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 (1 children)

I sometimes browse the KEXP live playlist to find new artists

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

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

KEXP live playlist

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] [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

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

[–] [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] 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

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

[–] mindbleach 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.

[–] [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.

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

Ah, someone else who went down the rabbit hole of pony music.

Koa very quickly became one of my favourite artists as soon as she came in the scene ❤️

What I find amusing is just how many people have no idea how much pony music The Living Tombstone made back in the day.

Two artists who constantly churn out bangers are 4everfree and PrinceWhateverer.

And I'm the same: find an artist, look up their other stuff. I have the full discography of most of my favourite bands/artists.

Bandcamp is phenomenal for finding the niche and unknown!

[–] [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

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[–] [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

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

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) (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] 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* (last edited 1 year ago)

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

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

YouTube suggested playlist

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

Musicroamer.com

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

Piracy is how i discover music, to a large extent. I see something i might like? I listen.

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

I don't download full albums, just individual songs I like.

The sources are basically anywhere I hear music, but generally, it's by listening to radio.

As of now, this has already got me to 1,179 songs with 3 in queue to be downloaded. (If you're curious, those in queue are: Dana International - Diva; New Kids On The Block - Step By Step; Prince - Purple rain)
It is hard to call it discovery in this case, more like a reminder of the songs since I knew them already.

Other sources include, but are not limited to: Browsing YouTube playlists, searching for artists to see if they have more good songs, buying a CD compilation, searching for someone's Spotify playlist after peeking into their phone when I liked multiple songs (they didn't want to share the playlist, but left it "public"), Bus Simulator Ultimate (there I discovered 2 artists, Melihcan and Cem Kılıç), old tapes, bus driver with a Bluetooth speaker (and me with Shazam), parts of songs randomly appearing in my head from who knows where, background music in videos.

As I said, everywhere I can hear music.

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

I don't think I'm pirating since I'm not reuploading, but I'm downloading Spotify playlists using Spotdl. So, I find music using Spotify.

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