By Justine Seo ’19, Feature Editor

With everything from shared playlists to 24/7 live stream radios on YouTube,  it seems that nowadays there are a million and one ways to find new music. This abundance of sources allows us to cater to all kinds of different tastes and interests we never knew we had before.  For every one genre of music you thought there was, there seem to be about ten new sub-genres. If you want to listen to hip-hop, for instance, subgenres range from lo-fi to emo rap. With the emergence of the internet, creators are able to release greater volumes of content then they were ever able to before. Gone are the days of having to pay a fee to record a demo in a professional studio: with the massive use of the internet and free recording apps available, artists are able to create and distribute music without charge from their own bedrooms (in fact, there is a whole sub genre of music dedicated to this homemade style of production referred to as “Bedroom Pop”).  This shift has contributed to a huge rise in the number of artists and songs being released at any given time. Apps such as SoundCloud fast-forward the process, allowing anyone to release any recording they like and share it with an entire platform of people.

With the plethora of music sources we have today, it can seem overwhelming to choose where to start finding new music. I interviewed two fellow students about where they find their music. Instead of mentioning multiple sources, they cited only one: Spotify.  Upon being asked where they typically found new music, Alice Jiang ‘19 responded, “‘Create similar playlist’ setting on Spotify. It takes your current playlist and finds similar songs.” Alan Lin ‘19 stated, “Discover Weekly on Spotify or my friends’ playlists.”  

The abundance of music available even within the confines of a singular music app is not necessarily a hindrance to finding new music that you actually like. Alan noted that the huge volume of music nowadays is not necessary overwhelming and instead makes it “easier to find music that is similar to the artists you already like.” Both agreed that the vast amount of music sources available to the public meant that there was a lot of both “good and bad music” coming out, but, at the end of the day, as Alice stated, “it’s music to bond over.”  The internet allows you to share this music with your friends, making it something that you can not only listen to for pleasure but that you can also connect with others over.

While the many resources we have today can make it seem as if there are almost too many choices to pick from, this only means that there is more music to discover and fall in love with.  The rise of self-made “bedroom” artists, such as the overnight YouTube sensation Clairo, indicate to us that the world of seemingly endless new music that we are living in is not just one in which we have many options. The many music sources we have available to us today allow us to find music we would have never been able to find otherwise.