Technology

Pirate and pay creators directly.
Pirating is the objectively best, most private and future proof user experience you're gonna get.

I prefer to pay artists I like directly either via merch, patreon, or going to their concerts.

for my music? soulseek/nicotine+ on my server.

the problem is Spotify is by far the best streaming platform out there, bar none. I've tried the other's like Tidal and Deezer and what have you and just didn't like them. Amazon Music was absolutely horrible. The only other alternative would be youtube music with an adblocker. How do I find new artists? youtube shorts believe it or not.

But yeah I'd rather pay the artists directly.

Daniel Ek is investing in European defense companies. This is not unethical.

Spotify paying like shit to their artists and platforming Joe Rogan are totally valid reasons to move away though. But the thing is that Spotify is sort of like radio. How much did radio pay for artists for each time the song was played? Genuinely asking.

What I do is I do 90% of my listening on Spotify. Then when I hear something really good, I buy and download their album, usually on Bandcamp and mostly keep listening them on Spotify because it's just so much lesser hassle. Seems like the best of both worlds. Thought about going to vinyls but I'm not hipster enough.

It’s worse. My music is on Spotify - while I would no longer meet their minimum for payments, even before that change they refused to pay me or provide stats until I provided a twitter or Facebook page/IG page, none of which I have - despite publishing through an established publishing company who could absolutely handle payments and play stats.

Spotify is cancer.

I stream with Tidal and for my favourite bands I'll buy their music on 7digital or Bandcamp.

I'd go with Qubuz but they have this whole Qubuz Coin thing that I really don't like. If they removed that I'd switch immediately.

I buy stuff on bandcamp during bandcamp fridays (which allegedly gives all revenue to the artist), but you need the artist to be there in the first place.

I buy on Bandcamp Fridays, but am suspicious of that platform since they changed owners so often without any input from the community or musicians.

I'm keeping my eye on https://subvert.fm/ as a hopefully more democratic option.

I find Spotify is dogshit to navigate I can't find anything. If I let it autoplay it'll just start playing generic shitty dance music. I don't get it. I've never discovered an artist through Spotify.

I exclusively use Bandcamp lately. Unfortunately, American owned. Looking into other suggestions here.

Can some tell me how Deezer stacks up? I switched from Spotify to Deezer a little while ago, not for any real reason, other than Spotify kept increasing their prices and I don't really listen to audio books or podcasts even. Plus Deezer streams hifi flacs as standard so it sounds way better. I've got no idea how ethical they are tho, but would be interested to learn.

Edit: so I did my own research and looks like Deezer pays sightly more per stream than Spotify, but marginally..

Never mind, I'm beginning to build my local music library and self host it. I buy lots of merch and I go to gigs regularly. Once my library is substantial enough I'll quit the streaming apps

Qbittorrent

Bandwagon, Faircamp, Love a Brother Radio, The Indie Beat. Probably not what you're looking for, but direct creator support, Fedi powered, all wonder folks.

Old fart checking in ... why not just buy the tracks instead of paying for monthly access that screws artists? I mean, each song is unlikely to be more than $1.49, and then you own it. I don't have a streaming music account and never will because the idea of paying repeatedly for the same thing -- with the option of it being pulled at any time -- is nauseating.