{"id":11204,"date":"2022-09-15T19:26:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-15T23:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?p=11204"},"modified":"2026-01-14T15:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T20:16:15","slug":"tools-music-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/tools-music-discovery\/","title":{"rendered":"11 music discovery tools and websites (and other resources)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Illustration:<\/strong> George Wylesol<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking to dive outside your algorithmic bubble for music discovery?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, many of us have naturally become reliant on the well-designed algorithms of Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, YouTube, etc. for music discovery. While these are all certainly powerful and can lead to great finds, algorithms alone don\u2019t capture your nuanced taste and curiosity. And even if you keep up with new releases and charts, the albums with the biggest marketing budgets bubble to the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can be not only highly satisfying but also incredibly fun to venture beyond these go-to sources, dig deeper, and feel like a true curator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Circa 2013 – 2014, there was a golden age of music discovery tools and sites. That\u2019s before streaming platforms added curated and personalized playlists. Although most of those have shut down, some great ones still exist. In this article, we share 11 online tools that you can use to supplement your music discovery process. If you love crate-digging and reading liner notes, you\u2019ll dig these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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11 music discovery tools and websites<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1. Radiooooo.com<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m obsessed with Radiooooo<\/a>. The site is an interactive map for exploring the music of any region in the world through any decade, from ~1900 to now. I just listened to a stellar Tanzanian jazz song from the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You can filter options by ‘fast,’ ‘slow,’ and ‘weird.’ If you want to broaden your options, select shuffle mode. Taxi mode lets you select multiple countries and decades. Other interesting places to look are their curated playlists and community picks. And while you don’t have to, you can create an account to save songs, add songs to the database, and follow other curators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Lost World Radio<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Musician Monk Parker created Lost World Radio for us to get lost in vinyl cuts spanning genres and generations. There are fewer options to refine your search than Radiooooo, but that\u2019s a part of its charm. I suggest hitting play on a category of music you\u2019ve never explored before\u2014it\u2019s a joyous experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Every Noise at Once <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Every Noise at Once<\/a> presents thousands of musical genres plotted across the page in a seemingly random arrangement. However, these genres aren\u2019t so random. The scatter plot of the musical genre space is based on data tracked and analyzed for 4,322 genre-shaped distinctions from Spotify, updated daily. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The site says, \u201cThe calibration is fuzzy but in general, down is more organic, up is more mechanical and electric; left is denser and more atmospheric, right is spikier and bouncier.\u201d It was created by Glenn McDonald of The Echo Nest, a music data company acquired by Spotify. The site also provides three playlists for each country:<\/a> current, emerging, and underground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Bandcamp<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Bandcamp<\/a> is a place to buy songs and records with an excellent tagging system designed for music discovery. Try exploring unfamiliar genre tags, or check out artist recommendations at the bottom of their profile pages\u2014a feature that\u2019s reminiscent of Myspace\u2019s glory days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hand-select your own curators by following other users. I follow radio show DJs, record label people, music supervisors, etc. Subscribing to Bandcamp\u2019s expertly-curated blog<\/a> is another option. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music publicist Seth Werkheiser launched a fun YouTube series where he plays ‘Bandcamp Roulette’<\/a> with recently purchased albums from the Bandcamp homepage. If falling down tag rabbit holes isn\u2019t working for you, give it a try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A small bonus resource to check out is Buy Music Club,<\/a> which is a place for creating and browsing lists of independent music purchasable on Bandcamp. Anyone can make a list, but the site curates and shares their favorites on the homepage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Hype Machine<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m so happy Hype Machine<\/a> still exists. Founded in 2005, the website indexes hundreds of music sites and collects their latest posts for easy streaming and discovery. Users can favorite tracks, and those with the most votes chart on the site\u2019s Popular page. The team also collates the most-posted artists of the week and popular music videos. I highly suggest subscribing to their weekly Stack newsletter<\/a> where they share hand-picked tracks curated by the team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Last.fm <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Last.fm<\/a> is a huge community of music lovers. The site takes note of what you\u2019re listening to and makes recommendations. You can create unique libraries of your favorite discoveries, which can get lost in the shuffle on other platforms. It’s also a lot of fun to see what music is trending among the community, explore charts and new releases, and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. cmd.to\/fm<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Despite its intimidating look for the non-programmers out there, cmd.to\/fm<\/a> is such<\/em> a fun tool for music discovery. Use a play command to enter a genre or artist, and a track is randomly generated. For example, if you typed \u201cplay disco,\u201d a random disco track will play.<\/p>\n\n\n

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You can also explore the site\u2019s categories, distinguished by instrument and genre and organized alphabetically. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"music-discovery-in-post-03\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

8. Indie Shuffle<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Indie Shuffle<\/a> is another music discovery website that’s been around for many years. The site generates user-submitted tracks for discovering music from enthusiasts around the world. They also staff a team of writers to provide thoughtful context around each track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. Discogs <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Vinyl lovers have been enjoying Discogs<\/a>, a music discovery and marketplace platform, since 2000. The site says, \u201cImagine a site with discographies of all labels, all artists, all cross-referenced, and an international marketplace built off of that database. It’s for the love of music, and we’re getting closer every day.\u201d It\u2019s truly a collector\u2019s paradise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. Boomkat<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Boomkat<\/a> is an independent online record store. The beautifully designed website offers a diverse collection of records with clear genre tags and album descriptions that offer writers\u2019 unique points of view. It\u2019s like talking to a record store clerk\u2014without all the pretension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11. Bleep<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Bleep<\/a> is similar to Boomkat and Discogs. It\u2019s an online record store with a knack for catering to music discovery. Their sister company is Warp Records, which represents Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Battles, Flying Lotus, and many other heavy-hitters. I was on the site for three minutes and discovered Caleb Landry Jones\u2019 The Mother Stone<\/em><\/a>, which is exactly what I felt like listening to at that moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New subscribers can try all of Splice\u2014including 200 monthly sample download credits, full access to all premium INSTRUMENT presets, and more\u2014for $4.99\/mo.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Other resources: Online magazines, radio, podcasts and more<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Beyond specifically-designed tools, there are so many places available for finding your next favorite album. The additional resources below might already be a part of your daily routine; it\u2019s a matter of looking at them through a different lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journals, blogs, and magazines<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The big music publications still alive and kicking today include Pitchfork, Fader, Rolling Stone, Stereogum, EDM.com, Complex, NPR, Brooklyn Vegan, etc. Music journalism has changed over the years, but there will always be music lovers providing sincere journalism. Here are some more potentially lesser-known examples of those leading the charge: <\/p>\n\n\n\n