Globally Melodic Tales
Music is a highly expressive yet frequently commodified art form that focuses on sounds, moods, and messages. This audio-based medium has been a significant part of my life as a carefree adventurer.
My musical discovery began through local TV and CDs. When I was a young adventurer, I casually surfed across different channels until I found Myx. While I barely remembered the music videos (with majusculed lyrics at the bottom) on my country's equivalent to MTV, I somehow vibed with both local and foreign hits from 2000s.
Constantly hungry for aural exploration, I grabbed some CDs from my relatives' home collections so that I can listen to them on the computer. When I do not have any homework, I would play anytning from famous artists (such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Britney Spears) to lesser-known ones (such as Fast Food Rockers and Coolbone).
Several years later, I made the switch to online streaming. Both YouTube and Spotify paved the way for a truly global voyage for music on demand. Because of the Internet, I got to discover a lot of artists and genres to enrich my musical tastes. While I found streaming to be an accessible way to explore more music, I also get concerned with the its devaluation.
For me, music is both a blessing and a curse in the society. It lets anyone express their thoughts and feelings in audio form. It is a multifaceted medium that goes beyond recordings—it comes with music videos, live performances, artist interviews, and other supplementary content. Unfortunately, it often gets sidetracked with other things like fandom wars, cancel culture, and miniscule pay for artists. No matter what happens to music, it will always be a part of my artistic journey.
Exploring
Streaming services
Online streaming services are a convenient way to explore music. They offer a gigantic song catalogue with everything from the most famous hits to the most obscure deep cuts. They also contain questionable musical recreations and sloppy aural trash.
Some streaming services that I have used:
- YouTube Music - My usual place to discover new music. This is a free music streaming service with an optional account log-in and paid subscription. Ideal for music videos, live performances, song covers, and other music-related content outside of regular streaming services.
- Apple Music - Offers spatial audio (via Dolby Atmos) and animated album art. Home to Apple Music Live, an exclusive series featuring concerts from various artists.
- Spotify - Used to be my go-to app for music streaming. Started dabbling into this one when it became available in my country on 2014. No longer part of my personal music discovery, mainly because of its AI-assisted DJ feature.
Radio
The radio is a traditional way to discover music with little listener involvement. While it offers a limited number of stations in a certain location, it is usually rife in constant yapping and commercialization.
With the existence of Internet radio, there are a lot of traditional and online-only stations to choose from. Websites like FMSTREAM and Radio Garden allow listeners to browse a plethora of radio stations worldwide. Some of my recommendations for online radio stations include the following:
- SomaFM - Collection of 30+ online radio stations, each showcasing a different genre.
- Vintage Obscura Radio - Obscure songs released prior to 2000s.
- WFMU - Freeform radio with an eclectic selection of music from a variety of genres. Includes a pop-up player for live broadcasts and archived playlists.
Collecting
While I find online streaming to be convenient for music discovery, I still keep a dedicated collection of CDs and digital audio files. Here are some places to discover and curate them:
- Bandcamp - Independent music galore with digital downloads and album purchases.
- iTunes - Apple's dedicated online store for digital albums from major and indepedent labels. (Must require an Apple account to purchase albums there.)
- Personal websites - Some artists like Bill Wurtz allow free downloads of their entire discographies.
- CD rips - Old-school way to put my personal music collection on my devices, especially those with a built-in CD player. Since I have a decent collection of hand-me-down CDs (which are a mix of genuine and bootlegged titles), I did this to get my audio library up and running.
- Archive.org - Although this website focuses on archiving pieces of online media, it also houses some songs that may or may not be found on legal streaming services. Here goes most of my digital audio collection.
- FMHY - Directory of websites that offer free media downloads from [partially] legal sources.
- Tartube - Audio and video downloader for YouTube and other video-based platforms. Useful for extracting individual songs and albums that are not officially released on streaming platforms.
Experiencing
Some tidbits about music:
- I recreated a short sample of I Don't Need a Man by the Pussycat Dolls using an old Nokia phone. With the Composer app, I tried to copy a small section of the song (specifically right before the chorus) by memory.
- I watched KZ Tandingan's live performances with my brother at a university's event center in my hometown.