iām assuming based on the wording, youāre looking for music recommendations, and not an actual way to listen/stream the music;
- inner circle recommenders: i have like 2-3 friends who somewhat consistently send me new music and tend to have a very high hit rate for my tastes. ymmv based on how good your friendsā tastes are
- pi.fyi: the lovely users of this website tend to have a lot of really good music recommendations; iāll mention mouse, royallmonarch, and riotgrrrl by name, but there are a lot of cuties with good taste on here and if you browse the EVERYTHING feed youāll see some good stuff
- pitchfork: apparently esquire or some other cultureless cesspit is going to absorb p4k entirely, but until then, best new music still has some very solid reviews and picks coming through it. maybe hews a little closer to the type of shit you would see in an algorithmic recommendation, just by nature of being a little mainstream
May 2, 2024
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I consume a lot of music regularly, and a huge part of keeping a fresh diet of new listens going is having enough sources of recommendations that arenāt an algorithm that either 1) reinforces your existing listening patterns, keeping you stagnant in your tastes, or 2) platforms whoever paid enough to push their product to the top, serving you something that may not inherently be of inferior quality, but may not align with your tastes, may not be exciting beyond just being a new release, and realigns your current listening habits to be more in line with what the average user on the platform is also listening to ā which socially might have benefits but which creates a homogeneity of consumption that can become bland since youāre listening to something really just because itās the next product on the assembly line to have its public moment and not because anything about the music actually captured your attention. the current landscape of streaming is designed to keep you at an all you can eat buffet where you take whatās served to you, and as a result a lot of us have forgotten how to look at a menu and order.
so what does taking a more active role in your own music curation look like? for me, itās meant not using streaming as a primary listening platform. I mostly use my local Apple Music library on my phone that I curate with the vestigial iTunes Library framework thatās still a part of Apple Music on my laptop. probably going to find an alternative soon since apple seems to be cutting integration progressively. I like this method because it forces me to choose what to sync to the limited storage space I have, forcing me to take inventory of what I actually listen to and what I can offload. the files I get are mostly from Bandcamp or Soulseek depending on whether itās available for purchase or entirely unavailable online (as is the case for a lot of electronic music that was on vinyl only, which is where soulseek comes in clutch). I also have freedom here to change the ID3 tags to better sort and organize, rate, change track info, and track my own listening data.
Bandcamp and other music purchasing platforms are great because 1) it reshapes my relationship to music away from consumerism and back towards curation. I have to pay actual money for this thing now if I want to use it, so iām forced to consider its value (usually iāll stream a release first to gauge my interest). 2) having to spend money helps me to course out my meals so to speak, as iāll buy a few releases iāve accumulated in my cart over the month and cash out on Bandcamp Friday when 100% of my money is actually getting to the artist (TOMORROW IS BANDCAMP FRIDAY BTW!!!), and between purchases I can actually chew and savor and digest my last orders, they donāt get swept up in the deluge of new releases. my plate is full until iām done and then I order more. also for the times of the year like now when new music isnāt coming out as regularly I take time to find older music that I would normally overlook while keeping up with new drops. currently very into early 80s/late 70s music with early digital production, kinda stuff that would evolve into synthpop and dance music.
so how do you know what to order? for me, Iām getting recs through trusted curation platforms. whether itās bandcamp daily, yāall lovely folks here on PI.FYI, friends, or most importantly musicians who I follow on socials that share their tastes through posts, stories, playlists on steaming, interviews, etc. I like this last one especially because itās kind of like a musical game of telephone. if I like an artist and they share their interests and influences itās like every layer in this process is stretching my palate further from the sound that I was originally interested in and into a new territory that has some shared DNA but would never have been recommended to me by an algo because thereās no shared category or label between them, only the musical influence and interpretation of it made by the artist. as an example, I was a huge Skrillex stan, he signed KOAN Sound to his label, they collab with Asa who collabs with Sorrow, Sorrow takes huge influence from Burial, Burial makes some ambient adjacent stuff and takes huge influence from 90s rave music and drum and bass and 2000s rnb, now iām listening to Brandy - All in Me, William Basinski, Aphex Twin, none on whom would get recommended by Spotify to me from Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites.
