Similarly I have fond memories of the last.fm era, discovering new music via people with similar tastes who I might often end up chatting to. Wasn't it also around this time that Pandora (using the Music Genome project) was also more readily available, seem to remember that was also a good way to discover new music.
But then I'm old enough, pre internet, to also remember the days when people used to send each other mixtapes or you'd go round someone's house with a small selection of vinyl you'd play to each other.
And then there was the more recent (pre lockdown) era of going to see live bands and discovering new bands via the bands that were supporting or via conversations with other people at those gigs, who if you saw them enough times became your mates etc.
Nowadays I can spin up a program to generate a playlist of everyone playing the Great Escape or Glastonbury (assuming they haven't boycotted spotify) and listen to all of them before I even get there and because of the number of acts, given slightly different tastes, unless I make an effort I might not even see my mates....
I'm old enough to remember 4 record stores in my provincial city and they were all selling the same CDs.
I think that secretly most people don't want to discover new music they want to listen to what other people are listening. That's why labels are still in business.
Most people subconsciously don't want to discover new music, they want to listen to songs that remind them of the world and feelings of freedom and discovery and experience they had in their late teens.
They want nostalgia. They don't want cognitive load, they want enjoyment with no strings and no effort.
