When I switched to android I was looking for Play Music to buy some new songs and it had shut down shortly after I purchased my pixel. Real disappointing since I prefer to just buy a song here and there instead of subscribing to a streaming platform.
Some artists provide a digital download on their websites but it’s uncommon. If there’s a viable alternative to Play Music I’d love to hear about it!
The first two have a good mix of major labels and indies, so are probably your best bet after Amazon/iTunes, meanwhile Bandcamp is great for more niche and potentially upcoming artists. So far as I can tell there isn’t really just one storefront to go with for buying music unless you’re okay with the aforementioned big names.
Hey thanks for the reply! I’ll be sure to check these out. I tried Amazon but I was having trouble finding albums or songs to download specifically. Has to be my mistake since I see it recommended everywhere. Amazon Music is just a streaming service as far as I know?
I tried Amazon but I was having trouble finding albums or songs to download specifically. Has to be my mistake since I see it recommended everywhere. Amazon Music is just a streaming service as far as I know?
I don’t use Amazon for music much myself, but last I did, I think the way I found the download options was to search for the albums themselves as if I was trying to buy a physical copy, which much like books and other stuff, will often present a digital purchase option when available.
I stopped using it because it just felt way clunkier to deal with, which was even before they got into music streaming if memory serves (or at least, before they had prioritized it).
I want to eventually transition from using Spotify to something like that, but my only question would be if I can save the songs locally on my device to use a music player of my choice?
All of the sites I linked to offer digital downloads of purchased music to play locally, so yes! I specifically sought these out because I prefer to have local files analogous to owning physical media, as I really don’t like perpetually renting media (i.e. subscription services).
Being able to configure exactly how far the jump forward/backward buttons take me individually makes it so much easier to skip sponsorships. Plus, it’s just a great app.
Obviously I can’t know what you have tried before, but I’d highly recommend Pocket Casts. I’ve been using this since at least 2014 (looking at a support chain that I had opened) and can’t imagine losing the features they’ve got. It’s shifted owners a few times and their mobile apps are now open source should you be interested in that.
Worth noting that in October they’re increasing their annual subscription price from $9.99 to $39.99, which is when I’ll be finding another podcast app. I love Pocket Casts but it doesn’t provide $40 worth of functionality for me.
I’m not sure what you would export, just your listening history and favorites? Pocket Casts doesn’t host the actual audio files themselves, those are all available elsewhere online. I doubt there’s an easy way to port your existing subscriptions and such to another app, that would require them all to use a standard format for that data and there’s not really any incentive for that.
Yea, I figured out how to export it, but it doesn export what episodes I’ve.listened to, so I have to go back through my lists and transfer that (I like listening to back catalogs of my favorite podcasts.
I actually paid for the lifetime app membership a long time ago, so luckily this won’t impact that, but not paying $40usd for just desktop use.
Is pocket casts usable on pc? The “pocket” part of the name makes me think no, but I used Google podcast to listen to stuff on my pc primarily. It’s a pain to track podcasts I want to listen to and am actively listening to because every podcast company has their own website.
They have a website version but it’s a paid offering, with it being part of a subscription now. It used to be a one-off purchase. Regardless, I haven’t used it before.
What value would oss bring here when it’s the content that matters most? I’m actually really interested to know because I too really liked this app/service.
Podcasts are (generally, Spotify excluded) on an open standard. They’re just RSS feeds. So, the content can be aggregated by anyone. So it’s primarily the UI that will be different between different podcast players.
Podcasts are already hosted by a variety of independent services. Google doesn’t host any podcasts, at least as far as I am aware. In this case it really is a frontend-only problem.
The RSS feed points to the already hosted files. A lot of people host podcasts on services like libsyn or podbean. I don’t think you can really host podcasts on Google; maybe hacked together on drive or something.
Man, I really did like Google Podcasts.
It was way better than the other podcast apps. And coming from iTunes, it was a smooth transition.
This sucks. Open source your shit, Google, and I promise we’ll keep it going.
Google’s graveyard is quite big. At this point am reluctant to use any of their services in fear of it disappearing.
RIP Play Music, YT music is ass.
When I switched to android I was looking for Play Music to buy some new songs and it had shut down shortly after I purchased my pixel. Real disappointing since I prefer to just buy a song here and there instead of subscribing to a streaming platform.
Some artists provide a digital download on their websites but it’s uncommon. If there’s a viable alternative to Play Music I’d love to hear about it!
