On Myspace, I receive a fair share of friend requests from bands that are not at all related to the music I play. I used to politely friend them then ask them how they found my profile, but I don’t think I ever got replies back. They were obviously trying to blindly target as many people as they could in the chance of getting someone’s attention. Now I’ve taken perhaps too hard a tact: If they don’t include an appropriate message indicating why they’re adding me in the friend request I deny it. Perhaps I should make the effort to not be as tough but it’s not easy to know who’s a legitimate contact interested in my music.

I find I’m doing the same thing on Twitter but that probably has more scope for spam accounts and people following me for apparently no reason at all.

I’m working on the meeting more musicians in person. In my isolated part of Cornwall there aren’t many serious musicians under the age of 50 but that has it’s advantages and disadvantages for getting noticed. I went to the Bath Spa IGF two years ago and made some extremely valuable friends which I can see myself holding on to for the foreseeable future.

Paddy, the story with Rebeca is a great one – I tend to meet musicians through all kinds of random connections, more often that not, not musical ones

Eric – Last.fm seems like a good way to go with the recommendations thing, as it learns without you doing much, just by you listening to what you usually listen to – much easier than having to type in endless lists. And you can use the ‘love track‘ and ‘ignore track‘ buttons to fine-tune the selections.

Mike, your situation is probably one of the most common ones, meaning that musicians HAVE to get past your filters, or find an alternative route to have you hear them… worthy of much consideration, thanks.

As a result of the above I don’t tend to hear much stuff from smaller, independent artists but I’m content with this balance of time vs quality music.

I’m a programmer so in my mind I keep thinking there is a technical solution to this, but I think you make an important point regarding listening as a personal experience. Social networking sites do a great job as they all make an effort enable specific kinds of communication. Music, for whatever reasons, has been a difficult communication medium for technology to manage, hence I would argue most social networking sites based on music have not revolutionized how artists are found.

As an artist, it feels like a tragedy that my music (or of others) might not be heard. This kind of negative thinking is easy to squash my recalling the fulfillment of writing and playing. Yet, it is still sad that great music might never reach someone whose life it could change.

despite being on many social media things, i use them mostly to talk to people, and if it happens these people ahve cool music then hey, bonus. I’ve already got enough great music to listen to for the rest of life, and more is just extra fun

having said that (pardon the ramble) i really do love hearing new songs that connect with me in an entirely new way and soundtrack particular points in my life. so her maybe music is more than just a bonus….

where was i? oh yeah, i agree, spam isn’t worth it, and valuing the right opinions is worth everything.

Many of your facts about Music Loving Steve match or parallel Music Loving Heather.

As far as narrowing things down, I’ve put my main focus for new music to things I can use on my radio show, which is about female singer-songwriters.

If someone leaves me a real note (something besides “We’re great!”) when requesting to be friends I’m more likely to check them out sooner than let them sit in my inbox for a month or two when I can get around to checking them out properly, which I up till now I have given everyone the courtesy to do and probably still will for a while. (I don’t even have CLOSE to 8000 friends to delete )

It kind of baffles me how people go about the whole thing so cluelessly when there are so many powerful tools and strategies available.

If I find someone whose music I really love, I send them a note saying so, and also try to mention where/how/who I found them through. I find that to be a much more effective way to start a meaningful relationship than just adding them at random.