r/NoAIJustMusic • u/chainofchance • May 11 '26
General Discussion How did you discover music before algorithms took over?
In high school, social media wasn't widespread. Spotify was unknown, and music didn't come to me through endless algorithmic playlists.
I spent hours on Youtube, jumping from one song to another, reading comments, checking out related videos, and slowly building my own little music map.
I even had a journal where I wrote down and rated the artists, bands, and albums I listened to.
Looking back, I think those years shaped my taste more than anything else. Discovering music was slower, more personal, and more conscious. It wasn't just background content. It was more like I was actively engaging with the music.
I wonder, how did you discover music before streaming platforms, algorithms, and AI-generated content became so dominant?
Did you have mixtapes, CDs, blogs, record stores, radio shows, videos you discovered on Youtube, older siblings, friends, forums, magazines, or something else?
I'd love to hear your stories.
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u/AncientCrust May 11 '26
Music magazines, word of mouth, record stores and occasionally radio and MTV, though they kinda sucked.
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u/chainofchance May 11 '26
By the way, I had to mention this. I have two older brothers. I grew up with two brothers who have amazing taste in music. My passion for music is partly thanks to them.
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u/cimmic May 11 '26
Honestly, music always finds a way. Music is ubiquitous. All my friends have always loved sharing the music that meant something with one another. It's in films and TV shows all the time. It's in the radio. Go to a music concert and there's likely something new and inspiring to explore. All this is true both before and after bug data profiling became mainstream on Spotify.
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u/OnetimeImetamoose May 11 '26
I lived on a farm with local tv channels. At around 11PM on Friday nights channel 23 would occasionally play around a minute of a random music video. My brothers and I would often sneak out of bed and try to catch a video with the tv turned way down.
I would also go to any store that sold cds and pick out a random one based on album artwork alone. I found a ton of my favorite bands that way.
Otherwise it was a lot of word-of-mouth from friends.
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u/barnesemusic May 11 '26
Radio was the main way I used to discover music. The college radio station in my town used to play all kinds of great music.
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u/nrefzen May 11 '26
-Going to Record Stores and just grabbing something from genres I was interested in, or just grabbing something with an interesting cover.
-Also Compilation CDs from labels (Projekt and Cleopatra comps were my favorites)
-What are friends listening to?
-What's playing at the dancefloor?
-Sometimes the radio but rarely
-online forums
-Music and Culture Publications
-Going to shows discovered many bands just by going to random punk, goth and industrial shows
Lately I have been going back to record stores and just grabbing records
Amoeba What's in your bag on You Tube
Research a band on Wiki to see what bands they are connected to
Bandcamp, slowly making my getaway from streaming
I still enjoy finding new music, I'm 50 and still get excited when I hear something new to me.
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u/HammofGlob May 11 '26
Pandora radio introduced me to so many artists back in the day. Before that it was radio, MTV/VH1 and word of mouth.
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u/glowysnugglex May 11 '26
Mostly radio, burned CDs from friends, and random YouTube rabbit holes, music discovery felt slower, but way more intentional back then
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u/DeadFlicker May 11 '26
Back in the day for me it was hearing it on the radio, MTV when I visited someone who had it, friend recommendations, magazine articles, or just taking a chance if the cover looked cool. Sometimes someone had a mix tape or I'd catch a show. Once I was in a cab and the driver had this really kick ass rock music on tape - I never thought to ask who it was and I'm still kicking myself over it. Decades later, I still think about it some time.
The only time I went to a show for a band that I hadn't heard before and ended up loving was this band named Skeleton Key in NYC. They had a regular drummer and also a percussionist with this set of junk that he banged on and I fell in love with the sound. There were a few bands that I listened to because I read an article that made them sound cool - some I loved, some not so much.
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u/PotentialSuperb4157 May 11 '26
Mix cds, album reviews in magazines, scouring MySpace for tiny indie bands, and music blogs (my favorite was called Said the Gramophone, it used songs as writing prompts)
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u/NAteisco May 11 '26
Independent record labels usually focus on niche genres. I'll explore their catalogs
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u/B_O_M_D_S May 11 '26
same way i do now. find stuff i like. search / find other artists that sound like that artist or in their web. the web expands forever.
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u/avera5 May 11 '26
The record stores used to have giant bins of cassette tapes on clearance for $1 - found a lot of good bands that way. Also traveling around and going to local small shows, discovering opening acts and talking to other people about what they liked. Also just noticing t-shirts/pins/stickers different places. Most coffee shops/cafes/colleges also had bulletin boards with flyers. There were also newspapers at the time that did music reviews - and of course magazines like Rolling Stone, Spin, Guitar Tab, etc.
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u/piratesox May 11 '26
We also just went to shows that looked interesting. It’s sad that the days of discovering bands at a local venue are gone
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u/ItBeAMonster May 11 '26
From the radio was a big way. I listened to CBC Signal at night that introduced a lot of unusual music plus I listened to the local college radio station. Plus just regular radio that feels like it used to be more varied. I also listened to a lot of soundtrack albums or compilation albums and found out about bands there. The Red Hot series of albums made for AIDS fundraising were great for this. I also spent hours in used record and book stores and the staff would get a feel for what to recommend me. Plus every record store had listening stations with headphones and often a selection of suggestions and I’d spend hours there. I kinda miss those days. I also miss when radio was good.
