Find Good Music to Enjoy Listening To
Finding good music in a world full of endless choices isn’t always easy. The sheer volume of tracks can drown out hidden gems, making music discovery feel less fun and more like a chore.
It can help by switching the dial on your radio. Today the playlists tend to be paid ads for the same songs over and over, when often there is far better music out there, if you know where to find it.
Also read our posts on healing classical music and folk/acoustic music.
Discovering World Music
Good music is needed, and if you tire of the same-old playlists, treat yourself to one or more CDs or downloads from Putumayo, which creates the best world music compilations in the world. If you like world music, subscribe to Songlines magazine.
Vintage Music (for nostalgia fans!)
Past Perfect offers good remastered classics from Sinatra to Garland. If you love watching old black-and-white films or musicals, you’ll love the choice selections here.
Glenn Miller was an American big band conductor, who was very popular in England, and had more hit records that Elvis Presley or The Beatles, including Chattanooga Choo Choo. He died age just 40, when his plane went missing in action over the English Channel. The plane nor bodies of all on board have never been recovered.
Learn to Play a Musical Instrument
Of course, one good way to hear good music, is to make it yourself! Decide on the instrument you would like to learn, then play for pleasure, or you could even end up in a band or orchestra!
Note some musical instruments are made with animal strings, so choose vegan violin strings and for harps. You can also find biodegradable guitar plectrums (avoid tortoiseshell).
Why Sam Ryder Rocks!
Sam Ryder is a lovely-looking man (he says all he does is use shampoo!) from Essex, where he used to run a vegan seaside shop with his girlfriend. But they both loved surfing so much, they kept leaving the premises, and never made any money!
Thankfully, Sam sings like an angel, and after working like a carpenter (with the hair, some have said he has a lot in common with Jesus!), he was discovered when he entered Eurovision (and almost won, unheard of for the UK these days).
He was working as a wedding singer beforehand, but has now kind of hit the big time.
Sam Ryder’s favourite inspiration is Brian May, who combines his love of music with helping wildlife (he’s been trying to stop the badger cull for years).
The most amazing thing is that Sam’s voice is self-taught!
Tidal Streaming
Tidal is a global music streaming platform (with a free trial) that brings fans closer to artists, through unique experience, and the highest sound quality. This service empowers artists to create and deliver their art, exactly as they intended.
bandcamp
bandcamp often has free offerings, some are paid. Often you can find the same music here as on YouTube but without the sign-ins and ads. When fans buy something here, around 82% goes direct to the artist or label within 48 hours, the rest covers site and employee fees.
Take a listen:
Radio Stations and Podcasts
Smooth Radio and Classic FM do have a few ads to pay for the stations (but not as much as other stations), but both play good music, and don’t have shouty presenters who talk over records.
The first focuses on relaxing easy-listening modern music, the second on shorter pieces of classical music, for those who don’t want to listen to an entire opera!
If you do love opera, Classical Radio lets you listen to one!
KLOF Magazine (folk music)
KLOF is the new home for Folk Radio. It’s an online magazine, but the blog posts often link to music tracks of profiled artists.
