[athoscouto]

Wow, that brings back memories! foobar2000 was my go to player. I used to spend hours curating all my folders with albums and playlists. Funny how fast I switched to a streaming platform when they became widely available around here.

[nickjj]

> foobar2000 was my go to player

It is still my go to player, it works great in Windows 10.

[conductor]

And it has iOS/Android versions too, which is great if you still prefer file-based players: https://www.foobar2000.org/mobile

[bcraven]

I can recommend Blackplayer to fill that niche in a more modern (yet still simplistic) way. I don't see it mentioned much but it is regularly updated and extremely feature-dense.

[ents]

It's my go-to in macOS 14.5 as well. I tolerate using Spotify as a player for it's library. A plain list is all I actually want 99% of the time.

[athoscouto]

I haven't consumed audio and video from files for a while now. Streaming has become so convenient (partly because of internet prices and availability) that I don't see myself coming back.

[lproven]

I hear this a lot. I find it always leaves me bemused.

The main time I want music is at times when I can't stream: for instance, when travelling, especially when on planes.

I specifically want my own music for when I don't have internet. When I do have internet, I mostly listen to digital radio.

I have no streaming accounts with anyone, except free accounts. I do not have any payment method set up on my Apple account, and I never have in the ~28 years I had the account. I don't pay for wifi or other additional connectivity, either.

I keep a local library of MP3s on my phones, and videos on my set-top computer. I use Foobar for music on my phone, and VLC for video on my STB.

It's a bit odd to me that what was hi-tech is now almost Luddite in its refusal of novelty.

I really don't see how paying subscriptions for access to stuff that I don't own is any kind of improvement.

[skydhash]

It can be great for checking out stuff, like a membership to some club or a library. As soon as I find something I like, I need it to be locally so I can listen without tracking and possible interference by third-parties. And browsing a curated collection is calmer than searching in those apps.

[lproven]

Sure, but a free Spotify or Youtube account lets me do that no problem. No need to pay for anything, no need for Apple Music or whatever.

[voxic11]

How do you even buy music these days? I know of Bandcamp but its kind of limited in the selection.

[lproven]

Well, anachronistic as it may seem, I buy physical media, and rip them. I know it sounds very 20th century, but it works, you really own the stuff in an irrevocable sort of way, and second-hand CDs and DVDs are really cheap these days. I fill about 75% of a 128GB SD card with MP3s.

I like paper books, too. I have many thousands of them.

[voxic11]

How do you even buy music these days?

[dailykoder]

There are times when songs from streaming platforms go away or I get somehow reminded of one very old song from some unknown band that's still somewhere on my hard disk, that I think about going back. I love to have all my songs in one single playlist and then just have them on random. I remember having that from my saved files and then some of those very rare songs come up every now and then. It feels somewhat magical. There are a handful of songs that barely any people know, but they trigger some very nice memories.

I think soon (tm) I'll go back. Yes, streaming is convenient, but the algorithm is just unable to recommend me such rare treasures

[Geezus_42]

Hey, I'm a "one giant playlist on shuffle" person too! :D

[skydhash]

Streaming is convenient but their interface is not the greatest for curation and focus listening. Especially with their “lots of whitespace” design. There’s a reason we have list and tables in managers like itunes, calibre and file explorers. I tried adding my favorite albums to Apple Music and it quickly became untenable. Spotify is also awful for that. I have ~500 albums in my main library and various series and collection and it’s a breeze to manage, browse and listen with MPD, MOC, beets, Kid3 and the file explorer.