once or twice every so often.

Follow all of your favorite artists via an app named “MusicHarbor” or “Music Butler” (web app, so you can track new releases on any device). It literally changed my life and every Friday is like a holiday since most artists release their tracks then.

Doesn't this just tell you about bands you already know? How do you find new bands?

It tells you about their releases. I follow over 200 producers, it would be almost impossible for me to track all of the new things they’re putting out. As for discovery, features and collaborations mainly.

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

Gnod

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

the map function is pretty neat as well. Thanks!

I use last.fm to track the songs i am listening to and ot gives spotify like recommendations and monthly statistics on what kind of music you listen to,top artist etc.

Recommendations are a must for me since I listen to genres which do not do well with western audiences in terms of organic recommendations.

If you want an automatic way to discover new music before you actually stumble upon the music itself, listenbrainz might be a decent FOSS alternative to last.fm. I would also use libre.fm on a personal server to check my own habits.

However, I also use YouTube music a lot, especially when I want to find something new. This does need one to be active on YT music with specific cookies set (in case you'd like to transfer listening history and habits across browsers/computers without signing in) to give you good recommendations. The good part is that it can likely show you good recommendations inside a few hours of you showing it what you like by playing your favourites.

For example, it was on YouTube music that I found Today is a beautiful day by Supercell and Et si tu n'existais pas by Hélène Ségara & Joe Dassin.

Cheers

Aside from what others have said, I look at what other bands the bands I already listen to tour or collaborate with.

Listen to the internet stations that are local to you, and have actual programmers daily. Some of the bigger ones in the US are KCRW, KEXP, WFMU, and any college radio station. Places that have guest bands come through and play a bit so you can hear how it sounds outside of a studio are the best in my opinion.

I read a lot of music-related blogs, review sites and a few selected magazines. No online "recommendation system" needed.

Not scrolling through all the comments to see if someone mentioned this yet or not but every December I check what is on the best albums of the year lists.. Generally I check per-genre that I'm into. Like best black metal of 2023, best jazz of 2023, etc etc..

Other than that, bandcamp and YouTube are the biggest. I honestly buy more on bandcamp these days than I torrent though. It's such a great site.

I was surprised to see only one other reference to Twitch. I have found Twitch to be AMAZING for new music discovery. MOST of the time when I listen to music, it is actually through Twitch. I have many good hosts saved and checking the who's on now page is the first thing I do when I want to turn on music. And when the apocalypse comes, I have a good library myself now...

There's a catch, of course. A lot of Twitch streamers are fucking irritating! It takes time to find channels that meet my needs...

  • Plays my kind of music (classic rock, 80s, industrial, darkwave, synthpop, electro, gothic rock, some dance genres like filth... to name a few). If anyone wants channel recommendations I am happy to list some.
  • Ideally, the video feed clearly shows the track ID (so I know what music to grab!)
  • The host isn't on mic all the time. It just kills me when I find someone playing good music with track IDs and they talk too much. The more of the video frame taken up by the DJ, and the bigger the mic, the greater the chance that they won't shut up, haha.

A good host will namedrop and raid hosts with similar taste, so once you find a couple that you like, your list of follows will expand quickly.

Here are a few more tips...

  • If you follow someone on Twitch, there is a separate toggle for receiving notifications when they go live. For 95% of the people I follow, notifications are OFF. A few are so good I want notifications.
  • "Alternative Player for Twitch" in the Chrome extensions is a cool alternate client that MUTES ADS. There are a few such extensions, this one has been the most reliable for me. However, for some reason it does not support taking you on a raid (that is when your channel ends and sends all the viewers to someone else).
  • There is a cool alternate client for Android TV called S0undTV.
  • Some Twitch hosts will put their shows on Mixcloud too, so check their details
  • Even if a host does not list the track IDs for what they are playing you may have success IDing music with something like Shazaam. On-screen ID is so convenient though.
  • Get to know a mass tagging tool like mp3tag, and you can RAPIDLY expand the size of your music library.
  • It seems impossible to tell Twitch to not suggest channels that you are not interested in. You can spend hours trying to kill off bad recommendations but it doesn't matter. For example I do not care about game streaming or people playing live music but I CANNOT get them out of my Recommended list. You just have to learn to ignore them.

I've basically never used Twitch. Are you saying there's something akin to independent radio on there? How are these streams structured?

It's not really like radio, it's a bunch of people running their own shows at times of their choosing. But if you follow a bunch of people who are doing 2-3 shows a week, pretty soon you will find that when you look at the "Following" page to see what's happening right now, something worth listening to is probably on.