For buying music, besides the big names like Amazon/iTunes, you might consider:
7digital UK or 7digital US, if in neither country, I think it should try to point you to the relevant storefront for yours if they have one.
Qobuz, which appears to be available in more countries.
Bandcamp for indies and experimental music.
The first two have a good mix of major labels and indies, so are probably your best bet after Amazon/iTunes, meanwhile Bandcamp is great for more niche and potentially upcoming artists. So far as I can tell there isn’t really just one storefront to go with for buying music unless you’re okay with the aforementioned big names.
Hey thanks for the reply! I’ll be sure to check these out. I tried Amazon but I was having trouble finding albums or songs to download specifically. Has to be my mistake since I see it recommended everywhere. Amazon Music is just a streaming service as far as I know?
Either way I appreciate the input!
I don’t use Amazon for music much myself, but last I did, I think the way I found the download options was to search for the albums themselves as if I was trying to buy a physical copy, which much like books and other stuff, will often present a digital purchase option when available.
I stopped using it because it just felt way clunkier to deal with, which was even before they got into music streaming if memory serves (or at least, before they had prioritized it).
I want to eventually transition from using Spotify to something like that, but my only question would be if I can save the songs locally on my device to use a music player of my choice?
All of the sites I linked to offer digital downloads of purchased music to play locally, so yes! I specifically sought these out because I prefer to have local files analogous to owning physical media, as I really don’t like perpetually renting media (i.e. subscription services).
AntennaPod is your FOSS podcast friend
deleted by creator
Thanks for the resource! This looks amazing!
Being able to configure exactly how far the jump forward/backward buttons take me individually makes it so much easier to skip sponsorships. Plus, it’s just a great app.
Would be nice if more companies just open sourced the stuff they don’t need or don’t want to maintain anymore.
Even if no one picks it up, at least it got another chance.
Would never happen.
Obviously I can’t know what you have tried before, but I’d highly recommend Pocket Casts. I’ve been using this since at least 2014 (looking at a support chain that I had opened) and can’t imagine losing the features they’ve got. It’s shifted owners a few times and their mobile apps are now open source should you be interested in that.
Worth noting that in October they’re increasing their annual subscription price from $9.99 to $39.99, which is when I’ll be finding another podcast app. I love Pocket Casts but it doesn’t provide $40 worth of functionality for me.
antennapod
Yea, using their app online is worth $10 a year, but $40? For what’s basically a front end? They are out of their mind.
Do you know if you can export your podcasts from Pocket casts?
I’m not sure what you would export, just your listening history and favorites? Pocket Casts doesn’t host the actual audio files themselves, those are all available elsewhere online. I doubt there’s an easy way to port your existing subscriptions and such to another app, that would require them all to use a standard format for that data and there’s not really any incentive for that.
Yea, I figured out how to export it, but it doesn export what episodes I’ve.listened to, so I have to go back through my lists and transfer that (I like listening to back catalogs of my favorite podcasts.
I actually paid for the lifetime app membership a long time ago, so luckily this won’t impact that, but not paying $40usd for just desktop use.
Does Antenna have a desktop app?
Not as far as I know. You would have to use a desktop client that syncs with gPodder… like gPodder
Didn’t know that was a thing! Thanks for the link.
Is pocket casts usable on pc? The “pocket” part of the name makes me think no, but I used Google podcast to listen to stuff on my pc primarily. It’s a pain to track podcasts I want to listen to and am actively listening to because every podcast company has their own website.
They have a website version but it’s a paid offering, with it being part of a subscription now. It used to be a one-off purchase. Regardless, I haven’t used it before.
Podcasts didn’t work with SD cards, yt music does, can’t say I’ll miss it.
What value would oss bring here when it’s the content that matters most? I’m actually really interested to know because I too really liked this app/service.
Podcasts are (generally, Spotify excluded) on an open standard. They’re just RSS feeds. So, the content can be aggregated by anyone. So it’s primarily the UI that will be different between different podcast players.
Sure but the hosting of that content isn’t something a front end can solve.
Podcasts are already hosted by a variety of independent services. Google doesn’t host any podcasts, at least as far as I am aware. In this case it really is a frontend-only problem.
The RSS feed points to the already hosted files. A lot of people host podcasts on services like libsyn or podbean. I don’t think you can really host podcasts on Google; maybe hacked together on drive or something.
Google isn’t hosting the podcasts.
Most of them are hosted by a service offered by Spotify.