Need suggestions for music discovery

March 8, 2012 3:36 PM

Music discovery filter: Is there available online (like a service) or an app which will help me find other artists/songs based on ones I already like? I'm thinking of something like iTunes' Genius but which (hopefully) works better. Too often Genius is unable to return any suggestions, perhaps because my tastes are too weird. Even something that would return 2 or 3 artists or songs would be helpful.
posted by Rad_Boy to computers & internet (14 answers total)

Allmusic.com is great for this.
posted by griphus at 3:37 PM on March 8, 2012

Pandora and Last.FM.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 3:39 PM on March 8, 2012 [2 favorites]

Last.FM!!!
posted by capnsue at 3:41 PM on March 8, 2012

I keep reading your question to see if you ruled out Pandora, but you haven't, so there you go.

Also, last.fm, where there are quite a few MetaFilter members on board already.
posted by LionIndex at 3:42 PM on March 8, 2012

It sounds like you are looking more for a list than having to actually listen to get recommendations?

Either way, Pandora for sure. it's so great and goes miles deeper than any other service in terms of obscure artists. It's amazing. And besides just listening, you can visit the artist pages which I believe list similar artists AND tell you what people who are listening to that artist are also listening to.
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:49 PM on March 8, 2012

Stereo Mood They might not be exactly what your looking for but Stereomood and Musicovery are pretty good more based on tempo and mood but still useful.
posted by pytar gucchy at 3:50 PM on March 8, 2012

Pandora is awesome, as is Musicovery.

Also: http://www.music-map.com
posted by bunderful at 3:59 PM on March 8, 2012

Not perfect, and not just music, but check out TasteKid
posted by pupdog at 4:59 PM on March 8, 2012

gnod.net (global network of dreams) is the one I used to use a lot. It's not quite as good as pandora, but it allows you to search without listening.

also the interface is pretty cool
posted by aloiv2 at 5:09 PM on March 8, 2012

The Instant Playlist feature on the We Are Hunted app on Spotify has introduced me to a lot of good music lately. I can't vouch for the web site.
posted by dgeiser13 at 5:43 PM on March 8, 2012

Pandora and Last.fm.
posted by limeonaire at 7:03 PM on March 8, 2012

Spotify added spotify radio recently which does this, as well. I found a lot of good stuff that way, and I think it has more selection than Pandora does.

Turntable.fm is good, too, but you're basically depending on the people DJing being decent.
posted by empath at 8:40 PM on March 8, 2012

If you have an iDevice, I recommend Discovr music Free From Itunes http://discovr.info/about/

It works a bit like the web service gnoosic, but allows you to hear snippets of artists, and also purchase thier music (via itunes) direct from the App, or just store a library of their music and make a (limited playlist).

Happy mucis hunting.
posted by Faintdreams at 7:04 AM on March 9, 2012

Coming in late on this, but there's also TuneGlue.
posted by Runes at 10:08 AM on March 9, 2012