It has been almost a year since we were sent home from campus because of the pandemic, and sent into quarantine for months and months. It was hard to not see friends and family members, but, on a positive note, quarantine gave us more free time than ever to start a new hobby or dig deeper into something that interests us. In my free time, I am always on Spotify scavenging for new music. So, this past year I have found several ways to find new music that I love on Spotify (sorry Apple Music users), and I thought I would share some of my tips and tricks for anyone who is currently stuck in a music rut.

The high points of my week are Mondays and Fridays because of the two personalized playlists that are released on those days: Discover Weekly and Release Radar on “New Music Friday.” These playlists are available to all Spotify users under the “Made For You” tab within “Discover New Music.” They are tailored to you based on what you listen to day-to-day and your liked songs. Tip: liking songs and following artists that even remotely catch your attention help to perfect these playlists every week. Discover Weekly consists of songs from new, up-and-coming artists that sound like what you’ve been listening to lately. I also love this personalized playlist because listening to these new artists and their music through Discover Weekly helps to get them noticed and gain more of a following. Your Release Radar playlist consists of music from each New Music Friday from more well-known or popular artists that you follow or listen to frequently. New Music Friday is also its own playlist that consists of various types of music that have been released that Friday or in the past week. My favorites from this week are Post Malone’s cover of “Only Wanna Be With You”, “Roots” by Cautious Clay, “It Takes Two” by Fiji Blue and “Dream No More” by Billy Davis, Ruel and Genesis Owusu!

Another way to find new music is to exchange your finds with a friend by making playlists for each other and updating them regularly. I have made so many playlists for my close friends filled with songs that remind me of them or songs that I think they would love. A lot of the songs that I put on these playlists are from my Discover Weekly and Release Radar playlists each week, and my friends and I have helped each other to find such great music and even our favorite artists today. 

My roommate Sheila and I have been putting new music on each others’ playlists for two years now, and we even have a collaborative “greatest hits” playlist that we both add our favorite song recommendations to from each other’s. Collaborative playlists are another great way to get music recommendations from your friends. Make one and tell your friends to add songs to it for a get-together, adventure, party… I made one for a 13-hour road trip with some of my friends and it was awesome to listen to everyone’s music picks and find some new music along the way. 

I have also found several other playlists on Spotify through social media, specifically Instagram and Tiktok. Many of my favorite artists that I have found through my Discover Weekly playlist have gained a big following and are given opportunities from Spotify to curate a playlist, such as Ruel’s feature and picks on the Listen Local playlist this past month. These new artists are also notified when Spotify features them on their playlists (some playlists that I listen to are Front Left, Pollen, and Lorem) with similar artists, and these artists share the playlists on their Instagram stories. On Tiktok, I have found many users who share my same love of music and are just suckers for finding new music. I like to follow them and their playlists to see what they’ve been listening to. Some of these TikTokers are @arijelkins, @carlasinfiniteplaylist and @hahakcoolgtgbye. In general, I always seem to find good songs through TikTok audios on my For You page. 

I love helping others find new music and I hope this article will help you to find music for yourself and your friends too! My Spotify is @laurengasek17, feel free to give me a follow, check out my playlists or get a deeper look into my favorite music finds!

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