How to: find new music on Spotify

Before getting into picking your festivals and all the fun conversations about logistics, trends and such, I think it’s important to talk about finding music you like! Most people know what they like, but music taste is ever-changing and evolving for someone like me.

Even a year ago, my music taste was in a completely different place than it is today. While I always liked electronic music (and shared that with my dad!), it had not been my primary genre. I did always enjoy music that was a little “funkier” than what my friends liked, though. I was always into the mainstream radio-hits, top artists, pop, rap, R&B before, now, those are more the exceptions than the rule. I promise, I am not trying to knock anybody’s tastes. Most of the biggest artists today are big for a reason, and really talented! But with a little searching, I was able to find a space in music that felt much more interesting and consuming than anything else had ever been. To put it explicitly, I am way obsessed with electronic music and have really been digging into, exploring and discovering a multitude of different subgenres within it - I reached a place I didn’t even know existed for me obsession-wise.

Alright, now that my mini rant is out of the way, let’s talk about how I got here, and how you can discover new, exciting and maybe unexpected music genres too (according to your own tastes, of course)! 
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Platform

I know there are plenty of Apple Music fans out there, but I am a very dedicated Spotify user. Personally, I think Spotify is the superior platform for people who are actually interested in discovering new music and learning about the artists/groups you’re listening to. Spotify is not only filled with hundreds of professionally curated playlists, but it also includes almost-limitless personalized listening experiences, collaborative playlist options, and full artist profiles (some artists don’t add a personal bio, which is a bummer, but the majority do!) Now, the following recommendations will be mostly geared towards my fellow Spotify users. If you don’t use Spotify, hopefully you can still apply some of these ideas to whichever platform you do use, or maybe you’ll even be inspired to give Spotify a chance! (never a sponsored post but I share what I like!)

Getting started

Like I said, there are thousands of playlists available on Spotify, some created by the company itself and others curated by major playlisters (yes, those exist!). While these types of lists are fun and I do explore them sometimes, my favorite place to go is the “Made For You” section on the search page. Within that, you’ll find a handful of categories, namely your genre, artist, and daily mixes. All of these get updated daily, so while you can always count on knowing some songs, there’s usually always something new to find with similar features!

The genre mixes are pretty straightforward; if there’s one genre you know you love, the mix will include a combination of songs you already know/have liked and a number of new ones, often by artists you’re unfamiliar with too but which have characteristics you may like.

​The artist mixes are some of my favorites. It doesn’t restrict you to a certain genre, but instead compiles a list of songs both by the artist named on the mix and other artists that create similar music. If your favorite artist makes genre-bending music, this is a good way to find similar sounds without knowing what to call it! (My #1 favorite artist of all time is Flume! His sound might be harder to define sometimes, but his artist mix is one of my most played, most reliable playlists to find music I’d enjoy!)

If neither of those categories suits you, the daily mixes are definitely one of the best parts of Spotify as a whole. Everybody gets 6 daily mixes; these are kind of a combination of the genre and artist mixes. They aren’t categorized by anything other than an artists’ cover image and a sample of artist names in the playlist descriptions (the first of which matches the picture). Using my current Daily Mix 3 as an example, the cover image is of RÜFÜS DU SOL, with the description also including Flume and Chet Faker. As such, this mix includes music by those three artists, as well as related music between the three of them (Hermitude, Flight Facilities, Bob Moses, etc). I can imagine those names are not majorly known in mainstream channels, but using this mix I have discovered those and many other unknown artists (while also knowing they will mesh well with the others I already did know!) While they are uncategorized, the mixes do a pretty good job of differentiating themselves from each other; there’s little crossover, and each is usually a different genre/subgenre from the next.

Share the fun

If you enjoy sharing music with your friends, Spotify also has a “blend” playlists now too that will generate a combination of songs you and your friends have both liked and related songs that either only you or they have liked. This feature seems to still be in workshop, though, as it sometimes gets it wrong about which songs you actually have liked or not. This is also at the top of the “Made For You” page.

Meet the artists

The artist profiles also hold a lot of value. They always have a “top five songs” list, ten if you’re on your desktop. There are also other options, like a “featuring” list, including an artist radio (similar to the artist mix), a “this is -” essential playlist for bigger artists, made by Spotify, as well as all of the official Spotify playlists their music can be found on. Below that there is a list of what the artist’s fans also like, artist playlists, and a full list of other artists’ albums that they have “appeared on”. That last one is especially fun to find artist collaborations you didn’t know about! At the bottom they have the “about” section, which can include any artist pictures and bio added by the artist’s team, and an “on tour” and merch section. The on tour section shows any upcoming shows the artist will be at, including both concerts and festival appearances.

Try new music - you may be surprised!

These Spotify features are great to find new stuff, and if you go down the “rabbit hole” like I do, you will find yourself opening doors to completely new music worlds (both with subgenres, but also with artists that work together frequently!) I used to really struggle with finding new music, and as with everyone, I’m not always in the mood to randomly try new things. However, if you’re looking for the best way to expand your music universe, Spotify can be a great platform. It’s the easiest way to navigate the kind of music you’re searching for, and as with the “rabbit hole” concept, you often can discover new music through connection/collaboration with artists you already know and love.

There are other great ways to find music, like listening to new artists at festivals, but I’m interested to hear what works for you! Let me know how you explore and find new sounds! I hope I have given you a few ideas here too!