How Do You Discover Smaller Artists?

[eltoch]

Hey! Something I've always struggled with (but always been excited to do) is discovering smaller artists that I can really enjoy. There are obviously many features on Spotify that make this easier, but what other ways do you find these less well-known artists? Where do you go/which forums do you visit to help you discover?

[Jpgchief]

Hi @eltoch are you asking for the million dollar  question? LOL well you can see this thread with around 1K artist like you´re talking about Less Than 1,000 Followers

Where do I find them? Well sometime they reach me out, also I find them in my release radar or Instagram or Twitter and obviously here in the community.

Cheers!!!

[Emilia_8]

Hi, 

I'd love to hear some ideas too!

I honestly can't remember when was the last time I used other source to find new music other than Spotify. I really enjoy Discover Weekly, it recommends smaller artists as well, so I think it's great. And to find even more artists I like, I just open the "fans also like" page. I listen to those and do the same thing. 

Sometimes there's a YouTube recommendation or Instagram ad with a song that I enjoy, but it's actually more common that it will be something I don't really like that much.

So I mainly relay on Spotify, since the algorithm is great! Especially if you've been using it for a while. 

[AdamDamon]

I often check the “Discovered On” playlists for artists that I like on Spotify, which sometimes have really good lesser-known artists of the same genre. Sometimes Spotify also presents lesser-known artists of the genres I listen to in the “Discover” section (“Top recommendations for you” or “Similar to ____ (artist that I already listen to)”).

Other than Spotify, I follow a few people on Last.fm with similar musical taste to myself, and I check their profiles often to see what bands they’re listening to (“scrobbling”); sometimes there are artists that I haven’t listened to myself, so I click on them to see if their genre tags sound interesting and then search for them on Spotify to listen if so. I think I’ve found a lot of bands through Last.fm that I wouldn’t otherwise have known about just using Spotify, and I also find it helpful to keep track of how much I’ve listened to each artist in my library.

I also occasionally check a blog/music review website called The Obelisk that specializes in “heavy” music: mostly stoner rock, heavy psych, etc. since I tend to enjoy these genres, and they often review lesser-known bands, which seems like good publicity for them. Another similar one is called MoreFuzz.net, which I also check on occasion.

[scenedaddy]

Follow popular Facebook pages that do artist promotion. You'll notice some pages features artists that particularly align with your playlists. Hope this helps!

[om142747]

I think you might enjoy this (:

https://open.spotify.com/track/6RC924vW8DsOf2QneFKkNJ

[Sebasty]

Friends and others with awesome music tastes. I have found a LOT of very little-known music through Amon Tobin's mixes and preferences, for example.
Now that I am also managing a "Promoday - curated by Amon Tobin fans" playlist (was asked to...), that's another load of interesting music, which mostly falls underground.

Being a part of some group of music lovers (for a specific artist or just otherwise) and asking for music suggestions with a lovely tone, set preferences and maybe a picture of something they love will give you massive amounts of cool suggestions.

I follow a few labels that release music I really love. They have playlists of music they love on Spotify (updated regularly!) and they do post cool things on social media.

Algorithm-based suggestions are also pretty neat (talking about Spotify and last.fm) and I do check them out now and then.

As with everything, they all tend to be a hit and miss, but I can't love everything I hear. :')