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Dont worry guys my CD collection is increasing (i extract it onto hard drives too). I’ll open a free music museum when all goes to shit.
Honestly, I’m surprised that streaming has gone on this long before we have such enshtification taking place.
I’m basically down to just a single subscription now because the cost outweighs the ease of use and only keep my music streaming service because of work and I don’t want to be using self hosting on a company network.
For some reason pirating music libraries is really hard. Probably bc everyone uses Spotify
I do have a Qobuz subscription, I just rip whatever I want to listen and stream from my home server.
You can also do a free trial for a month and just use a disposable e-mail to redo it every month, if you don’t want to pay anything.
Get a library card! My local small town library has access to a surprising number of nearby libraries, and if I’m willing to wait a week or two for the item to be available and get transferred, I’ve been able to get some decently non-mainstream stuff for free. For more obscure stuff, bandcamp is pretty awesome.
https://1337x.to/ has been my piracy go-to for years and they’ve rarely missed.
Hint: Discography is what you’re looking for if you want everything the artist made.
Try Usenet
I did return to my old flac and mp3 collection. Got Foobar working again, found a nice skin and I’m rediscovering music that I that skipped over. I buy second-hand CDs when I find them. I’ve managed to get a digital copy of all my favourite albums and tracks.
I will keep Spotify though. A long time ago, I got friends to share their Discovery and Release Radar playlists. With my own, I have a nice spread of recommendations.
I need regular new music. Call it a search for unexpected dopamine. Spotify still picks new tracks that I really like. I also like Spotify Connect and the easily shared collaborative playlists.
The UK has less alternatives for music discovery. I don’t like Radio, way too much talking and ads.
I’ve got rid of Netflix, Prime. I’m getting Disney+ for free at the moment. Back to physical for film and TV.
For now, Spotify recommendations is worth the cost of entry.
…are people really paying for a music subscription service to listen to the same music on repeat? I pay a service because I listen to like at least 4 new albums every week, minimum.
I pay for Apple Music (well, technically I get it as part of Apple One) for one reason: the library matching function. I have half a gig of mp3s on my home computer, many of which are not on any streaming service, and apple makes them all available to every device I own.
For me, thats worth the monthly price.
You can host it yourself without paying apple.
You’d literally be paying yourself back after not much time at all.
I like Plex amp but there are quite a few options.
Wait…that’s a peak feature, rare apple W
this post is just to placate a group of people. i prefer streaming for new music friday. i also don’t want another crate or hard drive of shit i lost interest in.
Me too. However I recognize that many people are content to listen to the same things they enjoyed in high school forever. In which case they definitely do not need streaming
It took me 10 listens to get into Jimi Hendrix. You are consuming quantity but quality requires effort.
or self inducing yourself into liking by listening to it so much
I don’t this works with all music.
The first few listens I thought it was garbage. But I decided it must be me who is wrong, not everyone else.
Or, that taste is subjective and that there is no right and wrong. You are allowed to not like something others do.
This is true, but you should really give something a good few listens before you come to a conclusion. Good things can turn bad just as much as bad things turn good.
I truly wonder where in my post I implied that I am drawing significant conclusions without giving something a good few listens. Again, I think you are making assumptions of my listening habits based on severly limited information presented to you.
Because if I listened to a minimum of 4 new albums a week then I wouldn’t have the time to repeat any.
It was applying your statistics to my habits.
No, I think you’re absolutely right and it’s comforting to know there are others who do this too. I have a kind of 3-5-7 trial period for getting into new music. If it’s crap but I want to give it a chance, I’ll do 3-5 album plays; if it’s ok but has potential I might not see, 5-7 plays. Anything challenging but enjoyable gets minimum 10 plays.
About the self inducement, that is making me question myself a little. There are things that I’ve tried over and over to get into that I just cannot no matter what, but I’m seriously questioning if it really is possible to “make” yourself like something through type of, I guess familiarity?
