Finding new Music for some is an arduous and often fruitless task, many give up and listen to the same old CD collection or the same old stagnant playlist day-in and day-out.
Something’s got to change!
“I’m going to show you how to use the RAD (Research Audition Download) technique to find fresh music week-in and week-out for the rest of your lives.
The premise is simple: you have a bunch of trusted Research sources where you can find out about new bands, DJ’s and soloists. You Audition their music using free audio sources and music video’s. Then if you like what they do, you find a place to Download or Purchase more of their music.
What You’ll Need to Get Started:
To start with you need a way to keep track of the new music you’re discovering. I like to use the super-simple Ta-da lists to get started (Sign up for a free account here).
Research New Music
Last.fm
The easiest way to get started is to type in the name of a band that you already like and let last.fm recommend new Artist’s you might enjoy.
Facebook Friend Pages
Facebook lets you set your current favourite music, the obvious idea is to check out what your friends are listening to and if there’s anything you’ve not heard before write it in your list.
Amazon
Just use the main search engine to find an album you already own (and like) and let Amazon recommend similar artists.
MySpace Friends (It’s not what you think!)
Go to your favourite bands’ MySpace page (virtually everyone has one these days) and check out what other bands they’re friends with.
Researching Record Labels
What record labels’ are your favourite musicians signed to? Chances are the record label has a certain calibre of musician signed to it, find out who else they have on board.
Who do your Favorite Bands/DJ’s play with?
Find out when (and where) your favourite musicians are touring. Who’s opening for them (or, who are they opening for)? They’ll usually have a similar sound to the other acts.
Internet Radio and PodCasting
Find Radio Stations and PodCasts that broadcast the kind of genre’s you’re into. It’s a great way to constantly find new music IF you can find a broadcaster that aligns with your tastes.
Audition New Music
There are a lot of services out there that let you listen to audio clips from musicians. I’m going to run through a few of my favourite.
Last.fm
There are a couple of ways to Audition music on Last.fm. Firstly you can listen to a “Radio Station” which plays songs similar to the Artist you’ve searched for, and secondly you can listen to specific clips from an individual Artist.
MySpace.com
Most musicians on MySpace have music you can listen to.
Hypem.com
Hypem is a search engine that crawls blogs that have MP3’s in their content. The Hypem search engine let’s you play the MP3 without ever having to visit the original blog. However, if you like what you’re listening to, it’s worth going to the original blog and having a look at what they’re all about, you never know what you’ll find.
Official Websites
Just search for the musicians’ official website
YouTube.com
If they’ve got a music video, played live recently, or are semi-famous; they’re bound to be on YouTube.
Internet Radio
Yep, this is a biggie. I recommend using something like StreamRipper. Download a feed from an Internet Radio station that’s broadcasting the kind of music you like, then sift through it afterwards to find the nuggets.
Download (or Purchase)
Go to the musicians website, or iTunes, or Amazon, or your local record store and find out how you can buy their music.
Music is a great investment and the money (almost always) goes toward helping your favourite musicians make more music and exploring their creativity.
I hope this has given you some more ideas on how to find new music. If you know of a website or service I haven’t mentioned, let me know in the comments below.
Filed in Music | Tags: mp3 download, Music, similar artists
