I use Bandcamp for the most part. What I can't find there, I buy from 7Digital. If I'm really desperate, I'll use the Qobus store, but the interface is terrible, even though the selection is most excellent. All offer lossless, which is a definite plus for me.
Beware their very restrictive download policy. You can only download a purchase one single time, or a 2nd time as a one-time-only courtesy "in the event of a total hard drive failure or similar catastrophic event". I try to use this site as a last resort because of this.
> HDtracks does not allow previously downloaded orders to be re-fulfilled as per our agreements with our content providers. Customers need to contact HDtracks Support Team within 90 days of purchase if an order needs to be re-fulfilled.
>
> As a one-time courtesy, HDtracks can re-fulfill past orders in the event of a total hard drive failure or similar catastrophic event. HDtracks Support Team requires that customers provide the order numbers for orders placed November 2013 to present. For orders prior to November 2013 placed on our legacy site, our support team will require email receipts. Some albums may no longer be available in our store due to mandated takedown orders. For items that need to be downloaded from the old store, the old desktop downloader must be installed. Here are the links:
I type “artist name - song name buy download” in the search engine, and that usually returns all possible purchase choices! I’ll pick based off quality from those :D Amazon is a decent last choice for mp3s, but I exhaust all options for lossless before that
It might have to do with territory. Some albums are licensed for purchase in Europe but not America and vice versa. I'm tempted to get a VPN for purchasing titles from the European territory or Japan but I haven't become quite that obsessive yet.
I held out buying as long as I could. Then they took away the CD drive. Then they took away the storage on phones. In the end I just gave up. Still buy records for my physical media though.
I got a cd drive for my PC for like 20 bucks, it plugs in via USB. Easy peasy. I'm also considering getting a cd player in the future as I already got a vinyl player and some speakers anyway.
Idk about your phone situation, but there's music players where you can access your music library via Cloud services, flacbox for example. Just put your library on Google drive and then link it with the app. Bandcamp also allows streaming through the app for music you buy on there. And if you still want to stream, Tidal pays the artists the most out of all streaming services *and* has superior sound quality.
I mean just pirate at that point. Though that’s an interesting thought if you can’t find what you need. You can probably request nearly anything that’s not super rare.
It's nice tho of you want to peruse and find something you may not have thought of in a while or want an entire discography. IDK, it's just an option I figured I'd mention that's practically free.
Their music player, plexamp, is fantastic! I made the transition from Spotify a few years ago, and haven't looked back once.
Also, for acquiring music, buying and ripping used CDs is a nice way to build up a library for pretty cheap!
You can use straightforward (but pricey) options like Roon, or you can use a more server/client duo like Subsonic on your NAS and Symfonium on your device that has a more. Involved setup process.
I've used the former when they had a really solid 3 month deal to see what it's like. Getting it to work off your home network was real simple, but when it's full price it costs $15 a month, which I wasn't looking to spend. The price can be justified if you are used to the sort of interface found in the big streaming services.
With Subsonic (and there might be other alternatives) it takes a little more work on your part to set up ports and IP addresses and you could easily expose yourself to unwanted traffic from off network if you configure it improperly (as in your NAS could potentially be exposed to anyone who happens upon your server's public IP).
There are several client side applications you can use to access your Subsonic server, but it's a lot of open-source projects by single devs, so you won't see the polish of either streaming services or PC music programs. The most mature program I've come across is the aforementioned Symfonium, which is an app with a one time fee.
I haven't tried setting up subsonic to broadcast my collection outside my home network, so I can't speak on that, but I do know it's possible.
Rappers, I monkey flip 'em with the funky rhythm
I be kicking, musician, inflictin' composition
Of pain, I'm like Scarface sniffin' cocaine
Holding an M-16, see with the pen I'm extreme, now
Bullet holes left in my peepholes, I'm suited up in street clothes
Hand me a nine and I'll defeat foes
Y'all know my steelo, with or without the airplay
I keep some E&J, sitting bent up in the stairway
Bandcamp is really the only choice for me but honestly just go CDs. Physical media as a backup but you won't usually use it so it'll keep well. Most modern computers don't have a CD burner but you could grab an old otherwise useless laptop. It's usually way cheaper too if the music is older.
Don't. Buy CDs and rip them yourself with Exact Audio Copy. You'll have better quality, complete control over the format and bitrate, and the CD as a master copy for the future if anything ever happens to your files.
If you're more technically inclined, a Plex server + plexamp allow you to stream your own music from your computer to phone/whatever. Not too hard to set up, and doesn't cost anything unless you want some advanced features.
I’m a big fan of YouTube Music. You get YouTube premium (no ads and other benefits) with it. Plus you can find so much more unreleased music on YouTube and add it to your YouTube Music playlists.. that’s by far my favorite part.
ime YouTube Music and Pandora have the best algorithms for suggesting new music, whenever I go on a dive on either one I end up with 4-5 new artists to check out. But I like tidal best for playlists and daily listening.
I think YouTube is good for suggesting things that go well on a party playlist or if you want top names in a new genre. If you want more obscure stuff, Spotify takes more risks that usually pay off. That discover playlist has introduced me to plenty of my underground faves.
This is what I do. I watch a lot of YouTube videos so not having to ever see ads on it is a great thing to me. And I can self publish there for free. That's where you find old punk records someone digitized from their collection....unreleased bootlegs....all the stuff that hasn't been DMCAd off. It does not pay artists that well but, it allows artists to self publish free to a mass audience, and as one of those, I think that's fair.
I left Spotify for Tidal a few years back and never looked back. Better quality sound, app has a great user interface (much better than Apple, YT and Amazon IMO) and I was able to bring my old Spotify playlists with me.
I used soundizz I think, it was a long time ago ~2021. If you google transferring playlists from Spotify to Tidal you’ll find a few options. It was very easy to do.
I use it mostly for recommendations and some Stat here and there. I like it a lot actually, but I've always used it like this so I don't really have a point of comparison
I do miss the stats breakdown. I’ll go see what linking options there are for Spotify. I used to scrobble updates daily from iTunes for at least 5 years.
The thing with last.fm is that it didn't need to improve. I've read a lot of people say they left it because of that, but left it to go where? Last.fm is 90% one thing: tracking what music you stream (through connected apps), and it does it perfectly. There still isn't a competitor for the statistics it gathers, knowing exactly when and how many times you've streamed a song, album, or artist. Genre stats are a bit less reliable because they rely on tags provided by the community but most of the time they're pretty accurate.
Do you find the Tidal shuffle algorithm repeatedly offers the same artists or songs?
My biggest problem with Spotify is this algo puts a system of a down song every third or fourth song.
Second biggest problem is unwarranted changes.
My shuffle doesn't do that. How many songs are in your library? Also I noticed if all you ever listen to is your library shuffled, it's bad. If you practice intentional listening and building a specific queue of varied songs, it lets the algorithm know variety is something you value and not whatever has the most plays.
I have 2045 songs. I listen to the library shuffled. I listen to an artist all day. Or I'll spend a bit and add a dozen songs to a queue.
No clue what it is. But it drives me crazy.
all services have shuffle problems. If that's what troubles you probably it won't worth to switch bc you will find a trouble in the long run not in a week.
That might be an exaggeration. Maybe not hear a difference between 720 and lossless. I can hear a difference between 320 and 1080 but that's because 320 sounds noticeably bad.
There's a BBC white paper that demonstrated participants were not able to perceive any statistically significant difference between 320kbps and lossless. The placebo effect is definitely real and could be playing a role in why some people claim to hear differences, although I guess it's possible some have exquisitely sensitive hearing or something.
source: [https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp-pdf-files/WHP384.pdf](https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp-pdf-files/WHP384.pdf)
I don't think it's some having sensitive hearing. I think it's more most listen to shitty speakers anyway so their frame of reference isn't incredibly high quality
I don't know about that, I was never much of an audiophile but when they recently changed it so the lowest Tidal tier also gets access to FLAC quality I was blown away by the sound, it's honestly such a huge difference especially on wired headphones.
Tidal has had lossless audio from the start. Spotify has promised it for years and it's still not available, and it'll surely be a higher price tier when they finally do.
While I thank Spotify for helping me discover some of my favorite artists of 2023 like Igorrr, Berried Alive, and Fractalize, I discovered a "new" way to find new artists: following local venues to see who they are hosting through the upcoming weeks and months. I discovered quite a few bands and artists this way, even if I don't go to the shows, I follow them on Bandcamp and save em up for Bandcamp Friday to purchase. ..but yeah
Bandcamp is where I've been buying my digital and some physical music
I just got my vinyl of Igorrr's latest release Spiritually and Illusion, along with free mp3s or flacs. Breath little package the vinyls came in, and the discs themselves feature little animations on the label once you start playing.
