I described 2024 as a “prolific year for finding new music”, but in 2025 I took that energy to new heights across dozens of new artists and hundreds of new songs that kept me jamming from January to December. The journey of discovering new music is deceptively challenging, but the listening habits I started developing in 2024 blossomed further in 2025 with new inputs, sources, and above all, a renewed intentionality to open myself to new sounds.

Let me shed some light on what my current process for finding new music looks like today. For better or worse, it all starts with the Spotify algorithm that kicks in after I finish playing a favorite album. There is A LOT to unpack here that is worth a separate article, in no small part because I’ve become increasingly aware and distrustful of how Spotify’s algorithm can bias your exposure based on criteria you aren’t even aware of. Complexities aside for the moment, Spotify’s suggestions have delivered plenty of hits for me; my shining example of this was just this past December, where after revisiting Coldplay’s 2011 Mylo Xyloto (a real vibe shift in Coldplay’s discography), the algorithm suggested to me Twenty One Pilot’s Hometown. Beyond being almost entirely unknown to me as a band, I’m always impressed HOW Spotify’s algorithm chooses the songs it does to put in front of you - Hometown is the 10th most “popular” song on their album Blurryface based on number of plays, but the song’s construction has a clear overlap with the stylings of one of my other favorite artists, White Lies, which made it immediately appealing to me. What followed was a December obsession with Blurryface.

So the algorithm can get it right, but music is an art, not a science, so of course I’m not always so lucky. In those periods where I’m not inspired but what I’m being served, I’m looking to the more human curators around me. First among those is my beloved fiancé Mara. In truth she deserves a lot more credit than I’ve historically realized; here’s a common interaction we have - me: “Where have I heard this song before? I really like it!” / Mara: “Because I put it on a playlist for you 6 months ago and you said you didn’t like it at the time”. Sorry dear. White Lies is the shining example of her influence, but there are plenty of artists like Clairo, Chaparelle, Wolf Alice, sombr, and many more who are now regulars on my rotation!

The last pillar of my music discovery journey is social media - TikTok & YouTube to be precise. TikTok is great for novelty, I often feel like this is the platform that exposes me the most to the completely unknown, up and coming artists. This is largely because the platform is so accessible to young artists who have grown up acclimated to short form video. It’s always impressive how many creative and talented people are out there, just waiting for their moment to shine. Music on YouTube has been around since the beginning, of course, but it’s fascinating how much the platform has evolved over the years. My niche is watching old performances - The White Stripes on SNL, The Cranberries performing in Paris in 1999, which serves as a great way to resurface older artists that I’m familiar with but want to explore more.

The search for new music can feel relentless, but I’ve developed an ebb and flow of prioritizing new artists and then taking a breather to go back to some of my favorite albums of yore, not to be forgotten! There is no right answer for me or anyone about how to listen, but I’ve become convinced that balancing the comfort of the old with the journey of discovering the new is the balance that best suits me.