Since the day I was born, I have been surrounded by music. Growing up in a household of musicians will do that to you. With a marimba player for a mother, I fell asleep each night with the sounds of percussion directly outside my bedroom door. With my jazz pianist of a father, pre-gig practices directly underneath my room would wake me up on most weekends -- something that drove me crazy in my teen years, as I could not receive my 12-plus hours of sleep I so craved.

I learned what a clave was before I could read. My dad has always loved Brazilian music, and before I even knew where Brazil was, I was bobbing along with the beat of Djavan in my car seat. I was going to the Boston Symphony Orchestra every Thursday before I could walk, and going to various jazz clubs on weekends far before I should have ever stepped foot in a bar.

Before I was 10 years old, I had already been exposed to hundreds of thousands of different songs, a flurry of different genres, and had a chance to somewhat pick out what I liked and what I didn’t care for as much.

At some point I realized that I could listen to what I wanted to, and that there was plenty of music out in the world -- not just Brazilian, classical and jazz. With this realization came a wall of excitement and a whole new world to explore.

Taking on this whole new world included some trial and error of different mediums. There are a million and one ways to find new music but below are what I prefer.

8tracks: I really should be an ambassador for this site by now. Since the summer of 2012, this site has honestly changed how I explore music. The concept of the site is simple and brilliant. People post playlists, tag what the songs are like (hip-hop / remix / tropical / Hoodie Allen). You simply search the kinds of things you are looking for (summer + party + Chance The Rapper) = and playlists that people have posted with these tags show up. Simple. Now that’s some math I can dig.

Pros: You can easily favorite the songs that you like and go back later and find a nice and organized list of them. If a download link is available for the song, it will pop up, along with the iTunes and Youtube links. Additionally, when you are listening to the song, you can click on the artist, and a little bio will pop up. Convenient & wonderful.

Cons: They now have ads (ugh) but they are pretty minimal and generally just on the sides (not audible).

Mine.

Soundcloud: Clearly Soundcloud is huge and a wonderful medium for artists to post their tracks for the public. Remixers thrive on Soundcloud and will continue to do so as long as they do not succumb to the changes of the music streaming industry (@AppleMusic).

Pros: Hella remixers. A lot of content on SC that you won’t be able to find anywhere else. Exclusive & all around swell.

Cons: The integrity of the site is being put in jeopardy (in my humble opinion)/ads. Prayers it stays OG.

Mine.

Hypemachine: A brilliant site laid out in relation to blog posts. The charts are separated into remixes/non remixes along with “Freshest” and Blogs in the USA.

Pros: Wonderful content. Top tracks never fail to please. The front page of the site is basically like the top tracks you would see on iTunes, except tracks that we actually like (srry Selena).

Cons: I simply despise the look of the site. Lime green is unattractive and I think the layout could use a facelift.

Mine.

Bandcamp: This site is great because it offers a slew of low-er key artists that may just be starting up. Full albums are streamable and the site is sleek af.

Pros: Lots of underground music and a wonderful way to support artists of all shapes and colors (#inclusive).

Cons: A lot of the music you DO have to pay for (or you can just donate to the artist). But in the words of Jay Z, “People really feel like music is free, but will pay $6 for water.”

Other advice for finding new music:

·On Soundcloud there is a “Related Tracks” feature, which is super handy if you find a song you really like and want to hear more like it! (If that was not already incredibly self-explanatory).

·Follow different sites: GMAD, thissongissick, Indie shuffle, Ones To Watch, Consequence of Sound, Drowned in Sound, etc.

·Youtube is your friend. There are about a bazillion different channels out there of people just posting different songs of the same caliber: Majestic Casual, Trap Nation, The Sound You Need, to name a few. Explore the different channels and find the kind of music you like, then put that ish on autoplay. (Mine.)

·Ask your friends. Believe it or not, your friends listen to music too (IKR). If you have a phone, or vocal chords, ask them what they have been listening to recently. Maybe do a USB swap if that’s not too nerdy. Maybe ask your mom what she’s jammin’ to. Maybe not. Do what you will but my mom usually has some sweet tunes to bump to. You could ask my mom if you want. Alas, I stray.

·Be that annoying person on Vine that asks what song is playing in the 6 seconds of fame a person may have. (Also, be on Vine. I go by Myra Sandwich and am an active member of the Vine community please come find me). If you have a vine account, take advantage of the 6 seconds of cool beat you hear because there are some cool songs out there. Not sure if I should be proud or ashamed about the amount of music I have gotten from Vine…

Happy hunting, folks. There is a world of new music out there; go forth and find it.