I've been thinking alot lately about my observations around new music discovery.

I think when we're growing up, we're discovering new music all the time. This is probably down to a number of reasons:

• New music (particularly new artists) tend to be marketed towards younger people

• Older music we hear out and about (at parties/on the radio etc) is more likely to be new to us

• We have plenty of time to delve into new music as well as other hobbies

• For alot of us, the charts were alot quicker moving, so we would hear more new music on the chart show/songs would actively be promoted in the run up to their release

But I've noticed as I've got older, almost everyone I know in real life has stopped (for the most part) bothering with finding anything new to listen. Almost everyone I know knows the big hits that are hammered by radio and constantly towards the top of the charts... This feels very bizarre to me. I expect people to listen to less as they spend more time at work and doing stuff that you kinda can't really avoid when you're an adult, obviously alot of people would rather be spending their time doing other things than finding new music (which is fair!).

Theoretically, now we have pretty much all the music we could ever want available to us, you'd think that most of us would be listening to far more new music instinctively, but I think the opposite is actually true! I find it is too easy to rely on algorithms one or two playlists that are maybe updated once a week (with very few changes) these days, and it just feeds into a far more passive listening culture than I can ever remember!

I definitely fell into the spiral of listening to whatever the algorithm gave me (much of which I already knew and would listen to), and lots that really wasn't very good stuff at all... So I decided to change my approach!

What I do now is:

In streaming I have a 'Fresh' playlist that I add songs from:

• New music playlists (new music daily, new in [genre], etc) - I scour these once a week to find out who is releasing new stuff that week, I skim through songs and add what I like the sound of

• Radio playlists - I go through the threads in here and skim through any songs that slipped through the net

• New release schedule and genre forums on here - a fair few of these tracks never seem to get playlisted on either of the above!

• BJSC - I went back to this, and have discovered even more brilliant songs!

I reintroduced my chart - if a song makes enough of an impression for me to want to chart it, I add it to my favourites on apple music!

This isn't perfect, but I find it way better than what I the algorithm/tiktok etc was serving me!

How do you go about discovering new music?

Edited Wednesday at 09:304 days by Juranamo

It’s become a routine for me, on my way to work every Friday, adding about 40 songs to my New Music Friday playlist and then saving the ones I like to my monthly playlists. And then I try and get through them by the end of the week - I’d love to just rattle through them on a Friday but alas I do not work from home x

Of course BJSC is where I find plenty of songs too and where I discover new artists, who then subsequently end up on said New Music Friday list.

I’ve kinda steered away, quite a lot, in the last 2 years from following chart stuff and just focusing on what I like. I haven’t heard anything from Drake’s new album for example because I know what I like now and quite simply don’t have enough time in my life to dedicate to trying to listen to stuff I’m not going to care about when there’s so much out there that I would enjoy.

I ticked Other which, in my case, includes other media like games, films, series, multimedia franchises, etc..

Edited Wednesday at 08:584 days by AllStarBySmashMouth

I ticked 'streaming services new music playlists', 'radio' and 'online song contests'!

I check out New Music Friday and Release Radar every week on Spotify, as well as dipping my toes into more specialised genre-focused playlists, always keep on top of new entries on the Radio 1 and 6Music playlists and enter every song contest going on the forum I can't imagine a universe where I stop caring about music discovery - both new and old

I do sometimes discover songs from friends or on TikTok but would say this is less frequent, I'm more of a long-form content person

I've added another option which I thought was already there: "streaming services hits playlists", like your Hot Hits UK's, your Today Top Hits'... that sort of thing!

Edited Wednesday at 09:324 days by Juranamo

53 minutes ago, RobBot said:

I’ve kinda steered away, quite a lot, in the last 2 years from following chart stuff and just focusing on what I like. I haven’t heard anything from Drake’s new album for example because I know what I like now and quite simply don’t have enough time in my life to dedicate to trying to listen to stuff I’m not going to care about when there’s so much out there that I would enjoy.

I'm with you on this one, I steer clear of the charts purely for this reason. I will take a quick look at sales and how well any of my faves are doing, but that's as far as it goes really.

