No Longer Living with Friends, How Do I Find New Music?

The best part about sharing four walls with my best friends wasn’t their constant presence, but rather the loud, varying music that would come out of every room. Punk, pop, grunge, and more would mingle together in our tiny hallway, creating a new playlist for everyone. Even better was when we would all come together in one room for an album release or single drops at midnight. Our home was never quiet. There was always music being shared and played; all of us experiencing new genres and artists because we heard a song we didn’t know while brushing our teeth or making coffee.

With my friends and I all back in our respective home states, the influx of new music had stopped. Instead of sharing and finding new music, I have been listening to the same three albums on repeat with no interest and no idea how to find something else to listen to. I continue to hear music throughout my house, the bass of my brother’s speakers vibrating through the ceiling above my bed, and the country my parents play while preparing dinner every night. None of it interests me.

Having no idea what to do, I turned to methods I used in high school. Before I had friends.

Every Monday, Spotify releases a curated playlist, your Discover Weekly, based on your recent listening habits. I used to listen to my Discover Weekly religiously, but I fell out of it at some point. Spotify continuously recommends artists with one song on their profile on my Discover Weekly, and this was frustrating when I didn’t need to find music, and was absolutely terrible when I was searching for something new. I kept hitting dead-ends, finding one song that I really liked, only to see it was the only song out.Out of twenty-five songs, I would find one or two new artists and a handful of songs, but it still wasn’t what I was used to.

Next, I went to the genre playlists on Spotify, hoping that by narrowing it down to my interests I would be able to find something. It worked for a little while, just like the Discover Weekly, but I have a broad taste in music. Listening to one specific genre for a while got tiring, and when I went to find something to mix it up, there were just more and more sub-genres. I like playlists for their blend of music, and the genre playlists were not offering me that.

Looking for more variety, I went old school and started listening to the radio in my car. This offered different sounds, very loosely based on your top artists or what is popular that week. The radio was the closest I had found so far that matched one of my roommates’ mingling melodies. Bonus points for when I’d drive twenty minutes south and get a local college station-- much more my taste than the top 100. I’ve always liked listening to the radio, but commercials are the bane of anyone’s existence.

Nothing truly compared to the music discovery that took place in our small dorm of six people. So, when all else failed, I turned to the people I trust most for music suggestions. Just because I’m not living with my friends anymore doesn’t mean that we still can’t share music. It isn’t as organic as when we were in person. With our different tastes and styles, creating a collaborative playlist or just sharing a song when we find one works well enough for now-- though we all are patiently waiting for our next album listening party in the living room of our apartment come the fall.