Here's what my Following page looks like at the moment: https://i.imgur.com/7OXkRbN.jpeg

Not too good, but it's early still. Only one person I follow is live and it looks like they are chatting instead of playing music, which is unusual (and I won't bother to listen).

There are some recommendations below. If I click Show More, I can see 8 other live streams. (I can see more under the Browse feature.) : https://i.imgur.com/U5Bvec5.jpeg

Some of these 8 I recognize as being not my taste, some show genres I don't care about, but there are a few that I will check out. OK... the reggae dude was playing hip-hop which isn't my bag but I might check back later because I like reggae and ragga. The funk dude was playing great music but wouldn't shut up. SlugRadio is playing some good EBM that is new to me, the DJ puts up a track ID in the chat stream, and most importantly doesn't seem to be on mic all the time. So that's a good find and if the music stays good, I'll probably Follow that channel. (this is what the stream looks like: https://i.imgur.com/cCFPpG7.jpeg)

One other thing...

Twitch lets you watch replays of shows which gives you even more ways to find something to listen to... But, they process saved videos and knock out copyrighted audio, so most recorded DJ streams are mangled. For some reason, Twitch gets away with letting people do anything they want when the show is live, while YT uses realtime detection to mute your stream and issue a copyright strike.

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.

I don't, at least I'm not making an active effort. Why would I? I already have enough music to generate playlists that could last for years. That's more than enough music.
Apart from that there's the usual cultural osmosis that can't be avoided. A song that is used in a movie, plays on a radio/car stereo or at an event somewhere and you like it. Bam, discovery!

Once in a blue moon I liked to prowl on the music review sites (ew, I know) and check out the artists featured there. Sometimes I found a couple of gems that I still listen to today.

I follow a few blogs/sites that review the music genres that I like. I also read and comment in the tracker's forums, where people suggest new music or discuss about new and old music. And I found that it's much better than getting suggestions on spotify/tidal.

I usually listen to the radio, or let ViMusic (YouTube music algorithm) recommend me songs. Then I use yt-dlp (Seal app on F-Droid) to download them.

Review sites for genres I like. I find a lot of new music on Angry Metal Guy. That one's just for metal, but there are all kinds of different review sites

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.

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.

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.

Back when I was on both what.cd and waffles, the free leech periods were great. I discovered a few artists I really enjoyed after. Months after even. Bored, going through gigs of tunes browsing, a few just hit. Even found myself interested in genres I 'wasn't into'.

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

I use Discogs to find music I've never heard of, and artists/bands that I have forgotten about. I choose an artist I love, and then just click on the genre link in their profile to see others in that same genre. You can also click on the links of other bands they were in. There is also a Recommendations carousel that appears at the bottom of the page.

I go to concerts/look up who's touring with the band. It ends up being more than the subscription cost, but it goes to the venue and band rather than Spotify and Joe Rogan.

YouTube shuffle, Bandcamp feed, internet radio stations

"YouTube shuffle"? Last time I heard that term, it was from ChatGPT when I complained to it that I was tired of the algorithm showing me the same videos over and over again. But I can't find a "shuffle" button anywhere on YouTube, nor do I get any relevant results after googling it. So I told GPT it was full of shit and it agreed with me.

Please tell me how to use this "YouTube Shuffle" feature.

All that button does is shuffle the current playlist you're viewing. Doesn't give you random videos.

YouTube adds related videos to the playlist. Have you really never used this site before?

But let's be real, YouTube is not the source you wanna depend on given its owned by Google. The more you listen on there the more data you give them. It just has everything you need to rip from.

Personal recommendations, NPR Tiny Desk, movie and show soundtracks, Bandcamp, record stores, Library of Congress Homegrown Concerts on YouTube, looking into any bands you like and seeing what else the members have been in.

Spider chart at the bottom of Orpheus’ web site!

It’s not as good as WCD’s was, but it’s getting there.

I pay a little to pirate. Basically I've figured out how to download a large percentage of lossless songs from playlists I find anywhere. I scrape playlists of radio stations i like. I import those CSVs into Soundiiz, which costs $4/mo. Youtube mixes I like, in they go the same way, imoporting tracklists. Using Soundiiz, I import those lists into qobuz and deezer, which I use to pull down lossless FLACs using deemix and qobuz-dl in linux. Qobuz and Deezer and other streaming services have curated playlists by staff and subscribers, I just download the whole lists. I replaced lists of my mp3s like youtube rips, with FLACs, the same way. Qobuz and Deezer have free trial memberships but TBH after the sheer amount I've pulled down from them, it's worth it to me. I've had to buy new hard drives because of this.