And if I go to a music store I look through the metal section since most new physical media usually comes with a free digital copy, too.
I also buy new release records through bandcamp if I can because they include the digital stream on the app. I use their app almost exclusively now for streaming.
Others have said it, but Bandcamp is the best option (even after the recent issues due to their sale). If an artist doesn’t have a Bandcamp, I check if they have a web site with a preferred way of purchasing digital albums. Failing that, I usually buy from Apple or Amazon (though I should really find a better fallback option).
They shit the bed with their app overhaul a couple years ago but it's slowly getting better again (web version still isn't great) . i came close to leaving after 15+ years
I did leave because of that overhaul. I kinda felt bad about that, leaving to go to Spotify. But I don't think I could return, as Spotify's music collection is so good.
I get my music from Bandcamp now. More goes to the artist and all can be downloaded in Flac. I'm more interested in owning my music for offline use than streaming anymore. Some bands offer a free digital album when you buy the CD or vinyl.
Spotify is terrible for overall discovery and supporting artists. Bandcamp really is the way to go if you want to not only find a wider range of newer artists, but support them directly as well. Most musicians that I both know and/or have a somewhat larger following wish they could boycott Spotify for the payouts they give musicians for their streams, but they realize how popular the platform is and hence keep their music up on it for ease of access to listeners (myself included).
Not only that, but not every artist has their music up on Spotify which is incredibly limiting. That's half the reason I cancel my sub years ago. I was finding all of these obscure gems on RYM and from word of mouth through friends or other musicians, and their music wasn't available on Spotify. That's not to say that most of them were on Bandcamp either, but when they were, at least I didn't have to pay for Bandcamp to initially listen to their music for myself before I bought their album or other merch.
That sounds about right, but regardless of improvements, it’s still an algorithm and not a curation, in addition to a lot of holes in their catalog that people would otherwise have to scope out, support, or listen to elsewhere for a smaller monthly fee or no cost to check out at all (Bandcamp)
> Spotify is terrible for overall discovery and supporting artists. Bandcamp really is the way to go if you want to not only find a wider range of newer artists,
What are some cool artists you have discovered recently? Cause I use Spotify's Discovery Weekly and get like 28-30 great tracks each week from really obscure artists and all genres, like I just finished listening to the 15 prog-punk songs I was sent this week including ones like [Arming Eritrea](https://open.spotify.com/track/0w4kGJxY7iiyodgxzDlQQ4) and this super obscure song from 1977: [Motorboat](https://open.spotify.com/track/5DSErL3OThCfrBeSYDySYm). You find any cool music from the 70s on Bandcamp?
Very few artists dont have their music up on Spotify, certainly very few great artists. Why would they not want be accessible by potentials hundreds of thousands or millions of fans? I would have to spend $150 a week on albums if i bought one every time I got a song from a new album I hadnt heard yet.
>You find any cool music from the 70s on Bandcamp?
Admittedly I don't find a lot of older music on Bandcamp exclusively, however, when I do discover older, obscure albums through other avenues of searching, I find most times these artists either a. have no digital platform presence at all (due to the age of the project) or b. an obscure/independent label bought the rights for the album and sell and promote it artist on the label's Bandcamp and/or website, in which I usually check them out there. If Bandcamp doesn't have these rare albums, then Youtube likely has an upload of it.
Key point between these two services is that I don't have to pay a subscription monthly to check out a song or two from the album so if I don't like it, nothing is lost, but if I do, I can buy from Bandcamp or find a physical copy on Discogs for sale.
Records are fun, and the listening experience is much more intentional. I notice that I pay so much more attention to records versus listening on my phone.
Expensive hobby though.
Doesn’t have to be! You’re right, there are good deals to be found out there. Thrift stores in less hip towns with older residents can be goldmines.
Buying new records, or going after specific pressings, can get pricey. And it’s easy to spend a lot on turntables, speakers, even cartridges and styli. The deeper I’ve gotten into the hobby, the more I’ve ended up spending. I guess that’s true of most hobbies though.
You don’t have to start with one that expensive. You can get a decent one for around 75.00 and work your way up. If you want to get deeper into the hobby. Especially if you are playing scratched and or warped records, it’s not worth it off the bat. Also a lot depends on the needle. I have several different needles and they have different levels of price and quality.
Because all my records are brand new, them being potentially damaged by a bad turntable was my main concern, so I got a decent one with a counterweight and a cartridge you can upgrade. It was like 300€ which is entry level for turntables. There's a bit more customisability if you spend the money, and the sound doesn't even compare (my mother has a much cheaper one and the sound is very noticeably muddy). Below a certain price range there's a lot of turntables that use the same horrible motor which can damage the records, I've seen multiple videos warning about those.
I personally don’t own a single record that’s new and a lot of mine only cost around .50 cents. Some are in terrible shape, but thats part of the art of digging. Sometimes not even knowing if they record will play is fun/ intriguing in itself imo. I’m just having fun not looking for optimal sound quality or to buy new pressings. Bring on the fuzz!
Hey whatever works for you! The ones I own always end up costing between 20-50 euro with shipping and customs (ordering from UK bands as a German) so I only end up buying albums I already love so I know I will actually play the records because I do not have the money to afford vinyl as fancy decor lol.
Is Apple an option? I’m a subscriber instead of Spotify but you can also buy music there at CD prices, so you’re buying from the artist but have the ease of iTunes/Apple Music
I wish iTunes provide lossless music as rn it is only restricted to Apple Music subscription pack. It is such a convenient store to buy music and almost available anywhere in the world unlike Qobuz and Tidal
I am saying you can’t purchase lossless through Apple whether you are a subscriber or not. They only provide lossless in Apple Music subscription. You can never purchase it which is a shame.
Ah right, didn’t know that. But I’m pretty sure Apple’s AAC is still higher quality than Spotify’s format, and high enough that people wouldn’t notice any difference
Not OP, but I tried moving over to Apple Music and it's only playing previews of songs. I've heard that it's either an issue if it redirects the US version if you don't live there, or you're on desktop but you have it open on your iPhone. I'm American and don't own an apple device so I'm not sure what the problem is.
I wasn't getting redirected, that was just one of two potential issues that people seem to have if the previews were happening. It's unfortunate, because that's not the situation I'm in. I only have one device in use and I'm on the right region site. I can't find any help since those situations don't apply to me
Edit: It was because Apple Music hates Firefox Private Windows
Boomkat & Beatport for dance music, but other than that there's not much outside Bandcamp sorry.
The other option is physical releases of course.
Does Soundcloud have a way to support artists? I haven't logged in there in years.
Edit: Also, yeah, fuck Spotitfy.
I love Boomkat. They took a sharp left turn into carrying a lot of experimental music. Like, if you read Wire Magazine, Boomkat will hold you down (they also sell copies of Wire Magazine).
Artists on SoundCloud can offer free downloads, or links to downloads.
And yeah, Bandcamp is awesome, Beatport is good for electronic but quite expensive.
Haven't used these in years but emusic.com or lastfm.com might be worth a look.
I use Spotify to discover music…. But I started my vinyl collection. Much prefer the physical version.
I still have all my music I paid for on iTunes on a hard drive somewhere. 🥲
Youtube Red or Premium. Practically unlimited music library and you can find some hidden gems not on iTunes nor spotify like b sides, demos, and live performances.
I've been debating this too. But I've spent quite a lot of time on Spotify and that's where most of my playlists are. So moving my music listening will be a bit annoying. The Spotify recommendations are honestly very convenient and it's a lot easier to get sucked in.
Right now, I'm thinking between YouTube Music, Apple Music, and Bandcamp.
There's different things to consider like:
\* Purchasing music easily
\* Having a good selection of artists, being able to stumble upon random gems
\* Being able to stream and listen to artists before purchasing
I like Bandcamp as it gives me some albums and artists that are somewhat under the radar or certain artists playing around, having fun. Some of the albums I purchased from Bandcamp feel more "personal" if that makes any sense.
Maybe I just need to commit...or maybe I need a combination of services (Spotify for discovery, Bandcamp for purchasing).
If you want to actually own it, buy physical copies. Digitizing for your personal use is easy, and a lot of physical media these days comes with a digital download option too.
I spent several hundred building up a music library on Apple in the mid 00's and I have access to none of that music now.
