A-indie Starts Discord Preview Campaign for New Music!

Last Updated on 2025-09-28 by a-indie

Remember those days when you bought CDs and immersed yourself in reading every word of the lyric booklets and liner notes? I loved the time spent imagining the stories behind each song in my own way.

Lately, hasn’t that kind of “dialogue” with music been declining?

While the infinite playlists that algorithms continuously serve up are convenient, they sometimes leave us feeling like we’re merely “consuming” music.

We want to engage with music more deeply, more personally.

For music fans who harbor such yearning, a place of hope is emerging.

It’s the official Discord community of the independently-run indie rock media “BELONG/A-indie.”

Here, not only do listeners share music-related episodes with each other, but they also host exclusive preview listening sessions for new unreleased songs, limited to community members.

Feedback continues to pour in from community members.

What is Discord?

Discord is a communication tool originally developed for gamers, but is now utilized by communities across various fields including music, art, and learning.

Unlike LINE groups or Twitter, it’s a multifunctional platform that integrates text chat, voice calls, and screen sharing features.

What makes it particularly attractive for music communities is the ability to share real-time feedback and conduct participatory projects using voting functions.

It’s truly an ideal environment for “enjoying music together,” and we’ve been sharing music-related episodes with participating members here.

The New Experiment Started by the BELONG Community

This community isn’t just a place to talk about favorite music.

It has evolved into a “laboratory” that transcends borders and language barriers, where listeners, artists, and media unite as one to create new musical experiences.

The symbol of this evolution is the recently launched new project “Exclusive Preview Listening for New Songs.”

Precious unreleased tracks are shared exclusively with limited members within the community, and their genuine feedback is provided directly to the artists themselves.

This is a groundbreaking attempt to update how music is delivered and how it’s listened to.

Why Share Pre-Release Songs Now?

In the streaming-dominated modern era, it has become standard for songs to be released simultaneously worldwide on their release date.

However, this project deliberately goes against that flow.

What meaning could there be in sharing not completed products, but “newborn songs” that haven’t yet been released to the world?

Connections with “Body Temperature” Beyond Algorithms

One reason is to create connections with “body temperature” that algorithms can never replace.

“How does the music I create actually resonate in listeners’ hearts?”

This is a fundamental question that all artists harbor, and in fact, artists often ask us about this.

This project serves as a bridge to deliver those precious “first voices” to artists in their purest form.

This becomes invaluable nourishment for creators, and for listeners, it provides an irreplaceable experience knowing that their words can be a great stimulus for artists.

Additionally, we form a loose community based on pure “love of music” to discover new talent within it.

This preview listening project signals the beginning of a new relationship where media doesn’t unilaterally introduce artists, but grows the scene together with them.

The “First Voice” That Crossed Borders

The artist chosen for this memorable project’s first installment was a two-piece band based between Hokkaido and Tokyo.

We had previously interviewed them, and their unique activity of creating music remotely across two locations was intriguing.

When their new song was dropped into the community, passionate feedback immediately began pouring in from members with diverse backgrounds.

Response to the First Artist

Here, I’d like to introduce some of the actual feedback received by the community.

These impressions illuminate new aspects of the songs that even the artists themselves hadn’t noticed.

The words spun from a single listener’s perspective, lacking the professional review approach, told the story of the songs’ appeal more eloquently than anything else.

Your Voice Nurtures the Next Talent

This initiative won’t end with just one attempt, of course. On October 1st, a preview listening session for a new female artist from Thailand is also scheduled as the second installment.

This movement has only just begun.

Future Prospects and How to Participate

“I want to talk about music I love, but there’s no one around to talk to”

“I want to deliver my impressions to the artists”

If you feel this way, please knock on this community’s door.

BELONG/A-indie’s official Discord server is open to everyone.

Your casual comment might become the trigger for creating an undiscovered masterpiece.

Here, there’s not just the joy of “listening” to music, but of “participating” in its future.

Writer: Tomohiro Yabe(yabori)

Editor-in-Chief of BELONG Media/A-indie. Since 2010, he has been writing for “Timeless Masterpiece,” the music blog that became the predecessor to BELONG.

After writing for “only in dreams” hosted by Masafumi Goto, vocalist of ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, he majored in Music Business at a music vocational school.

He has been writing articles about Japanese and international music for over 10 years.

In the past, he worked at a music CD rental shop with over 100,000 album titles, handling garage rock, psychedelic rock, and Japanese indie rock.

Utilizing these experiences, he published 26 issues of the music magazine “BELONG Magazine” themed around “roots rock.”

He currently writes articles based on SEO strategies learned at a web production company. His hobby is watching “Kaiun! Nandemo Kantei-dan” (Fortune! Appraisal Show).

Articles he has written so far can be found here
Twitter: @boriboriyabori

About BELONG Media/A-indie

BELONG Media is an indie music media outlet that started in 2012. We cover indie music from around the world, including Japan and overseas. In 2021, we appeared as a guest on J-WAVE’s “SONAR MUSIC.” In 2022, we launched “A-indie,” an English-language sister site focusing on Asian music.

• BELONG Media: [https://belongmedia.net/]
• A-indie: [https://a-indie.com/]
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• Link List: [https://linktr.ee/belong_media]
• Contact regarding this matter: BELONG Media/A-indie Email: [belongmagazine1967＠gmail.com](Please change “＠” to “@”)