How I Discover New Music
A few of my favorite places to find current projects and up-and-coming artists.
I subscribe to a bunch of newsletters by music journalists. One of them is The Honest Broker by Ted Gioia, a jazz critic, music historian, jazz musician, and producer who has 11 published books under his belt. He is also a Britannica contributor and one of the co-founders of Stanford University's jazz studies program.
I’ve enjoyed two recent articles of his in particular.
“Where Did the Long Tail Go?” looks at the failed promise of the long tail and the fact that companies are investing more money into predictable, profitable, and safe entities and less and less into new and niche artistic efforts.
“Is Old Music Killing New Music?” examines the increasing dominance of older music in streaming, iTunes sales, and other areas. It also points out the music industry’s failure to invest more in research and development and its obsession with nostalgia. This article in particular made me think a great deal about the importance of using my platform to share new releases and yet-to-be-established artists.
I certainly love to write about and share a fair amount of older music through the Micro-Chop newsletter and Twitter account. Today I wanted to point out three places I use to discover new music. Feel free to drop any recommendations of your own in the comments.
Bandcamp Daily - Not only are they one of the most artist-friendly digital (and physical) music platforms, Bandcamp’s editorial branch is also an essential place for discovery. Phillip Mlynar’s monthly “The Best Hip-Hop on Bandcamp” provides an excellent selection of new rap and instrumental hip-hop projects. Max Bell’s “The Best Beat Tapes on Bandcamp” seems to be on hiatus but the past columns are still essential reading.
Karas Lamb’s “Mixtape Monday” Colum- Karas Lamb’s weekly Okayplayer column features an incredible array of new self-released and independent R & B, rap, and instrumental hip-hop. The one-sentence reviews make for a quick, enjoyable read. The embedded Bandcamp links give readers an opportunity to show maximum support for their favorite projects.
YouTube- I’ve written about how many of the best YouTube curators shine a light on long-forgotten and/or out-of-print music. YouTube is also a great place to discover new music. The COLORS channel produces live performances for a vast array of artists, some of whom have gone on to become major stars in the years since they were featured. I also subscribe to a variety of artist, distributor, and label channels to keep a pulse on current releases. The Stones Throw Records channel updates with new videos pretty frequently as does Soulspazm, a digital distributor and record label that has a strong focus on independent rap and instrumental hip-hop.
There are many other places and spaces I use to find new songs and albums, but I’ll save those for another time. For now, I hope you take some time to explore the resources provided above.
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