Step outside your genre. Step outside your geography.
Every musician has blind spots. The fastest way to expand your musical imagination is to hear rhythms, voices, instruments, traditions, production ideas and performance cultures that are not already familiar to you.
Smithsonian Folkways
Explore recordings, playlists, articles and educational resources documenting musical cultures and sounds from around the world.
🌐globalFEST
A North American platform and nonprofit organization connecting global artists, presenters, audiences and touring opportunities.
🎪WOMEX
One of the major international meeting points for the global music community—artists, festivals, agents, labels, media and professionals.
🎥KEXP Live Sessions
Live performances by artists from Seattle and far beyond, with an unusually broad mix of sounds and scenes.
🪑Tiny Desk Concerts
Intimate performances that reveal arrangement, musicianship and personality without the distance of a giant stage.
🔍Song Exploder
Hear artists explain how individual songs were written, arranged, recorded and transformed.
The “music passport” habit
- Choose a country, region, or musical tradition you know almost nothing about.
- Listen to three artists without multitasking.
- Write down one rhythm, sound, arrangement idea, instrument, or performance choice that surprised you.
- Do not copy the style. Instead ask: what principle can I learn from this?
Music is one of the ways people understand one another.
Smithsonian Folkways describes its mission in terms of cultural diversity and increased understanding through sound. globalFEST similarly uses international music to build cultural understanding and new opportunities for artists. That spirit belongs here too: Cape Cod Music Network can be locally useful while remaining curious about the whole world.