Jul 31, 2006
Informal, Non-Scientific Survey
by Cesar Menendez at 4:28 PM

Ok, you may have noted in Friday's post that the executives in the Zune division value helping people find new music. From Robbie Bach's speech:

We also think discovery is key. Figuring out new ways for people to find their favorite music, certainly, but in some ways more importantly their favorite video.

And, as it happens, I have to agree with them ;). Actually, I personally love finding new bands. Which brings me to my non-scientific survey: How do you find music you like? Let folks know in the comments.

I'll start: mostly the way I find new music is through friends - we all kinda share music w/ each other, send links to bands. I also hit up the "cool kids" links on the right, and find music that way. Sometimes I use music meta-search engines, like www.liveplasma.com or www.Pandora.com. Hey the comments to check out bands/labels on this site have helped, too. (keep em comin!)

Ok, how do you do it? 

Tags:
27 Comments
Comments
While playing XBOX games, I usually just pop the question in. What music are you currently listening to? I find that people generally want to share their music taste with others. I wish there was a way that you could see what someone was listening to in your friends list, similar to how you see the game that they're currently playing. Hopefully this makes it into the Zune Live service. I also tend to find new music by using the "also on" or "appears on" link of my favorite artist's Aol Music Now page. While browing other albums that my favorite artist appear on, I end up finding other artists with cool music.
I usually use http://www.pandora.com - that has so far worked the best when it comes to suggesting songs & artists. For example, I discovered Seldon Plan and Citizen Cope both through Pandora, only to discover they are both local bands to where I live! Last.Fm was another one I tried using for a while, but it was not anywhere near pandora. Other than that, Craigslist / Myspace / And friends recos help too. S
Mostly I find new music the old fashioned way: Talking to people in real life about music. However, I really like Pandora too, and have certainly found lots of stuff there that I'd never have found otherwise. I also find some new music by browsing the music collections of other people. People who I find on, um, completely legal music services. Yeah.
I'll sometimes hear music through a friend and if I like it, Ill get it myself. I'm very open to music, so I listen to a variety of genres, which makes it hard to find good music, because most of the music I like is based on me liking the song, and not necessarily the genre. If I hear music I like, I'll often search through the artist's other songs to see if I like any of their other songs. Another way I find music it actually through video games. In some sports games, as well as Burnout, Ill hear music I like, which will encourage me to download it (or after playing the game a lot, the song is pretty much stuck in my head, making me think I like it, and therefore, leading me to download it).
1.) Friends 2.) Pitchfork or other music review sites, but mostly Pitchfork. 3.) Pandora 4.) My music service (Rhapsody) suggests something
Great site Cesar. I see that you have a few links to other Zune blogs on the right; I was wondering if you could link to ours. http://www.zunedose.com We'd really appreciate it, thanks.
Great question, I liked everyone's comments! 1) Satellite Radio 2) Friends 3) Amazon.com's "Check out these other artists" on the same page as a CD I want. 4) MP3.com's MusicVine 5) Wikipedia (looking up bands I like and seeing their suggestions) Keep up the great blog. -Matt
I find a band I like, then search Wikipedia or Google for that band and check out their influences and read about the 'genre'. I'll use a file sharing program to grab as many tracks as I can that I haven't heard or don't already own, then look at the collections of the people sharing those files. I also do searches on the genre and other bands I noted as Influences, then download a song or two and have a listen. Mostly I tend to hover around a particular genre for a while. I may listen to a lot of 2nd wave ska for a while, then jump to Psychobilly. Another week could see me listening to a Severed Heads song, starting me off on the trail of Industrial sounds and Electronica, and onto New Wave etc. I very rarely find anything new that I like, most of it is simply rediscovering older stuff, or expanding on previous likes, into territories unexplored before.
I really like Pandora, and some of the others mentioned. At the risk of sounding like a spammer, I also use blueorganizer, which is made by my company adaptiveblue (www.adaptiveblue.com). It lets you discover new music based on what you already have in your collection. You can also share you tastes with friends via RSS.
I mostly goto Gigs that promote up and coming bands, I've rarely bought any of the recommendations given by Pandora and I certainly wouldn't buy anything iTunes or any other online store and I include MS based sites in that. Anything that gives a if you like this then try this option is mostly giving you exactly the same music but by another band rather than something new - same old :(
Well, I guess I'm the whore in this group- I subscribe (gasp) to Napster and YMU and use playlists, what people are playing in the genres I'm interested in- I do blogs that I run across and further research them via google. I tried Pandora and it just didn't fit- probably more a reflection of my haphazard and inconsistent passion for music. Word of mouth still works- I rely on folks who are more involved in different scenes than I am. Finally, let me beat the bloody horse called "subscription music" to go. It's really given me the opportunity to listen to literally hundreds of bands I simply would not have been tempted to shell money out for- on a whim. If I really like someone's music and really want it- I buy it. No unpleasant surprises. What a treat to listen, download and take dozens of new artists every week.
www.lala.com Best.site.ever. For discovery of music.
Nuh uh. I'm not allowing comments that knock other people's sites. Your comment, in the words of Strongbad: DELETED http://homestarrunner.com/sbemail20.html
I read Under the Radar magazine every month and then listen to album samples on Amazon or some other site. I find at least a few bands that I like every time.
Pandora is remarkably adept at not only finding new music that I like but also excellent at reminding me of music that I used to listen to that I had forgotten. Personally I would love it if Zune had a Pandora tie-in that would allow me to listen to my Pandora stations where I have connectivity and transparently/automatically save bookmarked/thumbed tracks under Zune licensing for when I am off-line.
1. Friends 2. Metacritic.com 3. KEXP.org 4. eMusic.com
Radio.
http://last.fm - it's a fantastic site for music and I've discovered tons of new stuff via their recommendations system/radio and friends.
2 main ways. 1) what I hear on the radio, whether my stations or stations my friends listen to. 2) whenver I hear a song I like, I will go to download it, and it will usually say " if you like this song, you probably like... " Although that doesn't always work because they normally just group them by genres.
Primary source is friends. at number 2: serendipity listening to online radio stations. 3rd position: When buying my popular bands on amazon, it recommends me music.("People who bought this also bought") I love it. Discovered some cool music using that. Sometimes I just go browsing on amazon to dig up music similar to my favorites.
Truth be told I've been in a new music funk for the past couple years. In my opinion most commercial music has gone complete garbage. I can't listen to the radio for a whole song these days. I've been going back to my old stuff listening to lots of classic rock and reggae. I've been playing around with MySpace and found some cool stuff. Seems like everyone likes Pandora so maybe I'll check it out. I'm actually looking forward to buying a Zune. Maybe being a part of the Zune community will open up my new music sources as well.
KEXP.org
LAST.FM IS THE BEST

Its amazing what people will post in these forums, some of it is quite brilliant!

I'll start: mostly the way I find new music is through friends - we all kinda share music w/ each other, send links to bands.

I'll start: mostly the way I find new music is through friends - we all kinda share music w/ each other, send links to bands.

2 main ways. 1) what I hear on the radio, whether my stations or stations my friends listen to. 2) whenver I hear a song I like, I will go to download it, and it will usually say " if you like this song, you probably like... " Although that doesn't always work because they normally just group them by genres.

LEAVE A COMMENT
 *Required
*  
 
*  
  Remember Me
1 2 3 4
Zune video goes global on Xbox LIVE

Big day for Zune and Xbox fans…and anyone else out there still trying to decide if they should get a Zune...

See All Features >



Archives
The Cool Kids
The Cool Zune Kids
RSS
©Copyright 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.