I've been thinking about this question quite a bit and the thoughts get quite interesting, to me at least.

The first issue is whether what I do matches what I think I do, or even what I think I should do.
I also cast my mind back to what I did when selecting music on vinyl or CD.

The first thing I should say is that if someone has gone to the time and effort to make a video, I should at least watch it whilst I listen to the music. Even a simple fading images video can be a lot of work and presumably is there as part of the message.

If I'm searching for music, I'm most likely to do so on YouTube, so some kind of video is there, even if it's just a single image of an album cover. I do also tend to favour live music, where a video is pretty much de-facto, though sometimes audio and/or video can be appalling.

I don't actually use a streaming service, perhaps because some, at least, try to pigeon-hole my musical tastes and they don't easily pigeon-hole.

When looking through posting in these fora, I generally follow whatever link it is and get video or not as was posted.

When I bought vinyl/CDs regularly, I would look at the cover to see if it seemed interesting ... if someone thought about what they'd done; I'd look at the artistes/band and members; I'd look at the producer, I'd look at the label, is this interesting/new/different/intriguing/something-else?. Generally if two or three of those things all piqued my interest, I'd likely part with my money. Generally I'd do this by browsing a music store, usually in the Jazz or World or miscellaneous sections. I stopped doing it when stores went simply alphabetical. Too may albums for too few "looks interesting" opportunities ... I want to explore, not just see more of the same.

I have to say that by following that approach, I've only occasionally been disappointed and I've sometimes been thrilled. No nice surprises without some risk!

Where I generally dislike videos is where the music is secondary to the video, the soundtrack to the video, muzak.

HTH.

Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11
BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software.
Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts
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