The love of discovering new music
Last time, I talked about how there’s something pure and wonderful about the feeling of discovering a new really good song. One that you want to put on repeat, sing along to. Maybe the lyrics have special meaning to you. Maybe it was a song that a loved one once played for you. Maybe it’s just catchy and you can’t get it out of your head. But we all know that moment—aha! I like this song.
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It’s the purest form of delight in the experience of music. It’s the basic building block of the love of music. I would argue that the moment I find a new song I love, it’s way more satisfying that playing my favorite song a million times. As a developer on Zune, I’m always trying to pitch new features in Zune that make it easier to find new music to fall in love with.
I did an informal survey and some basic observation and tried to learn how my friends discovered new music. It was fairly consistent—overwhelmingly, they’d listen to the radio or talk about music with their friends. Over and over again, the radio and friends would influence people into new songs. This made me happy because it validated some of the decisions we had made with Zune—putting an FM radio into every Zune and building a great social experience where you can keep up and subscribe to what your friends are listening to.
Lately I’ve been discovering a lot of new music by checking out what my girlfriend listens to. She listens to a wide range of music with bands I’ve often never heard of, but it’s always good and I’m always delighted when I find new songs in my Zune inbox from her. I’ll also go to her Zune social page and see what she’s been listening to lately, and make fun of her for listening to Hannah Montana amongst the cool and awesome songs she’s known for. (Well at least until those plays start showing up on my card and you guys start making fun of me for that. What can I say, she influences me.) Being able to send music to your friends is my single most favorite feature we’ve put into Zune so far.
A common scenario for me is that I’ll download a playlist from the Zune marketplace and start listening to new music. I’ll go into Now Playing mode by clicking the equalizer-looking button in the bottom right corner. Whenever I find a song that I really like, I’ll click the ‘more about on this album’ link that appears under the album art. This takes me to the Zune marketplace page where I can read bios and album reviews which link me off to other bands and albums and songs for me to check out. Then I’ll click on the ‘related’ button to get to my favorite part—a list of the band’s influencers and other similar artists, as well as albums I should check out if I like this artist. I have learned about countless new bands and classic albums just by exploring these fun features in the Zune marketplace.
Let me extend my informal survey to you. How do you discover new music?