I went to a spot in my city called Old Gold Vintage Vinyl in December and bought a stack of old 12 inches and albums, including MC Lyte's "Cha Cha Cha" and The Boys' "Dial My Heart."
I went to one of my local record shops (The Record Exchange in Boise, ID) and bought "The Love Movement" by A Tribe Called Quest. Just recently got myself a record player so I'm tryna buy all my favorite albums from back in the day on vinyl.
The shop has been around forever, they probably carried the LP back then too! My record player was broken then though, plus I probably didn't have money like I do now to buy it.
I struggle with this topic, because as just a fan (ie. not an artist), I'm having an easier and more efficient time finding new music than ever and of a wider variety. This conversation, among music fans, always feels like everybody worrying about everybody else's experience finding music to me. I can understand from an artist's perspective why it makes sense - you need other people to be finding your stuff.
I can browse through the streaming "new releases" faster than going to a record store, I get several recommendation lists curated to my interests sent to my email which is easier, faster and more effective than anything else I can think of, all my favourite artists send me 5 emails via Bandcamp whenever they release something. I can go on 10 different websites with lists of new releases of the week I might want to try. I personally usually end up with 5-10 albums per week to get through. I don't know about all the other silos but mine is well stocked and comfortable! There's honestly probably too much - I can go and click a few buttons and find infinite music from whatever sub-sub-sub micro genre I want.
I wonder also if there's not some rose-coloured memories of the past. The ways I used to find out about new music (radio, TV, magazines, record stores, etc.), were extremely heavily influenced by major label marketing. My listening was much more directed into commercial releases, my connection with favourite artists could be easily broken if they stopped getting a certain marketing push, etc. Adventurous listeners like probably everyone reading this newsletter found their way out of that very large silo at the time and we find our way out of the small silos now too - it's just that most people are not adventurous listeners, in any era.
I do however have some sympathy for the artists. Though probably a section of the "middle class" of this era would be out of a job in a previous era, we've lost that class of artists who were able to sneak into the label system and make serious money at the height of the CD era, and I'm not sure how you replicate that now. I can understand the frustration of either being Drake or fighting for pennies on Spotify and Bandcamp with a sea of other indie artists. My dollar as a fan, is being stretched ever thinner among more artists. Even if it seems like there are more artists making at least some money, that pervasive feeling throughout all of society now that a few people are hoarding all the wealth while the masses scrape by on the edge of translates to the music industry as well. Stop worrying and learn to hate the paltry income I guess.
thank you for this thoughtful and intricate response. i am gonna have to digest it and come back cus you said a lot.
i will say this tho technology always helps and hurts. not much is unilaterally good and if it is it eventually gets leveraged in some way. also nostalgia does a lot to rub off the hard parts of memories so again you've made good points and i don't disagree with anything you've said.
okay i'll come back. i'm staring down the barrel of a pretty hectic 24-48 hours right now lol
Thanks! One other thing I thought of after writing that is about getting older. I might think "I don't really talk to people about new music" but that's in large part because I'm an adult often having pretty hectic 24-48 hours doing adult stuff and not hanging out. I have to ramble in substack comment sections while I should be working instead...
definitely a topic that's been on my mind. I feel like I'm just stuck listening to the same acts even tho with streaming, I could listen to ANYTHING. I think the biggest way I learned about music was just from being on a dorm floor and trading mixes or bursting into someone's room demanding to know WHO IS THIS (it was TV on the Radio).
nowadays, I'll find new music from the radio like WFUV or WKCR but the signal isn't strong in my apartment so I'm not listening as much as I'd like, hence the concentric circle listening habit.
Since I dj pretty regularly in the summer to an open-minded audience, I have to be varied in my selections. I pay a great deal of attention to the music selection of movies and TV series. Then when I read the bio of the artists from those shows it usually mentions a project that they worked on with other artists. It's really a digital dig to uncover newness. I also have been put on to a few IG accounts of heads that promote new music from lo-fi, nu-jazz and R&b genres. Then if all else fails I also go down the YouTube rabbit hole and just keep digging and digging. It really is for the die-hards and not everyone can hang. I consume so much music (content in general), I no longer know names of artists or songs. I just recognize sounds and melodies. It's pretty sad.