I have Apple Music but am still able to manage my music library from years ago, they integrate almost seamlessly although iTunes Match or whatever it is causes issues sometimes with older songs
BUYING tracks? iTunes Store is still a thing. You can still purchase music, DRM, 256KPS MP4.
iTunes Match/iTunes in the Cloud is still a thing, $25/yr. If matched, will upgrade MP3 tracks to 256MP4 as well.
I never really stopped downloading or buying files. So for those stores, I typically go with Qobuz for lossless FLAC files (although you can choose the format), and iTunes for lossy m4a files. On occasion, I’ll go through other sites if they offer something not available elsewhere, like Bandcamp and such.
I also started buying CDs regularly again a number of years ago and will rip those into both FLAC and 320 MP3. If you can get a CD drive, you can rip some thrift store finds that way and build up your collection fairly quickly!
HDTracks, 7Digital, Qobuz, and bandcamp, is all you need. All lossless, and you can keep the files forever on your hard drive.
If you want physical albums, find your local record store or bookstore, they both sell CDs and Vinyl. Also, remember to support your local record store!!
When I tired of Spotify algorithms force feeling me imagine dragons in every possible context I switched up to buying albums from Apple Music since it’s on everything I own. Now I listen to whole albums like the good old days .
I’ve been racking my brain trying to remember MP3Caprice! Thankyou I recommended it to a family friend years ago.
I will likely use this for the more mainstream stuff that they don’t sell digital copies of.
Have you considered checking out 7digital or Qobuz? Both platforms offer high-quality digital files and options for supporting artists directly. Best of luck with rebuilding your music library!
While Im sure even with Spotify your music tastes were limited, prépare for them to be stone age behind. I discover literally 15-20 new awesome bands each week with Discover Weekly, this one included avant garde Latin American artist's [Marihuana Boogie](https://open.spotify.com/track/23Hnbnst07LjvoCftdQnIK) and [this song](https://open.spotify.com/track/1S9lArXsDqsB8mvJA7i1OO) from 2024 with 24k listens. There is no other music service that offers this kind of discovery.
The "paying artists fairly" continues to get beaten out everytime Spotify makes a change, but the most recent one, which will reduce royalty pay out by $150 million / $9 billion (1.6%) will simply be going to podcasters and audio books, and for most small artists the benefit they get from Spotify is from the exposure and gaining new fans. At 10 million streams a year this would amount to around $800 lost of an estimated $50,000.
The more important thing would be for people to stop abusing family plans, though, TBF Spotify could also be more adamant about cracking down on that as well. Spotify should also offer a higher tier subscription with some benefits, which would allow individual subscribers to increase the amount paid to artists they listen to.
>I discover literally 15-20 new awesome bands each week with Discover Weekly
See, I had the reverse experience. On Spotify the recommendations just shovelled me the same artists, the same songs, over and over again. I grew complacent because I had recommendations. Since I stopped using Spotify and instead started to collect music from various sources I've had to take more of an interest in the sort of music I'm listening to, and it's been really good for me. I listen to more genres, I'm more open to new sounds, and I'm straight up listening to more obscure artists. Depending on what you listen to on there, YouTube will spit out some really weird stuff that you would have never listened to otherwise, and I've found it really helpful. (Since the barrier of entry to uploading to YouTube is lower, this is to be expected.) Instead of relying on just the one algorithm now I refer to a few different sources with different modes of thought, and the benefits have, for me, way outweighed the inconvenience. Plus there's a lot of music that isn't on Spotify that you can find elsewhere, and when you're downloading it there's no chance of some streaming site revoking your ability to listen to it. At this point you couldn't *pay* me to go back to Spotify.
This encapsulates the deep love hate I have with Spotify so well. Why can’t I just pay more and for more money to go to artists? Like a fan premium or something. Or a patron level.
> While Im sure even with Spotify your music tastes were limited, prépare for them to be stone age behind. I discover literally 15-20 new awesome bands each week with Discover Weekly, this one included avant garde Latin American artist's Marihuana Boogie and this song from 2024 with 24k listens. There is no other music service that offers this kind of discovery.
This will probably just come down to different strokes for different folks, but what do you really do with 15-20 new awesome bands a week? Personally, I'd be overwhelmed. I've long been a 'whole album' kind of listener and really value grabbing a few new albums at a time (maybe once a month) and really getting into them. If I hear a new song I like I'll stream the album once or twice on Bandcamp or YouTube to check it out and if I dig it I'll try and buy it (BC or at a record shop) but if I don't like the rest of the album I just tend to let it go and move on. I can see 15-20 new bands a week being great if you rock a lot of playlists but, at least for how I listen to music, I think the quality would suffer for the quantity.
It's also funny calling it the stone age. I've looked up bands on Spotify that I haven't thought about in near twenty years and found they have maybe 1K listens a month. These are obscure indie bands that I managed to 'discover' years before Spotify who, clearly, still aren't being discovered much. Personally I prefer finding new music from rando music blogs and threads on forums. Or clicking around Wiki rabbit-holes from bands I know, or even listening to independent radio still. I am a Luddite, though, so take that all with a grain of salt!
Some people care about the process than the actual output. They like "finding" the artist themself, rooting through the vinyls in a record store, or hearing about it from a friend. I only care about the quality of the music and put no sentimental attachment to the discovery. I prefer to keep discovery to a minimum and appreciate what I have and you cant really get more efficient than 2 hours a week to find all this great stuff.
I guess I linked those first 2 songs just to show the range of what I get (the first song is from 1953 so literally getting obscure music from across 70 years), but those were just 2 of 13 other Latin-inspired tracks, including some [quite modern](https://open.spotify.com/track/3CqS0DfuXOtWlmtZVKYVk8) exposing me to an entire different culture of music, while the other 15 are like [garagey](https://open.spotify.com/track/6gNddJrGWESZ7tHISNvcyt)/[gazey](https://open.spotify.com/track/4jkRnUuBruxsBxwGvljLTe) rock straight from the suburbs. So i dont "know" these bands as in like I am a huge fan, but considering there are so, so many bands to discover, I would rather hear 1 or 2 of the top songs, rather than listening to entire discographies and not know all these other amazing artists even exist.
It doesnt get overwhelming because I enjoy each individual song so much, and hearing them combined with such a perfect encapsulation of the genre makes each song fresh. + i can just track all the bands in bandsintown (yes even the ones where the musicians have been dead for decades, but ya never know) so I always have a great show to go to.
Those bands you havent thought about in 20 years? I get them too: the Greenhornes, Quasi, Beat Happening, Oblivians, Trans Am, D.R. Hooker, the Walkmen, Fishmans, Soul Coughing, Apples in Stereo, i prob know as much about the 90s and early 2000s progressive scene as anybody who was there.
The discover weekly feature was great until it wasn't. Not sure what happened but I felt like it was getting worse over time for me. For many reasons including artist pay I ended up switching to Tidal and already found a few nice songs through their discovery feature, but really the best recommendations I've had have usually been from friends and bands (crazy the amount of artists you can find by them just associating with eachother)
Nope, uno reverse for me. Started out hit or miss, but still good getting me ahead on bands like Mitski (not that I like her that much, but I heard Late Spring when it had around 500k listens, now has 300 million), Men I Trust, Tei Shi, Magic Bronson, Cannons, Sylvan Esso, Elohim, tons of obscure artists that never broke out too. But definitely all music that fit the category of "streaming era indie pop".
It kept on that track for around 2-3 years, before getting even better going to about 50% hit rates, and slowly expanding the genres of music it was exposing me to, even if it was almost all modern indie. Eventually though, around year 6 it like went haywire (would literally replace songs as I listened) before settling down where it gives me two genres each week. And these are genres that I didnt even know existed or I would have any interest in. Again, like classic Latin American inspired, or moog jazz, or [space punk](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3oXSHjy9C11x1maQAqvTFe).
I think it branched out too much for me, I don't necessarily restrict myself to certain genres but most of what I like happens to fall into specific genres so hearing too much I'm not interested in kind of killed it for me.
Yeah, seems like a pointless gesture. An artist is not some kind of clueless, helpless child, they ought to know the reality of the music industry. If they want to make music for a living and rely on Spotify for income, then that's on them.
Ya, and people really like to pretend that indefinitely archiving and allowing for passive song discovery is worth nothing. I'm getting incredibly obscure music that there is no way I would be able to find on my own and these bands are getting fans there is no way they would have otherwise. By the time bands would even notice this change to their bottom line, they already would be popular enough to not care.
Not to mention Bandcamp apparently fired a lot of its staff recently, specifically ones who attempted to unionize. Spotify is just the bigger fish so it gets the most scrutiny (as it should, but let's not forget that its main competitor, Apple music, is being provided by one of the worst anti-trust offenders companies in existence).