I think the counter argument to self inducement is that I can really go off something that I hear too many times (usually on the radio). Even if the first listen wasn’t too bad.
This is making some significant assumptions, don’t you think? That I sample the buffet does not mean that I don’t also cherish and return to familiar recipes.
I’m assuming you have a similar amount of free time as me and are not able to fit in enough listens to become familiar.
I have no kids, no pets, and a job where I can listen to music the entirety of my shifts while working. I have music on in some capacity probably an average of 12 hours a day. 4 albums a week, even when listening to them each 6 six times, is a fraction of my listening.
Music listening is my primary “hobby” and interest.
In that case, what are your top 5 undiscovered gems that need 5+ listens to appreciate.
What are the modern Captain Beefhearts?
Dunno if I go actively searching for difficult music, so I may not have the best answer for that specifically, but here are 5 albums I consider hidden gems or underappreciated:
Horse Bitch - RIP Pistachio
Tattle Tale - Sew True
Gaytheist - The Mustache Stays
Codefendants - This Is Crime Wave
Irist - Gloria (actually an EP, if you’ll allow it).
These probably won’t take you 5+ listens to appreciate, but I do think they’re smaller releases worthy of greater attention. Hopefully that’s close enough for you. ✌️
Never heard of any of them, so a perfect response. Thanks!
This is why I download all the music I want. I still listen to it primarily on youtube, but it is a ‘just in case’. I also never paid for music.
I’m not sure that’s something to be proud of
Artists love you, I’m sure.
I doubt they notice. Most artists either get income directly from fans at concerts, via merch, or through explicit patronage (Bandcamp, Patreon, etc).
The money they get from streaming isn’t remotely enough to support a professional career. Streaming is more about promotion - to get you in the door at the next concert or promote a product with a real revenue stream - than actual income.
Sure. But getting more is better than getting less, no?
Do artists benefit more from ad-dense, algorithm gamed, corporate controlled media outlets kicking them a few bucks every month?
Or is a guerilla campaign of populist free-at-download distribution better for long term concert attendance and merch sales?
Some of us aren’t privileged enough to buy hundreds of hours of music.
So what you can indefinitely subscribe though? Try thrift shops, used CD stores, etc if you want to buy.
Try thrift shops, used CD stores, etc if you want to buy.
If you’re buying secondhand, that also does nothing for the artists. You might as well just pirate at that point, unless you’re deeply into the vinyl scene or something
Buy? 🤨
Yarrr 🏴☠️
Over time the streaming options are almost certainly more expensive.
Personally I am an advocate for piracy, an economic system that requires the enforcement of artificial scarcity is not one I consent to bind me. We need a system that rewards artists without locking culture and art behind a paywall.
The only reason it works the way it does now is that music used to come from physical totems. The internet requires a new and progressive approach to intellectual products.
I pay for the discovery features. Then I get my music locally.
Isn’t the discovery free? Lol
You kinda need to listen to stuff to prime the discovery algorithms lol
Not for the real discovery (👁 ͜ʖ👁)
I still download my music. Two pros: I have control over where, when and how I listen to it. And I only download music I actually want to listen to.
One con: Finding new music is harder (I imagine).
On Bandcamp you can go on your feed page which shows albums based on the genres and artists you follow, and what fans you follow have bought.
One con: Finding new music is harder (I imagine).
That’s what radio helps with, there was also Pandora, but I didn’t know if it is still alive after Sirius XM bought them.
Shoutcast is still running strong! Also super easy to setup your own server https://directory.shoutcast.com/
And there’s also Icecast! https://dir.xiph.org/genres
Find an online radio station you like and you don’t need Pandora any more.
That’s not SomaFM
I have found a ton of new music through KEXP’s YouTube channel.
Found the Seattleite. Can’t believe I didn’t notice your name all this time and connect the dots.
I listen to C89.5! Website and app both work flawlessly.
ListenBrainz is the solution for discovery
Finding new music is harder (I imagine)
In my opinion, it’s harder, but not even necessarily because it’s harder to do it in the end. More because it’s just harder to get started.