LAST thing iāll say ā because in yappin about this iām realizing how actually passionate about this subject I am: MAKE LISTS! playlists are cool, but they can flatten your music into vague categories of āvibesā and āaestheticsā and encourage picking one-off songs from artists that you never form an active audience relationship with. I make a practice of making my own year end lists of top 25 albums (plus some honorable recs and top individual songs) and keeping them in a notes doc that I regularly update and rearrange over the course of the year. this forces me to consider the actual relationship iām forming with what iāve ordered for myself. did I like it in the moment but it didnāt have staying power? is it slowly growing on me? it also encourages taking albums as a whole. maybe I liked one or two tracks a lot but the rest wasn't resonating. thatās ok! maybe I rank it lower but now iāve actually taken time to consider it, itās in my library, and maybe (quite a few cases for me) something I ranked like bottom 5 albums becomes a retroactive favorite from that year as my tastes evolve. also 25 albums to take with me from each year is really more than you'd think, i struggle sometimes to even find 25 that I formed a true connection with. I think the biggest thing the itunes era ruined that led into now is the single-ification of music, the ability to separate the hits from the deep cuts. albums are meant to be taken as a whole, and then once you've really sat with the whole you can find what actually stuck. even then I like to keep the whole around because soooo often iāll write off a track that yeeeears later I come to love. trust the artist, they made it like they did for a reason.
aaannyyyywayy TLDR: get recs organically, be more active in deciding your listening patterns, fr*cken pay artists yall, trust the artist embrace the album, really consider what you consume
Feb 29, 2024
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These aren't curated playlists, they're just a collection of any new songs I discover and really like, or old songs I re-fall in love with. I then give each playlist a name that references how I feel or an event that happened that month. I was in a similar place to you a couple of years ago, but I've found doing this really helps me track my tastes and experiences every month, which I find is quite helpful in our streaming-dominated musicscape.
When I used to actually download songs, it was easy to scroll through my library and be reminded of artists I'd forgotten about or had only listened to a couple of times. I've found that with streaming its really easy to lose track of who you listen to and enjoy, so it really flattens everything and causes you to either rely on the algorithm or your go-to past artists.
As far as discovering new artists goes, there are still a few reliable sites and publications that review new albums (paste, gorilla vs. bear, pitchfork (sort of), etc.). I also like following or signing up for email newsletters (gasp!) from specific indie record labels that I enjoy. If you like several artists on the label, then chances are you'll like more, and they always notify you when something new is being released. Same goes for local venues. Check out the small stage acts coming through or various openers, even if you don't actually make it to the show. This is also a great way to get plugged into the local scene and it keeps you young, sort of.
Feb 29, 2024
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Please check my top pinned rec: STARTING A WEEKLY ALBUM REVIEW CLUB WITH YOUR FRIENDS
I was absolutely in a rut with music listening for years. Iād throw on some algorithmic playlists, and almost always felt bored by the vast majority of stuff that popped up. Plus, algorithms in streaming have actually gotten worse: on Spotify, theyāre essentially funnels that keep leading you down the same path.
So, we started this little club for listening to and reviewing albums. Now, personally Iām always and forever going to find a lot of music lackluster ā Iāll try just about anything but the stuff that really grabs me is still in the minority. But when youāre discovering stuff together, even a bad album is part of the experience thatās worth something. Maybe you all hate it and can just vent to each other about why. Maybe someone likes it and you donāt and you can have a spirited little back-and-forth about that. Either way, thereās a new album getting picked next week for you all to try. And eventually youāre gonna land on some stuff that you really like!
Feb 29, 2024
Top Recs from @sloane_shark
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sincerity is cool, caring is cool, you are all cool
Feb 28, 2024
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the first thing to be said is that this recommendation applies equally to everyone
the next thing to be said is that you have, inevitably, been suffering from a cocktail of depression and anxiety for more than a decade, and this has made you incredibly tired
what you need is to make NYE plans with a good friend you haven't seen in years; she will bring you out to the club and it will be fuckin rad; you'll buy some cute clothes and she'll do your makeup, despite these not being things you really ever do, and you'll forget how much you typically disdain your appearance for one night
next, you're going to have to just read for awhile, books and essays and youtube comments and text messages
after enough reading, you'll have your own thoughts and questions, and you'll inevitably see someone else asking the question "am i trans?"
reading this question will naturally lead to you asking yourself: "am i trans?"
the answer is yes
at this point, you have transitioned into a girl, and everything else is just showing off; decide on a new name; get a therapist and a doctor who are supportive; pump your body full of the hormones it needs; get some cute new clothes and burn your old shit; ask for help picking out and doing your makeup
stop treating your body like a shipping container for your sad brain; transform it into the hot girl your brain already knows you are
Feb 28, 2024
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Aug 8, 2024