Ask Lemmy

Bandcamp, then tidal. A friend works in the music industry, he said tidal can't always pay out but they have way better rates than the other streaming services. Bandcamp is like 999x better for artists though. You get the files (for free even if you buy vinyl or cd). It's so much better.

Qobuz has a streaming plan, and you can buy and download drm-free music. It's a good option if you want to just stream (the app has added some nice improvements lately). Even better if you're also looking to build your collection and looking to go the whole non-streaming route.

Purchases tend to be pricey, and there's a slightly more expensive plan with a discount on drm-free that might make sense, depending on how often you plan to make purchases.

Edit: this currently doesn't fall into the < $10 category but is comparable to the old Apple Music price.

I recommend TPB. It is a wonderful value, great selection, mediocre UI.

I carry around my music as mp3 files on my phone. It's also stored on a NAS at home and I could stream it via my own jellyfin instance, but its just more convenient to have it on my phone.

I use foldersync to download any music I add to my NAS onto my phone every night automatically.

Many have said buy music. I agree. You own your music fully. (effectively) and don't buy from apple. Bandcamp ftw. I'm a strange one and use Pandora for gennral vibe streaming. Then if I come across a song that resonates with me I go out and buy it. And before peeps talk bad about Pandora, I discover artists with less than 1000 views on YouTube on it that actually sound good. My only problem with Pandora is that it has a station bleed issue where songs from other stations you made will "bleed" songs into other stations. like I have a dnb station that sometimes plays hip hop instrumentals because of the jazzy vibes that dnb sometimes has. But after a few forceful thumbs down, it behaves. But don't do Pandora if you are wanting to listen to a SPESIFIC song. Just go buy it.

i just use Soulseek and download all the music i could want onto my phone (have 1tb microsd).

best way to support artists is buy their merch

Youtube ReVanced lets you use the YT Music app without ads, it also lets you watch youtube without ads

i buy music 🤷‍♀️

I use Spotify or torrent albums. I'll buy an album every now and then to support the people I listen to but I mainly just download discographies. Donald Fagen is still singing IGY with or without my money.

Visit the library once a month and leave with 10 CDs. Rip 'em all to mp3's. Month by month you'll build up a valuable collection that is yours alone. If you are an audiophile then you might not like the mp3's but I can't hear any discernable difference that would make me say "what poor sound quality". If I can tap my foot or sing along then it's more than good enough.

I use music.youtube.com. I do not download the app to my phone or PC. I use it with firefox and add blocker on PC and use it with brave browser on my phone. You can also upload your own music library to it. So all my CDs were converted to digital files and I uploaded it.

Genuine question, not trolling you.

Is there a reason owning one's own music is so unthinkable these days? I BUY my music, I own my music. I stream it anywhere I like from my own Plex server. If I had it to do over again I'd use Jellyfin instead. A tiny mini PC with some storage, some easy setup, and you never pay monthly for access to music again?

My main source for buying music is BandCamp.

YouTube Premium. No more YouTube adds.

Apple Music is actually such shit. Echoes of iTunes in a way.

I have been on the free trial for three months and, although I can find everything I want, and I can’t notice the difference in sound quality, even as a former live sound guy, I have gripes:

The web app is buggy. I’ll hit play and it doesn’t seem to immediately register. Sometimes it flashes play/pause a couple of times.

Search is garbage in that it sometimes shows things I’ve listened to before, sometimes not.

I have been listening to a podcast. I cannot specify a date range and need to keep. Scrolling. Back in time. Twenty times. Before I can find the episode bell that I’m up to. Because each page of results is like 20 podcasts.

There are penalty of reasons to dislike Apple Music. These are just a few. I’m would never normally drag a company but this is shockingly bad for a company based on the idea that the customer is right.

There was even an you outage a couple of days ago.

I’m cancelling before my free trial ends because it really is bad. I recommend you never sign up.

Throw out streaming entirely. Maybe buy an album here or there and pirate the rest. Legitimately, if you buy one album and nothing else, you are absolutely supporting the artist far more than listening to their songs "legitimately" through streaming.

all of them are the same. they dont give artists jackshit, that is the business model.

If you're interested in a FOSS alternative, try metrolist. You can download songs and it's a frontend to YouTube music, so you have access to their full catalogue

If you want a way that more directly supports creators, nothing is is better than buying their songs place a place like bandcamp

The price for Apple Music, just like the price for everything else in the economy, has inflated.

When Apple Music launched it was $9.99 for an individual. That's $13.98 in 2026 dollars. In October 2022 they raised the price to $10.99. That's $12.32 in 2026 dollars. Now it's $11.99 in 2026 dollars. Adjusted for inflation, that's the cheapest they've ever priced it.

Family plan price went up a bit, adjusted. $19.99 over 2022's $19.04.

https://keepingupwithinflation.com/tracker/apple-music/

Piracy + iTunes + Jellyfin + Symfonium
(for me)

LiDARr and plexamp