Sometimes, you want more than your Weekly Discover playlist. Sometimes, you want to find music on your own the old-fashioned way of going to live shows, listening to the radio, or going through old records at a record store.
Whichever way you put it, the goal remains the same: discover new music (impress your friends with your impeccable music taste).
This is a favorite pastime of mine, considering I get tired of listening to the same songs quite frequently. But that might be because once I find a song I like, I will listen to it over and over again. Just ask my roommates who have to endure my never-ending humming.
The journey to music discovery never ends. To help all music lovers, I have compiled a list of resources to find new music.
Radio Garden
Radio Garden is a service that tears down the boundaries of radio stations. With this site, you no longer need to be in a specific country or state to listen to their local radio station. The website interface is three-dimensional geolocation where users can navigate throughout the virtual globe at the convenience of their mousepad. The radio stations are all live. All you have to do is press “play” and it navigates to broadcasts of local radio stations.
Here are two songs I discovered from the site:
- Lucifer by Charles Barkley
- The Archaic Lonely Star Blues by Gal Costa
Oddly Specific Playlists – Instagram and Facebook
Facebook collected cookies from my phone and caught on to my hunt for music because one day an “oddly specific playlists” group suggestion popped up on my feed. And let me tell you, these playlists and this group are as odd as you might expect from the title. On the page, group members post their own odd playlists. Some examples have been “theatre songs where the characters are on the brink of having a mental breakdown,” and “songs that have weird dog noises in the background.” You will have to check them out to see the songs on there!
Some of my favorite posts have said:
(Looking for) Songs that contradict the name of the artist (Ex. “Awake” by Sleeping at Last)
It’s my housemates 21st so we need every possible version of September by Earth, Wind and Fire for the party playlist.
The account is also on Instagram @oddlyspecifcplaylists. On there they post the same thing, but in my opinion, it is a better visual resource than Facebook.
Here are two of my favorite playlists:
- Angry songs for angry girls. …don’t ask
- Songs that compare relationships to war …Okay, seriously, don’t ask.
*Oddly Specific Playlists, requires a request into the Facebook group, however, all are accepted. The Instagram account is public.*
College Radio Stations
College Radio Stations are a great way to discover and keep up with some up-and-coming artists. Some college radio stations have rules on the type of music they can play. For example, KVRX, a radio station at the University of Texas at Austin has a rule that student DJs can only play music from artists with under 250K monthly listeners. While this can be constricting for some DJs, it also provides the opportunity for musicians to share their music and get it on a radio station. Additionally, audience members are sure to find new bands and music to rave to their friends about.
Here are two songs I found from KVRX:
- The Leanover – Life Without Buildings
- Out to Dry – Mexico City Blondes
Visit this site for a list of the top college radio stations.
All services are free and available on both online and mobile devices.
