alt Hacker NewsI like using the automatic lists in soundcloud to discover new music. Often its hit or miss but it can surface some great tracks... Its intentional though, gotta have your finger on the skip track and heart...
Replies
Right but a good DJ introduces you to new music while fitting the track into the set as a whole. It’s not a random music discovery process, and oftentimes I’ll end up mostly preferring to listen to a song as a part of the set, not individually.
To use the food analogy again: sure, if you just eat random things on the menu, you might find new foods that you enjoy. But it’ll be a much better experience if the chef / restaurant is introducing you to new foods in an intelligent way, not randomly or “We see you like chicken, so try this other chicken dish.”
Using recommendation engines feels like wading through the sewers. Eventually you find some gems but you have to pass a lot of shit on the way. Listening to actual DJ sets is gem after gem. Only problem is if you are looking for stuff to dj with yourself, most of what they are playing is yet unreleased or private edits that never come out.
I much prefer the human curated 'casts or mix shows from DJs with early releases from labels that do a mix while telling you the track/artist/release date. These are clearly aimed at human DJs rather than the larger public. But as far as new recommendations, they are far superior to "automatic" lists from any platform.