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I don't mind sourcing my own music, but what I want is to be suggested songs based on what I listen to. My musical horizons have broadened a lot thanks to that.
I can't picture a service which beats Spotify in what they offer which isn't just the same business model but more ethical.
Discovering music for free is an enormous benefit, and the fact that Spotify has practically all mainstream music is nice. People often cite that one quote by Gabe Newell that is "Piracy is not an economic problem. It is a service problem", as a highlight for steam, but largely Spotify offers what consumers want in a way Netflix or Audible can't. They have everything you want and guide your discovery in even more, and as long as their encroaching enshittification doesn't undercut this service, they will continue to underpay artists and fund immoral activities.
The developer of Ultrakill, Hakita, said something which I've often thought about. "You should support indies if you can, but culture shouldn't exist only for those who can afford it. ULTRAKILL wouldn't exist if I hadn't had easy access to movies, music and games growing up. If you don't have money, you can support via word of mouth". There are plenty of independent things I financially support, particularly things I attend in person in the city I live in. I may spend £100 per month paying for art and entertainment all said and done, and when that's spent, I will pirate everything else.
I split a Spotify family plan between 6 friends, I think that's about £3.50 per month, and I pay for no other media services. With video, I run a jellyfin server with a "parent friendly" interface, so they can have "netflix with everything", which I have at my place too. I don't read that much any more, if it's physical I just go to the library and if it's an audiobook I'll just pirate it. The benefit here is that even if I'm on a reading binge, that's not even a book a week. With Spotify, I often pick something and play it via song radio, which is probably 50/50 music I know and new music. Sometimes I just stick albums on, but it's not like that's harder. If I had a locally hosted music repository that I'd "paid for", I could enjoy albums, but not as easily have a radio like discovery experience.
One day, a pirate tool may appear that rivals Spotify, but until that day, I can't see myself moving away from it.
Go to your local live music, drag shows, theatres, independent cinemas and libraries. Don't feel obligated to pay for any internet service.
There used to be audio scrobbling programs I think they called it that would run on your computer to keep track of what you listened to and publish on a user page and also use the site to get recs, check out what your friends are listening to, etc. I think last.fm fucked up the official client or something but there were a couple open and universal scrobbler that might still work, but they do still only connect with last.fm I don't think there's a self host option.
Last.fm?
I use both listenbrainz and chosic for suggestions. Both work well.
You can download music via Newpipe if anyone is curious
I moved to Qobuz. Meets my every need.
Mp3s are at it. Because Spotty doesn't have some of the songs I actually like, and record companies even remove tracks that were previously available on physical media.
I've been downloading FLAC (lossless), and when I transfer to my phone, I encode to Opus, which is supposed to have better sound quality than MP3 at comparable file sizes.
Is there another service that has anything comparable to Spotify's family plan? I have like 4 other people on the family plan I pay for and I really don't wanna fuck them over by switching lol
I'm using Qobuz. As I know they pay the most to the artist ($0.01873 vs $0.004 ). Qobuz Family costs 20,83€ per months and I think you get free access to a service which moves your Spotify playlists to qobuz.
Is it user-friendly?
Yes. If your family knows how to use Spotify, they will be okay with qobuz.
I think that's the point of all this. It's currently way too cheap for the consumers. Adjusted for inflation from the 80s, an album would cost over $30 today. Each album. To get infinite music for $10 a month, yeah the artists are getting screwed.
Artists have never made any significant money from album sales unless they self publish. 90%+ of the revenue from a cd sale goes to the publisher, producers, executives, marketing, etc. Going to live shows and buying merch has always been the primary way artists actually make money.
Apple Music has a family plan, and it's cheaper than Spotify's, at least in Canada (16.99 vs 20.99).
Qobuz has a family plan too, a little more expensive than Apple's here but still cheaper than Spotify's.
Apple is hardly the giant corporation you want to be switching to, though.
Deezer? They still don't pay artists much, but I think it's still better than Spotify
The Artist-Centric model sucks. The artists that benefits the most is the biggest artists like Drake etc. This system does create a two-tier royalty structure that favors bigger or more established artists with a loyal fanbase
Where do I like... buy... music?
I do it on Bandcamp.
Bandcamp or many artists have digital purchase options on their website.
If you can't purchase it online you could do physical media.
Otherwise you can find other ways to get the music and support artists in other ways. Shows, merch and patreons usually go directly to artists.
Bandcamp, qobuz, amazon
7digital is another option, if you'd rather avoid amazon. It also has higher quality audio.
Bought myself a little digital audio player (basically the new name for mp3 players) and have been enjoying porting rockbox to it / listening to my local library.
There's a still a few cd/record stores in town which is pretty awesome for second hand stuff.
I stopped using it. I have a navidrome server I run and purchase songs from artists directly when possible, otherwise, I acquire them and support artists directly in other ways
But how do you discover new things? I don't mind paying for music but not if I don't even know if I'm going to like it
Listenbrainz and chosic work great for me
What are your thoughts about old music, should it be pirateable? I mean I don't think those 1990 bands will get a cent from Spotify, or do they?
It would be lovely sharing songs with fellow online people IMO.
Bands? No or at least not all of them. Labels? Certain!