For new Metal releases, I used to subscribe to the RSS feed for a Metal torrent tracker, I mostly stopped listening to bigger bands, but before that, the notifications were better than what I could find elsewhere.
If he keeps releasing more stuff, I might actually have to buy an external CD drive to rip his music instead of waiting till I visit my parents ;)
If you're focused on a getting a multi-track experience, I would strongly recommend looking up live show recordings of some of your favorite artists. You will have to use YouTube or SoundCloud or wherever because it's rare that an artists release a show on something like a bluray. I have seen it in Kpop but not much in the west. Netflix and Disney plus have gotten into releasing documentary concerts like Taylor Swift's Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions.
The Billboard's top 100 is still a pretty decent way to expose yourself to new releases.
I suppose there are still some magazines about music on the news stands, but I'm not sure if they cover "new music" instead of "new releases" of the same old music. I looked into my podcast app and there is a music category. Perhaps there are some interesting podcasts presenting new music. You could still use streaming and then buy the physical releases of the music you like.
You've said you're against streaming, but you could just use it as a way to find new music before buying the physical albums. I use the radio feature in Spotify all the time and often end up finding new music through it - you basically pick an artist or song you like and it makes you a playlist of similar music. You do need to change the radio start point occasionally if the algorithm starts getting repetitive, but it works well enough
Personally I miss Google Play Music and its automatic playlists A LOT.
Oh, you didn't lose much. My playlists are decimated monthly by "video deleted/unavailable" and "not showing 3 unlisted video" or something along the lines. And there is no way to know which video that was. I don't even care to add music to playlists anymore, I just search for it.
Also, algorithms stopped delivering new stuff long ago. The right column is full of tricking you into watching some promoted bs unrelated to the video.
Am I somehow in the minority of people happy with their stuff? I never go to youtube for music. Should I?
Anecodtally, YtM seems to be better for EDM these days; my friends, who are mostly spotify, complain that they're not presented with the same quality and variety of music as I am via YtM. (EDM is just a portion of my tastes, but it's where I have noted a difference in perception between YtM and Spotify).
Sounds like Spotify works for you; if you're finding that "albums you might like" is giving you sufficient good new picks, then why change. If you feel that it's not giving you enough, it might be worth trying YtM (I've been using it for years, and don't know how much that impacts its ability to offer me new music I like, so obviously YMMV).
I care about privacy, so I opted out from having a youtube/instagram/facebook account. I never used streaming because I listen to albums and want to own my music.
The result is that I don't even get notified when my favourite musicians recommend a band or even release a new album.
Where is the product for me? I am not in any of their data and just sit here listening to an offline library I built more than 10 years ago, desperate but struggling to find new stuff