New Music Fridays.

Hm...good question...there are various ways for me. Sometimes I go to shows and I really like some of the artists opening up for whatever artists I went to see.

Or I'll just lurk around the internet and find stuff (New Music Fridays is a good example of what I'm talking about).

And of course, I talk to my friends about music too.

It's like a great circle of...music (which is life, amirite?). I go to shows with my friends, we like opening artists, we lurk the internet and find more stuff by them, while doing so, find another artists we really like, go to see said artist live, and we find ANOTHER opening act to feast upon.

New Music Fridays, Fluxblog.org, rcrdlbl.com, and Stereogum are some great places.  Another great place is on SHOUTcast. I've been hoping and wishing that SHOUTcast support (or something similar) will be integrated through the Zune and its WiFi. Imagine listening to a SHOUTcast track, really dig the song, and then somehow mark / flag it for download from Zune Pass.  That would be the ultimate.  

I use the Zune Marketplace charts, and what I hear on the radio. I think it would be cool if Zune Marketplace included a list of the billboard charts. That would be handy.

Mostly by checking out what my friends on the Social are listening to. After all, I added them mainly because their taste in music matched mine to some degree (that and the fact that they're really cool people). I also pick up a good bit of stuff hearing what my coworkers are playing. Occasionally something will catch my attention on the radio or TV, but not as often as it used to (side effect of getting older?).

A simple answer to your question would be friends. I hear new music all the time when I'm with my friends and I usually like it alot. Also, my older brother, who just graduated high school and isnt home that much, shows me alot of new music whenever I see him that he hears from his friends.

Recently, the song I feel in love with was completely accidental. I was with my best friend/neighbor on the way home from a soccer game, and I heard this song on the radio. I immediately liked it, but I didnt get to hear more than 30 seconds of it cause we stopped to get drinks at a local store; when we got back in the car the song was different. I didnt say anything simply because it was nothing that I would uaually like or listen too. I'm the rock/hard rock/metal type of guy, I like the guitar solos the songs have and some other things. This song was completely different. I feel in love with it because it immediately reminded me of my girlfriend. Right when I got home I googled the lyrics I still had stuck in my head and got the name of the song and got it off Zune Marketplace. The song was Fall for You bye Secondhand Serenade.

why does your zune card have ipods in the background?

It's interesting, for me, it's watching new TV commercials; that's how I get most of my new music. And I know a lot of people like to download music that is used on TV ads, so why not have a genre or playlist, or category, where all music found on TV commercials is easily available? That would be really cool...

i discover my music with the playlists from zune marketplace

I'd say it's sites like this (New Music Fridays an a couple of other choice mp3 blogs) and my friends. Now that I've moved away to LA, my pals and I live in completely different time zones. So, we can't just call each other up and ramble on about music whenever we want. It's not uncommon for me to see a link to an artist/song come across my inbox from one of my friends.

I also love going to live shows. I'm still looking for a great place to do that in my new hometown  :)

The ZunePass has really made the Social come alive for me... browsing the connections in the Marketplace, watching to what friends are listening. I like the playlists available on the Marketplace as well - "New and Notable", etc. But that's also a place I would invest... playlists based on current and historical charts, playlists based on movies or TV shows (the Sopranos playlist was a good example... I'd love to see playlists for Cold Case episodes).

Keep up the great work and thanks!

i used to discover it in zune, by going through everything that was added in the week.. but that feature hasn't made it into 2.0 so i've been forced to go other places on the web to find what's breaking :) - woxy, bbc charts, etc

Discovering new music is tough for me, because I have eccentric tastes. Specifically, trailer music and movie scores. A lot of my favorite artists aren't even in the Zune music database, (which is why Zune Social is pretty much useless to me) so I can never get badges for them. How about allowing us to edit artist info for new artists (the community can edit it and verify its accuracy)?

Jonathan Broderick: They're all broken iPods.  See the sad faces on the screens?

I always disconver a ton of new music during the summer as I am usually working outside the house and have the radio on.  Usually it's on Sirius Alt Nation and the pure volume of songs you can here over a 3-4 hour period, with no commercials, is staggering.

A lot of times I'll go on the internet that night and look up what songs I heard, remember which ones I really liked and listen to them and/or download them on Marketplace.  Marketplace is great to hear snippets so you can see if it's the song you think it is.

@Jonathan Broderick

The ipods have the "unhappy ipod" image on the screen....thats what happens when ipods break...!

My source for new music is Last.fm. The site shows Recommendations based on your music taste. It's really great to discover new music. I already found some great artists via Last.fm

I would like zune to incorporate Radio into the Zune service (free stations and premium for zune pass subscribers) and I would like Zune to implement an auto mix feature, that allows users and subscribers to generate random playlists based on genre, artist, or song.

One word:  Myspace.