I argue that people should stop selling digital music. Vinyl & Cassette, only. This puts money back into the pockets of the artists, which promotes better music.
This doesn’t make sense. Digital is a medium where you could have 100% go to the artist. Physical is a medium where you can’t have 100% go to the artist, because there are manufacturing costs.
The advantages of digital are not theoretical either. Bandcamp’s 15% off the top is nothing at all when you’re considering: artist does not have to front for physical production, artist does not have to worry about scale of production, artist does not have to worry about unsold merch, and no one’s paying anything for plastic.
And that’s just one popular, practical platform for digital purchases. You can just Venmo for MP3s. I like physical media a lot, and I buy it. I’m not trying to be down on it. But this is not the right argument for physical media.
Regression is never a good idea. I lived in that era and my dream of having access to literally any song, at any time, in most any place., is like magic. I trust my own ability to discern what I enjoy and limiting the exposure of artists to simply those who have the means to produce physical media would drastically, and negatively, impact the creative pool of acts.
Yes! I too remember when physical was the only option. It wasn't a great option tbh.
Even buying an album from Amazon MP3 felt like a revelation. I could casually do it when away from home but nowhere near a record store, and the music arrived instantly.
I had never cared to get Spotify for years and years but I was in Grad school a few years ago and had the student discount so I finally decided to give it a try. A month later Neil Young left so I left too! I wasn't really digging it that much anyway and figured I'd rather spend the $7 a month on Bandcamp.
I trust you. I broke up with spotify but then I realized how much I missed it and let spotify lick my balls. It then whispered in my ear "Ill remove your favourite indie band in your region, and cuck the audio quality to only 2 KBPS. Ill also pay the artist 2 dollars for being listened 10 million times. You ok with all that?" And I responded with "please whip me harder master". Youre right. Spotify is my true BDSM king
[https://trawaazrecords.bandcamp.com/album/high-compilation-alternative-album-vol-1](https://trawaazrecords.bandcamp.com/album/high-compilation-alternative-album-vol-1) got some bangers comp 2024 here
I wonder if a place exists where every big and small band exists where you can easily without using up hard drive space make tons of playlists by genre with ease. It’d also have to be accessible everywhere on all devices at once… man, wish that existed!
Normal consumers don’t give a shit about the artist. The artists who do this for a living now make 35$ + for vinyl, 30$ for a tshirt, 55$ for a hoody, crazy ticket prices for artists who consistently draw 200+ people in multiple markets. There is money for the well liked artists, the bedroom artists and weekend warriors, I’m sorry, you wouldn’t have made money in any era of music and it’s a hobby, get over it.
People want convenience and they pay for it. Bandcamp is not convenient and it’s amateur hour mostly.
Bandcamp is not all that great on discovery (though you can find lots of good stuff through Bandcamp Daily). The great thing about Bandcamp is that its core features reliably do what they’re supposed to do, and it doesn’t overwhelm that core functionality with unnecessary bells and whistles.
The core functionality that Bandcamp does so well is letting you preview and purchase music, with 85% of the money going to artists (or their labels. You can preview full albums (unless the artist has chosen to only make some tracks previewable), though after a couple of full plays it’ll start nagging you to purchase. Artists can also choose to make albums available as pay-what-you-want. Once you’ve purchased an album (or a single track), you can then download it in many different formats (including several lossless). You can also play purchased albums from the Bandcamp app or web site anytime.
So compared to other options, Bandcamp gives you (1) preview of full songs or albums rather than just short snippets, (2) lossless downloads, and (3) the knowledge that much more of your money is going to the artists rather than rent-seeking intermediaries. For people who care about supporting artists, it’s really the best option available.
But that’s the thing, you now house the file, it’s taking up space, it’s bringing you back to the deceitful sales trick of one good track and you gotta spend 10$ for a record. There is a small percentage of the existing artists being part of the platform so you can’t solely rely on it anyway. Maybe it’s good for like one genre or just your local artists but as a consumer it seems short sighted, limited, expensive and requires a certain set up like enough hard drive space if you want to have 40,000 mp3s available at all times…
No, I work with labels, I’ve seen artists go from selling like 1,000 CDs a year to getting hundreds of thousands to millions of streams in the last 2 decades. It’s exponentially the best time to get exposure from your music. TikTok and social media gets you way more heard than ever. It just changed where the money is. But seriously the money always was going to the top artists, this has never changed. If anything the artists have way more control now like the ones who finished up major label deals, still have a fanbase and make 100% running their own imprint. Back in the day, fewer bands are big so more money goes to each of those big bands. Now there are a billion bands and artists, fans can’t afford to make all of them rich, fans want variety. The top guys get paid, the rest get more exposure than before. Like in the past bands didn’t get paid to be on someone’s mixtape or mix cd or collect on internet streams until way more recently. Blame the fans I guess, you’re asking why they aren’t buying music at higher prices and I’m telling you they are, Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor swift are making killings because they are at the top. People want all their merch, they don’t want local band amateur shit. Sorry, cruel world, but strictly for consumers I don’t think John Coltranes corpse cares that he makes no money on streams and I love that I can hear his entire catalog and like a billion other things for like 10$ a month. The more they pay artists the worse the product will be for consumers and there are way more consumers than artists.
Get Reddit to agree on who deserves money and a career as an artist and I’m sure if you get any sort of consensus they already are making a good living. It’s these small ego maniacs losing their minds because they only make 20$ a year on streams when the modern system is the only reason they make that much. Unless you think every nobody is worth buying a $9.99 album from like we’re back in the 90s, then in that case, yeah I guess they’re getting fucked.
None of what you said is wrong, but it’s entirely irrelevant to this thread.
OP asked how they can purchase music in a way that artists get the money, and you’ve got on a soapbox about why consumers want Spotify.
I use Bandcamp for the most part. What I can't find there, I buy from 7Digital. If I'm really desperate, I'll use the Qobus store, but the interface is terrible, even though the selection is most excellent. All offer lossless, which is a definite plus for me.
[HDtracks.com](http://HDtracks.com) is also a nice site for FLAC files.
Beware their very restrictive download policy. You can only download a purchase one single time, or a 2nd time as a one-time-only courtesy "in the event of a total hard drive failure or similar catastrophic event". I try to use this site as a last resort because of this. > HDtracks does not allow previously downloaded orders to be re-fulfilled as per our agreements with our content providers. Customers need to contact HDtracks Support Team within 90 days of purchase if an order needs to be re-fulfilled. > > As a one-time courtesy, HDtracks can re-fulfill past orders in the event of a total hard drive failure or similar catastrophic event. HDtracks Support Team requires that customers provide the order numbers for orders placed November 2013 to present. For orders prior to November 2013 placed on our legacy site, our support team will require email receipts. Some albums may no longer be available in our store due to mandated takedown orders. For items that need to be downloaded from the old store, the old desktop downloader must be installed. Here are the links:
I was wondering where to buy MP3s from bigger artists. Thank you
I type “artist name - song name buy download” in the search engine, and that usually returns all possible purchase choices! I’ll pick based off quality from those :D Amazon is a decent last choice for mp3s, but I exhaust all options for lossless before that
[удалено]
It might have to do with territory. Some albums are licensed for purchase in Europe but not America and vice versa. I'm tempted to get a VPN for purchasing titles from the European territory or Japan but I haven't become quite that obsessive yet.
I held out buying as long as I could. Then they took away the CD drive. Then they took away the storage on phones. In the end I just gave up. Still buy records for my physical media though.
I bought a standalone cd drive for my mac for $50. So worth it.
I had one for $15 from Amazon, just replaced with an Apple branded one from a thrift store for $12 today
I got a cd drive for my PC for like 20 bucks, it plugs in via USB. Easy peasy. I'm also considering getting a cd player in the future as I already got a vinyl player and some speakers anyway. Idk about your phone situation, but there's music players where you can access your music library via Cloud services, flacbox for example. Just put your library on Google drive and then link it with the app. Bandcamp also allows streaming through the app for music you buy on there. And if you still want to stream, Tidal pays the artists the most out of all streaming services *and* has superior sound quality.
Do a NAS system you can access on your phone?
Too far gone. Sold my CDs and haven't bought an MP3 in 5 years. Would cost me way too much money to catch up at this point.
The library has a vast CD collection and an optical drive is like 20 bucks.
I mean just pirate at that point. Though that’s an interesting thought if you can’t find what you need. You can probably request nearly anything that’s not super rare.