I have zero interest in listening to music by artists that have consistently delivered songs I dislike. The best way to get me to listen to your new song... Is by showing me that your last song (or most recent output) has been worthy of my listening time. 🤣 Eventually I'll give up (though I will usually give the artist's newie a skim if it appears on a new music playlist lol) - very few artists will be blacklisted from my ears for eternity!

42 minutes ago, AllStarBySmashMouth said:

I ticked Other which, in my case, includes other media like games, films, series, multimedia franchises, etc..

This is a fair one! I think it's very rare I discover anything in this way, but I appreciate it's an avenue for lots of people!

I would have done a wider "media" category alongside TikTok etc, but I don't think hearing a song (probably once) in a film/game is the same as being fed 100s of videos using the same song on TikTok!

31 minutes ago, Jade said:

I ticked 'streaming services new music playlists', 'radio' and 'online song contests'!

I check out New Music Friday and Release Radar every week on Spotify, as well as dipping my toes into more specialised genre-focused playlists, always keep on top of new entries on the Radio 1 and 6Music playlists and enter every song contest going on the forum I can't imagine a universe where I stop caring about music discovery - both new and old

I do sometimes discover songs from friends or on TikTok but would say this is less frequent, I'm more of a long-form content person

Very much similar to my methods then! Interesting!

I lived in the universe where I accidentally stopped caring about music discovery - I do not recommend it 🤣

I ticked 'online song contests', 'streaming algorithm', 'forums', 'friends recommend' and 'other'.

Online song contests: I've been taking part in an almost overwhelming amount of song contests here but generally I enjoy it and make some nice discoveries. I am guilty of not going back to the song contest entries as much as I'd like, so for the past few months I've had playlists for each contest, collecting all the songs I voted for in each one (yes, even including 1 and 2 pointers), as well as one 'master' playlist containing my votes from all the contests in one.

Streaming algorithm: I understood this as like a general thing on Spotify or whatever, like sometimes I will listen to my Daily Mixes and make a nice discovery, or I will stumble upon something good on YouTube.

Forums: Occasionally - not very often actually - I discover something really good from an album or single thread on here. Caroline Polachek is an example. I probably would've ended up listening to her at some point anyway but when her song 'Door' was posted years ago, I immediately fell in love with it and have now listened to both her albums.

Friends recommend: One online friend in particular sometimes recommends good stuff to me - Erika de Casier is a recent example.

Other: A lot of my musical discoveries have been by simply checking out 'similar artists' of an artist I've already listened to. I mainly do this on Spotify and last.fm and it's been a great method for me! Lately I've also been getting into Rateyourmusic where I can also look for new music.

The key element for new music discovery is my Top 75 playlist at Spotify, which I update regularly. My new chart is revealed each Wednesday and includes my current Top 75 - until around sunday I add songs which could be potential new entries for my chart. Main sources are of course the new music fridays playlists. On fridays I usually start with new music friday UK playlist - I don't listen fully to each song, but each song gets at least some seconds of play. Afterwards I look at further country specific new music fridays: Korea, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Norway, France, Poland are the major ones I check for further music. With this I get around 15-25 songs I add to my Top 75 playlist. I listen a lot to the new songs and usually it reduces a bit to 10-15 new entries in my personal chart for each week, which gets resorted on mondays representing a first version of my new chart, which only gets a fine-tuning on Tuesdays.

Besides the New Music Friday playlists, my main source for new music is Buzzjack. The BJSC is great for this - I get approoximately 2-3 Top 10 hits from each edition I would have overlooked otherwise (biggest ones Liv Del Estal and First Aid Kit). I also check all personal charts posted regularly and made some great discoveries out of it (e.g. Annalisa).

Recent UK charts I look up weekly but it does not give me great discoveries anymore. The last one was Sienna Spiro, when "Maybe" appeared at the lower end of the top 100 1.5 years ago. However, in the past I went retrospectively through the UK charts from the 60's, 79's and 80's and made plenty of great findings.

I am in the lucky situation that I have an office job and can listen to a lot of music while working.

I mainly use Genius release calendar, and new music playlists on YT + Spotify and what gets recommended to me on shuffle there.

I ticked 'streaming services new music playlists', 'online song contests' and 'forums'. Like Jade I listen through New Music Friday and Release Radar every week on Spotify, plus some more specialised genre-focused playlists, and also make regular discoveries from all the song contests we have on Buzzjack. I also discover many songs from personal charts on this forum - it takes time as there are so many, but I'd rather have recommendations from people than rely on an algorithm.

