Where are you based?
Brooklyn, New York.
Where do you work? What do you do?
I’m currently working at Chartmetric as a Music Insights Analyst, and I occasionally book tours for artists during my free time.
What are you listening to?
I listen mostly to jazz, R&B, and hip hop. I am a big fan of D’Angelo, and recently I’ve been listening to his “When We Get By” a lot.
How do you discover new music?
I come from a live music background, so I discover new music mostly by attending shows and checking out events on venues’ websites to see who they’ve booked recently. I also watch a lot of TV series, and I pay attention to what music they use in their soundtracks. This has been a good way for me to discover new music or artists I don’t know, especially in genres I’m not familiar with.
“This has been a good way for me to discover new music or artists I don’t know, especially in genres I’m not familiar with.”
What formats do you usually listen to? LP, CD, Cassette, Digital, Streaming Services? Why?
I listen to music mainly through streaming services, including Spotify, Soundcloud, and NTS Radio. I do listen to vinyl and like to visit record stores, but I only buy records I’m sure I will listen to for the rest of my life. I listen to a CD every time I visit my family in Taiwan (where I’m originally from). My mom sometimes plays CDs in the morning when she cleans the house. My sister is somewhat of a cassette collector. She just showed me the cassette of Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue” a few months ago. This makes me feel that I’m still surrounded by different formats of music.
Where do you do most of your music listening?
I listen to music mostly during my commute or when I don’t need silence to concentrate on a task. For example, I can’t study/work effectively while listening to music. For me, music listening is an activity I need to arrange time for and concentrate on.
How do you find and listen to pre-release music?
I used to work at a music venue, so I used to frequently receive new music from artists. And after working in the industry for a while, I’ve gained friends who love to share new music with me, so that offers me a way to find and listen to pre-release music.
What are your frustrations with listening to music digitally? Any benefits?
The algorithm on streaming platforms sometimes limits the variety of music users can access. Those platforms recommend music and artists based on users’ preferences, which can sometimes be useful, but in my opinion, this presents a disadvantage for people like me who work in the music industry and who need to explore as much music as possible. Sometimes it’s difficult to gain exposure to music from genres you’re not listening to on DSPs if you do not search on your own, and I feel that I’ve been recommended the same music again and again.
“it’s difficult to gain exposure to music from genres you’re not listening to on DSPs if you do not search on your own”
How do you keep track of everything you are listening to?
I used to have the idea of playlisting songs on Spotify based on my age, such as the songs I was listening to at different stages in my life to see how my preference changed, but then I found that I am basically listening to the same songs over the years, and I gave up this idea. I still use playlists to track music, but not based on my age.
Do you tip other people off to new music? How?
Yes, my friends and I have a group chat where we share music we like or shows we want to go to!
Anything you want to “promote”?
Every time someone asks me similar questions, I think of Alice Coltrane’s Turiya & Ramakrishna. Although it is not a new song, released in 1970, I believe this song is one of the most beautiful music ever written, so I’d love more people to know about this song! Fun fact: Donald Glover’s Atlanta used this song in an episode for a scene in which you wouldn’t expect to hear this song!