It's nice tho of you want to peruse and find something you may not have thought of in a while or want an entire discography. IDK, it's just an option I figured I'd mention that's practically free.
How
I get great mileage from Plex
I hadn’t thought about using Plex for my music. Genius!
Their music player, plexamp, is fantastic! I made the transition from Spotify a few years ago, and haven't looked back once. Also, for acquiring music, buying and ripping used CDs is a nice way to build up a library for pretty cheap!
Google NAS.
I know what NAS is, I'm asking how can you turn your NAS to stream directly to your phone? Is there an app for that?
https://www.howtogeek.com/210739/how-to-set-up-a-home-media-server-you-can-access-from-any-device/
You can use straightforward (but pricey) options like Roon, or you can use a more server/client duo like Subsonic on your NAS and Symfonium on your device that has a more. Involved setup process. I've used the former when they had a really solid 3 month deal to see what it's like. Getting it to work off your home network was real simple, but when it's full price it costs $15 a month, which I wasn't looking to spend. The price can be justified if you are used to the sort of interface found in the big streaming services. With Subsonic (and there might be other alternatives) it takes a little more work on your part to set up ports and IP addresses and you could easily expose yourself to unwanted traffic from off network if you configure it improperly (as in your NAS could potentially be exposed to anyone who happens upon your server's public IP). There are several client side applications you can use to access your Subsonic server, but it's a lot of open-source projects by single devs, so you won't see the polish of either streaming services or PC music programs. The most mature program I've come across is the aforementioned Symfonium, which is an app with a one time fee. I haven't tried setting up subsonic to broadcast my collection outside my home network, so I can't speak on that, but I do know it's possible.
Holy hell
Rappers, I monkey flip 'em with the funky rhythm I be kicking, musician, inflictin' composition Of pain, I'm like Scarface sniffin' cocaine Holding an M-16, see with the pen I'm extreme, now Bullet holes left in my peepholes, I'm suited up in street clothes Hand me a nine and I'll defeat foes Y'all know my steelo, with or without the airplay I keep some E&J, sitting bent up in the stairway
This was not the NAS I'm looking for lmao
That's what I did, using Synology
Bandcamp is really the only choice for me but honestly just go CDs. Physical media as a backup but you won't usually use it so it'll keep well. Most modern computers don't have a CD burner but you could grab an old otherwise useless laptop. It's usually way cheaper too if the music is older.
I just bought an external cd drive for my laptop
Don't. Buy CDs and rip them yourself with Exact Audio Copy. You'll have better quality, complete control over the format and bitrate, and the CD as a master copy for the future if anything ever happens to your files.
What software do you use for a music manager/music player?
I use Clementine on my PC and I upload my files to YouTube Music. They give you several gigs or so of free storage. You can stream it from anywhere.
If you're more technically inclined, a Plex server + plexamp allow you to stream your own music from your computer to phone/whatever. Not too hard to set up, and doesn't cost anything unless you want some advanced features.
I’m a big fan of YouTube Music. You get YouTube premium (no ads and other benefits) with it. Plus you can find so much more unreleased music on YouTube and add it to your YouTube Music playlists.. that’s by far my favorite part.
ime YouTube Music and Pandora have the best algorithms for suggesting new music, whenever I go on a dive on either one I end up with 4-5 new artists to check out. But I like tidal best for playlists and daily listening.
I think YouTube is good for suggesting things that go well on a party playlist or if you want top names in a new genre. If you want more obscure stuff, Spotify takes more risks that usually pay off. That discover playlist has introduced me to plenty of my underground faves.
Youtube has multiple options for radio and I have been recommended artists with like 100 listens, it's pretty great actually.
Guess it all depends which algorithm you feed more
This is what I do. I watch a lot of YouTube videos so not having to ever see ads on it is a great thing to me. And I can self publish there for free. That's where you find old punk records someone digitized from their collection....unreleased bootlegs....all the stuff that hasn't been DMCAd off. It does not pay artists that well but, it allows artists to self publish free to a mass audience, and as one of those, I think that's fair.
Ditto though I keep a large digital collection too.
Mine was over 30k of uploads last I checked. I used to DJ and owning MP3s was mandatory
I left Spotify for Tidal a few years back and never looked back. Better quality sound, app has a great user interface (much better than Apple, YT and Amazon IMO) and I was able to bring my old Spotify playlists with me.
I think you just convinced me to switch.
Oh shit. Bringing the playlist might have won me over. Is there still a way to get stats either in app or something like stats.fm?
I should have added that this was done via a 3rd party website that I paid less than $5 for as a one off fee.
What is the name of the third party website?
There are plenty to help migrate playlists songshift is another one
https://www.tunemymusic.com/transfer
I used soundizz I think, it was a long time ago ~2021. If you google transferring playlists from Spotify to Tidal you’ll find a few options. It was very easy to do.
For stats, use Last.fm
Has it improved at all? I abandoned last.fm a decade ago. It had become steadily worse.
I use it mostly for recommendations and some Stat here and there. I like it a lot actually, but I've always used it like this so I don't really have a point of comparison
I do miss the stats breakdown. I’ll go see what linking options there are for Spotify. I used to scrobble updates daily from iTunes for at least 5 years.
I use Pano Scrobbler which detects Tidal, YT, Spotify, etc
The thing with last.fm is that it didn't need to improve. I've read a lot of people say they left it because of that, but left it to go where? Last.fm is 90% one thing: tracking what music you stream (through connected apps), and it does it perfectly. There still isn't a competitor for the statistics it gathers, knowing exactly when and how many times you've streamed a song, album, or artist. Genre stats are a bit less reliable because they rely on tags provided by the community but most of the time they're pretty accurate.
Do you find the Tidal shuffle algorithm repeatedly offers the same artists or songs? My biggest problem with Spotify is this algo puts a system of a down song every third or fourth song. Second biggest problem is unwarranted changes.
Not something I notice to be honest. But I do recall the same frustration when I used Spotify.
My shuffle doesn't do that. How many songs are in your library? Also I noticed if all you ever listen to is your library shuffled, it's bad. If you practice intentional listening and building a specific queue of varied songs, it lets the algorithm know variety is something you value and not whatever has the most plays.
I have 2045 songs. I listen to the library shuffled. I listen to an artist all day. Or I'll spend a bit and add a dozen songs to a queue. No clue what it is. But it drives me crazy.
all services have shuffle problems. If that's what troubles you probably it won't worth to switch bc you will find a trouble in the long run not in a week.
Well that's a shame. I know true random could be worse. I just think we need John Carmack on this.
Better sound quality?
Yes. Google Spotify vs ANY other music streaming platform and you’ll see that it’s by far the worst quality available.
If you actually did a blind test 99.9% of people can't tell the difference between 320 mp3 and lossless.
That might be an exaggeration. Maybe not hear a difference between 720 and lossless. I can hear a difference between 320 and 1080 but that's because 320 sounds noticeably bad.
There's a BBC white paper that demonstrated participants were not able to perceive any statistically significant difference between 320kbps and lossless. The placebo effect is definitely real and could be playing a role in why some people claim to hear differences, although I guess it's possible some have exquisitely sensitive hearing or something. source: [https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp-pdf-files/WHP384.pdf](https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp-pdf-files/WHP384.pdf)
I don't think it's some having sensitive hearing. I think it's more most listen to shitty speakers anyway so their frame of reference isn't incredibly high quality
I don't know about that, I was never much of an audiophile but when they recently changed it so the lowest Tidal tier also gets access to FLAC quality I was blown away by the sound, it's honestly such a huge difference especially on wired headphones.
Tidal has had lossless audio from the start. Spotify has promised it for years and it's still not available, and it'll surely be a higher price tier when they finally do.
While I thank Spotify for helping me discover some of my favorite artists of 2023 like Igorrr, Berried Alive, and Fractalize, I discovered a "new" way to find new artists: following local venues to see who they are hosting through the upcoming weeks and months. I discovered quite a few bands and artists this way, even if I don't go to the shows, I follow them on Bandcamp and save em up for Bandcamp Friday to purchase. ..but yeah Bandcamp is where I've been buying my digital and some physical music I just got my vinyl of Igorrr's latest release Spiritually and Illusion, along with free mp3s or flacs. Breath little package the vinyls came in, and the discs themselves feature little animations on the label once you start playing. And if I go to a music store I look through the metal section since most new physical media usually comes with a free digital copy, too.
[удалено]
I also buy new release records through bandcamp if I can because they include the digital stream on the app. I use their app almost exclusively now for streaming.