I don't listen to much radio outside the chart show - I follow the Radio 1 playlist updates and occasionally I'm drawn to something there or from random plays in the car, but I'm usually aware of the songs by the time they're added.

Decided to analyse how I discovered every song in my current personal chart top 40:

1 - Olivia Rodrigo - the cure

^ hit single, have looked out for new Olivia releases ever since 'drivers license' propelled her to global superstardom in 2021

2 - LONOWN & Baby Jane - alone with you

^ I was randomly browsing ATRL and a thread about this came up on the homepage, it didn't have any replies but I checked it out as I enjoyed both artists in BJSC, thanks random person, your thread impacted me even if it had no replies

3 - Olivia Rodrigo - maggots for brains

^ from listening to her new album

4 - Charli xcx - SS26

^ probably first heard this on New Music Friday U.K. but always keep tabs on Charli anyway as I'm a fan

5 - akiaura & Olya Holiday - Feel My Heart

^ I think I saw Kath (?) from here listening to this on my Spotify friends activity sidebar so checked it out as I've enjoyed akiaura's past work

6 - Olivia Rodrigo - stupid song

^ from listening to her new album

7 - Lola Leon - T Shirt

^ discovered this on YouTube, it's Madonna's daughter Lourdes who formerly went by Lolahol, an actually good nepo artist x

8 - Olivia Rodrigo & Robert Smith - what's wrong with me

^ from listening to her new album

9 - Liv del Estal - CŒUR TITANE

^ my latest BJSC entry, originally found this on some kind of electronic Spotify playlist, from the 'appears on' feature of another similar artist

10 - SHEE - Woman (feat. deadream)

^ think this was on my Release Radar due to enjoying previous material

11 - Makeshift Art Bar - Discipline

^ think this was also on my Release Radar due to enjoying previous material, I remember originally discovering them on 6Music

12 - CFCF - Love Took Root (feat. dance arts center)

^ from listening to his new album, think I originally discovered CFCF in BJSC

13 - FKA twigs - On Your Mind (feat. Lil Yachty)

^ probably first heard this on New Music Friday U.K. but twigs is another artist I keep tabs on anyway

14 - Ariana Grande - hate that i made you love me

^ anticipated lead single from one of my favourite singers :) deliberately sought it out as soon as I woke up lol

15 - Kelela - point blank

^ probably Release Radar due to enjoying past Kelela albums

16 - akiaura & Baby Jane - Motorbike

^ I think this one actually was in my Release Radar unlike the collab ATRL made me aware of

17 - Eartheater - Crown Jewel

^ I think this was in my Release Radar as well but was first aware of a new Eartheater era thanks to her thread on here

18 - Olivia Rodrigo - my way

^ from listening to her new album

19 - Olivia Rodrigo - expectations

^ from listening to her new album

20 - Angèle - Dis-le

^ New Music Friday U.K., cherrypicked this after enjoying her Justice collab a lot

21 - Olivia Rodrigo - honeybee

^ from listening to her new album

22 - CFCF - Kiss Me (feat. nuum & Seren Forever)

^ from listening to his new album

23 - Boy Harsher - Pain

^ I'm pretty sure I originally discovered this on a TikTok about goth music several years ago but back in my chart due to BJSC

24 - TOMORA - I DRINK THE LIGHT

^ from listening to their new album, AURORA and Tom from Chemical Brothers coming together sounded like an interesting project

25 - Way Dynamic - Miffed It

^ found this through 6Music

26 - Night Tapes - swim

^ think this was on my Release Radar as I really enjoyed their album last year

27 - Gilla Band - Giraffe

^ I remember seeing a thread about this in the Indie Forum on here + spying it in a Spotify playlist, so the combination of both

28 - Eartheater - Paradise Rains

^ BuzzJack alerted me to this new era so Indie Forum doing the lord's work again

29 - ear - Ne Plus Ultra

^ think this was another 6Music find?

30 - Anna Prior - Silence

^ I'm pretty sure I saw someone (might've been Kath again? electronic Queen) listening to this on my Spotify sidebar, alerting me to her new music.

