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Sign up for the Slatest<\/a> to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.<\/em><\/p>\n I am useless without background music. A writer by day and an avid concertgoer by night, I relied for years on Spotify to provide my soundtrack and introduce me to new bands. I could throw on my Discover Weekly or a Daily Mix and find enough songs to fuel my creativity and bookmark a few to later explore the artist\u2019s discography.<\/p>\n Then something shifted. In addition to the ethical questions raised<\/a> by artists around Spotify\u2019s business practices, the platform stopped working reliably<\/a> to surface new music\u2014or reached \u201censhittification<\/a>,\u201d if you will. No matter what I did, Spotify would regurgitate the same 15 songs per genre\u2014tracks I enjoy or even love, but ones that began to grate on me after I heard them over and over and over again. My creative output felt hindered, my concert calendar stale.<\/p>\n When \u201cSwinging Party,\u201d by the Replacements, came on my shuffle for the millionth time, I knew I had to do something<\/em> different.<\/p>\n And then, I remembered: the radio<\/em>. The radio still exists.<\/em> I already followed stations like KEXP<\/a> and WFMU<\/a> in one form or another, and knew they were more music-focused than my local WNYC station.* I figured they probably had an online stream of their programming that I could access through my web browser. I was right\u2014and while they have great programming of their own, I decided to look around a little more. I live in Brooklyn, but most of my favorite artists of the past 10 years have emerged from the Philadelphia music scene<\/a>. I had a feeling the city would have something good to offer. Turns out I was right. I Googled \u201cPhiladelphia public radio\u201d and found WXPN<\/a>, now my gold standard.<\/p>\n It was exactly what I had been looking for. The WXPN DJs regularly play songs I\u2019ve never heard, songs by artists I love, and songs by artists I forgot I love. In any given hour you\u2019re just as likely to hear still-emerging artists, like Jobi Riccio and Arlo Parks, as you are one-hit wonders like Harvey Danger or heavy hitters like Bob Dylan and Sly and the Family Stone, including their B-sides, live recordings, and rarities.<\/p>\n