The algorithm is terrible, and many outlets end up covering the exact same releases from a given week, based on factors that have little to do with having listened to the releases at issue. But navigating the onslaught of new releases every week is intimidating. I have a methodology for navigating the flood, which you might consider, which provides a manageable listening list of 4-5 albums a week, all while avoiding the restrictive scope of the outlets.
Step 1: Look at the list of upcoming releases on Consequence. https://consequence.net/upcoming-releases/ The list is fairly expansive, going beyond what ends up actually being covered in a given week and includes some self-released musicians, but also excludes releases where the artist has done zero publicity. It also only includes EP and album releases, meaning the artist has put some intention into the release, which is a useful filter. Looking at this upcoming Friday, there are 30 releases that are listed.
Step 2: Exclude EPs, Reissues, Live releases. If you’re interested in listening to new music and want to filter for more substantial releases, you can cut the list down by 1/3 by eliminating old/already-released music as well as EPs. Is it possible that there could be a hidden gem of an EP there? Yes. But the goal here is to find filters that help you whittle a listening list down to a manageable amount, so there are choices you have to make. Alternatively, you can include EPs. Excluding EPs, Reissues and Live releases, it cuts the list from 30 to 19. Include EPs, and it cuts the list from 30 to 23.
Step 3: Cut the list down by genre. Chances are you have certain genre preferences, and only a fraction of the remaining releases are in one of the genres that you’re interested in listening to. Only interested in R&B and indie-pop? That will cut the list down a fair bit. You will need to Google roughly 20 releases to determine the genres of the releases, but it honestly takes less than 5 minutes to do that. And the payoff is you may end up having a list of only 4-5 releases left after culling for genre.
Step 4: Cut out artists you know you will dislike. In case the last step hasn’t whittled the list down to a manageable size, chances are you already know a handful of the artists on your list, and know you are not interested in them. Is it possible Kid Rock will releases an inventive new album of musically and socially progressive tunes? Yes, but also probably not. And just like the outlets that decide what to cover, you’re entitled to use a filter – although in this case, its a filter based on your own taste and experience. I wouldn’t be surprised if after this, you have a list of only 4 releases left after this additional culling. Or, alternatively maybe you’ve developed a manageable list after the last step, and you don’t need to cull any further.
Step 5: Scan local releases for an album to listen to. Even though Consequence’s list is pretty wide-ranging, maybe there is a local artist with a release coming in that week. Even in the NY/NJ area, there are only maybe one or two bona fide releases (especially albums) that are happening per week in the many music circles I know of. But listening local is a way that you as a listener can contribute to your music community – not just by contributing to the local artist themselves. If you find a local release that stands up to the dozens of other releases receiving more publicity, and help give that release visibility, that adds to the public knowledge base of releases, in a way that being the thousandth person to comment on a major release does not.
Step 6: Listen! After going through the above process, I wouldn’t be surprised if you have a list of only 4-5 albums to listen to – a task which you could get through in a few hours. You may listen to a record and find you already dislike it halfway through. Although I encourage you to listen to albums through to completion, you may already have a strong opinion about the artist’s style. (Frankly, artists should put their best foot forward in the first few tracks, so you wouldn’t be out of bounds skipping the rest of an album if you are not feeling the first few tracks). But if you are serious about music listening, this is a completely manageable amount of music to listen to in a given week.
Of course, this is not supposed to be a definitive procedure for navigating new music. Feel free to tailor the method to your heart’s content. But I think it does show that you can come up with a manageable playlist of new music to listen to every week, which avoids the commercial biases of most outlets, and filters music based on your own taste preferences, without succumbing to the algorithm.
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