[aramndrt]

Can anyone suggest a minimalist music streaming platform? I'm looking for a digital substitute for collecting CDs, something similar to the old iTunes. Maybe Apple Music is the right choice, or are there other options available?

[leokennis]

I find Apple Music excellent for the "I had 800 CD's; now I want those same CD's, but instead in a digital streaming library on my phone".

You can add albums from the Apple Music catalog to your library. In iTunes on Mac you can change the tags if you want ("Making Movies (2020 remaster)" → "Making Movies" or something). You can easily star music, download for offline use, listen in lossless, create playlists, on Mac create smart playlists ("All albums where artis is "AC/DC" and year is between 1980 and 1990") etc.

[comprev]

Bandcamp might be what you're after. It's where I get 95% of digital music especially when bundled in with physical media.

[mingus88]

A plex server with the Plexamp player.

I purchase FLAC on bandcamp and add them to my plex library. The mobile app lets me stream and download to the device from anywhere

It’s the modern day equivalent of collecting CDs. These releases will never leave the platform and you own it outright.

They even launched a suggested playlist feature based on ML analysis of your library. It’s not half bad

[threeseed]

Apple Music and Tidal are the only two with high-res audio.

And since they often encode from the 24-bit studio masters you will get better audio quality than ripping from CDs yourself and likely from most “pay as you go” sites.

[adrianh]

I'll add another to that list: Qobuz. High-res music, good selection. I've been a paying subscriber for a few years now and can recommend it.

[threeseed]

Looks great and nice to find companies that still care about music.

I wish Spotify would stop giving money to Joe Rogan and instead invest in hi-res audio.

It’s ridiculous that we are in 2024 and they still don’t have it.

[mingus88]

Amazon prime music launched with high-res also.

In fact they had such a large selection of high res albums that it was downright suspicious. Albums and bands that never had releases on hdtracks, from decades ago, had 24bit streaming on prime

Really makes you think. There are quite a few blogs that open “high-res” releases in a spectrum analyzer and point out where the frequency cutoff is. They just re-encoded the original without any remastering.

Spotify went for the bigger market instead of the small niche of dubious gains. Can’t say I blame them. They have a lot of competition in 2024

[Tarq0n]

People usually suggest Roon when it comes to actually substitute a CD collection, it works with a couple of streaming services but it is an extra expense.