I keep ending up with AI music in my playlist when exploring for me music. What is your workflow to avoid it? Searching DDG for me has been more bandwidth intensive than I like…
Some background. My favorite song is a song I haven’t heard yet. And my appetite sways wildly. One month it’s old school urban rap, the next it’s kpop, and then Nordic death metal and so on.
I never know what I’ll be in the mood for but I’ll find a thread with a song I don’t know and use it to build play lists to see what I find and sometimes I find trash gems that way.
This last time our friend group watched Eurovision 2026 together and some of those songs are bangers. One of them led to adding a few artists built off of playlists from that song I really liked, and they all ended up being AI… damnit!
By not updating my music taste for the last 15 years
Music peaked right around the time I was 20.
That may be when you stopped actively seeking new music. There are loads of amazing new artists in every genre. There is so much good new stuff coming out its hard to keep up.
Yep this is an effect of its own, forgot the name though.
Be warned that all styles of music are getting AI inserted into them.
Your method works as long as you never use an algorithm to mix your playlist, but as soon as you do, you’re likely to get an AI track inserted into your ears, even if it’s 70s classic rock.
Pretty much what every one of my friends have done. My kids were a great source in their late teens / early twenties. But as they’ve gotten older now they pretty much listen to the same stuff.
No, I’m not going to have more kids.
Are you using Spotify ?
Because they are mainly known for 2 things:
- they are nazi cunts who platform nazi cunts and play ads for nazi cunts
- they flood their library with slop as a way to funnel money to themselves rather than to legitimate artists.
I’m not aware of a streaming service completely free of slop, but I know some like Qobuz are actively detecting and removing it.
Bamdcamp took a stand against blatant slop but will allow artists to use some generative methods in their music.
Tbf some generative methods are cool and foster creativity, like modular synthesis.
There’s nothing wrong about using randomness to get your creative juices flowing. People have been using card decks, dice, Euclidean rhythms, sample and hold and so on for a long time (Andrew Huang has a lot of examples of tracks where the main instrument, theme and genre are randomly picked). I guess sanitized, corporate slop could be used the same way, as long as the artist is fully in control of the creative process. For me the line stops where slop is used as is, with no human creative input.
I’m not, I’m using YouTube music which isn’t much better. I’m still looking for another platform to use but so far I need multiple to get all the music I like in one place.
Though I’ve considered buying CDs again and ripping them for local storage…
Same boat here. YouTube music and AI songs being more common. For right now if I hear someone new I check to see if they had an album before 2025… This method won’t be viable for much longer.
Thank you!
Can you elaborate on that first point please?
They ran ICE ads and only stopped because the campaign ended, not because of massive backlash: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/09/spotify-no-longer-running-ice-recruitment-ads-after-us-government-campaign-ends
They hosted and donated to the orange shitstain while disproportionately targeting “controversial” black artists: https://www.themarysue.com/spotify-supporting-donald-trump-is-horrifically-hypocritical-after-how-theyve-treated-controversial-black-and-brown-musicians/
They pay hundreds of millions to nazi propagandists for the exclusive rights to spread their hate: https://apnews.com/article/joe-rogan-spotify-deal-76fa0e2c9d4b137f510428528ea6226b
The CEO stepped down to make AI weapons with Peter thiel : https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2025-07-31/spotifys-ceo-owns-an-ai-weapons-company-some-musicians-say-its-time-to-leave
Thank you for the info!
If your kick is new music than you should just switch languages and listen to stuff pre 2022.
I listen to a ton of foreign language music. The 2022 piece would help but it won’t last for me. Young people are always coming up with new sounds and I love that!
Yeah and many of them are using AI to do it.
Given your genre flexibility, there is nearly infinite music out there from well before the was any question about it being human-made. You could easily listen to songs you’ve never heard back to back for the rest of your life without coming close to running out of old music.
For modern stuff you’ve basically got to see video of them performing live to be sure.
Sadly that’s what it feels like it’s coming too. But I don’t just want to support artists of a given age…
I know. I want my cake and eat it too.
The video might be AI too.
Using Bandcamp
https://blog.bandcamp.com/2026/01/13/keeping-bandcamp-human/
Never stumbled upon AI generated music ever.
I have my local library with ripped CDs and pirated music mostly from the 2010s and below.
When I feel like discovering new music, I
- browse forums to find arists similar to those I already listen to
- I search for artists that have been featured in a collab in songs I already listen to
- Or, I use ListenBrainz’s Weekly Exploration tab when I’m feeling bored.
No streaming bullshit, AI algorithms made to keep me hooked, and definetly no AI music to be seen or heard.
♥️♥️♥️
Also +1 to the guy that mentioned to listen to your local music scene! I have as many smaller local artists as I possibly can in my library. I’m always looking for random stickers on the streets or festival posters, and then I get home and look all of them up to see if they’re my jam.
I’ll need to do that. I don’t today. I will.
Piracy. Private trackers are genuinely better stewards and curators of their libraries because unlike the the slop factories, they’re made by real humans, for real humans.
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Same! I’m getting old enough to be not sure I can trust my own discernment.
Buy real CDs from artists I see play in person. Or CDs of artists that are long dead.
CDs are key, streaming random tracks you have no clue what you will get.
I’ve been considering this and ripping them like it’s 1996…
Check out your local thrift store and your local library theyre gold mines for physical media to rip the only other thing you’d need is a disc drive
I have one on my gaming PC that I’ve probably used 3 times in the 15 years I’ve had that drive.
And a good idea for the hits for sure.
By getting old.
I don’t purposely listen to anything made after 2015.
Listen to artists I know are human, if the artist doesn’t show up in a web search sorry but they gotta go its too risky
The answer is stop using streaming services. The AI problem will only get worse as people keep paying for these services because what CEO is okay paying an artist a premium when they could instead generate slop and sell that for the same price? Buy your music on Bandcamp or sail the seas, just stop using Spotify.
This. Streaming services are doing to music what Lars Ulrich thought Napster would do.
Qobuz has seemed to stay on top of generated music for me so far even with recommendation playlists.
My answer is - buy music. Not only because that way you’ll get actual human works of art by real musicians who you like, but also because that way they stand a chance of actually being able to make a living so they can, y’know, make more music.
I listen to DJs on Twitch. I look up stuff on bandcamp.
There is a local music festival to me and as part of their promo, they have a playlist with songs from every band on a Spotify playlist. I imagine it’s something other music festivals do and could be good to build a library of music you know is made by real people
I didn’t think of this… I need to go to more of these. Thank you!
