I especially hate how the curating institutions are so dominated by English and Amerikan artists.
I got hit hard by the "locked into music you listened to in your early-mid 20s" thing. I blame what.cd collapsing and being too busy to keep up with new music/go to shows.
Cost/benefit. Seems to me like investing a lot of time, and (somehow) being vulnerable (or on-edge?), just to find nothing... most of the time.
Check out KEXP.org they have tons of shows that feature artists from all over the world. Great way to constantly discover new music.
DI.fm has a lot of new / not mainstream artists. I've found a few artists on indie mixes of "inspired by" movie / game. On that note Overclocked.net is another way. Game music seems to have a few good ones. So indie game studios would have a lot of relatively unknown artists that don't get a lot of attention. Soundtracks are usually up on YT.
There's a radio station in the area that also has a strong indie upcomer musicians, but itxs really hit or miss because it's a grab bag of stuff which may or may not click and 80% of the time they play "traditional" stuff.
Find a station near some college town too. That's usually where a lot of artists get their start and college DJs are promoting indie stuff all the time. Websites and broadcasts.
Lot of the stuff is just out of the main stream way and you have to seek. But there's a rule of the universe that if you seek, what you seek will seek you back. So I hope whatever itch you need scratching finds you.
I actually have a routine where I require myself to listen to at least one album I've never heard before every single day. It took a while for it to become a habit, but doing so has helped me discover a lot of music I like. When listening, I often write down tracks that I'd like to revisit in particular. I either listen to 1 LP (full studio albums) or 2 EPs (extended plays) to meet the daily "requirement." The problem then becomes knowing which of these albums you want to listen to, but for me, it's easy to narrow it down by genre. I like a lot of progressive metal/djent projects for instance, so I can go diving for those, a lot of which are instrumental, and I fuck with that too.
