It goes without saying that music is an indispensable part of our everyday lives. And with smartphones and wireless streaming services spoiling us silly with instant accessibility to our favorite playlists, radio stations, and songs, our listening habits have been indelibly changed. As the Internet constantly refreshes itself with the latest sounds from established and emerging talents including DJs, musicians, and producers, the quest for new tunes can become overwhelming.
Thankfully, the mobile market has blessed us with a wealth of apps that not only serve as great music platforms, but also as seamless search tools for unearthing new recording acts and sounds based on preference and social media engagement. You might want to tune your ears for this as we break down the best apps for new music discovery.
10.Soundcloud
SoundCloud’s well-integrated social functionality makes it a great suggestion tool for curious listeners seeking new vibes. Besides keeping you up on what friends are listening to at the moment, the platform serves up remixes and covers of popular songs while regularly presenting new songs from favorite artists. So if that new Kanye “All Day” doesn’t have you spazzing out in the cubicle, go on the hunt for creative mash-ups to get your Yeezy fix. Explore thousands of artists by genre or search for other musical influencers to hear what’s hot
9. Band of the Day
Looking to stumble upon the next Imagine Dragons without having to search YouTube for hours on end? Band of the Day could be the portal that puts you on to such emerging talents. The app does so by unearthing one band (or artist) per day to familiarize you with new acts and sounds generating buzz on the underground scene. Users have the luxury of looking at hundreds of previously posted bands as well.
8.Tracks
We as a society listen to music that reflects our mood. In helping with the selection process, 8tracks allows us to find new artists and songs depending on our attitude, the weather, or current activities that we’re engaged in. You can check out playlists and special mixes from other users on the service, as well as add or find songs via SoundCloud. Or you can just upload them from any computer. Now, with the company recently snagging licensing deals with several indie labels and other aggregating services like INgrooves and DashGo, its library stocks a massive 6.5 million songs for your listening pleasure
7. Shazam
Shazam’s premium service takes the trademark functionality of its flagship app and ups the ante with the ability to hear songs and pull up YouTube music videos, iTunes links, or other popular streaming services like Deezer, Rdio, and Spotify. In fact, users can snag all this info without ever opening the app via the “Auto Shazam” feature. It definitely comes in handy when checking out indie rock shows or hearing something that tickles your eardrum when strolling through the gluten-free section at Whole Foods. Then there’s the “Explore” option, which helps you to gain knowledge of other popular tracks trending on the service
6. SoundWave
Built on a community of music lovers who constantly share what they’re listening to, Soundwave feeds off of its network to appease members who have similar tastes and/or seek new music. Follow friends, celebrities, athletes, and even real musicians to see what trends are forming. Or, you can just start group chats with followers to see what they’ve been playing as of late. If neither seems fitting, there’s always the rating system to get an idea of which artists are drawing buzz. Soundwave makes it possible to share tracks with others from your personal catalog, encouraging users to trade-off songs and expand their music horizons
5.White Label
SoundCloud and Twitter do a good enough job informing us of what hip-hop artists are buzzing based on plays and social media interaction. White Label makes it even more ideal by monitoring the engagement on both platforms hourly to show what’s hot at the moment. The sleek and easy-to-use interface allows for a smooth user experience, and the option to spark conversations directly on the app opens the lane for expert suggestions. No sign-up required—just respect the service and don’t troll others by requesting Young Thug suggestions.
4. Spotify
The perennial one-stop shop for music practically achieves everything that we want in a music service. But have you actually willed yourself to get past Kendrick Lamar’s page over the past month and toy around with the service to seek out other trending artists? Didn’t think so. Tapping the “Discover” feature on the menu bar will automatically curate a playlist based on artists that you’ve listened to and personal playlists that you’ve already created. From there you can save favorite tracks and add them to the collection. Not feeling the entire playlist? Then favorite the artists and keep tabs on their growing catalogs.
3. Rormix
Focusing solely on unsigned acts, Rormix is a centralized platform that curates music videos from emerging and indie musicians. The app will scan your music library to get a feel for your musical taste while utilizing tags to search through over 26 genres. However, we find its “Quick Discovery” feature to be its dopest: It takes a page out of Tinder’s playbook by allowing users to swipe right (like) or left (skip) after watching 15-second looped music clips—hence why it remains one of the fastest options to stumble upon new music.
2.Mixcloud
One of the greatest sources for new music is still the DJ. They're the ones breaking most of the records that find a home on your iTunes catalog. Mixcloud hosts a variety of DJs, along with some great radio shows and podcasts to put you on to what’s popping on the music scene. Artists and genres run pretty deep, though EDM, hip-hop, and world music run heavy on here. The best part is that it offers more space than SoundCloud, leaving tons of room for playlist creation.
1.iHeartradio
Simply put, iHeartRadio is tailored to personalize your listening experience based on musical obsessions. Granted, if that obsession is all about discovering new acts and sounds, the service features over 20 million songs covering every genre, as well as top podcast, live radio, and streaming music stations to narrow down selections. Not to mention the hundreds of other stations built into it that cater toward specific activities and moods. You also gain access to live music events, which are always great ways to discover emerging talents