I’m looking for a FOSS alternative to Spotify, preferably one that works across Android, MacOS, and Windows.
Does anything like that exist?
- On Android, I’m using ViMusic. Works great!
- On MacOS, I’ve tried nuclear and Spotube. Neither seems to work great.
- Haven’t tried anything on Windows yet.
Suggestions appreciated. Thanks lemmy!
The problem is that music isn’t generally FOSS - people would like to be paid for their work. So the next best thing is to set up your own music service where you can add your own music.
Here’s a good discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/rdxbxp/is_there_any_spotifylike_selfhosted_music/
Here is a libreddit link: https://libreddit.de/r/selfhosted/comments/rdxbxp/is_there_any_spotifylike_selfhosted_music/
Please don’t use direct links to reddit.
FOSS doesn’t mean that you can’t be paid for it…
That’s true. However, FOSS usually means that it’s free (F) and open-source (OS). Music isn’t usually open source - they don’t usually share the sheet music or allow free editing/covering/forking of the music. So the worlds don’t completely mesh. You can look at a FOSS solution for managing music, but you won’t find a ton of FOSS music.
There’s an app called BlackHole, but the music library it provides is very small and oriented in music from India.
There is the fediverse music platform alternative called funkwhale, although it is closer to soundcloud than spotify. https://funkwhale.audio/
Are you looking for a streaming service or a music server?
I don’t have much experience with FOSS alternatives for Spotify because I rarely use the service, but maybe you could find what you’re looking for in this list from alternativeto.net ?!
Not sure about android but Psst is a rust based Spotify client that compiles nicely for Linux, Mac and Windows.
That’s an interesting project! But it looks like it requires a Spotify Premium account. So is it just Spotify in a different skin?
Yeah Spotify exposes their API only for premium customers. Calling the project as a different skin is undermining them. The entire project was done to access Spotify without the messy bloat of electron. If you didn’t know electron, it’s just a chrome instance running in background masquerading as different app.
Alternatively if you have the music with you, you can Selfhost a music server and stream from that, making it your own personal Spotify, in a manner.
