Happy to pass it along. I would not have heard much of the stuff I like were it not for people saying, come out and hear these guys / hey listen to this!
Also, if you use Amazon, a feature I like (sometimes) is the 'people who bought this also bought this' w/ links to 4-5 other artists. Some will be similar, and some won't really even be close
but it's useful for mining a style you don't really know about. I've found a few good / odd bands that way. The record industry may be in the toilet, but there's still tons of good music out there, and most of it is well below the radar ...