As a 45-year old fan, it's been wild to observe how music discovery has changed over my lifetime. For me, as much as it's been derided, the peak for music discovery was the Blog Era. Being able to subscribe to curated, niche feeds (that showed up in my Google Reader!) was a way to keep up on new releases and also learn about old stuff.
Nowadays, I discover new music two ways. First, if it's talked about on Pitchfork, but it sounds like that method's going away soon (and my taste is increasingly diverging from their's). The second way (and this mostly just works for me on hip-hop stuff) is monitoring the blogs that still post MP3s of full albums when they drop. Some of these sites will periodically post new singles in a zip file and then I also look to see which new artists are collaborating with other artists I already know. But it's not easy. Luckily, I don't have kids so I still have free time.
But it definitely (like many things) has gotten worse. I'm increasingly finding that I've missed new releases from artists I love, which sucks.
Oh, and I still visit record stores (thanks to returning to vinyl several years ago)...last purchases were Alchemist & Curren$y's "Continuance" and the Osees "Protean Threat"
I have the pleasure of living in the San Francisco Bay Area, and am usually in Haight Ashbury in the city biweekly, meaning I have visited Amoeba Records fairly often in recent years! Though it has been a minute since my last visit. I usually like to look for a few choice CDs, in the event they have something I had been searching for in the past. (Especially anything that does not have a streaming presence.) Also sold them a significant chunk of my CD collection (much of which I had purchased from them). Lately, I also look at their non-music merch; they have a decent used video-game offering, as well as figurines and things like Bluetooth boomboxes. Feel lucky having such a rich place nearby! We also have a few Rasputin Music shops around, which are also great record shops.
I went to a spot in my city called Old Gold Vintage Vinyl in December and bought a stack of old 12 inches and albums, including MC Lyte's "Cha Cha Cha" and The Boys' "Dial My Heart."
dial my heart don't get nearly enough love. shit is a HEAT ROCK.
Agreed. A bonafide jam.
Really interesting topic and difficult to know where to start with it. Again thank you for the kind words and for sharing the new single!
i shoulda shared your substack too! my bad.
Next time!
I went to one of my local record shops (The Record Exchange in Boise, ID) and bought "The Love Movement" by A Tribe Called Quest. Just recently got myself a record player so I'm tryna buy all my favorite albums from back in the day on vinyl.
i was like 98!?! then i saw you meant recently hahah
The shop has been around forever, they probably carried the LP back then too! My record player was broken then though, plus I probably didn't have money like I do now to buy it.
I struggle with this topic, because as just a fan (ie. not an artist), I'm having an easier and more efficient time finding new music than ever and of a wider variety. This conversation, among music fans, always feels like everybody worrying about everybody else's experience finding music to me. I can understand from an artist's perspective why it makes sense - you need other people to be finding your stuff.
I can browse through the streaming "new releases" faster than going to a record store, I get several recommendation lists curated to my interests sent to my email which is easier, faster and more effective than anything else I can think of, all my favourite artists send me 5 emails via Bandcamp whenever they release something. I can go on 10 different websites with lists of new releases of the week I might want to try. I personally usually end up with 5-10 albums per week to get through. I don't know about all the other silos but mine is well stocked and comfortable! There's honestly probably too much - I can go and click a few buttons and find infinite music from whatever sub-sub-sub micro genre I want.
I wonder also if there's not some rose-coloured memories of the past. The ways I used to find out about new music (radio, TV, magazines, record stores, etc.), were extremely heavily influenced by major label marketing. My listening was much more directed into commercial releases, my connection with favourite artists could be easily broken if they stopped getting a certain marketing push, etc. Adventurous listeners like probably everyone reading this newsletter found their way out of that very large silo at the time and we find our way out of the small silos now too - it's just that most people are not adventurous listeners, in any era.
