How To Discover New Artists On Spotify
Artwork: Lysander Colindres
Have you ever listened to an artist on Spotify and became obsessed? Discovered a new genre, and wondered how you could find more musicians that sound similar?
Well, I’m here to help you search for the next artist to obsess over.
Why listen to me? Well, as a resident music listener that has clocked over 110,000 minutes each year on Spotify and attended over 200 concerts, I’ve listened to an abundance of different artists ranging from reggae to metal.
So, with that, let’s dive in and get you listening.
Utilize the enhanced feature.
The Enhanced feature is a new update to Spotify. This button allows you to take one of your playlists and “enhance” it. Using AI, Spotify will then insert songs they deem similar to those put in the playlist. It will label these singles as “added by Spotify” and add a little glimmer icon by the songs.
This feature is especially useful when you have a “themed” playlist. To demonstrate, let’s say you love studying to calm songs like Bon Iver, Hozier, Noah Kahan, etc. If you take time to put all of these similar-sounding artists in a playlist, Spotify will find even more artists for you to listen to!
Fun fact: the more songs you have in your playlist, the more tailored Spotify’s recommendations will be.
Utilize “Discover Weekly” playlists and TikToks.
The Discover Weekly playlist by Spotify is great to check out (because it’s curated for you specifically!), but if you are looking for a little less mainstream, there are so many curators that make their own weekly playlists based on certain genres. Kasey Gelsomino is a great option for those of you who specifically enjoy indie and alternative! Otherwise, Spotify has a New Music Friday playlist that has some decent artists to check out across all genres.
Although TikTok can be used to scroll endlessly through CleanTok, memes, and news commentary, it is also a great resource for finding music. Several creators on Spotify make a TikTok each week designated to songs and emerging artists you should check out. Many creators like fuegostine, matthew.meyer, Studio Two, and Dan Discovers Music have tailored their content to fit a “if you like this, you should listen to” style of music sharing.
Don’t sleep on mood playlists.
For those who don’t quite know where to start looking, do not hesitate to lean on mood playlists from public curators. Due to the mass platform of Spotify, there is a playlist for almost anything. Seriously - check out this one that just has high BPM songs to help you stop procrastinating.
If you know what kind of music you are looking for, but not what artists fall under this umbrella, feel free to look up items like, “morning in the mountains”, or, “songs to play when you’re on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere”, and watch the results roll in. From there, you can listen and explore those artists on the playlists, and even save them to your library.
If you have a song you specifically don’t like - maybe it’s the way the artist sounds or the vibes are not quite right for the playlist, feel free to exclude it from your “taste profile” to help Spotify better curate recommendations for you.
Final thoughts.
Regardless of what music you find yourself jammin’ (or falling asleep) to, Spotify is a powerhouse for artist discovery. With a user-friendly interface, there are endless ways to discover, share, and obsess over music with just a few clicks.
With that in mind, I invite you to get searching, get liking, and get excited about all the great artists that are just waiting to engage your ears.