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!

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[–] 67 points 3 months ago (8 children)

By not updating my music taste for the last 15 years

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  • [–] 19 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    Music peaked right around the time I was 20.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

    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.

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    [–] 39 points 3 months ago (7 children)

    Don't use Spotify, they actively try to put AI shit into your playlist so they have to pay less royalties. Not sure how scumbaggy other services are.

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    [–] 22 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    If your kick is new music than you should just switch languages and listen to stuff pre 2022.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    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!

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago* (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 21 points 3 months ago (10 children)

    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.

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    [–] 18 points 3 months ago
    [–] 15 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

    I built up my own personal library through the years that I will probably still be working my way through in 10-15 years, when I find something I like in it I search out more. I realize that doesn't help anyone else, good luck out there

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    [–] 11 points 3 months ago

    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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  • [–] 10 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    Cancel Spotify if that's what you use. I've been happy with Tidal.

    Certainly not a magic bullet tho. I tend to not listen to a lot of new music so I don't give the slop much of an opening.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago

    +1, I've been very happy with Tidal for years now. I go down discovery holes fairly often and have yet to come across anything AI. It does a good job of vibe matching what I wanna hear.

    Plus the audiophile quality is very, very nice if you have the equipment!

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    [–] 9 points 3 months ago

    By getting old.

    I don't purposely listen to anything made after 2015.

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  • [+] 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 child)
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    [–] 8 points 3 months ago

    By streaming mp3s, which I have collected and updated for almost 25 years, from my personal server.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago

    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

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 child)

    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.

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    [–] 7 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    Related bands are less likely to be AI than cold searches. You can also check to see if they have any social media influence, AI bands are unlikely to have any live clips

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    [–] 6 points 3 months ago

    I don't stream music, I buy albums on Bandcamp pretty much exclusively for lack of better options. Then I play them to death, and buy another handful. Some piracy. Some vinyl purchases.

    I haven't come across any AI slop in my favourite genres top of the month lists on Bandcamp yet.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    By not letting an AI choose what you hear.

    Seems pretty obvious, really.

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    [–] 5 points 3 months ago

    Qobuz has seemed to stay on top of generated music for me so far even with recommendation playlists.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    By checking out the Ukrainian metal band IGNEA.

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    [–] 4 points 3 months ago* (1 child)
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    [–] 4 points 3 months ago

    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.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (5 children)

    I personally would never listen to a song recommended by a machine. Gave pandora a real good shot but it always seems to recommend things I hate, along with Spotify, Apple, etc. so I just let the music find me. You are very lucky it has worked for you! I’ll bet there is a service out there for you that works. I’m also super not picky when it comes to music- don’t care what the lyrics are, as long as it’s a bop I’ll listen to it. In that regard, I would definitely listen to an AI song if I couldn’t tell. Never heard one like that but is the fact that it’s ai the only hangup? I refuse ai at work, web search, almost every aspect of my life, but I don’t think I would care if music was ai.

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    It's my biggest hangup. As someone who thinks of themselves as an artist I hate thinking I'm helping crowd out artists and reward music plays from people who didn't go through the effort to master music like that.

    Just like I've never been able to pirate media (I'm old enough to have been around when MP3s killed music stores). I want the artist to be rewarded.

    Maybe I'm being silly? But it's important to me.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago

    I listen to DJs on Twitch. I look up stuff on bandcamp.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago

    i only listen to music from bands that have existed since long before ai music became a thing

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    By listening to music from before AI slop existed.

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    [–] 3 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    What platform are you on? I haven’t experienced this in Apple Music but I often listen to the same stuff rather than going down discovery holes.

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    [–] 3 points 3 months ago

    The only time I hear AI music is when someone sends it to me. And since they usually tell me "they made it with AI," I don't actually listen to it. I haven't used Spotify's recommendation system for a while, since it became garbage long before AI was around, and I don't listen to random music like on a radio or live podcast type thing. Occasionally it might be in a meme video, but it's incredibly rare not least of which is because all the creators I tend to follow and watch also hate AI.

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