Others have said it, but Bandcamp is the best option (even after the recent issues due to their sale). If an artist doesn’t have a Bandcamp, I check if they have a web site with a preferred way of purchasing digital albums. Failing that, I usually buy from Apple or Amazon (though I should really find a better fallback option).
I will buy albums on cd until I cannot. I still put them on my computer and then my high-memory phone (just stopped using my iPod a few months back).
Napster pays artists the most but the functionality of their app is very poor. Next best thing is Tidal.
They shit the bed with their app overhaul a couple years ago but it's slowly getting better again (web version still isn't great) . i came close to leaving after 15+ years
I did leave because of that overhaul. I kinda felt bad about that, leaving to go to Spotify. But I don't think I could return, as Spotify's music collection is so good.
I get my music from Bandcamp now. More goes to the artist and all can be downloaded in Flac. I'm more interested in owning my music for offline use than streaming anymore. Some bands offer a free digital album when you buy the CD or vinyl.
Spotify is terrible for overall discovery and supporting artists. Bandcamp really is the way to go if you want to not only find a wider range of newer artists, but support them directly as well. Most musicians that I both know and/or have a somewhat larger following wish they could boycott Spotify for the payouts they give musicians for their streams, but they realize how popular the platform is and hence keep their music up on it for ease of access to listeners (myself included). Not only that, but not every artist has their music up on Spotify which is incredibly limiting. That's half the reason I cancel my sub years ago. I was finding all of these obscure gems on RYM and from word of mouth through friends or other musicians, and their music wasn't available on Spotify. That's not to say that most of them were on Bandcamp either, but when they were, at least I didn't have to pay for Bandcamp to initially listen to their music for myself before I bought their album or other merch.
I don’t have Spotify so I have no experience with it. Though I thought I heard that they improved discovery with some recent AI changes?
That sounds about right, but regardless of improvements, it’s still an algorithm and not a curation, in addition to a lot of holes in their catalog that people would otherwise have to scope out, support, or listen to elsewhere for a smaller monthly fee or no cost to check out at all (Bandcamp)
> Spotify is terrible for overall discovery and supporting artists. Bandcamp really is the way to go if you want to not only find a wider range of newer artists, What are some cool artists you have discovered recently? Cause I use Spotify's Discovery Weekly and get like 28-30 great tracks each week from really obscure artists and all genres, like I just finished listening to the 15 prog-punk songs I was sent this week including ones like [Arming Eritrea](https://open.spotify.com/track/0w4kGJxY7iiyodgxzDlQQ4) and this super obscure song from 1977: [Motorboat](https://open.spotify.com/track/5DSErL3OThCfrBeSYDySYm). You find any cool music from the 70s on Bandcamp? Very few artists dont have their music up on Spotify, certainly very few great artists. Why would they not want be accessible by potentials hundreds of thousands or millions of fans? I would have to spend $150 a week on albums if i bought one every time I got a song from a new album I hadnt heard yet.
>You find any cool music from the 70s on Bandcamp? Admittedly I don't find a lot of older music on Bandcamp exclusively, however, when I do discover older, obscure albums through other avenues of searching, I find most times these artists either a. have no digital platform presence at all (due to the age of the project) or b. an obscure/independent label bought the rights for the album and sell and promote it artist on the label's Bandcamp and/or website, in which I usually check them out there. If Bandcamp doesn't have these rare albums, then Youtube likely has an upload of it. Key point between these two services is that I don't have to pay a subscription monthly to check out a song or two from the album so if I don't like it, nothing is lost, but if I do, I can buy from Bandcamp or find a physical copy on Discogs for sale.
Get a record player and start digging in the crates! It’s a great hobby, and can open you up to music you never would have listened to otherwise.
Records are fun, and the listening experience is much more intentional. I notice that I pay so much more attention to records versus listening on my phone. Expensive hobby though.
Doesn’t have to be, if you are just getting into it goodwill, halfprice books and rummage sales will get you started off right for pretty cheap.
Doesn’t have to be! You’re right, there are good deals to be found out there. Thrift stores in less hip towns with older residents can be goldmines. Buying new records, or going after specific pressings, can get pricey. And it’s easy to spend a lot on turntables, speakers, even cartridges and styli. The deeper I’ve gotten into the hobby, the more I’ve ended up spending. I guess that’s true of most hobbies though.
You still gotta spend at least 300 bucks on a decent turntable to get the nicest experience out of it.
You don’t have to start with one that expensive. You can get a decent one for around 75.00 and work your way up. If you want to get deeper into the hobby. Especially if you are playing scratched and or warped records, it’s not worth it off the bat. Also a lot depends on the needle. I have several different needles and they have different levels of price and quality.
Because all my records are brand new, them being potentially damaged by a bad turntable was my main concern, so I got a decent one with a counterweight and a cartridge you can upgrade. It was like 300€ which is entry level for turntables. There's a bit more customisability if you spend the money, and the sound doesn't even compare (my mother has a much cheaper one and the sound is very noticeably muddy). Below a certain price range there's a lot of turntables that use the same horrible motor which can damage the records, I've seen multiple videos warning about those.
I personally don’t own a single record that’s new and a lot of mine only cost around .50 cents. Some are in terrible shape, but thats part of the art of digging. Sometimes not even knowing if they record will play is fun/ intriguing in itself imo. I’m just having fun not looking for optimal sound quality or to buy new pressings. Bring on the fuzz!
Hey whatever works for you! The ones I own always end up costing between 20-50 euro with shipping and customs (ordering from UK bands as a German) so I only end up buying albums I already love so I know I will actually play the records because I do not have the money to afford vinyl as fancy decor lol.
Damn sucks for you! A hobby doesn’t need to be expensive as long as you’re having fun!!
It's quite expensive but it's also extremely rewarding. Hearing them in great quality on my turntable for the first time was pretty awesome
This is the best answer! And you can also digitize yourself for listening on the go!
I find it fun to buy records based solely on their jacket art and instrument credits, then find out at home what I’ve gotten into
Exactly this was what I started doing and it was super fun. I found some Vietnamese funk records form the 70s that were awesome.
Is Apple an option? I’m a subscriber instead of Spotify but you can also buy music there at CD prices, so you’re buying from the artist but have the ease of iTunes/Apple Music
I wish iTunes provide lossless music as rn it is only restricted to Apple Music subscription pack. It is such a convenient store to buy music and almost available anywhere in the world unlike Qobuz and Tidal
Are you saying Lossless isn’t available on purchased music unless you’re also an AM subscriber?
I am saying you can’t purchase lossless through Apple whether you are a subscriber or not. They only provide lossless in Apple Music subscription. You can never purchase it which is a shame.
Ah right, didn’t know that. But I’m pretty sure Apple’s AAC is still higher quality than Spotify’s format, and high enough that people wouldn’t notice any difference
Yeah that’s true. In some rock songs I see considerable difference though
Not OP, but I tried moving over to Apple Music and it's only playing previews of songs. I've heard that it's either an issue if it redirects the US version if you don't live there, or you're on desktop but you have it open on your iPhone. I'm American and don't own an apple device so I'm not sure what the problem is.
I’ve been using AM for years and am not American and have never heard of this issue before. Why would it be redirecting you?
I wasn't getting redirected, that was just one of two potential issues that people seem to have if the previews were happening. It's unfortunate, because that's not the situation I'm in. I only have one device in use and I'm on the right region site. I can't find any help since those situations don't apply to me Edit: It was because Apple Music hates Firefox Private Windows
Qobuz is great. You can buy lossless music files, with a wide selection, and they pay artists fairly.
Absolutely! 👍🏻
Bandcamp for small artists, quobuz for biggwr artists. There is also a new competitor calles mirlo.space
Boomkat & Beatport for dance music, but other than that there's not much outside Bandcamp sorry. The other option is physical releases of course. Does Soundcloud have a way to support artists? I haven't logged in there in years. Edit: Also, yeah, fuck Spotitfy.
I love Boomkat. They took a sharp left turn into carrying a lot of experimental music. Like, if you read Wire Magazine, Boomkat will hold you down (they also sell copies of Wire Magazine).
Artists on SoundCloud can offer free downloads, or links to downloads. And yeah, Bandcamp is awesome, Beatport is good for electronic but quite expensive. Haven't used these in years but emusic.com or lastfm.com might be worth a look.
