r/Music • u/no_longer_huhmann • 1d ago

article Hayley Williams Urges Sold-Out Crowd to Support Independent Music: “Go to Little Shows at Independent Venues. Find Your People, Find Your Favorite Music, and Support That.”

https://www.tvfandomlounge.com/hayley-williams-support-independent-music/
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u/duckhunt420 1d ago

It takes a lot of time and effort to seek out fresh, niche music. 

I used to dedicate hours a day to finding new bands, listening to music, hunting down what song was playing from some movie or show before this stuff was all ready available online. 

Now I just take whatever Spotify shovels my way because I'm tired and busy :(

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u/decrpt 1d ago

Now I just take whatever Spotify shovels my way because I'm tired and busy :(

You say this, but my liked songs playlist had 4000+ songs mostly from niche artists because of Spotify. The Discover Weekly playlists are unironically good for discovering new music, especially with the new things they added recently to specifically show you new artists.

I've added like four new artists this week alone with average listener counts of like 10 to 20k a month.

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u/alienbanter 1d ago

Seconding this. I've been to like 4 shows in the past month at small venues with <$35 tickets for touring independent artists Spotify introduced me to over the years

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u/zaccus 1d ago

Just show up to random shows at local venues on a regular basis. A lot of them have free nights. Beer is good. Doesn't take that much effort.

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u/randomdestructn 1d ago

then make some friends and they'll tell you about other bands and invite you to shows

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u/hydrangeasinbloom 1d ago

And if you’re lucky they’re in bands and you can make lifelong friends right within your local music scene and constantly learn about new side projects and go travel and stuff!

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u/goatfuckersupreme 1d ago

and talk... to people?!?!

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u/duckhunt420 1d ago

Going to see shows on a regular basis would mean I'm not tired or busy. 

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u/zaccus 1d ago

Who among us is not tired and busy? Everyone is tired and busy man.

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u/BL4ZE_ 1d ago

I just follow a bunch of local promoters and when I feel like going out I check whats playing tonight. Of course where I live there's dozens of small venues, so your mileage may vary in different cities.

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u/who-hash 1d ago

I hear you. Old dude here that used to spend lots of time going to indie stores and talking to the employees.

Just don't have the time for that now since my old record store is over an hour away but I discover all sorts of new music via Bandcamp along with new releases from my old favs.

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u/giant2179 1d ago

Listen to kexp.org. independent Seattle station constantly playing good new stuff

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u/duckhunt420 21h ago

Ah I do love kexp! They record such good live performances 

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u/ComplicatedSyrup 1d ago

I also think Spotify’s algorithm is actually pretty good for finding new artists, and I say this as a pretty obscure band who plays with other pretty obscure bands. The “fans also like” section is great and usually has similarly-sized artists.

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u/PrimeIntellect 1d ago

I mean a lot of fresh stuff isn't even online, you just gotta go to the venues even if you've barely heard of them

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u/psidhumid 1d ago

Hot take it’s very easy actually. Everybody likes to hate on Spotify’s algorithm but once you start listening to an actual new band or artists with even 5 mil or less monthly listeners the autoplay plays songs that are also from other unknown bands.

Then “radio” for those songs or artists are filled with new songs.

It even has a non-personalized version that works not taking into account your listening history.

It’s easy and more people should try it

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u/no_longer_huhmann 1d ago

Does Spotify shovel good music your way anymore though? I find you get a lot of pop songs that these celebs pay for and often even AI slop gets in the Top 50 Discovery charts

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u/zaccus 1d ago

Find one local artist you like, follow them on insta, look at who they follow and who they share bills with, go down the rabbit hole

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u/Phoenix_Rising42069 1d ago

I’m an Apple Music guy, and they have an “infinity mode” that once the album you were listening to is finished, they start playing music in that same vein. I’ve discovered a few new artists that way.

