Music

Spotify's For You recommendations are good if you tailor it to what you like and strictly stick to it. But just searching and playing a random song once will mess the algorithm up.

I would recommend using something like https://www.music-map.com

I've been using Rate Your Music for the past three years now. In mid-2022 they overhauled their recommendation system and it might suit your needs if you put the time into rating things you like and hate.

It uses your release ratings to figure out what genres and descriptors you respond well to, and which ones you don't like, and uses that to not only recommend you releases you haven't rated in the genres/descriptors you like, but also releases that are outside your comfort zone to broaden your tastes a bit. I used it briefly as I've got a massive backlog and want to focus on that, but I found some great stuff through the recommendation system.

I believe free users and regular (£20/yr) supporters get 100 recommendation, Select supporters (£40/yr) get 200. Both supporter tiers also allow fine-tuning of the recommendations, but I've not messed with it. (EDIT: Forgot to mention, you can have generated playlists for Spotify based on your RYM recommendations, and I believe they have intentions to support Apple Music in the future).

I can provide screenshots if you want to take a look.

I have been very impressed with "Track Mix" playlists in deezer.

Works the same as all of them are suppose to, but since switching off Spotify for deezer some months ago, I have easily found 20+ new band across a huge variety of music.

Last.fm used to be my solution for this. It connects to a variety of players and just handles the tracking/recommendation/discovery aspect. No idea how it stacks up to current algorithm offerings though, I haven’t used it since Spotify launched Discover Weekly. But I suppose if the subscription services aren’t cutting it you could add this on top.

I've had good luck with Pandora over the years, but I created my 'station' in 2008. They added new station modes recently as well, so you can have it reach a bit farther.

I’ve had no luck with any app in particular over extended periods of time. Spotify has been good, but will occasionally only recommend me stuff I’ve heard a million times for a few weeks straight. My best luck has been following music reviewing sites, or going through playlists featuring artists I like on spotify. This is best with smaller bands, there are less generic playlists with them. Finally, my best bet for finding new music from small artists is simply browsing bandcamp. I’ve found many great artists who aren’t on spotify, and many who are.

As a metalhead, I’m a fan of angry metal guy, as far as reviewers go. RABM on reddit is good too.

I don't know how good the recommendations are, but you could try Quobuz in case you haven't heard if it yet