YouTube Music has an enormous library of songs available to stream, but I was stuck listening to the same old tunes for too long. That was, until I used these discovery tricks to massively expand my library.
1 Don’t Miss Out on Existing Mixes
Before diving into specific features for music discovery, a good place to start would be YouTube Music’s mixes and playlists. The “Home” tab features a long list of recommendations, ranging from new releases to tailor-made mixes based on your listening history.
Many of these playlists are also based on your listening activity in the YouTube app (if you have both apps linked to the same account), making it easier to find new music based on live performances and long-form playlists you’ve watched. This also allows you to view music that you might have come across on YouTube Shorts.
Apart from mixes, you can use YouTube Music’s song search features in the search bar to hum or play a song for easy identification. The Explore page, too, has country-based playlist recommendations and music video recommendations. I like to browse through YouTube Music’s charts to discover trending music.
2 Use Radio Stations Differently
Like most music streaming apps, YouTube Music offers radio stations for individual songs, which create a queue of recommendations based on the starting song.
But if you are like me, you might have noticed that sometimes, these stations don’t really give you the results you want. Songs are either too close to comfort to your liked songs (sometimes even overlapping) or don’t expand beyond your musical bubble. This is an obstacle if you are trying to actively discover new music outside your music comfort zone.
A simple trick can fix this problem. After you start a radio station for a particular song you like, create another station for a song that’s now been recommended. Not only does this switch up your recommendations, but looping this step can prevent a rinse and repeat of the same songs being played.
3 Tune Your Personalized Radio Playlists
One of my favorite YouTube Music features is personalized radio playlists, which help you create playlists based on a few artists and varying levels of music discovery.
You can listen to a personalized playlist from your library by tapping New > Radio.
To ensure you get the best out of a personalized playlist, set the artist variety to “High” and music discovery to “Discover.” This will generate newer songs on the playlist. Selecting filters available to you, especially genre-based ones, will also help tune the playlist to your liking.
I use these playlists when I want to take a break from my library or the Explore tab and get a playlist that matches the vibe of my favorite artists, while discovering new artists and songs.
After creating a personalized radio playlist, you can tape “Tune” to edit the artists chosen, artist variety, and music discovery.
4 Swipe Through Samples
After TikTok’s rise to fame, Short-form, vertical videos have become a staple on apps like Instagram (Reels) and YouTube (Shorts). YouTube Music, too, has something to offer on this front: Samples. These are short videos in a sequential feed, showing you snippets of music that you might not have heard.
You can scroll through Samples by tapping the “Samples” tab on the YouTube Music app.
Samples have a lot in common with YouTube Shorts by virtue of interface similarities: they are basically the music version of Shorts. You can like, comment, save, and share Samples, or tap on the “Shorts” button to discover more short videos on the YouTube app that use the song in their audio. You can also hit “Play” to listen to the full song and save it to your library.
Although Samples uses a simple TikTok format that could seem repetitive if you are on literally any social media app, it’s still a good way to discover new songs beyond the Home and Explore tabs (especially if you have a short attention span).
5 Improve Your Recommendations
Your music recommendations can be improved from the YouTube Music settings. In the YouTube Music Home tab, select your profile picture, then go to Settings > Playback & Restrictions, and turn on “Dynamic Queue.” This will give you queue and radio updates based on your listening behavior, adding newer songs to your radar.
In “Playback & Restrictions,” you can also tap “Improve Your Music Recommendations” and fine-tune the way you discover new music by picking certain artists. This comes in handy when you want a genre shift in your library, or simply want to switch things up once in a while.
6 Take Advantage of YouTube Recommendations
If you are not a big fan of YouTube Music’s recommended song stations or playlists, an easy workaround is to ride the YouTube recommendation wave. With features like music cards and recommended videos, finding new music through YouTube (especially new releases and artists) can really benefit your YouTube Music library.
Using YouTube’s algorithm to its full potential to revamp your library is not an arduous task that involves navigating between the two services.
You can link your YouTube songs with your YouTube Music app so that liked songs from the YouTube app turn up in your “Liked Songs” playlist. To do this, go to your YouTube Music app’s Home tab, select your profile picture, then go to Settings > Playback & Restrictions, and turn on “Show Your Liked Music From YouTube.”
7 Use Last.fm
If YouTube Music’s native features are simply not cutting it for you when it comes to music discovery, then there is a third-party service you can use to improve music recommendations. Last.fm, which uses scrobbling (tracking your listening habits and adding it to your taste profile), keeps track of your listening history and provides recommendations based on it. Beyond opening your music profile to new recommendations, Last.fm also lets you access live stats about your music.
You can connect your YouTube Music account to scrobble music, see reports of your music stats, and find new songs. Last.fm can also be used for Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, and more.
Aside from these music discovery features, I also find that YouTube Music’s featured playlists are a good gateway to diving deep into an artist’s discography. This is especially useful as these playlists are cherry-picked based on your listening history, so you can find more music from artists you already enjoy.