“Making a Habit of Finding Great Music” as An Alternative To “Music Streaming Services”
We might live in a golden age for music listening: we’ve witnessed the digitalization of past production, and contemporary music is exciting, exploring new paths while also seeing some artists sticking to genres and traditions that are dear to them. We have old and new, avant-garde and keepers of the flame, and most of it is accessible. I don’t think it’s the streaming era we’ve been entering that provides this accessibility. On the contrary, I’m always surprised when someone says “Spotify/Deezer has almost everything”. It’s not true : Spotify, as is Netflix for movies, is a vast catalogue of everything but is far from storing everything. With art and culture “everything” is a lie: any art form is always expending in new territories independently of the main media and broadcasters. Spotify is part of the new mainstream and some people might prefer interacting with music in a more open information architecture.
Here, I’m sharing my own “information architecture” for making it a habit of finding great music, meaning music that matters to you and that expends your tastes. It’s not definite and it’s quite “obvious”, but it’s a good start to truly enjoy this “golden age for music listening”. It’s a “music-curious” approach, but while in the past real “music-lovers” needed sometimes months to figure out where one specific record was available, Internet has made things much simpler.
Note that I’m mentioning both legal and illegal sources and services, and of course remember that in the end rewarding artists truly matters. That’s why I’m also providing a list of what I find are the best online music stores, for both digital and physical formats. I believe that in the end a “music-curious” approach will always lead to buying music.
Bandcamp — Listen and Buy From the Source
Bandcamp was launched in 2007 as a platform to “discover amazing music and directly support the artists who make it”. The service delivers what the baseline promises. With its clean design and streaming integration, Bandcamp makes things very easy for artists to share and sell their music. As a user you will have to pick who you want to follow and will then receive updates when new music is released. Most of the labels and artists on Bandcamp let you stream entire releases. You can buy the music you like in the format chosen by the label/artist, wether it’s vinyl and cassette or lossless digital files. The deal here is that Bandcamp, as the only intermediary between producers and listeners, takes a relatively small cut (15%). Buying on Bandcamp means you are really funding artists you like. If you’ve always wanted to contribute to the rent of a great music maker, start with Bandcamp.
Youtube — Stream An Open World
To put it simply: Youtube is the best music streaming platform. The main reason is that it’s open and quite the Far-West legally. It’s free and as anyone can upload content you will find a very diverse catalogue in constant evolution. Youtube has of course all the million-views commercial successes but delve a little bit and you’ll spot the rare and the obscure. Youtube also offers some extremely well curated users playlists and its social features makes it a lively online space.
Soundcloud — Build Your Feeds
Think of Soundcloud as a Twitter for music producers and djs. If you’re not familiar with Twitter, think of Soundcloud as a Facebook-like timeline dedicated to music (there’s also radio talkshows, music-related or not). You follow artists, labels, radio shows, your friends, and your timeline is updated when they share something. You also build your own feed by liking and reposting tracks you like, and you can make playlist. It works well and has proven very popular with artists from all over the world.
Twitter — Get The News
Tweets can embed Youtube videos and Soundcloud tracks so it’s no surprise Twitter can be a great source for finding music. One way to tame the bird is to create music-related lists including users you trust, wether it’s artists, music shops or curators. When you’re feeds are “on point” you’ll be surprised of the quality of the information that will be pushed to you.
Soulseek — Download Material
We’re in muddy waters with Soulseek, a download software also known as “the Napster that still stands strong”. Almost all the music available on this classic peer to peer network is shared illegally. And there is a lot of music available. Soulseek is a “communist software” and it’s a gold-mine. The philosophy is “my hard drive is you hard drive” so start sharing your music and dig deep in thousands of music collections, sometimes extremely well curated and organized. Unlike other communities like the elitist What.cd, Soulseek is an open platform: once you’ve installed the software you login with a stupid nickname and you’re good to go.
DatPiff — Browse Mixtapes
DatPiff will particularly appeal to those who want to know what’s trending in the realm of American hip-hop. It’s the leading online space for free mixtapes with both headliners and newcomers releasing stuff on it. It’s quite a niche website with mostly exclusive material. If you dare to explore, it’s a whole universe that you will not find on any streaming services.
Discogs — Dig The Data
Discogs is the Wikipedia for music. It helps make connections between artists, genres and records, and it provides a lot of crowd-sourced informations. Discogs is also a marketplace gathering thousands of sellers. It’s were you’ll be going to get this hard to find CD or 12 inches.
A Selection of Online Music Stores
There are a lot of online music stores, usually specialized, so the best is trying to find one you trust. Some shops are great curators, some are more like infinite shelves stuffed with as many records as possible. Every decent online music store will let you stream tracks, but usually only snippets. AND every decent music store will sell you DRM-free files. Following is a list of stores I’m familiar with but there’s dozens more, from the obvious Itunes Store to the website of your street corner record store. Also remember Bandcamp and Discogs are great place to buy music.
https://boomkat.com/ (digital + physical)
Boomkat (UK) is quite generalist but definitely with an “elitist” focus; what they promote is not for everyone but as a whole the catalogue is quite deep and diverse. Expect folk, dub, progressive rock, jazz, disco and the usual suspects when it comes to electronic music: techno, house and electro.
http://www.phonicarecords.com/ (physical)
Phonica (UK) is a vinyl-only store targeting djs. It stocks a very well-curated selection of records, leaning more towards “good” disco, house and techno. If you’ve ever wondered how “good disco, house and techno” sounds I’d recommend starting from their catalogue.
http://www.juno.co.uk/ (digital + physical)
Juno (UK) is big. Don’t expect feeling like in a cosy record store but expect to find a lot in both digital and physical formats.
https://bleep.com/ (digital + physical)
Bleep curates records in many genres including hip-hop, punk, rock, techno, house, ambient, etc. It’s a well designed website with nice editorial content.