Magic Tune Finder

The Internet has become an exciting testing ground for new artists. In an area reserved formerly for the fortunate discovered or the inexhaustibly driven has opened up to allow a place for, amazingly, the purely talented.
Several questions rise up, because of this prolific new source:

How do you find new musicians out of all those new videos? And once you find them,

How do you know if you will like them?

We all know about Youtube, where every artist puts a video of their music-- hell, I'm no musician and even *I* have a song on Youtube-- but have no way of knowing their names or what they will sound like.

Fewer of us, but still many, know about the wonderful source: Allmusic.com. Think of it like the IMDb-- the Internet Music Database. Every artist who has made a CD, record or tape will be listed there. But there's more!

Allmusic is truly a repository for some great information. Of course it has every album the band has done, including compilations and singles (no, no bootlegs... these are official recordings only)... and it also has a list of every song the band has ever done. It has a list of every artist that ever played with the band, and a detailed biography of them, from humble beginnings.* Small potatoes.

*But not ALL artists. Some are just getting started, some haven't supplied any information, and some don't know about Allmusic.

But perhaps the most valuable information available for audiophiles like us are the various lists on the overview page. Lists like 'Influenced By' and "Followed'. Lists like 'Similar Artists' and 'See Also'. And lists like 'Genres', 'Styles' and 'Moods'.

The reason why these are important lists are because they help us find musicians to embellish our musical tastes, basing it on music we already love. 

Influenced By-- are all the musicians your fave band attributes to helping them create their unique style. They came before your band, so it's likely you know most of them. Read down the list and make note of any band you aren't familiar with.

Followed-- are all the bands who list your fave band as an influence. They came after your band and you might not know them. This category is a continuation of the first one; it's how the long line of musical styles are created.

Similar Artists-- are what they sound like. Bands that sound in one way or another, like your fave band.

See Also-- is a category that tells you if any of your fave band members have ever been in any other bands. Looking at the Beatles, for example you might find Wings in See Also.
Genres, Styles and Moods-- are more generalized lists, each which will produce dozens if not hundreds of similar artists. A band will be listed in multiple categories, each one determined by using a magical formula involving unicorn poop... or maybe they just use surveys. I'll be honest and say I'm not certain how Allmusic arrives at them, but I know they can be amazingly accurate.

And realizing how easy it has now become to find new favorites caused me to think up a great new 'game' for music buffs like me. I'm going to call it

Magic Tune Finder

Here's how it works:

STEP 1: Go to Allmusic.com and search for any one of your favorite artists. Stop when you get to the Overview page. Read the overview page categories mentioned above and assemble a list of bands and musicians found on those lists that you aren't familiar with.

STEP 2: Now go to Youtube and search for those bands names. You will find them. Remember, Youtube has everything. There will probably be multiple songs from each band. Good.

STEP 3: Create a playlist called (the band you chose), putting all the songs you found by the other artists into it. Don't be shy... I've seen playlists with over 100 songs.

STEP 4: Listen. You can bring other audiophiles that love your fave band to a listening party, or have a more intimate get-together involving one. But in either case, what you'll be hearing, hopefully, is song after song of unfamiliar songs that you LOVE. Or like. Or dislike. It doesn't matter, because when are done you'll follow

STEP 5: where you rate all the new songs by these new bands, and resolve to add their music to your iTunes... or you can choose never to hear them again. If you love them, great! But if you're not sold on buying the song yet you can move to 

STEP 6: where you obtain a free app called something like 'Youtube Downloader', and once it's set up you'll be able to grab any music you hear on Youtube (or anywhere), enabling you to have it in your computer forever. But if you want to put the music in your iTunes however, you'll have to buy the full version... but if you don't, you'll still be able to listen to them any time you open the app.

So play Magic Tune Finder and find tunes you like, like magic!