31 - Olivia Rodrigo - cigarette smoke

^ from listening to her new album

32 - Slayyyter - DANCE...

^ the Troubled Paradise era really made me sit up and take notice so have checked out her releases since, I assume I pressed play on New Music Friday U.K.

33 - Slayyyter - BRITTANY MURPHY.

^ from listening to her new album

34 - Echoberyl - Doll Heart

^ YouTube discovery, I still need to check out this album in full oops but skipped to this song as the algorithm alerted me to its music video

35 - Lip Critic - Shoplifting

^ stanned their song in BJSC so was interested in more music... think the Indie forum alerted me to this

36 - oktobernatt - Rasa

^ discovered this from uhsting sending it to BJSC

37 - Mount Palomar - Feeding Frenzy (feat. Enola Gay)

^ Release Radar I think after stanning his singles last year

38 - Two Shell - Thing About You

^ Release Radar, first discovered this artist in BJSC years ago

39 - Fcukers - Lonely

^ from listening to their new album

40 - PinkPantheress - Girl Like Me

^ from listening to the accompanying mixtape but this is back due to the music video effect

going to add 'forums' to my votes as I forgot about BuzzJack outside of song contests/PopSquare/ATRL/Reddit etc. sometimes alerting me to new releases

Mattias' post also reminded me that I use RateYourMusic sometimes as well but I think that falls under a database

Here is a similar list for my current top 40:

1.     Ana Mena; Lola Indigo – Pa Ti Toa <3 (24) 3w <- NMF Spain

2.     Laura Muñoz – Cristalino (6) 2w <- NMF Spain

3.     Daniela Garsal; D3llano – Me Gustan Los 2 (NEW) <- NMF Spain

4.     Charlotte Cardin – Take Me Back (4) 4w <- I follow her on spotify

5.     Federica Abbate – Superman (1) 5w <- NMF Italia

6.     María Peláe – No Estoy Católica (3) 4w <- NMF Spain

7.     Bebe Rexha – One Day (8) 3w <- buzzjack + NMF

8.     Isabel LaRosa – Hate Myself For Loving You (2) 4w <- I follow her on spotify (currently my favourite artist)

9.     Liv Del Estal – Cœur Titane (5) 8w <- Jade's entry for BJSC 185

10.  Anna – White Girl Wasted (43) 2w <- NMF Italia

11.  Zalia – Tylko Kochaj Mnie (11) 2w <- NMF Poland

12.  Elettra Lamborghini – Bam Bam Bambina (7) 6w <- NMF Italia

13.  Shakira; Burna Boy – Dai Dai (9) 7w <- general hype

14.  Aespa – Lemonade (17) 2w <- Buzzjack

15.  Isabel LaRosa – American Wedding (NEW) <- I follow her on spotify (currently my favourite artist)

16.  Inji – I Wanna Feel It All (32) 3w <- this song from NMF, but I was introduced to her in a BJSC with a previous song - very disappointed that it did not reach the final

17.  Clean Bandit; Biig Piig – I Don't Wanna Hurt You (14) 2w <- NMF UK

18.  Benson Boone – The Time Of My Life (NEW) <- well known artist, NMF

19.  Rose Gray – Club To Your Arms (10) 3w <- well known artist, NMF UK

20.  Le Sserafim; Illit; Katseye – Iconic By Mistake (40) 3w <- 3 korean supergroups together -> this can't be missed

21.  Alex Amor – Avalanche (27) 3w <- NMF UK

22.  Sarsa – Czy Będziemy Się Pamiętać? (13) 4w <- NMF Poland

23.  Winona Oak – Bones (31) 4w <- NMF, but Winona was introduced to me by a personal chart

24.  Cara – Fuori Dai Club (28) 2w <- NMF Italia

25.  Lily Allen; Jade – Beg For Me (16) 5w <- general hype of the two artists here, this cannot be missed

26.  Manon Lisa – Seules Ensemble (Mistral Gagnant) (20) 5w <- NMF France

27.  Jessie Reyez; Elyanna; FIFA Sound – Illuminate (26) 8w <- i think i found this at spotify at some point, but don't know exactly where

