DJs, how do you stay current and find music?

[Foggypebble Muircastle]

2 minutes ago, Rat Luv said:

Might be worth checking out Mixcloud 

I just joined mixcloud and tried some of the recommended streams... I didn't like the music. Too remix-y. Cool site though.

[Rat Luv]

9 minutes ago, Foggypebble Muircastle said:

I just joined mixcloud and tried some of the recommended streams... I didn't like the music. Too remix-y. Cool site though.

I wouldn't just try the recommended streams...you can search for genres you're into.

Edited January 12, 2021 by Rat Luv

[Tari Landar]

Personally, I prefer to use youtube and online radio stations, and then I go from there. In yt I can get recommendations based on things I've already listened to, which don't only include a singular artist, but also include record labels, accounts that offer up a myriad of different bands/artists, genres and things that, in some fashion relate to other things I've listened to. Not all of it is good, or to my liking, but it's the best way to find things, for me, especially new stuff or stuff I haven't heard. I don't use autoplay most of the time, but sometimes I do and I definitely don't end up listening to one long continuous bout of a singular band or artist. I'm not sure how you're running into that with autoplay on unless you're listening directly from an existing playlist or a specific band/artists' account in which case it would make much more sense. The  algorithms do have randomizers built in, although there are similarities between videos played worked into the algorithms too. Yt is also chock full of playlists, all over the place, most of them are definitely not one long run of a singular band/artist either, unless you look specifically for that. I have quite a few saved myself, and tons I've made for myself for when I want a specific list/genre/mood/whatever playing. 

 Internet radio stations often play both new and old, depending on what you're looking for, and there are literally millions of them at this point, all easily found with some quick searches. Wander around sl, and look at the music playing on sims, specifically those that use different radio station streams that you enjoy, not necessarily club specific (although you can get their information too if you'd like even empty clubs often have a stream going, oddly). Usually you can get the station name at some point from the broadcast, but if not you can get the URL (sound tab under about land), put it in whatever external player you use and it should pull/populate that information for you. Then you can go to that station's website, odds are good they have one, and probably have multiple stations/genres, as most do. That can give you a good starting point for finding music you will enjoy. 

[Chroma Starlight]

Listen to as much new music as you can in the genres you want to play. Build a list of artists and record or net labels that put out quality work to follow. If you get stuck, you can always research. You'll find all genres on most of the cloud-based steaming services, sometimes it's just a matter of digging in a bit. Be prepared for your musical sensibilities to evolve and expand; challenge yourself. Don't forget the essential shamanic roots of DJing. Don't play to imagined expectations hoping to satisfy and entertain, instead play things that you believe invoke the right vibe and will be a memorable positive experience.

[Foggypebble Muircastle]

27 minutes ago, Chroma Starlight said:

Listen to as much new music as you can in the genres you want to play. Build a list of artists and record or net labels that put out quality work to follow. If you get stuck, you can always research. You'll find all genres on most of the cloud-based steaming services, sometimes it's just a matter of digging in a bit. Be prepared for your musical sensibilities to evolve and expand; challenge yourself. Don't forget the essential shamanic roots of DJing. Don't play to imagined expectations hoping to satisfy and entertain, instead play things that you believe invoke the right vibe and will be a memorable positive experience.

That's exactly what I'm trying to do here, listen to as much new music as possible

[Foggypebble Muircastle]

I still need help finding current music. Youtube worked well for a few days but quickly I noticed that youtube recommends the same songs over and over again. Also Spotify goes more by mood than what's current so it's being unhelpful as well.

[Orwar]

   Well, the only thing that comes to mind is a more hands-on approach .. Sooo .. Have you heard of our Lord and Saviour, Papa Emeritus?

 

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

I have found some new music in SL, but we're not really into the streaming radio service and prefer our old-school approach. We get some tunes from the CD Pool (We're licensed for public performance and stream use), and have bought inventories from a few closed record/CD stores. In fact one shop that closed we and some craft lady did a bid battle to get the inventory as she would have "destroyed" the records making silly clocks out of them and other things.

