Top 15 'Digital-Crate-Digging' Music Apps to try at home for Finding Your Next Obscure Obsession
Remember the thrill of flipping through dusty record crates? The smell of old cardboard, the satisfying thump-thump-thump of vinyl, and the sudden jolt of discovery when you unearthed a hidden gem. For music lovers, that hunt—the crate-digging—was just as much a part of the experience as the listening itself. In today's digital world, the record store has expanded into an infinite, borderless universe, and the hunt has evolved with it.
Welcome to the world of 'digital crate-digging.' The core principle is the same: to venture off the algorithm-beaten path and unearth music that truly resonates with you. It’s about following a trail from a sample in a hip-hop track back to a forgotten 70s soul artist, or diving deep into a niche label from another continent. The tools have changed, but the thrill of discovery is more potent than ever. The sheer volume of music available can be overwhelming, but with the right map, you can navigate this digital landscape like a seasoned explorer.
This guide is your map. We've compiled the ultimate list of 15 essential apps and websites that will transform your laptop or phone into the world's greatest record store. Whether you're a DJ searching for that perfect undiscovered track, a producer looking for inspiration, or simply a curious listener tired of the same old recommendations, these tools will help you find your next obscure obsession.
1. Bandcamp
Bandcamp is the undisputed champion for independent artists and the digital crate-digger's holy grail. It's a marketplace, a streaming service, and a community hub rolled into one, with a business model that directly supports the artists you discover. Unlike major streaming platforms, Bandcamp allows artists to upload their music in high-quality formats and set their own prices, fostering a direct connection with their fans.
The real magic of Bandcamp for discovery lies in its human-centric features. You can explore a specific genre tag like "ethio-jazz" or "dungeon synth" and get lost for hours. The real pro-move, however, is exploring the collections of other fans. Find a user who bought an album you love, and then browse their entire collection—it's like being invited over to a friend's house with impeccable taste and getting to raid their record shelf.
Pro-Tip: Use the "Discover" feature and filter by location. Want to know what the underground electronic scene in Warsaw, Poland sounds like? Or the indie folk scene in Melbourne, Australia? Just select the city and a genre, and Bandcamp will serve you a fresh, localized slice of the global music community.
2. Discogs
At its core, Discogs is a massive user-built database and marketplace for physical music releases. Think of it as the IMDb for music. Every official (and often unofficial) release, from vinyl to cassette to CD, is meticulously cataloged with details about the artists, label, producers, and even the mastering engineers. This makes it an unparalleled tool for musical archaeology.
Your digital dig on Discogs is about connecting the dots. Did you find a producer you like? Look up their profile to see every track they've ever worked on. Did you fall in love with a track on a compilation album? Explore the entire catalog of the record label that released it. I was recently discussing with Goh Ling Yong how Discogs turns a single data point—like a label name—into a sprawling, explorable family tree of music.
Pro-Tip: Use the "Wantlist" feature not just for records you want to buy, but as a research tool. When you add an item to your Wantlist, Discogs will start recommending similar items. Over time, it becomes a powerful, personalized engine for discovering releases you never knew existed.
3. SoundCloud
While SoundCloud has evolved over the years, it remains a raw, untamed frontier for new music. This is the digital space where aspiring producers upload their first beats, where established DJs post exclusive mixes, and where artists share demos, remixes, and B-sides that you won't find anywhere else. It’s less polished than other platforms, but that’s precisely where its beauty lies.
To dig effectively on SoundCloud, you need to ignore the mainstream charts and focus on the social connections. Follow smaller, genre-specific blogs, collectives, and artists who consistently repost tracks they love. The "repost" is the SoundCloud equivalent of a trusted friend's recommendation. The comment sections can also be a goldmine, with listeners often identifying track IDs in mixes or sharing links to similar artists.
Pro-Tip: Dive into the "Related Tracks" sidebar. When you find a song you like, let the algorithm guide you for a bit. Unlike Spotify's more predictable suggestions, SoundCloud's can lead you down some wonderfully weird and unexpected paths, connecting you with artists who have only a handful of followers but a world of talent.
4. WhoSampled
WhoSampled is the ultimate tool for deconstructing your favorite music and discovering its roots. The app is a massive database that meticulously documents the DNA of music: samples, covers, and remixes. Ever listened to a hip-hop track and wondered where that soulful vocal loop or jazzy piano riff came from? WhoSampled has the answer.
This is reverse-engineering your music taste. By looking up a song by an artist like J Dilla or The Avalanches, you'll be presented with a list of all the original tracks they sampled. This process not only deepens your appreciation for the producer's craft but also introduces you to a whole new world of funk, soul, jazz, and library music artists from decades past. It’s a guaranteed rabbit hole of discovery.
Pro-Tip: Use the WhoSampled app's "scan" feature. Point your phone's microphone at a song playing on the radio or in a cafe, and it will not only identify the track but instantly show you if it contains any samples or has been sampled by others.
