Music Discovery/Where to Find Tracks

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Music Discovery/Where to Find Tracks

I want to start a thread about how people go about finding new music and to the places they go to procure it. There have been alot of threads from new members that want to see how other people do it. Please share your websites and process. (this is not a thread about “MP3 v Lossless”, “Why beatport sucks”, or illegal downloading)

I listen to ALOT of live sets and podcasts. Record labels are good at putting out mixes that highlight the sounds of their label and always contains tracks from the label catalog. If I can find a tracklist I will look through it for remixers and artists, then head to beatport to reference an artist collection of tracks. I will see if the artist has a recent top ten and then open that in another tab. If there is an artist/label that the main artist works with often I will open that label in another tab. It’s common for me to have ten plus tabs open with music I need to make my way through.

Just like when I used to go to record shops, I know almost instantly if I like a track or not. I will skip through it and if I like it enough I will add it to the basket for review later. Make it through all the tabs and save stuff I might want to buy. I reference the tunes I like to traxsource and juno for price comparisons and further cross reference the artists.

I also follow lots of artists on soundcloud and listen to their previews of upcoming tracks. (they usually point you to when and where you can purchase the tracks)

Tracks sit in my cart for a few days and then gone through again and again until I am convinced I have the best tracks for my dollars. (the marginal ones go to my hold bin)

rinse repeat…

Places to buy music:
Itunes
Beatport
Traxsource
Juno
Satellite
Trackitdown
Bandcamp
discogs.com
Google Play
Amazon
emusic
boomkat
hardwax
directly contact the label

Places to find music:
songdrop.me
SoundCloud
Mixcloud
spotify
pandora
mixing.dj
youtube
resident advisor
mixmag

Record Pools and Service
crateconnect
beatjunkies
djcity
zipdj
mp3poolonline.com

Threads on DJTT
My bored on a sunday thread (covers all forms of house, g house, deep, funky, west coast, etc…)
Big thread of recommended music
The Drum & Bass Thread (formally Drum ‘n’ Bass is dead?)
Post some Techno
Deep House/Bass Music
Tech-House
Breaks are Back!
The Psychedelic Thread
Classic Rap

Discount codes for Juno/Beatport

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Getting promos of unreleased tracks from labels … that’s where I usually find most of my gems. :thumbsup:

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I follow a similar step. Find songs via soundcloud, mixcloud, go over tracklist. listen to full track. sometimes i will search the internet and download or i will go through beatport. I will save it in cart until the end of the week or month and listen to it over again. if i still like it and can imagine it being in my sets, i then download it.

i will also use traxsource and juno.

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you are a working DJ in a major city…lucky you :slight_smile:

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Keith don’t forget Google Play as another place to buy music from. I like looking at Youtube for Popular videos, Someone here posted a link to Mixxcloud and Ive been listening to that and choosing a few tracks here and there from that link.

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http://www.discogs.com/

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I follow labels on soundcloud/youtube and junorecords. (there are too many releases on beatport for this to be meaningful for me) I listen to a boatload of mixes on soundcloud/youtube. Check RA’s monthly chart list as well as record reviews. Get emails from junorecords and halcyon, grammaphone records and turntable lab as well. Check the mixes section here and on discogs as well as perusing discogs for things in lists, things recommended or other releases by labels I seem to like. I also like checking out redeye’s charts as well, but Juno’s just too convenient so it gets the majority of my time.

Once I find a song I like, I’ll listen to other things from the artist if it’s a new artist. I’ll look for the record first on juno/redeye, if they don’t have it, I’ll check discogs. If prices on discogs are ridiculous, which is oftentimes the case, I’ll check beatport for a digital release on the cheap. Traxsource is also good for digital releases, but I’ve found almost anything released digitally is available on beatport.

As keithace said, I let things sit in my cart and come back another day to listen again, sometimes multiple different days. If something is even questionable as to whether I still like it, I toss it. There’s too much great music out there and especially when dealing with vinyl, you have to be wary of getting things that are even mediocre+.

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Kan ook een handige zijn idd. :wink:

[Can come in handy idd.]

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I only use Soundcloud and Beatport. I mainly do my hunting on Soundcloud though as there is a lot of free music to pick from. Another method I use is just go to my genre of choice on Beatport, then click tracks once I get there and it shows everything in the genre starting with brand new releases from that day. I just browse and try to find new stuff and new artists there too. Obviously if I find a label that suits me I search their catalog too. There are tons of ways to go about it really.

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Does anyone know a website where you can get old music from funk, disco to say 90s Rnb and Rap? Those tend to be more difficult.

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junodownload, while still lacking horrible, has a selection of at least 90’s rap.

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Discogs should give you plenty of that?

90’s Funk, 30.445 records:

http://www.discogs.com/sell/list?genre=Funk+%2F+Soul&controller=_mp_facets&year=1990

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I use Itunes, Amazon or CDs rips for stuff like that. Old CDs can be bought off Amazon for dirt cheap.

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Take a look at this DJ Pool http://www.beatjunkies.com/ . Lot of original edits without the redrum.

Take a 3 month subscription and you have a great collection for very little money.

Crateconnect is interesting to but more modern, but old hiphop and R&B are represented. http://crateconnect.net/

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No love for emusic or Boomkat? Some less obvious but fantastic tracks on both sites.

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I will add them…Thanks…

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In addition to what is mentioned, I also find tracks off of podcasts via iTunes. They are usually split by specific genre. Most give the track listing in the details, so you can search on the music store of your choice.

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this needs to be a sticky.

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thanks souldancer! beatjunkie is a great site!

funny, i used to have “beatjunkie” as my aim screen name

roaming around serato discussion forum, i also came upon this: 2010 Sources of Music MP3 and Hardcopy | Serato.com (sources of music mp3 and hardcopy)

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working on it!!!