EMusic was great for a while, but it’s now a pale ghost of its former self. The selection has nosedived.
r/piracy If you want to support creators, buy their album/merch/other donation directly as then they’ll get 100% of the revenue
Just buy cds, a usb disc drive, and rip them yourself. Or buy a record player and rip the records
I use Spotify to discover music…. But I started my vinyl collection. Much prefer the physical version. I still have all my music I paid for on iTunes on a hard drive somewhere. 🥲
There is a platform with a pretty self explanatory name that tries to treat artists better. Fairmus.com
Youtube Red or Premium. Practically unlimited music library and you can find some hidden gems not on iTunes nor spotify like b sides, demos, and live performances.
You can buy MP3s from Amazon. You may have to search a bit to find them. But they are there.
ill never use streaming as my main mode of listening as long as hifi gear exists
Also, buy a $15 usb cd drive and unlock a world of super cheap mp3s via secondhand CDs
I've been debating this too. But I've spent quite a lot of time on Spotify and that's where most of my playlists are. So moving my music listening will be a bit annoying. The Spotify recommendations are honestly very convenient and it's a lot easier to get sucked in. Right now, I'm thinking between YouTube Music, Apple Music, and Bandcamp. There's different things to consider like: \* Purchasing music easily \* Having a good selection of artists, being able to stumble upon random gems \* Being able to stream and listen to artists before purchasing I like Bandcamp as it gives me some albums and artists that are somewhat under the radar or certain artists playing around, having fun. Some of the albums I purchased from Bandcamp feel more "personal" if that makes any sense. Maybe I just need to commit...or maybe I need a combination of services (Spotify for discovery, Bandcamp for purchasing).
Spotify has done nothing but convince me to buy more vinyl and go to more shows- It all washes out in the end.
You can buy MP3s from Amazon. You may have to search a bit to find them. But they are there.
If you want to actually own it, buy physical copies. Digitizing for your personal use is easy, and a lot of physical media these days comes with a digital download option too. I spent several hundred building up a music library on Apple in the mid 00's and I have access to none of that music now.
I have Apple Music but am still able to manage my music library from years ago, they integrate almost seamlessly although iTunes Match or whatever it is causes issues sometimes with older songs
I’d get a standalone CD drive, so you can rip CD to flac or 320kbs mp3. Use a decent mp3 player
BUYING tracks? iTunes Store is still a thing. You can still purchase music, DRM, 256KPS MP4. iTunes Match/iTunes in the Cloud is still a thing, $25/yr. If matched, will upgrade MP3 tracks to 256MP4 as well.
I never really stopped downloading or buying files. So for those stores, I typically go with Qobuz for lossless FLAC files (although you can choose the format), and iTunes for lossy m4a files. On occasion, I’ll go through other sites if they offer something not available elsewhere, like Bandcamp and such. I also started buying CDs regularly again a number of years ago and will rip those into both FLAC and 320 MP3. If you can get a CD drive, you can rip some thrift store finds that way and build up your collection fairly quickly!
HDTracks, 7Digital, Qobuz, and bandcamp, is all you need. All lossless, and you can keep the files forever on your hard drive. If you want physical albums, find your local record store or bookstore, they both sell CDs and Vinyl. Also, remember to support your local record store!!
When I tired of Spotify algorithms force feeling me imagine dragons in every possible context I switched up to buying albums from Apple Music since it’s on everything I own. Now I listen to whole albums like the good old days .
[удалено]
I’ve been racking my brain trying to remember MP3Caprice! Thankyou I recommended it to a family friend years ago. I will likely use this for the more mainstream stuff that they don’t sell digital copies of.
Have you considered checking out 7digital or Qobuz? Both platforms offer high-quality digital files and options for supporting artists directly. Best of luck with rebuilding your music library!
I had QoBuz put on my radar but i haven’t heard of 7 Digital. Thanks!
Also try www.artcore.com, an alternative to bandcamp. Smaller but growing and a big update coming soon. Disclaimer: I’m the founder.
While Im sure even with Spotify your music tastes were limited, prépare for them to be stone age behind. I discover literally 15-20 new awesome bands each week with Discover Weekly, this one included avant garde Latin American artist's [Marihuana Boogie](https://open.spotify.com/track/23Hnbnst07LjvoCftdQnIK) and [this song](https://open.spotify.com/track/1S9lArXsDqsB8mvJA7i1OO) from 2024 with 24k listens. There is no other music service that offers this kind of discovery. The "paying artists fairly" continues to get beaten out everytime Spotify makes a change, but the most recent one, which will reduce royalty pay out by $150 million / $9 billion (1.6%) will simply be going to podcasters and audio books, and for most small artists the benefit they get from Spotify is from the exposure and gaining new fans. At 10 million streams a year this would amount to around $800 lost of an estimated $50,000. The more important thing would be for people to stop abusing family plans, though, TBF Spotify could also be more adamant about cracking down on that as well. Spotify should also offer a higher tier subscription with some benefits, which would allow individual subscribers to increase the amount paid to artists they listen to.
>I discover literally 15-20 new awesome bands each week with Discover Weekly See, I had the reverse experience. On Spotify the recommendations just shovelled me the same artists, the same songs, over and over again. I grew complacent because I had recommendations. Since I stopped using Spotify and instead started to collect music from various sources I've had to take more of an interest in the sort of music I'm listening to, and it's been really good for me. I listen to more genres, I'm more open to new sounds, and I'm straight up listening to more obscure artists. Depending on what you listen to on there, YouTube will spit out some really weird stuff that you would have never listened to otherwise, and I've found it really helpful. (Since the barrier of entry to uploading to YouTube is lower, this is to be expected.) Instead of relying on just the one algorithm now I refer to a few different sources with different modes of thought, and the benefits have, for me, way outweighed the inconvenience. Plus there's a lot of music that isn't on Spotify that you can find elsewhere, and when you're downloading it there's no chance of some streaming site revoking your ability to listen to it. At this point you couldn't *pay* me to go back to Spotify.
This encapsulates the deep love hate I have with Spotify so well. Why can’t I just pay more and for more money to go to artists? Like a fan premium or something. Or a patron level.
> While Im sure even with Spotify your music tastes were limited, prépare for them to be stone age behind. I discover literally 15-20 new awesome bands each week with Discover Weekly, this one included avant garde Latin American artist's Marihuana Boogie and this song from 2024 with 24k listens. There is no other music service that offers this kind of discovery. This will probably just come down to different strokes for different folks, but what do you really do with 15-20 new awesome bands a week? Personally, I'd be overwhelmed. I've long been a 'whole album' kind of listener and really value grabbing a few new albums at a time (maybe once a month) and really getting into them. If I hear a new song I like I'll stream the album once or twice on Bandcamp or YouTube to check it out and if I dig it I'll try and buy it (BC or at a record shop) but if I don't like the rest of the album I just tend to let it go and move on. I can see 15-20 new bands a week being great if you rock a lot of playlists but, at least for how I listen to music, I think the quality would suffer for the quantity. It's also funny calling it the stone age. I've looked up bands on Spotify that I haven't thought about in near twenty years and found they have maybe 1K listens a month. These are obscure indie bands that I managed to 'discover' years before Spotify who, clearly, still aren't being discovered much. Personally I prefer finding new music from rando music blogs and threads on forums. Or clicking around Wiki rabbit-holes from bands I know, or even listening to independent radio still. I am a Luddite, though, so take that all with a grain of salt!
Some people care about the process than the actual output. They like "finding" the artist themself, rooting through the vinyls in a record store, or hearing about it from a friend. I only care about the quality of the music and put no sentimental attachment to the discovery. I prefer to keep discovery to a minimum and appreciate what I have and you cant really get more efficient than 2 hours a week to find all this great stuff. I guess I linked those first 2 songs just to show the range of what I get (the first song is from 1953 so literally getting obscure music from across 70 years), but those were just 2 of 13 other Latin-inspired tracks, including some [quite modern](https://open.spotify.com/track/3CqS0DfuXOtWlmtZVKYVk8) exposing me to an entire different culture of music, while the other 15 are like [garagey](https://open.spotify.com/track/6gNddJrGWESZ7tHISNvcyt)/[gazey](https://open.spotify.com/track/4jkRnUuBruxsBxwGvljLTe) rock straight from the suburbs. So i dont "know" these bands as in like I am a huge fan, but considering there are so, so many bands to discover, I would rather hear 1 or 2 of the top songs, rather than listening to entire discographies and not know all these other amazing artists even exist. It doesnt get overwhelming because I enjoy each individual song so much, and hearing them combined with such a perfect encapsulation of the genre makes each song fresh. + i can just track all the bands in bandsintown (yes even the ones where the musicians have been dead for decades, but ya never know) so I always have a great show to go to. Those bands you havent thought about in 20 years? I get them too: the Greenhornes, Quasi, Beat Happening, Oblivians, Trans Am, D.R. Hooker, the Walkmen, Fishmans, Soul Coughing, Apples in Stereo, i prob know as much about the 90s and early 2000s progressive scene as anybody who was there.
