[lprd]

I’m winding down my reliance on subscription based services. There’s been a noticeable shift in the world when it comes to ownership; specifically the media and housing market space. Perpetual renting seems to be the way of the future. While I have my own opinions on that, I think it’s important to (at the very least) own your media library. Not only does it benefit artists and studios more, you will not be subject to any drama. Streaming has done good things for the industry, but I think we’ve swung too far.

With that said, I own stacks blu rays and CD’s that can easily be imported into my NAS and then attached to servies like Plex[1] or Navidrome[2]. I can even share those libraries with friends and family which is an added bonus. Navidrome also exposes a subsonic api that clients can connect to. PlexAmp can also import your music library.

With the exception of Plex, I think we’re entering a golden age of open source software to allow this type of thing. Setting up these services is fairly straightforward and maintenance is also pretty easy.

Pure bliss.

[1]https://www.plex.tv

[2]https://www.navidrome.org

[vanilla_nut]

Likewise. I've been running my own Jellyfin server and listening to media using Sonixd and FinAmp since the beginning of this year. It was surprisingly easy to set up on my raspberry pi, and I'm really enjoying no subscription and no dark patterns in my music apps.

It really bothers me how companies convert people to subscription services, then twist the knife in ever deeper with scummy dark patterns. I would have been happy with Spotify's old app from 2015 or so pretty much indefinitely... but they just have to shove podcasts in every crevice of the app in the name of profit. And the app continues to get laggier and buggier every month (oh, how I grew to loathe that spinning green circle).

I understand that they're trying to survive, but when I can literally run a more reliable music streaming stack from my living room with FOSS, I question their technical prowess. And boy does it make me wonder what those thousands of engineers are up to.

[willsmith72]

I don't get how this enables music discovery, which is one of the biggest draws of Spotify

[azemetre]

I use to be a big fan of Spotify but they keep showing me similar songs that I just happened to listen to. My weekly lists contain synth, down tempo, and if I’m very lucky a pop song.

I don’t mind these genres but looking at my personal collection I have 400 gigs of rock, 500 gigs of rap, and 800 gigs of jazz. None of these three genres ever appear for me on Spotify. Spotify is by far the worse way for me to discover music because it’ll never show me something new or different; just the same song several dozen times.

The best way to find music is talking to people. Before what.cd shut down they had collages that I’d make heavy use of, basically lists of songs and artists for a variety of genres or feelings. One I’d heavy contribute to was jazzy hip hop. This one genre would encapsulate 30-60 artists which I’m sure that Spotify would put in separate worlds.

There has never been a “recommendation” service that I have found more useful than talking to someone.

[frxx]

Bandcamp has Bandcamp radio. It's very good.

[azemetre]

Bandcamp is great as well! I'm really curious how Epic handles it as an acquisition.

[panxyh]

I don't see where GP claimed that it does.

[willsmith72]

I mean if you're weighing in on a discussion of Spotify and Apple and sharing your alternative, I think it would be fair to think about drawbacks or missing features along with the pros of anti-subscription life

[lprd]

How did you discover music pre-streaming? Either go back to that, or use something like Last.fm which is far superior for music discovery and also gives you listening stats. In addition, there are plenty of YouTubers who love talking about music and reviewing albums. I've discovered far more artists through them than Spotify. Curation will always be better than algorithms, which is why some people prefer Apple music more.

As far as drawbacks are concerned: - Requires some technical know-all

- Maintaining your services - though this is fairly minimal

- UI not as polished as Apple or Spotify

- Takes time to import your media

Obviously, its not for everyone and streaming services aren't going anywhere soon. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.