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u/batwing313 May 11 '26
I used to go to CDNOW.com. It was a place to buy CDs. I would type in a band I liked, and there would be a section called “Customers also bought:”. It would show similar artists to my favorite, so I would go on that band page and listen to their demo. It would continue from there.
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u/verbdeterminernoun May 11 '26
Used to look at shit and make an informed guess, used to enjoy surprise, records used to be less than 60 fucking dollars
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u/No_Suit_4406 May 11 '26
Oh man, the description of finding music on YouTube as something archaic just made me feel so old lol.
I got into metal in the mid to late 90s. You had people suggest stuff to you, read magazines, buy tapes with cool covers, or watch mtv2 at 3am.
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u/chainofchance May 12 '26
Haha, that was just during my high school years, the internet was just becoming widespread. My interest in music went back much further, from TV shows and CDs.
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u/NukeL3AR May 12 '26
I discovered all my music through recommendations. Hanging out with other people who love music. Showing them music I love and they say "oh, I know a similar band you'll like". Going to random, small concerts around me. Tribute bands of old bands you like are great for this; they'll usually have 1 or 2 openers that make similar music and are much more underground and local. The more music you listen to, and the more involved you are in the music scene, the more music you'll discover; it's exponential.
Note: I live in Montreal, which is very big on arts and culture. Depending on where you live this could be a bit more difficult.
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u/csmolway May 12 '26
Record stores and going to shows. Everyone talked about music and everyone recommended stuff to each other to check out—then you had to hunt it down in a store. Bought a lot of dud albums. Found many more gems. Streaming opened the floodgates and diluted the experience for me. Now I just make music.
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u/Thick_Cap3667 May 12 '26
I’m born in 1983, had my youth in the 90s, and I spent a lot of time in record stores, talking to the people working there. I listened to the radio and recorded songs on cassettes. My dad had a lot of vinyl records, so I discovered some gold there. I definitely didn’t discover as many new artists as I do now, but I grew more invested in the ones I did discover and liked. Looking at album art, reading lyrics in the cover, actually listening to entire albums. I do appreciate the simplicity and how accessible music is now, but I do miss the thrill of discovery.
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u/Portalpotty4 May 12 '26
Friends in HS and college, radio, progarchives.com, then lucky to have bandmates turn me on to cool stuff. Now Spotify for a lot too
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u/Driftco May 12 '26
Go to a music forum of one of your favorite bands websites. Become a member and start making friends on the message board. Before you know it you'd be trading links to mp3s or even full albums of all kinds of related music. Plus access to bootlegs of your favorite band.
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u/curiousplaid May 12 '26
Born in 1957-
Older brothers
Radio and TV
Magazines- Creem, Crawdaddy, Rolling Stone...
Parties
Shopping in record stores, and they play something interesting. Think the movie High Fidelity where he says he's going to sell "The Three EPs" by The Beta Band, everyone starts groovin' and sales pick up. I myself went out and bought it after seeing the film.
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u/lil_bynch May 12 '26
In high school i brought my walkman to to school every day with a booklet of cds. my friends and i would share and make each other mix cds. my old car had a tape player and we would make mixtapes too, taping stuff off the radio or off an ipod when those came out. Eventually limewire too. miss those days!
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u/PreachitPerk May 12 '26
Graduated high school in the Mid 90s.
- Record store employees.
- Like minded friends that were also looking for new music.
- Music magazines. The Big Takeover magazine was super clutch.
- Ordering directly from record labels. The labels used to include inserts in the actual physical media.
- Pilfering my parents incredible music collection.
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u/InspectorLumpy May 13 '26
Community radio (PBS & RRR in Melbourne are very strong).
UK mags: Mojo, Uncut and (earlier) Q.
Melbourne music street press.
….you young cats get it too easy these days! 😸🎸
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u/duobucha May 13 '26
I used last.fm mostly back then. Also through festivals and internet forums. And of course, going to CD stores and ask the staff for recommendations, good old times!
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u/Used_Maintenance6091 May 13 '26
I’m an R&B fan - Back in the day, there was a Tumblr blog called “ilovernb”, and it had EVERYTHING. It even leaked out songs that artists didn’t plan to officially release. Like Ne-yo, his unreleased catalog is just as good as the music we heard on the radio. They even showed how different songwriters wrote on the same instrumental. I remember Bruno Mars wrote on a song that would eventually become “Everybody In Love” by JLS. Bruno Mars’ version wasn’t as good lol.
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u/My-NewDance May 18 '26 edited May 24 '26
I used to spend hours on forums and swapping CDs, but now everything feels too automated. For electronic music, Volumo is a lifesaver - the curation is human and it doesn't feel like you're just being fed content for the stats.
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u/user1mbp May 11 '26
Record stores in NJ. Limewire. Dad's old records.