5. NTS Radio
NTS Radio is a global, online radio station broadcasting from London, Los Angeles, and beyond. Forget commercial radio playlists; NTS is built on a foundation of specialist DJs, artists, and collectors, each given the freedom to play whatever they want. The result is an incredibly diverse and expertly curated stream of music, 24/7.
The true treasure for a digital crate-digger is the NTS archive. Nearly every show is recorded and made available to stream on-demand, complete with a tracklist. You can explore shows by genre, host, or mood. Listening to a two-hour show by a specialist in, say, 80s Japanese ambient music or rare Brazilian funk is like having a world-class expert make you a personal mixtape.
Pro-Tip: Find a DJ or a show you love and stick with it. Many hosts have been on the platform for years, and going back through their archives is a journey through their evolving tastes and discoveries. It’s one of the most organic and human ways to find new music online.
6. Spotify (The Deep Dive Method)
Yes, Spotify. While its main algorithm can sometimes feel like it's trapping you in a feedback loop of your own taste, its deeper features are incredibly powerful for discovery if you know where to look. The key is to use the platform actively, not passively.
Go beyond your Discover Weekly. When you find an artist you like, go to their profile and scroll all the way down to the "Fans Also Like" section—this is often more insightful than the main "Related Artists" list. Another powerful tool is "Song Credits." See who wrote or produced a track you love and click their name to see everything else they've worked on. Finally, become a playlist archaeologist. Find public playlists by knowledgeable users (often DJs or bloggers) with titles like "Obscure Italo Disco" or "Modern Psychedelia" and mine them for gold.
Pro-Tip: Use the "Go to Song Radio" feature on a specific, obscure track you've found, not just a popular one. This seeds the algorithm with a much more precise starting point, leading to a chain of recommendations that are far more interesting and tailored to the niche sound you're chasing.
7. Rate Your Music (RYM) / Sonemic
Rate Your Music (RYM), soon to be rebranded as Sonemic, is a sprawling, community-driven database where users can rate, review, and catalog music. It’s a paradise for data-loving music nerds. Its greatest strength is its powerful charting and filtering capabilities, which allow you to slice and dice the history of recorded music in almost any way imaginable.
Want to find the best-rated Krautrock albums from 1972? Or the most obscure deep house EPs from the 90s? RYM's charts can do that. You can filter by genre, sub-genre, year, country, and a dozen other descriptors. Reading user reviews can also provide valuable context and point you toward similar artists or movements. It’s less about algorithmic recommendations and more about using raw data and community opinion to guide your search.
Pro-Tip: Explore the "Lists" feature. Users create incredibly detailed and specific lists like "A Guide to Turkish Psych-Folk" or "The Evolution of Shoegaze." These lists are passionate, deeply researched, and one of the best ways to get a crash course in a new micro-genre.
8. Mixcloud
While SoundCloud is for individual tracks, Mixcloud is the home of the long-form DJ mix and radio show. It’s a platform built for curators. DJs from around the world upload mixes that can range from a one-hour showcase of brand-new techno to a three-hour historical journey through a specific genre.
The context of a mix is key. You're not just hearing a track in isolation; you're hearing it as part of a larger, curated narrative. This helps you understand how different sounds and genres can fit together. Most uploaders provide a tracklist, allowing you to easily identify the gems you hear and begin a new search based on that artist or label. Following specific DJs or radio shows that align with your taste ensures a steady stream of high-quality, curated music.
Pro-Tip: Look beyond just DJs. Many record labels, record stores, and music magazines have Mixcloud profiles where they post exclusive mixes and shows. Following the profile of a store like Rush Hour in Amsterdam or a label like Awesome Tapes From Africa is a direct line to expert curation.
9. Last.fm
The original music-tracking service, Last.fm is still a remarkably powerful tool for understanding your own listening habits and getting personalized recommendations. By "scrobbling" (or tracking) everything you listen to across various platforms (like Spotify or YouTube), it builds an incredibly detailed profile of your unique taste.
Its recommendation engine is based purely on your long-term listening data, not what's currently popular or what an algorithm thinks you might like. It surfaces connections between artists that other platforms miss. You can explore charts of your most-listened-to artists over different time periods, and its "Similar Artists" feature is often spookily accurate, pointing you toward music that genuinely aligns with your core preferences.
Pro-Tip: Install the browser scrobbler extension. This will allow Last.fm to track the music you listen to on sites like Bandcamp and SoundCloud, giving it a much richer data set to work with and, in turn, providing you with more nuanced and accurate recommendations.
10. Every Noise at Once
Every Noise at Once is not an app in the traditional sense, but an intimidatingly vast, algorithmically generated scatter plot of music genres. Created by a Spotify data alchemist, it's a visual representation of the relationships between over 6,000 genres, from "deep house" to "Norwegian black metal" to the hyper-specific "escape room."
Clicking on a genre name plays a sample of that sound. Clicking the » symbol next to it takes you to a new page with a constellation of artists associated with that genre. It's an incredible tool for understanding the subtle (and not-so-subtle) differences between genres and for finding the sonic neighborhood you want to explore next. It's less a guided tour and more a "here's the entire universe, go get lost" kind of tool, which is perfect for the adventurous digger.