28.  Olivia Rodrigo – My Way (NEW) <- album track i am addicted to

29.  Muse; Ellie Goulding – Hush (NEW) <- NMF UK

30.  Kesha – Origami! (21) 8w <- i follow Kesha on spotify

31.  Jungle – The Wave (30) 5w <- NMF, artist is well known from previous songs

32.  Ariana Grande – Hate That I Made You Love Me (36) 5w <- general hype

33.  Moliy; Yailin La Mas Viral; Theodora – Jetski (Friki) (61) 2w <- I have charted Mliy quite some times and discovered this in NMF UK

34.  Charlotte OC – Start of Summer (45) 2w <- new artist for me, discovered in NMF UK

35.  Elley Duhé – This Side of Heaven (12) 7w <- NMF UK

36.  Gracie Abrams – Look At My Life (NEW) <- well known artist, also listened first through NMF UK

37.  Diplo; Major Lazer; Tokischa – Papi With Tokischa (NEW) <- NMF UK

38.  Prospa; Cloonee – Free Your Mind (37) 3w <- general hype, also here on buzzjack - overlooked it initially

39.  Eileen Alister – Where's the Fun? (39) 3w <- NMF UK

40.  Myles Smith – Heaven (41) 2w <- well known artist, NMF UK

Often it is also coincidence - most I listen first on NMF playlists, but at least the songs from bigger artists are already mentioned pre-release in the respective subforums here or in the new music lists in the BJ UK Charts forum - usually I also look on the new music list published by the UK charts company on Thursday. However, most recently it was very fruitful for me to check further countries for NMF, particularly Italy, Spain and Korea.

mostly NMF playlists of dozens of countries, fresh finds, other song contests within or outwith buzzjack, some personal charts, blackmarket who now makes up a decent amount of shoegaze and indie rock finds on my chart

would be honoured if anyone does discover great stuff from my chart too x

01 - Florrie - The Times Added from NMD

02 - Fat Dog - Go f*** Urself Saw it listed on radio playlist (no idea which)

03 - RØRY - STRANGE NMD

04 - Ava Max x BIA - Energy NMD

05 - JORDY - SICK! NMD

06 - Kesha - ORIGAMI! NMD

07 - Cheekface - MFT Cheekface were actually recommended by a friend irl, I think this came up in my "New Releases for You" section as I'd already heard it

08 - Kevian Kraemer - i just get worse NMD

09 - South Arcade - DEADMEAT New in Rock playlist (think I first noticed them with a different song when I looked at a R1 playlist)

10 - Valencia Grace - Voodoo Tiktok

11 - Olivia Rodrigo - the cure Here

12 - Lily Allen & JADE - Beg For Me Here (but I'm always looking for new Jade anyway)

13 - Hayley Williams - Glum No longer new... Though she's an anticipated artist in the household, charting after seeing her live

14 - Take That - Said It All Recharting after seeing them live

15 - Angie - Signorina Pop Italiano playlist

16 - Cheekface - I Don't Work Here Same as other Cheekface song

17 - MEEK - Beautiful Freeks NMD

18 - Cherry Bomb - Sorry You're Not Sorry PopSquare NMF playlist

19 - Appleton - Ready To Begin Thread here

20 - ADÉLA - KGB Personal charts here

21 - The Script - Man in the Arena NMD (charting after seeing it performed live)

22 - Becky Hill - More! More! More! Here

23 - Adam Lambert - UNDER THE RHYTHM NMD

24 - Hayley Williams - Mirtazapine See Glum

25 - Take That - You're A Superstar See The Script

26 - DVBBS & Nelly Furtado - Torture of the Heart NMD

27 - Dagny - C'est La Vie New in Pop playlist

28 - Nothing But Thieves - Evolution NMD

29 - Kevian Kraemer - does it still mean something? Discovered after looking at his other songs following 'i just get worse'

30 - Delta Goodrem - Eclipse Eurovision always gets heard

31 - MUNA - Wannabeher NMD

32 - The Warning - Kerosene BJSC

33 - Ariana Grande - hate that i made you love me NMD

34 - Taylor Swift - I Knew It, I Knew You Never ever gonna be able to miss new Taylor am I?