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u/Actual-Feed-9739 1d ago

It sounds good in theory but my god I wish they'd stop turning that shit on automatically. I absolutely hate it when I'm vibing to the end of an album thay has like a powerful outro or a good fade out, only to launch right into something nuts with blast beats or something.

I want to sit with the ending of the album for a moment, I don't need you to force feed me another song.

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u/Phoenix_Rising42069 1d ago

I’ve yet to have it turned on automatically, when I turn it off it stays off. 🤷‍♂️

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u/Actual-Feed-9739 1d ago

iPhone user? I'm on android and apple hates us so that might be why lol

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u/Phoenix_Rising42069 1d ago

Indeed I am, and that’s a fair guess as to why. Only issue I have with it is it sometimes gets turned off when I didn’t want it to.

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u/blackbasset 16h ago

If only there was a way to do this

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u/duckhunt420 1d ago

I wouldn't have said "shovel" if it was good lol

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u/luneth27 1d ago

Does Spotify shovel good music your way anymore though? I find you get a lot of pop songs that these celebs pay for and often even AI slop gets in the Top 50 Discovery charts

Unironically I still pay for premium specifically because of spotify's rec engine. I easily find a dozen new bands whenever I look to find something new in the subgenre I'm looking for. I've found niche Ukrainian black metal like Kekht Arakh/Balance Interruption, I've found breakcore like Christoph de Babalon/Xanopticon/cast heal, spotify's always finding me new slamming beatdown to spin, hell I even realized there's a ton of rap I like that just isn't radio rap like glxtch/Kenny Segal/Curly Castro and a buncha other shit that if I enumerated we'd be here all day.

It's super strong, you just gotta break out of the 1m+ listener shit.

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u/decrpt 1d ago

Do not us top lists or curated lists. Use the Discover playlists every Monday and Friday. It is tailored to your tastes and, at least for me, usually helps me discover at least one new artist or song a week that I like.

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u/goodpiano276 1d ago

I tend to stay away from any playlists based on algorithms though; I'm always afraid it's going to feed me some Ai bullshit.

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u/ox_ 1d ago

As evil as Spotify is, I've discovered literally hundreds of great smaller artists through there that I've gone on to watch live in all kinds of venues.

The key is finding a good start point. Once you've found a new band you like, you can bounce around artist radio and all that good stuff.

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u/GotSomeUpdogOnUrFace 1d ago

Pandora has a station modifier where you can input some bands you like and then turn in discovery mode for new bands. Works well for me.

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u/SkiingAway 17h ago

Like every algorithm-driven service: It depends on how conscious you are about what your behavior on it is going to do for your future recommendations. (And also how well you understand how to use it's various functions).

If you're aggressive about banning/blocking anything you don't like and make a point of not engaging with the type of content you don't want more of, you can get decent results.

If you just hit play on your "Release Radar" and hear some shit song you hate - and wind up listening to it 4x more this week because you play through that playlist again 4 more times this week - that kind of thing makes your recommendations worse. If you'd banned it from the playlist a minute into the first listen and never listened to that song again, you'd be better off.

tl;dr - you have to be an active listener, not just letting crap you don't like play.

Separately: Spotify has a bunch of functions I think people under-recognize. A lot of artists put up their own playlists (under "artist playlists" on their artist page) of stuff they like. The "fans also like" on the artist pages is also helpful. I find a good chunk of new to me music by just clicking on random artists I've been liking recently and seeing what else they recommend or that people who like them listen to. Works especially well in more niche areas.

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u/GreedyRaisin3357 1d ago

go back to your usual discovery.. don't let Spotify steer you

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u/ta20240930 1d ago

It's a little easier if you know what genres you like. I love heavy music (extreme metal, hardcore, etc.). If a band from one of these genres is coming to one of the local venues, I go even if I haven't listened to them before. It helps that certain venues usually have certain genres. It's rare that I'm disappointed, especially if it is a band on a national tour and has at least 1 EP.