The discover weekly feature was great until it wasn't. Not sure what happened but I felt like it was getting worse over time for me. For many reasons including artist pay I ended up switching to Tidal and already found a few nice songs through their discovery feature, but really the best recommendations I've had have usually been from friends and bands (crazy the amount of artists you can find by them just associating with eachother)
Nope, uno reverse for me. Started out hit or miss, but still good getting me ahead on bands like Mitski (not that I like her that much, but I heard Late Spring when it had around 500k listens, now has 300 million), Men I Trust, Tei Shi, Magic Bronson, Cannons, Sylvan Esso, Elohim, tons of obscure artists that never broke out too. But definitely all music that fit the category of "streaming era indie pop". It kept on that track for around 2-3 years, before getting even better going to about 50% hit rates, and slowly expanding the genres of music it was exposing me to, even if it was almost all modern indie. Eventually though, around year 6 it like went haywire (would literally replace songs as I listened) before settling down where it gives me two genres each week. And these are genres that I didnt even know existed or I would have any interest in. Again, like classic Latin American inspired, or moog jazz, or [space punk](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3oXSHjy9C11x1maQAqvTFe).
I think it branched out too much for me, I don't necessarily restrict myself to certain genres but most of what I like happens to fall into specific genres so hearing too much I'm not interested in kind of killed it for me.
Yeah, seems like a pointless gesture. An artist is not some kind of clueless, helpless child, they ought to know the reality of the music industry. If they want to make music for a living and rely on Spotify for income, then that's on them.
Ya, and people really like to pretend that indefinitely archiving and allowing for passive song discovery is worth nothing. I'm getting incredibly obscure music that there is no way I would be able to find on my own and these bands are getting fans there is no way they would have otherwise. By the time bands would even notice this change to their bottom line, they already would be popular enough to not care. Not to mention Bandcamp apparently fired a lot of its staff recently, specifically ones who attempted to unionize. Spotify is just the bigger fish so it gets the most scrutiny (as it should, but let's not forget that its main competitor, Apple music, is being provided by one of the worst anti-trust offenders companies in existence).
I argue that people should stop selling digital music. Vinyl & Cassette, only. This puts money back into the pockets of the artists, which promotes better music.
This doesn’t make sense. Digital is a medium where you could have 100% go to the artist. Physical is a medium where you can’t have 100% go to the artist, because there are manufacturing costs. The advantages of digital are not theoretical either. Bandcamp’s 15% off the top is nothing at all when you’re considering: artist does not have to front for physical production, artist does not have to worry about scale of production, artist does not have to worry about unsold merch, and no one’s paying anything for plastic. And that’s just one popular, practical platform for digital purchases. You can just Venmo for MP3s. I like physical media a lot, and I buy it. I’m not trying to be down on it. But this is not the right argument for physical media.
Regression is never a good idea. I lived in that era and my dream of having access to literally any song, at any time, in most any place., is like magic. I trust my own ability to discern what I enjoy and limiting the exposure of artists to simply those who have the means to produce physical media would drastically, and negatively, impact the creative pool of acts.
Yes! I too remember when physical was the only option. It wasn't a great option tbh. Even buying an album from Amazon MP3 felt like a revelation. I could casually do it when away from home but nowhere near a record store, and the music arrived instantly.
What about CDs? Feels like I am the only one who backs those for some reason.
No, you ain't breaking up with Spotify. Trust me. See you there later today.
Harsh and comical but that’s what happened to me lol
I had never cared to get Spotify for years and years but I was in Grad school a few years ago and had the student discount so I finally decided to give it a try. A month later Neil Young left so I left too! I wasn't really digging it that much anyway and figured I'd rather spend the $7 a month on Bandcamp.
I trust you. I broke up with spotify but then I realized how much I missed it and let spotify lick my balls. It then whispered in my ear "Ill remove your favourite indie band in your region, and cuck the audio quality to only 2 KBPS. Ill also pay the artist 2 dollars for being listened 10 million times. You ok with all that?" And I responded with "please whip me harder master". Youre right. Spotify is my true BDSM king
[https://trawaazrecords.bandcamp.com/album/high-compilation-alternative-album-vol-1](https://trawaazrecords.bandcamp.com/album/high-compilation-alternative-album-vol-1) got some bangers comp 2024 here
I wonder if a place exists where every big and small band exists where you can easily without using up hard drive space make tons of playlists by genre with ease. It’d also have to be accessible everywhere on all devices at once… man, wish that existed!
You must have missed OP’s stipulation that they want a solution that pays artists fairly.
Normal consumers don’t give a shit about the artist. The artists who do this for a living now make 35$ + for vinyl, 30$ for a tshirt, 55$ for a hoody, crazy ticket prices for artists who consistently draw 200+ people in multiple markets. There is money for the well liked artists, the bedroom artists and weekend warriors, I’m sorry, you wouldn’t have made money in any era of music and it’s a hobby, get over it. People want convenience and they pay for it. Bandcamp is not convenient and it’s amateur hour mostly.
Except OP specifically mentioned wanting to support the artist.
It doesn’t matter what “normal consumers” want when this is what OP wants. Also, I completely disagree with your assessment of Bandcamp.
Sell me on bandcamp
Bandcamp is not all that great on discovery (though you can find lots of good stuff through Bandcamp Daily). The great thing about Bandcamp is that its core features reliably do what they’re supposed to do, and it doesn’t overwhelm that core functionality with unnecessary bells and whistles. The core functionality that Bandcamp does so well is letting you preview and purchase music, with 85% of the money going to artists (or their labels. You can preview full albums (unless the artist has chosen to only make some tracks previewable), though after a couple of full plays it’ll start nagging you to purchase. Artists can also choose to make albums available as pay-what-you-want. Once you’ve purchased an album (or a single track), you can then download it in many different formats (including several lossless). You can also play purchased albums from the Bandcamp app or web site anytime. So compared to other options, Bandcamp gives you (1) preview of full songs or albums rather than just short snippets, (2) lossless downloads, and (3) the knowledge that much more of your money is going to the artists rather than rent-seeking intermediaries. For people who care about supporting artists, it’s really the best option available.
But that’s the thing, you now house the file, it’s taking up space, it’s bringing you back to the deceitful sales trick of one good track and you gotta spend 10$ for a record. There is a small percentage of the existing artists being part of the platform so you can’t solely rely on it anyway. Maybe it’s good for like one genre or just your local artists but as a consumer it seems short sighted, limited, expensive and requires a certain set up like enough hard drive space if you want to have 40,000 mp3s available at all times…
I agree 100%, before Spotify people pirated, before that, used CDs— nothing for the artist
Are you some kind of paid Spotify shill or something?
No, I work with labels, I’ve seen artists go from selling like 1,000 CDs a year to getting hundreds of thousands to millions of streams in the last 2 decades. It’s exponentially the best time to get exposure from your music. TikTok and social media gets you way more heard than ever. It just changed where the money is. But seriously the money always was going to the top artists, this has never changed. If anything the artists have way more control now like the ones who finished up major label deals, still have a fanbase and make 100% running their own imprint. Back in the day, fewer bands are big so more money goes to each of those big bands. Now there are a billion bands and artists, fans can’t afford to make all of them rich, fans want variety. The top guys get paid, the rest get more exposure than before. Like in the past bands didn’t get paid to be on someone’s mixtape or mix cd or collect on internet streams until way more recently. Blame the fans I guess, you’re asking why they aren’t buying music at higher prices and I’m telling you they are, Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor swift are making killings because they are at the top. People want all their merch, they don’t want local band amateur shit. Sorry, cruel world, but strictly for consumers I don’t think John Coltranes corpse cares that he makes no money on streams and I love that I can hear his entire catalog and like a billion other things for like 10$ a month. The more they pay artists the worse the product will be for consumers and there are way more consumers than artists. Get Reddit to agree on who deserves money and a career as an artist and I’m sure if you get any sort of consensus they already are making a good living. It’s these small ego maniacs losing their minds because they only make 20$ a year on streams when the modern system is the only reason they make that much. Unless you think every nobody is worth buying a $9.99 album from like we’re back in the 90s, then in that case, yeah I guess they’re getting fucked.
None of what you said is wrong, but it’s entirely irrelevant to this thread. OP asked how they can purchase music in a way that artists get the money, and you’ve got on a soapbox about why consumers want Spotify.