Stop Relying on the Algorithm to Find New Music!
Ok, but why should I?
There are lots of reasons to stop relying on algorithms to feed you culture. Algorithms are marketed as “made for you”. However, do they truly offer unique music selections? Or does Spotify just regurgitate popular songs from popular artists until you listen to them? The Algorithm suggests music similar to what you already played and music that the music streaming service has been paid to promote or sponsor. Often the suggestions will be songs already included in the top hits, and from artists that are already well established. The Algorithm gives the illusion of consuming diverse music.
Where did these ideas come from?
Hi, I’m Sarah! I read a lot about music and the arts industry. The subject of culture and algorithms is at the heart of two books I’ve read this year: The Death of the Artist by William Deresiewicz and Spotify Teardown by M Eriksson et al. For several years now, I have been on the hunt to diversify my music library. This is how I have been doing so!
My suggestions, in list form!
Ask Friends
Ask your friends what their favourite songs are and actually listen! Lots of people love to share the music they are listening to, and they might have already. Did they post on Instagram and add a song? That could be a nice addition to your library. The most important step is the part where you follow through and listen to the songs your friends like. Create a playlist of songs that remind you of your friend. When I’ve done this, my friends are quick to come up with a playlist of songs that remind them of me! I like to think this technique is reminiscent of the “mixtape”. Similarly, you can invite friends to collaborate with you on a playlist. It shall become a beautiful 6 hour mess of songs that you can listen to while you hang out with those same friends. Your favourite songs will weave together in a sonic braid of friendship so strong you will never forget each other!
Discover Musicians and Groups
Discover musicians and groups that do or don’t have a large following on social media or in real life. On social media, they are everywhere and they are not shy about sharing links to their music! I found one of my current favourite bands (the Toxhards) from a comedic reel posted to Instagram. In real life there are even more ways to find musicians, with the added aspect that they will likely be more local to you than those on the top charts.
Attend festivals. While I attended the commercial music festival that happens every summer in my hometown, I had this inside joke with myself: “you can’t escape the Queers”. It was amazing the amount of openly Queer performers onstage. Being able to identify with the performers definitely adds an incentive to listen to their music later on. Additionally, I appreciate that the festival, though purely commercial, did make an effort to program a diverse group of acts. For example, my music library is lacking in country music. At the festival, I discovered Orville Peck, where I was confused why an audience member was dressed like some sort of gay cowboy. Then Orville basically said: this next song is about gay cowboys, because I’m gay. Now I have Queer Country music in my library.
Attend small venues that regularly program live music. These small venues (aka bars, cafes, record shops) will bring in musicians and groups that are “underground” or “niche”. They might not become your favourite musicians, however, this could be an excellent exercise in exposing yourself to more diverse music. Believe it or not, I have also discovered music through chance meetings. These two people struck up a conversation with me in the park, and now I can’t stop listening to their music. Their band: Lonesome George, only has 250 monthly listeners on Spotify, but they are now one of my favourites.
Choose a Single and Listen to the Full Album
This technique here is how I got into Sabrina Carpenter’s music. Sabrina is a top charts artist now. Anyone else remember watching her music videos on Disney channel? I feel her singles get played and overplayed. The rest of her album barely gets any attention, but is just as good. This is how artists become one-hit-wonders: a single gets played a ton, and the rest of the album and discography gets ignored. I feel this is partly why there are years when Sabrina disappeared from the music scene. If there is a single that you love, I challenge you to listen to the album that it’s from. I tried this way of listening to music after listening to an episode from a podcast (I think Popcast by the New York Times, or maybe it was just talk radio). The host made a comment about young people “cherry picking” singles off an album. Back in the old days of records, cassettes, and CDs it was very difficult to separate a single from the album. Since I heard that comment, I’ve been challenging myself to listen to full albums, rather than picking the songs I already know and dropping them in a playlist.
Read About Music!
There are tons of places to read about music. For example, this blog! Lots of musicians and music lovers have written memoirs, which don’t require any formal music knowledge to understand. These books offer up so many listening suggestions! If you’re looking for underground and niche music, zines are all about that. Simply Google Search “music zines”. There are also online and print Magazine articles. Then there’s text based social medias like Threads, Reddit, and Oracle. Musicians are not shy to share their own music on these sites. Online, everyone’s a critic! Additionally, you can post yourself and ask for suggestions from random strangers on the internet.
I write zines about music like this one here:
Play Music!
Learn an instrument and start playing music! This will open the door to listening to music you didn’t before. For example, I recently began learning to play the guitar. I never imagined that classical guitar repertoire would be within my ability to play. However, it is! Now, I’m interested in becoming more familiar with solo guitar music, so that I can play it. Like Django Reinhardt, Fernando Sor, Francisco Tárrega.
There is so much to be learned by playing music with other people! Go out to a song circle, a jam session, form a band, join a community band. There are opportunities out there for every instrument (even bagpipes). Choirs are very popular and usually they want more singers to join. Playing music with others is like hitting two birds with one stone: great place to meet potential friends, and a way to find music that you might not have listened to otherwise.
Listen to Music That Used to be Popular
Remember the top hits from 5 or 10 years ago? How about the top hits from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s? For people like me who did not live through these decades, it is worth going back and listening to popular musicians of history. For example, there was a time in my life when I swore I would never listen to The Beatles because I didn’t want to get struck by “Beatlemania”. Now my friend Eric has suggested I listen to them! So, I did. I’ve listened to all kinds of experimental music, serialist music, chance music, but The Beatles definitely content for the “weirdest music” trophy.
Another personal example for this section is Lana Del Ray. Lana was extremely popular within recent years, and still is of course. However, I never listened to any of her songs. The only time I would have heard a song by her is if it was playing at the supermarket. Lana – you are on my list! Find those artists whose music passed you by and take a listen!
Get Off the Popular Streaming Sites
Get off Spotify and Apple Music! Go discover the worlds of Soundcloud, Bandcamp, obscure YouTube, Deezer, and other not so popular streaming sites. These sites, as I understand it, have less gatekeeping and are generally more friendly to smaller artists. At the very least, there’s going to be some cool, underground, and niche music on these sites.
Additionally, ditch the streaming all together. Get the CD or record player out and listen to music the “old fashioned way”. When I attended a classical music festival this summer, the merch table was a culture shock. No t-shirts, no hats, no tote bags; only CDs. In hindsight, the CD only approach shows how the classical world values the music above the performer’s brand. Sending audience members home with a $20 disc, so they can listen to the music over and over again, versus asking audience members to purchase a $60-80 shirt that reminds them of the musicians’ brand.
The best way to escape those algorithmic suggestions, is simply to listen to music in a place where the algorithm can’t get you. CDs, records, cassettes, even gramophone cylinders are all ways to listen to music where an algorithm cannot track your activity.
Listen to the Music Your Friends Made
If you are a musician like me, chances are you have musician friends who have music available on streaming platforms. Be a good buddy and listen to it! Even just once would be a huge show of support to that friend. It takes a ton of courage to stand up in front of people that you met in real life and say “this is my art, please share and engage with it”. I feel like it mostly takes that much courage because the person knows 9/10 people won’t share or engage with their art no matter how strong of a connection they have. Be that 1/10 who shares and engages. Songs are like 3 minutes long. That’s 3 minutes you can spend connecting with a friend.
I triple doggy dare you to try and find some weird music without the help of the Algorithm! Happy hunting!