Pro-Tip: Start with a genre you already know and love. Find it on the map, and then explore the genres physically located around it on the plot. This is a visual way of finding "adjacent" sounds that you're likely to enjoy.
11. Music-Map
Music-Map is a simple yet effective tool that works on the principle of "the closer two artists are, the more likely people will like both." It's part of the Gnod (Global Network of Discovery) project. You type in the name of an artist you love, and it generates a visual "map" or "cloud" of similar artists.
The beauty of Music-Map is its directness. It doesn't require a login or scrobbling history. It's a quick, one-shot way to get a fresh set of recommendations when you're feeling stuck. The further an artist's name is from your initial entry, the more tenuous the connection, encouraging you to explore the outer fringes of your taste. It’s a great starting point when you first discover an artist and want to find others who share a similar sound.
Pro-Tip: Use it iteratively. Start with Artist A, which leads you to discover Artist B on the map. If you like Artist B, generate a new map based on them. Each jump can take you further away from your starting point and into new sonic territory.
12. Soulseek
A word of caution: Soulseek is a peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing network, a throwback to the days of Napster. It's a more technical tool and operates in a legal gray area, but for serious collectors of ultra-rare, out-of-print, or unreleased music, it is an unparalleled resource. The community on Soulseek is comprised of die-hard music fanatics, and their shared folders are often more meticulously curated than any official archive.
On Soulseek, you can search for specific tracks, but its real power is in browsing the files of other users. You can find users who have deep collections in a niche genre you're exploring, download their files, and chat with them directly. It’s a direct connection to the hard drives of some of the most knowledgeable music collectors on the planet. (Please be aware of copyright laws in your country and use this tool responsibly).
Pro-Tip: Find a user with a collection that blows your mind. Add them to your user list. You can then see other users who have also added that person to their list, creating a network of collectors with similar, specialized tastes for you to explore.
13. Music-Focused Newsletters (Substack, etc.)
Sometimes the best discoveries come from a trusted human voice. The rise of platforms like Substack has led to a renaissance of music journalism and curation delivered directly to your inbox. These newsletters are often deeply personal and focused on specific niches, offering context and storytelling alongside music recommendations.
Find a writer or curator whose taste aligns with yours and subscribe. Newsletters like "Flow State" offer two hours of focus-friendly music each day, while "Penny Fractions" provides deep-dive analysis of the music industry. Here at the Goh Ling Yong blog, we value this kind of curated, thoughtful content. These newsletters are the digital equivalent of getting a monthly zine from your coolest friend.
Pro-Tip: Don't just stick to music-only newsletters. Many writers on culture, technology, or art will often share what they're listening to, providing recommendations from outside the typical music-critic bubble.
14. YouTube (The Right Way)
YouTube is the world's largest repository of audio-visual media, and it's a chaotic but rewarding place for music discovery. The key is to get away from official VEVO channels and dive into the user-uploaded content. This is where you'll find vinyl rips of rare records, full album streams of out-of-print classics, and bootleg recordings.
The algorithm's sidebar can be your best friend or worst enemy. To train it properly, be deliberate. When you find a rare track you like, let the autoplay feature run. Subscribe to channels that specialize in specific genres, often run by dedicated collectors (e.g., channels dedicated to library music, 90s ambient techno, or private press folk). Also, look for "Topic" channels, which are auto-generated by YouTube and often contain an artist's entire discography.
Pro-Tip: Add the word "full album" or "vinyl rip" to your searches for a specific artist or genre. This will filter out official singles and surface the deeper cuts uploaded by dedicated fans and collectors.
15. Gnoosic
If you want a recommendation with zero friction, Gnoosic is your tool. It’s another part of the Gnod project. The interface is wonderfully simple: it asks you to enter three artists you like. Based on that input, it will suggest a new artist. You then tell it whether you "Like it," "Don't like it," or are "Unsure."
The system learns from your feedback and refines its suggestions over time. It's a fun, interactive way to get a single, focused recommendation without being overwhelmed by choice. Think of it as a musical oracle. You give it an offering (your taste), and it provides a prophecy (your next favorite band).
Pro-Tip: Be specific and consistent with your initial three artists. Choosing three artists from the same general sonic world (e.g., three 70s prog-rock bands) will yield much more accurate and useful suggestions than choosing three completely unrelated artists.
Your Next Discovery Awaits
The digital age hasn't killed the art of crate-digging; it has simply shattered its physical boundaries. The tools above are your compass, your shovel, and your library card for the infinite archive of modern music. The most important tool, however, is your own curiosity.
Don't be afraid to click on a weird-looking album cover, to follow a recommendation chain into a genre you've never heard of, or to spend an evening exploring the back catalog of an obscure Belgian record label from the 1980s. The thrill is in the hunt, and the reward is a soundtrack that is uniquely and completely your own.
Now it's your turn. What are your go-to apps for digital crate-digging? Did we miss your secret weapon? Share your favorite tools and your most treasured recent discoveries in the comments below
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
Stay updated with the latest posts and insights by following on your favorite platform!