I am usually not one who likes new music.  But when I'm on myspace I like going to the bands section and selecting my fav genre.

A really cool idea for the Zune would be to categorize artists like myspace, according to the genre, and do like a top 20.  Then you could listen to their songs... just a sample at first.  Like for the first day you downlod it you can listen to it non-stop before you have to buy it.

That would be totally awesomeness :D

FM radio, of course. We have a great national alternative radio station here in Australia ( http://triplej.net.au/ ), so whenever I want to hear something a bit different or new I'll switch over to FM radio rather than MP3.

The FM radio was one of the specific reasons why I bought a Zune.

I don't understand the MP3-player enthusiasts who berate the Zune for having an integral FM radio.  How do they find new music?  And why poo-poo a 'free' well-integrated feature when other MP3 players have it as a $50-60AUS ugly external accessory.   Doesn't make sense.

Otherwise - on occasion, friends do show me new music from their collection.

Why is Zune only in America and Canada as the Uk is a big music player!

DOm

@Robert

The Radio is already on the Zune, so what do you mean by incorporate it into the service when its already there. And the auto mix feature, use the autoplaylists, then you could create random playlists like you want.

So, what's up with Zune right now?

IMO you guys REALLY need to step it up SOON.

Zune 2 was catching up with apple and everyone else when it came out.  How are you guys going to push Zune forward?  I was an early adopter and I had faith, but I am losing it...even Zune Guy is jumping ship.  Where are games?  Where is new firmware? Where is divix support?  Where is ANYTHING that every other device has?  Sure Zune has wifi, but I NEVER use it because it is awful.  Syncing wirelessly is uber slow and I never see other people out with zunes that I can share with.  We need zune apps and games to add serious functionality to the zune.  

The FM radio is awesome on the Zune, and it's great you guys included RBDS, but it seems obvious for you guys to have extended that so that if I like a song I hear on the radio, I can flag it kind of like when flagging songs received through the wifi, since the metadata is there. And when I go back to the Zune software, I can find out more about the "band" and maybe purchase the song.

@ Brendan,

I don't want crappy FM radio, I'm talking about Zune Radio available from the Marketplace (Like radio stations on Napster or Rhapsody)

Auto playlists only make playlists based on music already in my library, I want to Auto Mix the entire catalog Zune offers, so I can grow my personal library.

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough.

Aaron, if you're an early adopter. Don't you think you would've gotten it by now? They don't announce anything big until a few weeks prior to it's release.

How do you know they're not working hard to "step it up" more than they already have with the new Zunes? I mean, Zune went from no podcast support to BEST podcast support (according to Cnet).

Unfortunately, I can't count on finding new music from my friends because I'm usually the one they discover new music through :p

I discover new music through, ahem, good radio stations like WOXY and KEXP, and have never once used the FM tuner on the Zune because my local stations are utterly worthless. Lately, I focus more on music blogs, which, despite being close to the seedy underworld of music piracy :) feature so many new bands across so many genres, that it's easy to stay ahead of the curve just by frequenting them.

As friends and acquaintances mention artists I haven't heard of, I make mental notes. Later I find them on Zune. I also look at the basic 'Related' tab. Othertimes I just open up a genre tab in the marketplace and explore, randomly downloading things. I tend to also look at other listener's Zune Tags to see what they're about.

I hardly ever listen to the radio, and have only used the FM tuner in the Zune once. I *would* use the radio more if the Zune had AM, but not for music obviously.

@ Robert

Oh, I see what you mean. Yes, that would be a big improvement to the service. My fault for not understanding.

@ Eddie

I agree, the podcast support is great.  I probably use my zune for podcasts more than anything else.  I guess I'm just being a whiner.  I just hate looking at my brown lump of zune, knowing how much potential it has but how crippled it still is by its limited firmware

Mostly TV and radio.  I watch and listen to as many genres as possible.  Every once in a while someone will mention a song or artist.  None of my friends share my love for ALL music; they spotlight their attentions on one genre.  I recently discovered Portishead and their "Sour Times".  I also find many new songs in Marketplace and in the Forums.  There's a running thread requesting the first 15 songs on your Zune device.  I've seen songs that are not familiar, but interesting. I search for it in Marketplace and listen.  My device is primarily comprised of songs I've wanted to have at my fingertips for decades.  I have so much music to catch up on.

Hi, iam a true music fan, i love to listen and create music, i must say that there is alot of passionate music lover all over the world who live for music and love to discover new thing's.

Shawn

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<a href="http://community.widecircles.com ">community.widecircles.com </a>

TV, Radio, Friends, Trailers.  Can't wait for the Marketplace and the Zune Pass to open up in Canada.

I would like to see something like the Songbird browser in the Zune - use the Wi-Fi to browse, and, like Songbird's browser, mark any playable/purchase-able music on the page somehow and download it right there.