Rdio Maven Recommendations

May 26, 2013 8:19 AM

I just started using rdio.com to find and listen to music, but I don't know how to find people to follow for recommendations. Who do you suggest?

Back when I was a member of a certain pink-pig themed site, there was a fantastic user to know about who always kept a list of the best recent ambient/quiet music on her profile page. If you read that occasionally, and looked at what albums she was commenting on, you could find lovely music.

Rdio has filled that site's place, but it's vast and unknown and I need a guide to find the gems. Who are the best users to follow to find hidden treasures? My preferences are mostly electronic-type stuff, folk, a little rock, Japanese and African. (Here's my recent last.fm too). The one person I found to follow is Gretchen, who has nice taste.

I'm not actually that worried about the categories. If you're into heavy metal, who are the best Rdio users to follow to find good metal. Same with Jazz, Funk, Country, Indie, etc..

So who do you recommend following on Rdio to uncover the musical gold?

posted by nevan to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

Your favorite local record store might have an account. Try searching for them. Also, maybe you could follow Pitchfork.

However, playlists actually seem to be what you're looking for -- not users. There's a self-updating list of top-rated Pitchfork music: Pitchfork Best New Tracks 2013, by Barrett Sheridan. There are also a few NPR "best-of" lists...just search for NPR. Barrett Sheridan also makes a self-updating NPR All Songs Considered playlist.

You could also run a search on your top artist on Last.fm (Jonsi & Alex), and then see who else plays their albums...then comb through those people's collections. I don't know much about the particular genres you're looking for, but have had a lot of success finding stuff I'm interested in by doing this, by looking through playlists, and by creating my own playlist then checking out the profiles of the folks who've listened to it.

Rdio's flaw is definitely the fact that it doesn't recommend artists based on what's in your collection...that's frustrating. Takes a lot of legwork. But you'll start to develop your own hacks.
posted by Miss T.Horn at 10:06 AM on May 26, 2013

What I did was look at who was commenting on or listening to my favorite albums or albums I was currently enjoying. Then I took a quick look at their profile/activity. If there was a mix of stuff I loved and stuff I had never heard of, I would follow them. Once you get up to following 30 or so people with good taste, your Heavy Rotation begins to fill up with albums you've never seen or heard, which is great, and also will begin to recommend old classics you haven't heard in a while, which is also great.

I also frequently read the artist bios, look at the label discographies and pick through the related artists tags. The site is definitely a more hunt and peck sort of thing, but it has become a wikipedia-like time sink of music discovery.
posted by milarepa at 10:45 AM on May 26, 2013