I don't pirate songs, but I guess I would use a scrobbler and then ListenBrainz suggestions

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.

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

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.

I like EDM and electronic music so I just leave the radio on with Tomorrowland One World Radio while I work. I also browse sites like beatport and look at their charts and if I find something I like I check out other people are buying, sometimes I pirate, sometimes I buy if I want to support a small label or a lesser known artist.

I get most of my recommendations via Diaspora and Mastodon (2 social networks that are part of the fediverse). They allow you to follow hashtags, so I just follow the hashtags of the music I'm interested and see people's posts that are tagged with them

I usually get it from the YouTube algorithm, but I'll also check up on some labels every now and then and see what they got new. I also follow some individual artists.

Today, I learned about clown core.

I use the ReVanced version of YouTube Music (no ads, high quality music). If I find a song that I like, I download it in FLAC format from one of the sites in the megathread

I literally type "new music" into YouTube and see where it takes me.

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.

InnerTune on Android recommends music

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.

flannel-yellow

plus melon usually has pretty good political takes, so seconding https://www.youtube.com/@theneedledrop

Check out new songs from youtube, spotify, music sites and later download them and store them locally as 256 or 320 kbps mp3 files. I used to be a fan of billboard Top 100, but nowadays it's just crap. Occasionally I do purchase from the artist's site if available just to support them.

Most music I have is from "Pay what you want" albums from Ponies@Dawn, VibePoniez, A State Of Sugar, etc.
When I come across artists I like, I tend to check out their other tracks and grab the ones I like.

Ah, someone else who went down the rabbit hole of pony music.

Koa very quickly became one of my favourite artists as soon as she came in the scene ❤️

What I find amusing is just how many people have no idea how much pony music The Living Tombstone made back in the day.

Two artists who constantly churn out bangers are 4everfree and PrinceWhateverer.

And I'm the same: find an artist, look up their other stuff. I have the full discography of most of my favourite bands/artists.

Bandcamp is phenomenal for finding the niche and unknown!

im sad I got kicked off some private trackers for inactivity after streaming picked up 😮‍💨

I am new to the music game but I still use the "discovery weeky" on Spotify and go from there as I used to use Spotify so it knows what I like. I just listen to it once or twice a week to see if I like any of it.

I don't anymore, now that I use Spotify. But when I did, it was YouTube recommendations to find new music and then torrent the whole discography to find the ones I liked

Spotify APK with no ads and premium features. I then pirate what I like

When you say premium features, which exactly? I imagine you're referring to the xManager patched Spotify, which I also use, but it's not really premium. Ads cut out and can play an album without shuffle. But can't choose audio quality, download, etc

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

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.

Piracy is how i discover music, to a large extent. I see something i might like? I listen.

You can like scrape the data from Spotify Playlists and yt music and like a regularly updated local copy of that..

  1. Google searches for open directories. One dude found an RIAA directory full of media, but it quickly got secured.

  2. YouTube

  3. Ringtone sites

  4. Asian (Indian) sites, with heavy use of Google translate.

IRC

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

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.

I don't download full albums, just individual songs I like.

The sources are basically anywhere I hear music, but generally, it's by listening to radio.

As of now, this has already got me to 1,179 songs with 3 in queue to be downloaded. (If you're curious, those in queue are: Dana International - Diva; New Kids On The Block - Step By Step; Prince - Purple rain)
It is hard to call it discovery in this case, more like a reminder of the songs since I knew them already.

Other sources include, but are not limited to: Browsing YouTube playlists, searching for artists to see if they have more good songs, buying a CD compilation, searching for someone's Spotify playlist after peeking into their phone when I liked multiple songs (they didn't want to share the playlist, but left it "public"), Bus Simulator Ultimate (there I discovered 2 artists, Melihcan and Cem Kılıç), old tapes, bus driver with a Bluetooth speaker (and me with Shazam), parts of songs randomly appearing in my head from who knows where, background music in videos.

As I said, everywhere I can hear music.

I don't think I'm pirating since I'm not reuploading, but I'm downloading Spotify playlists using Spotdl. So, I find music using Spotify.

Tunetank.com let's you download 3 songs for free, or I think $10 a month for unlimited songs

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).

Just steal access to someone’s Spotify credentials.

You can use Vanced Spotify for unlimited listening, but the quality of recommendations on Spotify is terrible.

Yeah. Unless you have a distinctly niche music taste, spotify just recommends everyone the same thing. Maybe a little bit more personalized by adding a few songs you listened to in the past.