Pull a random record out of the 1,000 or so I have and let it rip.

Unless I have something specific in mind of course.

1. A lot of music I find anymore comes from me either finding a CD at a thrift store or a second hand local record shop that has tons of CDs. Has to look good to me at the moment.
2. The algorithm that I tend to hate on yt has also brought me some random songs that I ended up listening to that I like. There ain’t no way I would have naturally found a certain furry song I really like, considering it’s all in Vietnamese, without the evil algorithm. Last I checked, I never talk about Vietnam unless they’re in the news that very rare time where I live, don’t know the language, etc. So the algorithm just pulled that my furry account must want it because furry.
3. If I like a song from someone, mainly referring to things like vocaloid and utau type songs, there’s a good chance I will eventually check out other songs from that person. VocaDB is pretty good for that if they don’t have a yt page considering even if they don’t have one, somebody else has probably already uploaded it to yt at some point. I can just look at a certain producers page and hope their song list is up to date or complete in the case of people who ain’t making vocaloid/utau/whatever music anymore.
4. Back on the topic of vocaloid/utau, I tend to be more likely to check out a song in the suggestion section of yt when listening to a song of this genre. Has found me some good songs.
5. Okay, final thing about vocaloid. I have found a few different songs I’ve never heard of that I end up really liking thanks to the Project Diva series and back when I played the Project Sekai mobile game. So checking licensed rhythm games is always a good option, I guess.

I do everything you say.

I also listen to podcasts and follow blogs which recommend me music.

Sometimes i listen to the radio too, or shazam music i hear in public.

Yes. All except search by genre.

I listen to community radio, look at music related websites, let the music app dj, sometimes my kids show me music or vice versa, and opening acts at shows.

Loaded question! When i was younger I had a list of stuff i wanted to try like classic rock which moved to other more obscure genres from the past while also keeping up with what was newer and semi popular through websites, articles, and local radio.

I have always gotten most music off my private pirate sites and use local apps to stream my entire library on my phone, pc, or anything else everywhere. It has gotten so good lately that it can build out radio style mixes based off popular track information and even using AI (first time i have ever thought it was useful) to build playlists of similar tracks in the library based off individual wave lengths to get the best accuracy. I tried using spotify once when i got 6 months free and found that i only used it like 3 times and found it more dificult to find what i wanted or new stuff to check out weirdly enough. These days i mostly just download whats new for artists i already know and see them in the top 10 of my pirate sites or just new stuff in the top 10 that fits the genres i like. At the end of the year ill check out top 50 lists to see if i missed anything and ill get them as well. Its worked out pretty good for the past 20 years now although as i get older it gets harder to find the time or interest in it like I used to…

It either depends on my mood, or if I have to focus on something.

As far as focusing on an activity, if it’s something that does not require a lot of thought, such as the audits I do at work every day, I’ll pretty much listen to anything. If I need to actually focus and think, then I’ll put on classical music, in particular Debussy, or Mozart.

There is an in between where I need to focus, but I have already figured whatever I’m working on out and just need to become adept at doing it. In that case I will listen to Rush for the most part. I’m not sure what it is about their music, but it engages me enough that I’m not bored doing something repetitive, but also allows my brain to quickly jump back to the task at hand when needed, then jump back to listening to the music. No other band works for me in that way. It’s really weird and I’ve spoken with multiple psychologists and other mental health professionals as to why. None had a clue, other than one speculated that their precision playing is the reason.

90% of the time I know what I want to listen to.

The other 10% of the time I will listen to new things I’ve squirreled away in my personal listening queue, because the art was interesting, I’ve heard good things, or I randomly heard a song I like. Sometimes recommendations from friends will make it into that queue.

Random mixes, not usually. I’m far too picky. But there are niche subgenre mixes that can be good.

i have hard time understanding the case here, how is that you don’t know the TYPE of music you like? I can see that you might ask for suggestions for a given music style, but the type? I don’t get it

For my normal background playback I apply a random track shuffle across my entire library, with a delay on repeating each track by a month for each iteration of its play count.

If a track has not been played before, can be included in the list immediately.

If a track has been played 6 times, it can be included once 6 months have passed since its last play.

For anyone in here enjoying radio, but not commercials or radio hosts, try out

soma.fm

It has a ton of channels and genres and is entirely free (donation funded).

Usually I’ve got a specific itch I’m trying to scratch, and often that itch is “novelty”. So I’ll pick a song I like and listen to other things by the same artist. Or listen to community radio. Or ask friends what new music they found recently.

One thing I started doing that I really like is asking peeps to give me mix CDs or handmade playlists instead of buying gifts for my birthday and Christmas.

There’s frankly far too much good music for me to even process.

I have a signal group called ‘music’ where friends post music, that alone would cover most of my needs.

I tend to either listen to albums or shuffle my whole library but like a bit of internet radio too.

I spent maybe 2yrs trying to deal with the cluterfuck of Spotify and it’s algorithms…kill it with fire. I have to deal with it at parties n stuff but helps me appreciate it’s not just my algorithm, those that love it and have been honing it for many years are being fed the same shite that came out of mine.

The idea that someone is struggling to find music that has an internet just seems insane to me, like saying how do you find porn, news or cat pics with computer.

• No.
• No.
• No.

I go by mood. This personality makes it so that it takes forever to discover music that I haven’t heard before.

mostly the first one, the vast majority of new music i listen to these days is recommended by someone. it’s either that or they’re doing a show or a festival with someone i already listen to. a distant third is the radio, especially after a move

if it’s a new-to-me artist, then i’ll drill down into their back catalog, but that’s only after the recommendation. if it’s a new-to-me genre then i do a lot more independant research but that’s fairly rare these days because i’ve already plucked all the low-hanging fruit.

even before The Algorithm became the mighty spectre it is today, i’ve never been happy with random or algorithmic feeds. Pandora for example would always play songs and artists with the superficial connections to the artist i build the channel off of instead of actually similar-sounding artists. and the same ok-at-best cover of The Guess Who’s “American Woman” every five or so songs, not sure what was up with that. i tried Spotify as an alternative years before it was the mighty spectre it is today and i remember logging out after the third song and never logging back in