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The Trouble With Digital Digging

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  • September 27, 2015 at 8:09 pm #2261521
    bob6397
    Participant

    There have only been a few times when I have needed to follow anyone on soundcloud/like their facebook page (although there are ways round on facebook – there is always a “skip” button..

    My solution is that I have 2 email addresses (Essentially – I have more than 1 personal one but that’s for different reasons). One is for all my normal, personal email.. The other is for when I need to sign up for things so that my normal email doesn’t get filled up with tons of unwanted emails.. I only receive the personal one on my phone and check the other one every couple of days in case there is something important in there.

    On soundcloud, I only have 1 account but I only use it for music discovery – IE I don’t mind if I have to follow anything as that’s what the account is for..

    If I like the track, I’ll do what I have to do to get hold of it.. 🙂

    bob6397

    September 27, 2015 at 8:18 pm #2261531
    Arthol Gibson
    Participant

    I use my Soundcloud for music discovery too, my real complaint is that with a steady array of click-gates asking you to follow countless accounts – that makes the process of discovery less rewarding and more of an effort since you’d now have to sift through that much more music.
    Some folks may appreciate that though, but I live in an apt complex that doesn’t quite allow me alot of time to dig/discover 🙁

    September 27, 2015 at 9:59 pm #2261551
    bob6397
    Participant

    That’s where we differ – I have found very few tracks on Soundcloud. I tend to find things using youtube and then occasionally there is a download link from the equivelent soundcloud page. I tried using soundcloud to find tracks but I always ended up at the same place (normally an hour long tropical house mix) when using their recommended items function. Youtube I find is much more diverse.. 🙂

    I spend around 3-4 hours a week on finding music (where it’s the only thing I’m doing – I am always listening when the radio is on or when I’m out for new tracks I like.. Shazam is a DJ’s best friend sometimes 🙂 )

    bob6397

    September 28, 2015 at 9:50 am #2261861
    Terry_42
    Keymaster

    I honestly hate soundcloud for diggin and even mixcloud is really bad in suggestions.
    What is really good at suggestions is Spotify and Apple Music. If you let them read your collection and build a “taste profile” for you (even if it is as expanded as mine) it gets you playlists that can go on forever with loads of tracks you never knew.
    This is how I love to discover music.
    When I drive or walk or workout I always have one of those services running and feeding me music. If I like a track I mark it for later inspection.

    September 28, 2015 at 3:31 pm #2262021
    Alex Moschopoulos
    Participant

    I stopped even looking at Soundcloud when they sold their soul to the big labels and thus small artists are being pushed out.

    As for ads/clickgates, it’s an unfortunate fact of life in the modern economy, as anyone with a blog or “free” content is seeking to maximize profits on that giveaway. Let’s be honest, no one gives away anything on the internet for free without getting something in return. Sometimes it’s to collect emails or social media follows, or to get pennies for banner ad impressions.

    We can go further into the problem and point out the issue when promoters fail to do their homework on artists and instead book people based on the size of their email list or social media fanbase. We’ve seen how easy it is to buy a fanbase for little money, but yet still promoters think high numbers will equate to more ROI over word of mouth. Thus it screams why for many out there, popularity is more important to them than talent or creativity.

    That’s the music industry. I agree with Bob on how YouTube has done much to help me find new tunes, and I listen to live sets from the bigger names I like ONLY if I have a tracklist. Beyond that, I just look at charts, or the “customers also purchased” areas on the stores when I find a tune I like.

    I wrote an article back in 2012 on how I shop for music, and I still follow this ideology to this day: http://www.digitaldjtips.com/2012/12/online-music-buying-tips/

    September 28, 2015 at 10:47 pm #2262141
    Ricky Figueroa
    Participant

    I want to support Terry’s suggestions and add a bit more, too.

    I have used Spotify extensively in various ways: not just it’s “radio” suggestions, but also by using the “appears on” compilation-album lists, which are great rabbit holes. I also use the list of associated artists lists when they are available.

    I tried to use Beats Music, Apple Music’s ancestor, but I hated that it didn’t offer categories of House other than so-called EDM. I might try Apple Music later, but only after Apple fixes some lingering problems with iTunes.

    I also use the Traxsource iPhone app a lot. Each week I check the hype charts for the several genres I play (where else can you find Afro House, for example –this was a tip from D-Jam way back), as well as the full 100 lists (some gems are actually in the lower ranks, for whatever reason), as well as some DJ playlists (either of producers with similar tastes to mine, or just random ones just for the sake of “feeling lucky”).

    Finally, one thing that involves a bigger investment are the record pools. I use ZipDJ to keep track of more mainstream releases via their charts and most-downloaded lists, which go backwards (this helps compensate for Traxsource’s heavy underground bent). And I also use DMS because I have to access old stuff going back decades and because they post remixes and edits not found elsewhere.

    I must admit, however, that the nature of my day job gives me huge chunks of time for music discovery.

    October 4, 2015 at 12:58 am #2265661
    Ronnie EmJay
    Participant

    If it gets annoying you can just unfollow and unlike after you’ve downloaded the track… with email make one such as dj.ampero.spam@whatever.com maybe they’ll even figure out you don’t check the email 😛

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