I do however have some sympathy for the artists. Though probably a section of the "middle class" of this era would be out of a job in a previous era, we've lost that class of artists who were able to sneak into the label system and make serious money at the height of the CD era, and I'm not sure how you replicate that now. I can understand the frustration of either being Drake or fighting for pennies on Spotify and Bandcamp with a sea of other indie artists. My dollar as a fan, is being stretched ever thinner among more artists. Even if it seems like there are more artists making at least some money, that pervasive feeling throughout all of society now that a few people are hoarding all the wealth while the masses scrape by on the edge of translates to the music industry as well. Stop worrying and learn to hate the paltry income I guess.
thank you for this thoughtful and intricate response. i am gonna have to digest it and come back cus you said a lot.
i will say this tho technology always helps and hurts. not much is unilaterally good and if it is it eventually gets leveraged in some way. also nostalgia does a lot to rub off the hard parts of memories so again you've made good points and i don't disagree with anything you've said.
okay i'll come back. i'm staring down the barrel of a pretty hectic 24-48 hours right now lol
Thanks! One other thing I thought of after writing that is about getting older. I might think "I don't really talk to people about new music" but that's in large part because I'm an adult often having pretty hectic 24-48 hours doing adult stuff and not hanging out. I have to ramble in substack comment sections while I should be working instead...
definitely a topic that's been on my mind. I feel like I'm just stuck listening to the same acts even tho with streaming, I could listen to ANYTHING. I think the biggest way I learned about music was just from being on a dorm floor and trading mixes or bursting into someone's room demanding to know WHO IS THIS (it was TV on the Radio).
nowadays, I'll find new music from the radio like WFUV or WKCR but the signal isn't strong in my apartment so I'm not listening as much as I'd like, hence the concentric circle listening habit.
Since I dj pretty regularly in the summer to an open-minded audience, I have to be varied in my selections. I pay a great deal of attention to the music selection of movies and TV series. Then when I read the bio of the artists from those shows it usually mentions a project that they worked on with other artists. It's really a digital dig to uncover newness. I also have been put on to a few IG accounts of heads that promote new music from lo-fi, nu-jazz and R&b genres. Then if all else fails I also go down the YouTube rabbit hole and just keep digging and digging. It really is for the die-hards and not everyone can hang. I consume so much music (content in general), I no longer know names of artists or songs. I just recognize sounds and melodies. It's pretty sad.
Great topic and great newsletter.
As a 45-year old fan, it's been wild to observe how music discovery has changed over my lifetime. For me, as much as it's been derided, the peak for music discovery was the Blog Era. Being able to subscribe to curated, niche feeds (that showed up in my Google Reader!) was a way to keep up on new releases and also learn about old stuff.
Nowadays, I discover new music two ways. First, if it's talked about on Pitchfork, but it sounds like that method's going away soon (and my taste is increasingly diverging from their's). The second way (and this mostly just works for me on hip-hop stuff) is monitoring the blogs that still post MP3s of full albums when they drop. Some of these sites will periodically post new singles in a zip file and then I also look to see which new artists are collaborating with other artists I already know. But it's not easy. Luckily, I don't have kids so I still have free time.
But it definitely (like many things) has gotten worse. I'm increasingly finding that I've missed new releases from artists I love, which sucks.
Oh, and I still visit record stores (thanks to returning to vinyl several years ago)...last purchases were Alchemist & Curren$y's "Continuance" and the Osees "Protean Threat"
I have the pleasure of living in the San Francisco Bay Area, and am usually in Haight Ashbury in the city biweekly, meaning I have visited Amoeba Records fairly often in recent years! Though it has been a minute since my last visit. I usually like to look for a few choice CDs, in the event they have something I had been searching for in the past. (Especially anything that does not have a streaming presence.) Also sold them a significant chunk of my CD collection (much of which I had purchased from them). Lately, I also look at their non-music merch; they have a decent used video-game offering, as well as figurines and things like Bluetooth boomboxes. Feel lucky having such a rich place nearby! We also have a few Rasputin Music shops around, which are also great record shops.