Once upon a time, you “discovered” music. You traded mix tapes, you stayed up late with your cousin Joe who introduced you to Boy George, George Michael and Freddie Mercury (and now as you write this article you realize at 40-something that your cousin was low-key telling you he was gay through sharing only gay artists) you Shazam’d in public holding your phone up in the air like survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 spotting what they think is a rescue.
Today? You don’t discover music. It discovers you. Usually while you’re just trying to watch a dog on a skateboard or reels with the hashtag #HolyAirball. (little did Young Jeezy and Akon know that the real “Soul Survivor” would be the song itself).
As Olivia Jones at MIDiA brilliantly pointed out, music discovery isn’t dead. But it did get a remix. The mixtape is now a “For You” page. The DJ? A semi-sentient algorithm trained on your 80’s Greaties, Dimes & Wine, First Rounds On Me and Vices In Vegas playlists (all of which are legitimate Phillip Becker playlists available now *cough* cheap plug).
The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same-ish
Discovery is now delivered.
Your playlists are couriered to your ears via TikTok, Spotify AI, or whatever short-form dopamine engine to which you’re addicted. You didn’t “find” Ice Spice. She was on your doorstep before you knew you ordered her.
Radio lost its crown—but not its relevance.
Gen Z doesn’t wake up in A-Team pajamas, on their water bed to the sounds of George McFly on B96 (let him cook!) like I did, but they still trust radio and believe that it makes their favorite song or artist more legit than the strength of B.A. Baracus.
Catalog > Current.
New music is losing ground. As Jacobs Media, Haley Jones at Luminate Data and Billboard keep screaming into the void, people are streaming older songs more than ever. Discovery is still happening—just in reverse. Shout out to Chris Ryan at K92 in Roanoke for playing The Goo Goo Dolls “Iris” like it’s a current. Chris, you may not want the world to see you, but I do.
Virality is the new validation.
If a song falls in the woods, but hasn’t been remixed, meme’d, and used in a GRWM by an influencer did it even drop?
I’m Not Resistant To Change, I’m Aggressively Nostalgic
- 87% of U.S. teens (by 87% of US teens and by US teens I mean the kids at my house) say they discover music on Roblox, YouTube, Twitch, or TikTok. Not radio, not blogs, not their Dad who looks like a brown eye, less angry Bill Burr, with a better jawline.
- Spotify’s Discover Weekly has more monthly listeners than some FM stations have people in their whole market.
- Indie Brag: Research from Moscati et al. (2025) says listeners who seek out unknown artists feel connected to the art and the artist more than most.. So yes, your obscure finds still count, just don’t gatekeep, Kyle. (Kyle: Internet slang often the name given to a slightly bro-y guy who drinks Monster Energy and punches drywall).
What the Industry Could (Actually) Do
- Stop chasing the past: The “wait for radio to break it” model is more rusted shut than another MySpace return.
- Lean into platform-native short form discovery: If your hook doesn’t work in 7 seconds, it might not work at all (as evidenced by you making it to the end of this sentence, I hooked yah!).
- Bridge the platforms: Discovery might happen on TikTok, but emotional attachment gets sealed by fan meet ups, untold stories heard on the air, or live shows.
Final Thought(s)
Discovery’s not dead. But it did trade its flannel for an iPhone, its crate-digging days for swiping, its pound sign for hashtag.
The artists who will win now are not waiting to be discovered; they soft-launched through 47 influencer accounts, got tagged in IG stories by “tastemakers” with oddly identical captions (hmmm), and appear on playlists like “Chill Pop Rising” and “Mood Booster,” before they even hit 10K streams or so my friend that works at a streaming company that rhymes with Spot-A-Lie told me.
And if you think music showing up uninvited is a new thing, let’s not forget the original forced delivery drop: September 2014, when Apple “gifted” the world U2’s Songs of Innocence by air-dropping it into 500 million iTunes libraries, making Bono the first ever unwelcome Santa Claus. You have the new U2? Me2! It was meant to be a bold marketing move. At the time, we called it invasive. Now? It’s just Tuesday on TikTok.
By Phil Becker