💿️ Digital Crate Digging §

Status:#in-progress

I’m a music enthusiast. I listen to music on every occasion I get, be it while coding, commuting or cooking. Needless to say, I burn through it quickly. There is only so much music, one person or band can produce, which means I’m constantly looking out for new tunes to satisfy my auditory cravings. This habit sounds like an addiction, and maybe it is. However, the goal of this post is not to reflect on my high music consumption. Instead, I want to share my insights and processes as to how I discover new music to keep my ears stimulated.

Crate digging: The process of searching through record stores or collections for rare or hard-to-find vinyl records.

I grew up during the transition from mp3 player to smartphone. I liked using my Sony Walkman, but thought of it as a just a phone without a SIM-card. Before this weird transition phase, consuming music via CD, casette or vinyl records was the status quo. Crate digging was a tedious process of manually going through records, following a trail of related albums or tips friends gave you, in order to discover new gems. Digital crate digging is different. Nowadays, streaming apps have largely replaced music stores. People are digging crates, without even realizing it, by listening to automatically generated recommendations. And finally, the social dimension of crate digging is gradually shifting into memes, social media posts and short from videos such as reels/TikToks. Digital crate digging can reach from simply choosing the right streaming service, to using specialized tools in order to find the most niche of all tracks. This post starts off basic, and will gradually get more advanced. Feel free to skip over what you already know, and quit when you have learned enough.

📦️ Crates §

When digging record crates, it is important to consider which crates to dig in, as they determine what kinds of music you are going to find. Streaming services are the modern day equivalent of record crates, and they each differ from one another. From my experience, there are two important differences:

• Sound quality
• Recommendation quality

Here’s an attempt of mine to compare the streaming services I use(d):

TODO: Figure comparison

• Spotify
• Apple Music
• YT Music
• Deezer
• SoundCloud

👍️ All-rounder crates §

For average users. Good audio/recommendation quality, little crate digging effort.

Spotify §

My general recommendation is to use Spotify, as it strikes a good balance between audio and recommendation quality. It provides a multitude of procedural playlists like “Discover Weekly” as well as automatic playlist enhancements, that sprinkle similar tracks into playlists of your choice. Another bonus is, that most music discovery tools require Spotify to function due to its popularity.

Deezer §

Deezer is extremely similar to Spotify. It’s “flow” playlists suggest songs based on mood or activity, like for example “motivation” or “focus”. I find it the easiest of all platforms to just start listening to new music. However, it’s lack of popularity compared to Spotify can be a dealbreaker to people who like to be on the same platform as their friends.

🔎 Deep crates §

For crate diggers. Average audio quality and superb discovery features.

YouTube Music §

If you aren’t an audiophile, YouTube Music is a great alternative. From my experience, the recommendations, and music catalog are the best/largest of all services. Like Spotify, it generates tons of playlists for you, but with even better recommendation quality.

SoundCloud §

SoundCloud is great if you like extremely niche stuff. I’m talking about bootlegs with 100 plays that make you think: how on earth is that artist not famous yet? Whether through track comments or personalized playlists such as “Daily Drops”, SoundCloud is the place to dig for hidden gems.

🎧️ Quality crates §

For audiophiles. Maximum audio quality but low discoverability.

Apple Music §

Apple Music is the opposite of SoundCloud and YouTube Music. It’s lossless and in some cases even 3D audio can only be matched by other services such as Tidal that cater specifically to audiophiles. However, its bad recommendations as well as sluggish performance make digital crate digging very tedious. What I use Apple Music for, instead, is to import some of my most loved playlists, so I can listen to them in maximum quality.

Techniques §

With an overview over which crates exist, it is now time to learn how to dig crates.

Basics §

Basic techniques, that advanced listeners mostly know.

Personalized Playlists §

Many streaming services curate personalized playlists for their users. While this may be common knowledge for most readers, it’s worth mentioning popular examples on Spotify, such as Discover Weekly and Release Radar. Many streaming services also create rewind playlists at the end of the year, which include songs you often listened to as well as songs you missed.

Song Radios §

Song radios are automatically generated playlists based on a chosen song that acts as a seed. They are typically personalized based on the listening profile of the user and are a good way to find music similar to a song. However, this level of personalization can sometimes hinder the exploration of new genres, as the radio tends to suggest songs from genres you already listen to frequently. One feature that sets SoundCloud apart is its ability to show playlists that include a specific song. This feature is akin to a song radio, but without the black box of AI drives the recommendations. While it may seem less sophisticated at first glance, I’ve found that it is more effective for discovering new genres, as it doesn’t rely on my listening profile. Moreover, it provides an opportunity to connect with like-minded listeners who share similar music tastes. Unfortunately, Spotify lacks this functionality natively. However, third-party tools like Chosix offer a similar experience for Spotify users.

Communities §

Outside of streaming services, there are numerous music communities. These communities are often organized around specific genres or artists, and can be found on various platforms such as Reddit, Discord or Twitter just to name a few. In particular, I found Twitter and Discord to be great for electronic music. However, finding the right communities can be challenging, as some of them are polluted with aspiring artists trying to promote themselves. A good starting point to find worthwhile communities is to seek out fan groups dedicated to artists you already like.

Advanced §

With the basics out of the way, let’s get started on some more advanced techniques!

• Playlist cooking
• “Create a recursive list of influences starting from IMANU.”

Playlist Cooking §

Playlist Cooking is a technique to find new songs by creating a playlist with songs you want to blend together, and then creating a Radio of that playlist. Basic recipes may be throwing together a bunch of songs of a certain genre you like to find more songs of that genre. However, you can also add spices to your cooking playlist. For example,

It is similar to cooking in the sense that you create a mix of songs to create

Tools §

Chosix §

• Music discovery tools
  • Chosic
    • Similar song finder
    • Playlist analyzer
    • Obscure song finder
    • Spotify stats
  • Gnoosic
    • “Search engine for music you don’t know about”
    • Answer question, get suggestions
  • Music Map
    • Creates a graph of related songs/artists
  • Discover Quickly
    • Power user tool for playing lots of similar songs quickly
  • “Tinder” for music discovery
    • Muzal
    • Discz
      • Invite only
      • Discord invite
• Chat gpt
  • Prompt engineering (Tweet)
  • Playlist AI
  • -> Clunky and it seems as if AI doesn’t really understand music

Other tips §

• don’t listen to musical or relaxing music on your main account when going to sleep, it will nuke your listening profile