For example, I find way more music I enjoy listening to through Bandcamp than I ever did on Spotify, but that requires having existing artists that I follow and can see their recommendations for, having a feel for which genres I actually like instead of a vague mental concept of what I like to listen to that I can then keyword search by in Bandcamp’s search/discover section, and hoping that the human curators on Bandcamp’s newsletter pick artists I like. Bandcamp doesn’t really have algorithms, so those are my only real options.
It’s more effort, but it’s infinitely more rewarding.
One con: Finding new music is harder (I imagine).
You actually should actually try to listen to web radio. Still have a subscription with Qobuz but been listening to bytefm a lot and they have some great djs (they have different shows at different time.). I personally found there more new and great artist or songs than any personalized algorithm ever did.
One con: you’re too busy writing down the songs and you cannot really do anything while listening as you also too scared of missing something. /hj
Do they not have a recently played? Can always go back through and shouldn’t be too hard to figure out the songs. Just note the time maybe atleast.
Wasn’t totally serious about my con. They do have a recently played and even an archive where you can re-listen certain shows you have missed (if you are paying member of their association).
I think the young generation has seen the pattern of clowns generations above them, either relying on ad-radio or Spotify, and have turned to piracy or physical media for this. My BIL recently got into buying CDs from goodwill as a good example. YT video essay I lived through the consumer generation of physical hoarding so Spotifydl is fine for me.
I mean… you own or have nothing when your Wow sub ends also.
Level 20 baby!
That reminds me I still need to export my spotify likes and migrate all that out
A couple of years ago, I had a Napster subscription (the reborn, legal variant of it). At first, I was happy to have unlimited access to music, then after 2 years I realised that I was paying 120 EUR a year for music I’ll never own, so I cancelled the subscription and put my yearly budget for music to exactly that amount. It yields more than enough given I buy used CDs, and then digitalise them. That way I own the physical media as backup AND am able to transfer the digital, PCM-quality tracks unfettered across my devices AND with no need for DRM or shitty proprietary applications.
You gotta put in the effort, which most people are too lazy to do
Is it laziness or a lack of motivation?
I’ve been a Spotify member for 13 years and it gives me exactly what I want. Owning music is good and all, but ripping the CDs and setting it up so my family and I have access to it where ever we go is going to cost me way more than the subscription does a month, in both time and money.
In a month, sure. Over a lifetime? Not even close
Right, but you would own the music…
You don’t “own” the music on physical media. You just purchased a license to listen to that music for the lifetime of the media it comes on. If your CD, record, or cassette is destroyed, you don’t get another one for free because you “own the music”. You’re still not allowed to copy it for distribution, use it for commercial purposes, or any of the other happy horseshit their lawyers put in the fine print.
I miss the era of physical media, too, but let’s not kid ourselves into thinking it was some golden age of consumer rights.
I don’t need to “copy it for distribution” to back it up for personal use.
I run Navidrome off a free small form factor PC recycled from work. My whole family accesses it via whatever app they like that supports Subsonic API (there’s dozens), and for security it’s only accessible via Tailscale, so they need Tailscale installed and connected.
Initial cost: $0. Plus cost of the apps, which is like $5 each user. Tailscale is free for up to 100 devices. Time to set up: 1 day. Ongoing cost: the very little electricity an energy-efficient SFF PC uses - way overestimating would be $2/month. Plus whatever music we buy on Bandcamp, physical etc that we own forever.
So it’s not way more expensive in my experience, and at the end of the day I give artists I enjoy much more money than Spotify streams ever would, and I’m not supporting a piece of shit CEO pouring a billion dollars into military spending.
You can just rip it off Spotify.
Lossy
I am very happy with Navidrome for over a year now. It also reminds me how I listened to whole albums when I was a teenager, what I now started doing again.
Navidrome is awesome and super easy to set up if you use a PikaPod.
