A quest for tracks - How do you go about acquiring new music?

[DubluW]

Knowing what people label/Genre a track as is a great help, and what events/clubs these styles get played at. Then its checking the DJ's that play at these events out on soundcloud etc and looking through their own tracks and mixes for tunes, and spiralling down the Rabbit hole from there as i find tracks that i want to buy.

Many hours/pocket money lost doing that!!! hahaha!

[Era 7]

i usually skim other tracks by the same artist. then i check out associated artist (people who collaborated on a track, people who did a good remix for the artist) and from there i go to the labels of said artists. i usually end up with something good. beatport's "new releases" doesn't really cut it for me since beatport's genre tagging sucks pretty bad and therefore is full of crap so that it takes ages to find tracks that even remotely come close to what i play.

[MWagner]

i usually skim other tracks by the same artist. then i check out associated artist (people who collaborated on a track, people who did a good remix for the artist) and from there i go to the labels of said artists. i usually end up with something good. beatport's "new releases" doesn't really cut it for me since beatport's genre tagging sucks pretty bad and therefore is full of crap so that it takes ages to find tracks that even remotely come close to what i play.

What style do you play? Playing DnB, I've had the same complaint about drumstep tracks, which were sometimes in Dubstep and sometimes in Drum & Bass. I have to say though, I've noticed a marked improvement within the last couple months where they are much more consistent about it.

[monokoi]

Thank you very much for your advice! This may put a grin on many faces, but beatport was a revelation to me. Wish the had more than the top 100 - but it makes browsing fast and a lot easier.

There's a few genre-specific threads on DJTT also and seeing as you posted Floating Points up there you might be interested in the Deep House/Bass Music thread. Also be sure to check out the thread of free music as there's some great stuff in there.

Many thanks for posting those links!

Then, using either the circle of fifths or the Camelot wheel (same thing, different labels) you can get an idea whether they'll mix we'll together.

Thank you for the tip, its a handy tool indeed.

I've given SoundCloud a look, but still need more time to figure it out. Seems that time is the main aspect of good playlists anyhow. Good to know, harder to accomplish for a hobby. Still: thanks for setting me straight

[xian]

I have found podcasts are a good way of listening to new music.

Loads of DJ's produce them so have a look.

[keithace]

I have found podcasts are a good way of listening to new music.

Loads of DJ's produce them so have a look.

I am a big fan of listening to live sets. My ipod is always packed with sets.

Don't forget to add the artists and labels you like to your "my beatport"

[LoopCat]

I think I get most of my tracks from liking labels and artists on facebook and watching what they release. If it sounds good I head over to beatport grab it and do the whole beatport surfing thing (artist,other releases,label,artist etc) Juno download has tones of good stuff as well especially if you dig stuff like Floating Points.

Like others have said as well listening to live mixes and getting track id's is another good way to find new artists and tracks.

[rjc]

Throw the song into the Mixcloud Search. You'll often find sets with similar styles and sounds to what you're looking for.

I've also found a few gems through 'Beatbot Recommendations' on tracks I've bough on Beatport

[TCMuc]

Don't forget to add the artists and labels you like to your "my beatport"

That's a very good tip!

Actually, the "my beatport" feature is about the only reason I still shop on beatport. It's a great way to stay up to date on my "bread and butter" stuff, i.e. releases by artists and labels I like and don't want to miss.

Anyway, you shouldn't rely solely on this as it can make your sets boring because always buying stuff by the same artists and labels will give you a quite narrow view on what's going on...

[deleteone]

Spotify is also an amazing tool to discover new artists/songs. It references similar artists, gives you short bios including hyperlinks to producers, artists or labels. You can also make search by labels.
Looking for Floating Points in Spotify, it makes reference to Luke Vibert, Flying Lotus, Gilles Peterson and tons of other artists.

Subscriptions to labels newsletters is also a good practice to discover new songs.

Cheers