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Great music selection without overthinking

4 points by cr34t1ve ↗ HN
There are times (now more than ever) where picking music seems to be a proper task. Having to figure out I'm in the mood for can be so tiring that I just hit shuffle and settle with the next best thing. Does anyone else get this? What's your recent experience?

12 comments

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bix6
Pick an album or ask an LLM for an album. Or radio on a song I like.
earworms
I have three moods; listening to music i haven't heard before, listening to music i haven't listened to in a long time (like over 6 months), or listening to some music that i have been recommended to by friends or the rare times of letting an algorithm decide for me.

I usually utilize P2P as a library kind of thing; listen to an album or so from an artist or band or composer... then delete it; while i keep the ones i really enjoy and would do with the second mood.

I rarely ever stream; it's the bane of musical diversity.

cr34t1ve
When you lay it out like that, I think those three moods apply to me as well. There are times I get stuck on a particular album that I listen to till it's completely worn out, then I revisit it a long time in the future.

What would you say is so 'broken' with music selection with algorithms? I can't put my finger on it (pun intended)

What's your library like? All physical?

theMezz
I have been testing Spotify's DJ .. I tell it to play new songs based upon my 20 playlists and exclude AI, rap and hiphop. Often the DJ does a good job with mixing my playlists with new music. Sometimes it is way off. To be fair it is in Beta.
cr34t1ve
When its right, its alright. When its wrong, its very wrong lol. It is in Beta and has been for a while. I sometimes wonder if its placed there so we aren't harsh with the critique
Wpnx330
When I am in G.S.D. mode, I always go for wordless music that lets me lock in. Like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gopYmb38DgM or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrkrdYm3HPQ

When I am in hitting the gym, Spotify, pick rock song from the 2ks and hit radio mode.

cr34t1ve
Nice! Thanks for sharing the YouTube links. When in G.S.D. mode I either listen to Aphex Twin ambient music, Boards of Canada or this super long Arabian playlist (I'm not Arabian and I don't understand the music. The melody just hits nicely, like I'm in the desert. Sorta like a pilgrimage. [https://music.apple.com/gh/playlist/saharan-desert-blues/pl....])
newsomix9xl
I looked up random genres of music on wikipedia and then looked for major artists in that genre and then listened to them on online music sites.

I found this exposed me to a wide range of good music.

That said, I prefer Japanese jazz these days picked through other methods.

I'm always in the mood for jazz music from great Japanese artists , esp from the Three blind Mice label.

lebrackyt
I made Playlistable just for this in 2023
cr34t1ve
Beautiful work! I checked it out. Wasn't able to listen because of the paywall though. I definitely will during the week
cr34t1ve
I later noticed it created a playlist in my Apple Music. The playlist is great. Thank you! How do you generate the playlists? Does it factor what I already listen to?