Wildly disrespectful to any artist that ever lived. I’m all up for sharing alternatives that are good/better towards actual artists. Still evaluating my choices, but meanwhile this seems like the only and rather easy signal the streaming community can give as to spread the word if they agree (next to stopping your own subscription). Context: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/22/spotifys-ai-bet-more-of-everything-less-of-what-you-want/
So basically, you can self host something similar to Spotify fairly easily or just keep your music on your phone (if you aren’t a die hard quality guy and don’t have millions of songs).
There’s spot-dl to mass download your playlists from YouTube. Granted, YouTube doesn’t have everything. Then you can support your favorite artists directly by buying merch from their website, their albums on Bandcamp, etc.
The thing is you can stop using the app but it will still keep generating playlists for you. By now, it knows you pretty well. So you can just go back periodically to download more songs and abuse of the algo without actually giving them money and ad revenue. From what I understand, it’s the discovery feature that is missing from most open source apps.
Hmm, I grew up with the pirate stuff back in the day but am kind of at the age where I don’t mind paying a little more for things I appreciate. I’m into self-hosting and all, but would love for there to be an ethical and legal alternative to recommend 😅. I think I would miss the jam-feature the most on such a route, as sharing the playlist/queue wherever you are from a huge catalog with friends is difficult to maintain. It seems that convenience is always the way they keep you locked in ☹️
Been selfhosting my music for years (was the initial push into the hobby). Bandcamp is your friend. I also don’t mind paying more for what i like nowadays. Still, I pirate stuff im not sure i like yet, like a demo of sorts. I listen to too much experimental stuff recommended by friends to know what ill love before simmering on it. Then i either go back and buy it, or just make sure to support them in more direct ways like buying more merchandise than I normally would. Pick a band that I’ve been vibing on that month and dumptruck cash on them.
Not a perfect solution, but it works for me, and I think I’ve given more money to artists overall than my table scrap stream pennies would have.
Theres a toooon of sites to just buy digital tracks from. Hdtracks I recall, I have no idea how good they are.
For me, if I’m paying , im getting physical media. Or at the very minimum DRM free media
Bandcamp amazingly hasn’t shit the bed yet. Its not for super popular artists but there is a lot on there. I love their setup: you buy either physical media or digital, you can dowoad the album as many times as you want in any quality, and also stream it unlimited after you buy. No monthly bullshit. (I dont pay subscriptions that aren’t utilities).
I give em 5 more years until they go under.
Would prefer to support Google as little as possible. Why use YouTube?
Because you can’t really grab music as easily anywhere else. You aren’t using YouTube really, just downloading the song once through them.
There are torrents but the scene isn’t the best from what I understand, most songs are missing the moment it isn’t a classic. It might have changed since last I checked.
So just because something is easy, I should be able to steal it?
Well, if it’s between that or paying Spotify to steal it for you. Best is just to buy all your music directly off the bands website.
I did outline you should buy from bands in my first comment. It’s okay imo to pirate a lot even if you support just a few bands. It’s better than what Spotify is offering.
I have yet to find an artist that is available on Spotify that doesn’t also sell their music by the album for a fair price.
Not everyone can afford that.
Hence why I said “if it’s between [piracy for most and directly supporting a few] or letting Spotify steal for you.”
You aren’t defending artists right now, you are defending a parasitic corporate juggernaut that is feeding on the artists.
Why should you have music if you can’t afford it? Do you need it to live? I’m a fucking musician, I am absolutely defending artists. What instrument do you play?
My argument is that people should pay artists for their music. Folks that use Spotify to any degree are the ones supporting the corporate juggernauts. Go directly to the source. Please don’t misrepresent my argument in the future.
Edit: trying to cover all my bases. In pop music, the “artist” is the collaboration of all the corporate entities responsible for producing their talent. I don’t listen to that shit either. Just try to know the artist you’re listening to.
Get off your high horse, I play guitar and used to play a few other things. Anyone can call himself a musician, unless you’re making a living off of it, it means nothing in the current context.
I’m trying to get people off Spotify, even if it means they need to pirate most of their library and only support some artists.
Would you rather they use Spotify or pirate+buy merch. If someone is used to have a 500 song playlist and can only afford to either have a spotify subscription or buy one album a month, they won’t switch to buying their music outright. They might switch to pirating+buying an album a month.