Through those purchases we have discovered a lot of music we never heard of and our daughter loves to rip them to the music server.

[Foggypebble Muircastle]

2 minutes ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

I have found some new music in SL, but we're not really into the streaming radio service and prefer our old-school approach. We get some tunes from the CD Pool (We're licensed for public performance and stream use), and have bought inventories from a few closed record/CD stores. In fact one shop that closed we and some craft lady did a bid battle to get the inventory as she would have "destroyed" the records making silly clocks out of them and other things.

Through those purchases we have discovered a lot of music we never heard of and our daughter loves to rip them to the music server.

I too collect cds, at goodwill and other thrift stores (or, well, I used to before covid) but grabbing blindly usually leads to accidentally getting religious music instead of gems, not quite good for the club I dj at

[Orwar]

19 minutes ago, Foggypebble Muircastle said:

but grabbing blindly usually leads to accidentally getting religious music instead of gems

   Is that a 'no' on the Ghost, then? Pouts.

[EonS84]

The biggest part of being a DJ is being able to pick songs that you know people like and to stay up to date with the latest music in the genres that you spin this involves some work.. visiting different sites that have the genres of music you like and doing a little searching for the genres you like.

Since you mentioned in indie search google for indie Radio  stations these can be good source for finding new music just look at there recently played list .

Beatport another https://www.beatport.com/genre/indie-dance/37/top-100 has top 100 latest indie dance tunes for example.

Spotify if used correctly another great place to discover new music by searching for specific genres then going through the user created playlists searching indie hits or indie 2020 etc. 

Edited January 13, 2021 by EonS84

[Foggypebble Muircastle]

1 minute ago, EonS84 said:

The biggest part of being a DJ is being able to pick songs that you know people like and to stay up to date with the latest music in the genres that you spin this involves some work.. visiting different sites that have the genres of music you like and doing a little searching for the genres you like.

Since you mentioned in indie search google for indie Radio  stations these can be good source for finding new music just look at there recently played list .

Beatport another https://www.beatport.com/genre/indie-dance/37/top-100 has top 100 latest indie dance tunes for example.

Spotify if used correctly another great place to discover new music by searching for specific genres then going through the user created playlists searching indie hits or indie 2020 etc. 

How can I get spotify to offer me current music? It just offers me mood lists with songs from 10 years ago

[EonS84]

Well if you read what i said search for specific genres for example i just typed in indie 2020 and got a ton of indie songs released in 2020 ie https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWWkGXMGv9j4M as i said you need to put work into it but it not hard to find music.

 

 

[ValKalAstra]

35 minutes ago, Orwar said:

   Is that a 'no' on the Ghost, then? Pouts.

One: It's a yes from me, if that counts.

Two: You need Jesus.

 

[Tari Landar]

You're waiting for these services and websites to provide or recommend music and not actually doing the footwork to search it out.  That's not really how most people find new/different music, and certainly not how any dj I know (sl, or rl, not dependent on the type of dj or style, either) actually finds music at all. If you want stuff that not everyone else plays, stuff you haven't heard or have only heard a little of, you need to actually do relevant searches. It's a bit of work at times, but once you start doing it, it's not that terribly dreadful. 

Have you looked, as in done actual searches on youtube (or any other service/website, for that matter, yt is just an example) for record labels, accounts that literally post new music daily (from varied genres, artists, bands, there are a TON of them), specific genres, specific artists (not necessarily bands, some have solo gigs too, though, those as well, they all likely have stuff you've never heard), release year, some other theme, etc... What search criteria are you actually using, aside from relying on algorithms to make suggestions for you? While those generating algorithms may work perfectly fine at times, or even all the time for some of us, it's clearly not what you're looking for. Why are you relying so heavily on them?

