TV and movies is a lot of word of mouth for me. If I hear about something that might be interesting I’ll look more into it.

I watch anime and a lot of the suggestions come from forums or online word of mouth.

Videos from YouTube and Nebula play into suggestions as well.

For music it’s pretty wild. Because I’m open to a lot of things I’ll take any source. I read a few blogs, visit a few forums, watch videos, work from ratings lists or even pick it up from being used in things. Discovered a new band this morning based on looking at upcoming gigs in my area for example.

For music, tv, and movies I will look at who the director/producer/actor etc is and look up what other works they were in.

Watch a movie with same actor to find that I liked the performance of a co-star, then begin the rabbit hole again.

Mostly it's through recommendations from friends, or when I frequently see people talking about a particular show in a community. For example, I discovered Hacks thanks to people in the Frasier subreddit frequently talking about how amazing Jean Smart (who was in several episodes of Frasier) is in it (she really is.)

RSS is the answer to your question

RSS follow subreddits like Republic Of Music, nitter accounts, tumblrs, etc.

So I just stumbled across something called Occupation: Rainfall, which is SciFi, made in Australia, set in Australia etc etc, so it ticks a lot of boxes for me.

you may be interested in https://aussie.zone/c/noyank@lemmy.ml

For TV and film, I know what genres my partner and I enjoy so I just routinely check new releases within those parameters. There's always a massive backlog available, too.

I've mostly listened to Japanese doujin music for the last decade and compilation albums featuring multiple artists are very common within that scene. As I listen I just naturally discover new artists from year to year as they feature on these albums. And again, I know what genres I like so I am regularly searching for new releases.

I am a big fan of self-curated music discovery compared to algorithm based stuff. There was a great scene in Vengeance where Ashton Kutcher's character sort of explained this philosophy.

Looking at rottentomatoes and imdb basically.

Search a show you like and then click through directors and actors to see what else they've done.

That said I missed this one so maybe my strategy is also lacking!

I find av club from the onion pretty good. It’s a bit fangirly on many shows, but it’s clear from the articles which are serious tv shows. I pay notice to anything hbo release. I like sci fi and sci-fi communities tend to discuss sci fi shows. I also watch out for particular actors and actresses that I find good.

Posts like this help, ut usually more organic discussions are where you’ll find new stuff that’s good.