Do I use a website to download songs off of YouTube or Spotify?
Where should I store the music? I haven’t any clue about self-hosting. I’m running GrapheneOS, is it enough to save the songs in Files and play in an app like Auxio? Maybe sync with SyncThing?
What’s the best way to compress mp3 files but still retain the quality (even possible)?
Could really use some help as I’m very inexperienced. :)
I’m always curious why people do this. Music is the one item where it’s easier to just sub to something like Apple Music… literally $110/yr for all the music that exists. They gave us the solution we asked for and it’s super-cheap.
I pirate the shit out of movies and tv since those guys are gouging me, but musicians barely get by in the streaming era.
Hopefully this triggers nobody. I’m making no judgements.
it’s easier to just sub to something like Apple Music… literally $110/yr for all the music that exists.
As others have stated, not all music exists on every streaming platform. That alone is enough of a reason for me. I recently canceled my longtime Spotify subscription because the price kept increasing while my library kept decreasing. I actually don’t pirate music when I can help it because I’d rather support artists on Bandcamp or purchasing physical media directly. If I can’t do that then I head to Soulseek!
Spotify is terrible, but you seem to be saying that since none of these have every single album, you’ve chosen to pirate it all? Not sure if that was the reason.
I shouldn’t have said “all the music that exists,” more like “an overwhelming majority of existing music.”
As stated, my reason is that I was paying Spotify more money for less music and I was unhappy with that. You pointed out yourself that musicians barely get by in the streaming era so I would rather support them on Bandcamp (I know it has it’s own issues) or buying physical media whenever possible rather than pirating. Streaming platforms may make music you want to listen to seemingly affordable and accessible but that’s not the case for everyone. This is my personal experience.
my two cents,
I personally buy some music from Bandcamp, and I’m pretty sure those songs don’t exist on the Apple Music catalog. So I don’t want to handle multiple apps to listen what I want.
Also, streaming platforms have the internet constraints. Sometimes, like when I’m driving, I don’t have a stable internet connection
I’ve used Spotify for like 20 years now, and I’m finally going back to pirating.
They started “innovating” and adding shit I didn’t want last year to justify fee increases.
I can’t trust businesses to not enshittify, so might as well continue on with where I left my library all those years ago.
Plus: So much music isn’t available on there. I have a huge collection of Japanese Rock, Pop, Visual Kei from the 90s and 00s that you just can’t find easily.
Many artists I like were signed with a now defunct record label called Tympanik Audio. Whoever got the rights to the name after the label went under stopped paying their Spotify license fees, and a large chunk of my Spotify library vanished overnight. While the albums still exist on Bandcamp, the money probably gets thrown into the void now.
Never again. The only way I can ensure my music is accessible tomorrow is to have my own copy. I buy on Bandcamp where I can, or will buy physical and rip it if I really like the album. Everything else gets ripped from Deezer automatically because there’s no guarantee anything on those platforms will always be there.
