this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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I know the question is rather awkward at first and I am possibly overlooking something, but I would like to know something I really don't understand.

In the past I have used modified versions of Spotify and they are fine but obviously no modified version allows you to download songs because it is a premium function at server level and honestly I would like to have my songs on my device, so if I don't have internet I can still listen to them.

After those modified versions of Spotify, I have used apps like ViMusic, Spotube and SimpMusic which are basically Youtube Music apps but without ads and with more features, including downloading music, the problem is that they do that at the level of the app itself, not in a separate file. And I love these apps and I can not recommend them enough but my phone is a little old and I see 0 need to change it since I use it for basics usage and although this can sound dumb the interface of these apps are full of blur and unnecessary effects that make my device slow, including Spotify, and I don't like Spotify Lite because I feel it is a very trimmed version of Spotify.

So this is where my question comes in, for those who exclusively download music, how do you discover new songs? Spotify's recommendation system is great and Youtube's radio mode is very good but obviously I need to use Spotify or Youtube Music to use it and I prefer to use light apps for local playback because of what I already mentioned.

Edit: Thanks for all the recommendations! I never thought this post would get so many answers and there are too many comments to answer one by one, but I admit that the old-school method of reading blogs or magazines works well, and I also like the idea of sites like Last.fm or discogs.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I usually get it from the YouTube algorithm, but I'll also check up on some labels every now and then and see what they got new. I also follow some individual artists.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I literally type "new music" into YouTube and see where it takes me.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I used to listen to the radio and record songs on my feature phone (mono 16k 4bit samples/s).

Now [email protected] and downloading using NewPipe (I don't care about quality).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I get most of my recommendations via Diaspora and Mastodon (2 social networks that are part of the fediverse). They allow you to follow hashtags, so I just follow the hashtags of the music I'm interested and see people's posts that are tagged with them

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I use the ReVanced version of YouTube Music (no ads, high quality music). If I find a song that I like, I download it in FLAC format from one of the sites in the megathread

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

InnerTune on Android recommends music

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I sometimes browse the KEXP live playlist to find new artists

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Today, I learned about clown core.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I use Rate Your Music but I use it in a very peculiar way. Most of my listening is from scrolling through Latest Reviews for something that stands out and listening to it.

The second most common way I use RYM is to go to the page of an album I think is really special and click on user made lists that album is a part of and scroll through for things that look interesting.

The third way is when I notice I've liked a few things from a specific scene I like to go to the page for the record label that often represents artists from that scene. Currently I'm exploring Dischord Records.

Fourth, is if a genre is obscure or specific enough I will look at the charts for that genre. This is most common with electronic music, because it's so heavily taxonomized. Take for example Purple Sound which only has a couple hundred releases associated with it.

This definitely isn't how I recommend everyone find new music. But I do recommend freeing yourself from an algorithm and forging your own path. I find that algorithms often funnel a person into some kind of local maximum where most music presented is palatable but the chance to discover something revolutionary to their tastes decreases immensely, and to me that's just a bummer.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I mainly listen to Japanese doujin music. It's naturally good for discovery because many artists group together to form circles (independent labels) and release compilation albuns. I listen to the various annual compilation series I like, and every now and then there will be a new artist featuring on them so I'll look up that artist and discover circles they feature on regularly. And when I discover a new circle, I naturally discover new compilation series and new artists.

The primary piracy resource for doujin music is Doujinstyle. One of the unique things about the doujin scene is that the pirates and the artists generally have a fairly good relationship. Most circles let Doujinstyle share their music because they understand it benefits them, and the minority who don't submit requests to Doujinstyle who will always comply out of respect. As an alternative, these circles allow their music to be shared in the Doujinstyle Discord channels. Some of the artists even hang out in the Discord with the pirates. It's a really interesting community that has formed over decades but never lost its tightknit feel.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Talking to people

Youtube

Listenbrainz (or other scrobbling service)

Subscribing to communities of the genre of music you like

Music-map.com

Following artists you like on social media

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Most music I have is from "Pay what you want" albums from Ponies@Dawn, VibePoniez, A State Of Sugar, etc.
When I come across artists I like, I tend to check out their other tracks and grab the ones I like.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Spotify APK with no ads and premium features. I then pirate what I like

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

When you say premium features, which exactly? I imagine you're referring to the xManager patched Spotify, which I also use, but it's not really premium. Ads cut out and can play an album without shuffle. But can't choose audio quality, download, etc

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Pretty similar to that yeah. No downloads, and I don't think it saves any changes made to audio quality in the settings.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

im sad I got kicked off some private trackers for inactivity after streaming picked up 😮‍💨

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Check out new songs from youtube, spotify, music sites and later download them and store them locally as 256 or 320 kbps mp3 files. I used to be a fan of billboard Top 100, but nowadays it's just crap. Occasionally I do purchase from the artist's site if available just to support them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I don't anymore, now that I use Spotify. But when I did, it was YouTube recommendations to find new music and then torrent the whole discography to find the ones I liked

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

RIP rs.4chan.org, which compiled every RapidShare and MediaFire link on any board. You could scroll through and snag anything that sounded remotely interesting.

[–] Blxter 2 points 1 year ago

I am new to the music game but I still use the "discovery weeky" on Spotify and go from there as I used to use Spotify so it knows what I like. I just listen to it once or twice a week to see if I like any of it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

plus melon usually has pretty good political takes, so seconding https://www.youtube.com/@theneedledrop

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

... the guy who promoted Sargon Of Akkad and Sam Hyde?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

You can like scrape the data from Spotify Playlists and yt music and like a regularly updated local copy of that..

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

which channel/server is active and good for this sorta stuff?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I used to be on dalnet's metal channel. Guessing there are active channels somewhere. Now I actually use my work slack.

My broader point is that you need a community, not a tool.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

YouTube suggested playlist

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Usually I look to my private trackers top 10 of the day/week.

Rarely does something new slip by me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

youtube: charts 2023, played with --no-video.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago
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