Finding music we like... - Page 3

neat, but not as pretty as liveplasma music, movies, search engine and discovery engine

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I use some reviews as well, but to a lesser extent.

Here is what I do.

1. Go to a brick and mortar store and just pick random CD's to listen to. I have found many a great recording doing this. It's fun and never gets old for me. Now...actually finding a store that carries music to listen to is a bit harder now but that never stops me.

2. Pandora! I pick the artists I love and see and hear the recommendation pop in. Have found many a new artist like this as well.

3. Forums! I belong to at least 6 forums I visit regularly and all of them have different aims and tastes. Due to the diversity of the online community on various forums, you will find interesting recommendations on other forums as well.

4. Other countries! This ties into no. 3 as well. I have friends all over the world and I often ask them what is popular over there. I'm always surprised by what I get to hear from them. Independent artists in other countries are a real, real treat. I am listening to a girl from the UK who has an enchanting voice and simply great music and few people have heard her!

5. Your community! This also includes Independent artists around town. Have you been to your local library and seen what they have in their CD collection? How about your local independent coffee bar? I have found real gems in my local library including CD's that are OOP and worth $200 or more. I always return them and find more waiting for me. At coffee bars I will often encounter a good band or at the very least - something good the employees are playing. Have you guys heard Har Mar Superstar? I hadn't until he played locally! His music and persona are just awesome!

See if that works for you. It always has for me.

LFF, nice way of finding music. I sometimes exhaust myself with research for I hate it when an album has too much filler. Record fairs are terrible in that respect because treasure is there for the taking.

It's really tough for me to find music I find worthy of buying. I have an extremely narrow music taste.

I find music maps and stuff like last.fm only show you what people who like a certain band listen to as well. Not necessarily categorize them by whether they're similar or not. Sometimes it works.

If you into metal music I suggest hitting up the Metal-Archives forum. There are some extremely dedicated listeners on that forum.

One time I did the "judge a book by it's cover" approach, where I bought the album because I thought the album art and song titles looked interesting to me.

I was actually pleased with what I bought, but haven't tried it since.

Kansas?

Generally, curiosity kills the cat for me. I'll find a band I enjoy usually through other bands. (For instance, one band thanks another band in the liner notes for an album, I check out said band who was thanked, etc.) Plus, it seems like a lot of bands I listen share some members over time, so the lines begin to blur.

I'll also search by record labels; I've found that this is generally a tedious thing sometimes, as labels have both brilliant and awful artists. But it's a good way to find out what record labels are really about.

I'm also a subscriber to the Zune Pass, so I'm always getting recommended new stuff to listen to. Last.fm is pretty rockin' too.