That's not intended to sound snarky, I hope it doesn't, but you keep shooting down everything people suggest and I don't think you're going to get very far on this venture by relying on your current methods (well, you've sad as much, hence your question, lol). I think you need to change your search criteria and start using search functions in different ways, or at all, rather than just relying on services and websites to know what you want without them. That's probably why you're getting the results you are.

If you search "happy piano music" on a website, listen to a few, and then go back the next day with a desire to instead listen to grunge, you can't be all that surprised when the initial recommendations you get are all "happy piano music" before you actually do a search for grunge. 

[Rowan Amore]

9 minutes ago, Tari Landar said:

You're waiting for these services and websites to provide or recommend music and not actually doing the footwork to search it out.  That's not really how most people find new/different music, and certainly not how any dj I know (sl, or rl, not dependent on the type of dj or style, either) actually finds music at all. If you want stuff that not everyone else plays, stuff you haven't heard or have only heard a little of, you need to actually do relevant searches. It's a bit of work at times, but once you start doing it, it's not that terribly dreadful. 

Have you looked, as in done actual searches on youtube (or any other service/website, for that matter, yt is just an example) for record labels, accounts that literally post new music daily (from varied genres, artists, bands, there are a TON of them), specific genres, specific artists (not necessarily bands, some have solo gigs too, though, those as well, they all likely have stuff you've never heard), release year, some other theme, etc... What search criteria are you actually using, aside from relying on algorithms to make suggestions for you? While those generating algorithms may work perfectly fine at times, or even all the time for some of us, it's clearly not what you're looking for. Why are you relying so heavily on them?

That's not intended to sound snarky, I hope it doesn't, but you keep shooting down everything people suggest and I don't think you're going to get very far on this venture by relying on your current methods (well, you've sad as much, hence your question, lol). I think you need to change your search criteria and start using search functions in different ways, or at all, rather than just relying on services and websites to know what you want without them. That's probably why you're getting the results you are.

If you search "happy piano music" on a website, listen to a few, and then go back the next day with a desire to instead listen to grunge, you can't be all that surprised when the initial recommendations you get are all "happy piano music" before you actually do a search for grunge. 

It's so much easier if WE do the work, it seems.  Same as other threads which is why I didn't bother with this one. Yeah, I'm snarky.

[Orwar]

41 minutes ago, ValKalAstra said:

One: It's a yes from me, if that counts.

   Orwar's opinion of ValKalAstra increased by 5 pts.

42 minutes ago, ValKalAstra said:

Two: You need Jesus.

   Orwar's opinion of ValKalAstra increased by 5 pts.

   You better watch out, at this rate you may end up making friends!

[Tari Landar]

56 minutes ago, RowanMinx said:

It's so much easier if WE do the work, it seems.  Same as other threads which is why I didn't bother with this one. Yeah, I'm snarky.

I was attempting not to be, but I understand the desire, greatly, lol.

 

I am constantly running into music, new and old that I've never heard before. I use search terms and sometimes I just let things do what they want with the generator algorithms. I am often, nearly always, quite pleasantly surprised at what I find.  I've even used the music threads that have been here on the forums to find gems that have always existed but I never knew existed. Music is such  vast world, I can't imagine anyone having such a difficult time finding it with the myriad of tools we have to do so.  There are literally millions upon millions probably upon trillions and, whatever the largest number there is...bits of music out there. One can't possibly only run into a such a small sampling that easily. In fact, I'd reckon it's actually quite a difficult task to only ever hear music you don't want to hear, lmao. It's not a task I've any sort of experience with.  It leaves me befuddled, to be frank, well, maybe not frank, I'm not a guy, I can't be frank, even if I wanted to, I'm more of a george, I think.

Okay, maybe I can be snarky too, l just sprinkle it in verbosely  '

I typed, and re-read that whole response up in a variety of accents. I really need some better entertainment material, I've resorted to entertaining myself. I'm a riot. 