35 - Tove Lo - I'm your girl right? NMD

36 - Boy Throb & Kesha - DJ Turn It Down NMD I think

37 - Olivia Rodrigo - drop dead NMD

38 - Shakira x Burna Boy - Dai Dai Listened to after seeing hype here

39 - Adam Lambert - EAT U ALIVE NMD

40 - Madonna & Sabrina Carpenter - Bring Your Love It's Madonna!

So yeah, currently the bulk of my charting songs are from NMD playlist! Most of the BJSC have slipped out during the break!

RateYourMusic charts/user lists have been a primary source of music discovery for me the last 10+ years, and more recently AlbumoftheYear, especially with its weekly new releases page making it easy to keep up with what albums/tracks are fresh out the oven!

I'll also do a quick scour through blogs like Stereogum, BrooklynVegan etc. every week to get a fuller scope - plus the song contests here will usually throw up a few really cool tracks or artists I wasn't familiar with before

Mainly through Buzzjack now in the new music thread in the UK Charts section

I voted:

Streaming services new music playlists - I follow a few New Music Friday playlists but also make good use of Release Radar

Radio - I don't listen to radio away from the chart show but do follow some playlists, and Capital Buzz has given me a handful of good songs to check out

Blogs - occasionally check Scandipop to see what my Melfest faves are up to outside the contest

Forums

Live Music (support acts / festivals etc)

Friends recommend

Singles chart for your country - not as useful as it once was but I have discovered some great songs by listening to the chart show or checking out top 100 new entries

Other - occasionally browse through similar artists on Spotify, see YouTube recommendations, that kinda thing, always keeping an eye out. Also keep tabs on the artists I enjoy via social media, but I don't use TikTok or watch reels

As for my recent personal chart, I'll focus instead on the artists that feature as many of the songs are just the latest releases from artists I already follow!

Benson Boone - discovered with debut single Ghost Town when it first entered the UK top 100

The Runarounds - through their own Amazon Prime original series

Delta Goodrem - music channels many years back

sombr - when back to friends started to climb Spotify charts internationally

dearALICE - their BBC docuseries Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience

Ax and the Hatchetmen - lead singer Axel is also in The Runarounds so found out about this band by proxy

Søren Torpegaard Lund - Eurovision 2026

Katy Perry - radio years back

Alex Sampson - genuinely not sure as I scrobbled some of his songs a while before I actually really got into him, but his viral America's Got Talent audition redirected him to me

The Kid LAROI - his song GO and mixtape F*CK LOVE charting in the UK made me curious, rest is history with this one...!

Hayd - discovered through artists he's worked with + is friends with like Sarcastic Sounds (aka jerm's best day, who is also credited on the charting song), David Kushner, Anson Seabra, etc

HRVY - think it was the old Ultimate Music / josepvinaixa blog years back?

Isac Elliot - think it was our very own Oricon who showed Isac's debut single to me in 2013

Shakira - music channels years back

Bradley Simpson - as a member of The Vamps

MK - through the charts

Knox - can't remember precisely but possibly a Spotify playlist? I know his proper debut single Sneakers was the first one I heard

Leony & Marcus & Martinus - Leony is new to me on this song, Marcus & Martinus I think were recommended by Jáhq with their early single Elektrisk

Alan Walker & Ava Max - Alan Walker via Faded in the chart, Ava Max actually through the Ultimate Music blog under Ava Koci with a long-forgotten single forgot about her until Sweet But Psycho started to make waves, a bit before it charted

Ariana Grande - can't remember how, may have been a recommendation, but Put Your Hearts Up was the first one I heard

Bebe Rexha - through Cash Cash collaboration Take Me Home, in BJSC actually

Anastacia - music channels years back

Boy In Space - as a support act for Alec Benjamin in 2019

Charli xcx - as feature on Icona Pop - I Love It, which I heard first in BJSC

ÁSDÍS - knew of her through a feature on a Michael Schulte song, found this song via Scandipop

Ryan Beatty - scrolling through iTunes suggested artists a long time ago, when he was more of a Justin Bieber-wannabe than the artist he is nowadays

Dotter - Melodifestivalen

Harry Styles - X Factor and One Direction obv x

Lxst Boy & Cavasoul - know of this song via Cavasoul, can't remember how I found him but we chat on Instagram lol

Will Linley - an Instagram advert for his single wrong time