It depends on what I'm looking for. Principle factors being my knowledge of the genre & how accessible I want the music to be.

If I'm looking for noisy, lo-fi black metal I seek out & ask like minded individuals. Sites which aggregate opinions & listening trends are less useful to me in this regard both because I'm familiar with most of the better known groups playing this way, the fine delineations within the style, & the relatively few people who listen to it & participate on such sites.

If I'm looking for some light, accessible indie, however, the sites work fine because I'm less knowledgeable in regards to that style and because the style is more popular.

&

^^^ this. In particular label rosters are useful when working with specialty labels.

especially now days...

just going to the labels website....can seriously open a flood gate of of new music....and almost always there are samples there

also a bandcamp....seriously i went there and typed "pigfuck" into the search and found 9 bands who tagged themselves as that

go to your city and go to some random bar or venue and be around other people all 6 of them : ) but most of the time thoes bands suck LOL but thats the old ways of doing it

I do this too. This is how I came across Mr. Bungle/Zu/Captain Beefheart/Tom Waits/F*ck Buttons/Fantomas/

You know...the essentials.

Random Youtube recommendation ventures are good too, start with something you like, and click a video only on the recommended tab, a lot of unknown up-and-coming bands.

But last.fm radio and recommendations should be enough.

I dig holes in my back yard. Eventually something turns up.

^ Indian record burial ground? You're gonna regret that shit.

Too late!

I'm sorry, I should have said Native American.

It's okay, I live in Mumbai.