> I’m surprised no one has mentioned TikTok

Probably because it's not so much about discovery, and more about rewarding conformity. I only used the app for a scant few hours, but all I saw were musicians from large labels being echo-chambered into every video I could find. The few "diverse" acts that I came across were already huge in another country or being pushed heavily as a result of massive advertising investments. Like the other comment suggests, TikTok is as much of a discovery service as radio is.

Radio is the most successful music discovery engine out there. TikTok is just the gen Z take on radio.

I disagree. “75% of TikTok users in the United States said that they used the platform to discover new artists, and 67% said they were more likely to seek out a song on a streaming platform if they heard it on the app” [1]. This full article is worth reading.

“Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams," re-entered the Hot 100 more than 40 years after hitting No. 1 on the chart, spurred by a viral video from user Nathan Apodaca… The album from which it hails, Rumours, also rocketed into the top 10 of the Billboard 200.” [2]

This one ^^ is particularly compelling to me. It’s easy to dismiss cases where growing artists grow faster because of tiktok. But this is clearly caused by tiktok alone. Also if you want examples of unpopular artists who grew a ton from tiktok those lists are very easy to find.

[1] https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2021/09/for-better-...

[2] https://ew.com/music/megan-thee-stallion-tiktok-top-artist-2...

This ALONE shows how BAD discovery is on TikTok. I dont understand your point other then TikTok has alot of sheep, very little content (that is not based on viral trends), and very bad recommendation engine.

ie. If <teen boy> show <teen girl with ass hanging out> if <teen girl> show <teen boy with tattos and shirt off>

Netflix's recommendation engine is just as bad. It cant even work out that i watch a show all the time to put it to the front of my list. I type 2 letters into the search bar, and all it does it search alphabetically give me a stupid suggestion.

> Radio is the most successful music discovery engine out there

Is it? When I grew up, all they played was top 40. Stuff more than a year or two old just disappeared. Even today, they'll run the same hit every 20 minutes. Makes me want to scream.

Going to college was a revelation. So much I'd never ever heard before.

The same thing when I started going to clubs - great music I'd never heard before.

I think it depends a lot on the radio stations that happen(ed) to be available in your listening area. When I was living in Tampa ~30 years ago, there were certainly a lot of "hot hits" type stations, but there was a great commercial AOR station I listened to more often -- and a few years later I discovered WMNF, an eclectic non-commercial community station that played virtually anything depending on which show you found.

Now, of course, my "listening area" is the whole internet. KCSN in Los Angeles is a rock-focused public radio station; KCSM up in San Mateo is a terrific Jazz station; Great Big Radio is an internet-only station that's technically oldies, but covers everything from the 1960s through the 2000s and likes to get into deep cuts. I do subscribe to a streaming music service and use it pretty frequently, but I suspect I find just as much new music through internet radio as I do through "discovery." (Although both curated playlists and algorithmic recommendations surface stuff I find interesting occasionally.)

Successful for whom though? Listeners who want new music? Definitely not, but most don't.

One of my friends only listens to pop, and most people are like him in that he doesn't go out of his way to listen or watch anything new.