 

 

 

[Claireschen Hesten]

4 hours ago, Foggypebble Muircastle said:

How can I get spotify to offer me current music? It just offers me mood lists with songs from 10 years ago

If you want current stuff these playlists might be useful. Also If you use the desktop app click "Browse" then "New Releases"

 

[Foggypebble Muircastle]

6 hours ago, Claireschen Hesten said:

If you want current stuff these playlists might be useful. Also If you use the desktop app click "Browse" then "New Releases"

 

So look up user 'spotifycharts' and browse 'new releases'.... Thank you! You've been very helpful!

Edit: I just checked the 'new releases' page on spotify. I don't really like most of the music on that page and there isn't as much content on the page as I'd have liked. Also I went through those two lists and I've heard 95% of those songs in the club I work at

Edited January 14, 2021 by Foggypebble Muircastle

[Jaylinbridges]

You want new releases?  Check out COS site - new albums and singles listed by release day.  Pick artists/bands in your genre of interest, download them, listen to them all, and then YOU pick what you think your listeners will like.  But of course that is work and time - what a good DJ should do to earn their $4 usd or so per set.

Copying someone else's playlist is not DJing.  And only playing what no other DJ plays will possibly get your mother at your set.  The club manager might feel sorry for you and tip you 25 L too

https://consequenceofsound.net/upcoming-releases/

 

[Tari Landar]

I'm not quite sure why you're asking for help, but shooting down every single bit of help you get. DJing involves some (a lot of) footwork on your part, and knowledge of where to Do that footwork, the task(s) at had, and music in general, at least, to be any good it does. Why did you choose to go into DJing without any inkling of how to do it in the first place? What drove you to want to do it? If it's simply a means to make money, might I suggest finding another profession? If it's a love for music itself, or a desire to share that with others, it's not very apparent from any of your posts. It can be difficult to be a good DJ on a good day, but if you do what you love, you'll love what you do (as with most things). If the motivation is purely to make money, to be "different than everyone else" (for whatever reason(s)) or anything remotely like that, you're going to need a lot more experience with music, using search terms, finding that special niche, etc.. under your belt and shooting down the help people give you to get there is a really, really, bad start. It really isn't that difficult to find music, I don't understand why you're making it so. Hopefully your employer doesn't find this thread. I can imagine most good club owners would find red flags all throughout and opt to tell you that more training is necessary.

I fear you're not going to get very far on your journey, but, safe travels all the same.

[MoiraKathleen]

Perhaps, if you want to have unique sets that are different than what you hear at other clubs, you need to think about other ways to make your sets different or interesting than just playing the newest or the "not heard anywhere else yet" songs.  I don't know the genre of the club  you work at, nor the depth of what is available in that genre, but what about putting together a set list where all the songs in that particular set have a common theme or words in there title or meaning.  This might work better with some genres than others, but for example, a set where the theme is "home" (coming home, leaving home, finding home, etc.)  or "fire" (heart on fire, into the heat, out of the heat, etc.) or "road trip" (leaving town, taking a train, traveling, etc.).  If this concept doesn't work for your genre, than try to think of something else that is out of the box or different about how you could select or arrange songs in a set.

It's not just the songs themselves that make a DJ good.  It's what the DJ does with the songs - how they're presented, how the set list is put together, and most important for me, the DJ being able to convey the enjoyment or love that they have for the music they are playing.    It's the presentation as well as the song selection that will make you unique.

[Eddy Vortex]

You can take a gander at this thread where you'll find a good variety of folks with various tastes and springboard from there:
https://community.secondlife.com/forums/topic/449277-what-are-you-listening-to/

Or check out the Music suggestions section on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/musicsuggestions/

 

[Crim Mip]

I find out about most of my new music from those who listen to my streams. I welcome live requests and when I play a song I haven't heard before, I check into more of that singer or group's music. As for whether my music is 'legal' or not, it's just as legal as 99.9% of the DJ's in SL use.