This is the question I posed to my social networks (twitter, facebook and friendfeed) Saturday evening. I asked folks to be specific. Here are the Top 20 sources I got back as of 7pm ET Sunday February 8, 2009:
I got 76 total responses. If one person mentioned three sources, that is three responses. Radio was very, very low on the list as I expected. Several folks mentioned music blogs in general or specific sites. The blogs cited were OkayPlayer, Gorilla vs Bear, Che Sing The Cool and Brooklyn Vegan.
Some interesting comments that accompanied a few of the responses (names redacted):
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pandora, friends, 101.9 RXP in NYC, and oddly enough if i like a song enough from a commercial to wanna track it down i will
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I'm finding new stuff from the DJs at Cafe Wellstone on Second Life - last.fm works, too
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When I'm starting a new genre, I find allmusic.com's articles incredibly helpful. Their subdivisions are pure music geekery: you get sample lists of key albums for, say, Chicago blues, jump blues, Delta blues, piano blues, acoustic blues, and on and on...and that's just blues.
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OK - I may be 100 years old compared to y'all - but did you notice that only one of us mentioned radio? I am old enough to remember when radio was THE place to hear a new song. Funny...
- typically last.fm for music - use to like Pandora but that was before they had to geotard themselves
- Last.fm, Friendfeed, and opening bands at concerts. And, sadly, iPhone commercials
- iTunes/Genius. Books good, TV bad (except Lost & BSG - WOM)