Most people have favorite musicians that they listen to religiously, and would do anything to get tickets to see their shows. However, if you’re a music junkie like myself, discovering new artists and bands that are similar to the ones you love can be a pastime in itself. There are many great resources on the web where you can browse your favorite genres, find artists with similar sounds to your favorites, and even find great mash-ups of songs you would have never expected could blend so well.
Here are the places where I’ve found some of my favorite music:
1. Earmilk.com
As the name suggests, this website really does provide some of the silky-smoothest music around. They feature many underground and up-and-coming artists in a variety of categories, including Dance, Hip-Hop, Electronic, Indie, Pop and more. Earmilk also features news articles on many popular artists and their latest endeavors, including new album releases, projects they are working on, shows and more. My personal favorite area to browse on Earmilk is their Series section. There are 11 different series, including the “Daily 2%” series where they feature a “chill” track that is meant for unwinding after a long day. Also, on Mondays there is the “Mash-up Monday” series, where they take requests of favorite songs from their site’s viewers and mash them up to create a fresh sound.
Image courtesy of earmilk.com
2. Las.tfm.com
Last.fm is a great way to really personalize your new music discovery. If you want to find music from a genre that you really like from back in a different era, they make that easy for you. There is a venn diagram where you can drag a dot and choose a decade on one circle and a genre on the other, and overlapping will provide endless bands and artists to choose from. You can also click on your favorite artists, and the site will provide you a long list of artists that are very close in sound to them that you may have never even heard of. The live feed also allows you to connect with people all over the world with similar music tastes and see what they are listening to at any second by clicking on any point on a world map. For people that are drawn in by visuals, I would recommend this site for your new music treasure hunt.
Image courtesy of last.fm.com
3. Spotify – Discover Tab
While Last.fm is also available for use through the Spotify app, Spotify itself is an excellent way to find music that is directly relevant to what you’ve been listening to regularly. If you are like me and use Spotify as your main source of music streaming, definitely check this option out! Just go to the “Browse” tab on the left hand side of the app and then hit the “Discover” option. The Discover Weekly option is a completely customized way for you to wake up on Monday morning and basically open up a mix-tape with brand new music that is attuned to your taste. Each song in the two-hour long playlist is based on the artists and songs you are listening to, along with what other Spotify listeners (very similar to you) are vibing to as well. I usually have never even seen the names of the artists on this playlist and I like that, because it’s often a pleasant surprise to find music you never thought you would give a chance to and end up loving it and be able to share it with friends.
Image courtesy of Spotify