Tired of Listening to the Same Songs | 8 Ways To Find New Music
It’s a rainy Monday morning.
You arrive at work, grab your cup of coffee, and sit down to be productive.
There’s one problem: your fun weekend memories are still fresh, making it hard to focus on the tasks ahead.
You decide to play some music to get into the flow, but you find yourself scrolling through your media apps without success.
We all know the feeling. You’re stuck in a musical rut and desperate to get out.
Today is different, though, because I listed eight tools that can help solve your problem.
So go on and discover some new tunes!
1. Tiny Desk | Short Concerts
I’m expecting that many of you already know this youtube channel, but if you don’t, you are in for a treat!
Tiny Desk is an NPR Music initiative that invites artists for a 15-20 minute live concert. It’s an acoustic setting with great editing. I think many of the songs featured here are much better than the official Spotify versions.
Tiny Desk went virtual during the pandemic, allowing more artists to perform. Some amazing concerts to check out are Anderson Paak (USA), Tangana (Spain), Natalia Lafourcade (Mexico), and Burna Boy (Nigeria).
2. Radiooooo | Around The World Per Decade
Several years ago, Benjamin went for a test drive in his dad’s new vintage car.
The car had a wooden radio and a magic vibe, but when Ben turned it on, a wave of commercial music directly broke the spell.
That’s when he had an idea. Why not create a tool to travel through time musically?
A platform that divides the world per country and decade, allowing users to play music from any place and time. You can choose from three categories, slow, fast, or weird. If you’re a paid user, you can also pick themed playlists and skip songs (free users just have to ride the musical wave).
If you’d like to learn more, check out my interview with Radiooooo’s founder Benjamin.
3. Shazam Skills | Find New Music By Using It Right
Do you already use Shazam to its full potential? Here are two tips to get more out of it.
1. Connect your Shazam to your Spotify account. This will automatically upload all your Shazam songs to a Spotify playlist. You can do this by going to Library – Settings – Connect to Spotify.
2. Turn on Autoshazam. This step will allow you to automatically shazam all songs during your next road trip or at your favorite festival. If you implemented step 1, you can drag and drop the songs from the Shazam playlist to a new one. In this way, you can relive your memories whenever you want. You can find this option via Library – Settings – Auto Shazam.
4. FIP French World Radio Channel
A friend who toured France for a few weeks during the summer recommended the FIP radio channel.
The channel offers a variety of genres, but the main two I’d recommend are Monde and Jazz.
The Monde channel is a bit random, featuring very low-key artists as well as famous international artists.
Although some are better than others, it’s an excellent tool to discover music almost without commercial breaks.
5. Radio Garden | The World In Radio Channels
Radio Garden is another excellent tool for finding new music.
It works similar to Radiooooo, but here you can choose radio channels per country instead of songs.
You have access to the most popular and obscure radio channels worldwide.
Pick a place and turn up the volume. You’ll see it’s not easy to stop once you use this website.
6. Using Spotify Differently To Discover New Tunes
Spotify is the go-to music discovery machine. However, not everyone is aware of using all features. I’m particularly fond of “Song Radio” and “Discover Weekly.”
When you hear a good song, right-click on it and select Go to song radio (below Add to queue). This option will play similar songs to the one you chose. I’ve tried it with some of my favorites, and it works like a charm.
The second option is Discover Weekly. You’ll find it on your home page. Discover Weekly is a specifically selected playlist for you based on your current preference. The playlist changes weekly (hence the name), and it’s easy to add songs to your collection.
7. Dating Apps | Bumble
Alright, I know, this is a bit of an odd option. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad one, though.
Dating apps (like Bumble) encourage you to link your Instagram and Spotify to give your profile more flair. I’m a big fan of the latter because it allows you to find many new artists while swiping away.
If you’re keen to try this, focus on potential dates with similar music tastes. If 80% overlaps, but two artists are new, likely, you’ll also like these. And who knows, you might meet your future husband or wife in the meantime.
8. My Analog Journal | Around The World DJ Concerts
Are you ready to salsa your way through the rest of the day?
Or do you prefer dancing to Turkish Rock or grooving through the week with Ghanian Disco?
Almost two years ago, I interviewed one of the famous Mexican singers, Leonardo Prieto, to understand the influence of Mexican folklore in his rock music.
The European Bands That Play Music with International Influences Collaboration in music is not entirely unheard of. Musicians and bands collaborate with other singers, experiment