I have got to admit I canned Spotify subs years ago - but how are they managing to grow their subscriber base whn it is now going to be £11.99 in the UK? That is way, way too high for what it offers…
Friendly reminder that your “legally acquired” library of FLAC files never raises its subscription prices!
I will never part from locally stored music. I do, however, would love to have my collection run through a recommendation algorithm for discovering new music.
Would scrobbling to e.g. ListenBrainz (or last fm) be an option for you for discovery?
Yep. Hooray for self hosting!
Just leaving this here from the excellent !PurchaseWithPurpose@lemmy.world
From that chart Qobuz seems to be the all round best deal. Is there any catch?
I use Qobuz! It works well most the time. And it has a huge library. Some things are not as polished as some of the bigger companies. And there’s a lot of Initial setup to get it working…
That said, I would say it’s a great option. I do wish it had better continuous play options, as sometimes I listen to a playlist, and then it just stops. But that may be part of the learning curve. I’m not really a big “playlists” guy… I’d like to start a radio and have it find similar artists (similar to Pandora 12 years ago) But that doesn’t really seem to be the way companies are going anymore.
I have several Google mini devices (I know, I know. I’m working on it, but that’s a whole other process) and they don’t really seem to get along with qobuz all the time.
Overall, I like it, but it still needs work.
I just switched from Tidal to Qobuz and when using Soundiiz like 1/4 of my songs didn’t transfer, and when I look songs up a lot of them aren’t there at all. The personalized playlist is also disappointing in my experience, so I’m considering switching back.
I have noticed that the search function is very unforgiving. Like, you have to search the exact title, because it will not find a partial name.
That sucks that a lot of songs didn’t come up. I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised with the content. Personally. A lot of my stuff that I thought was pretty niche I’ve been able to find.
Are you noticing any specific genres are more difficult than others?
The ones I’ve noticed so far were somewhere in between metal, hyperpop, and generally chaotic electronic music. Specifically:
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DEATHWISH by poutyface
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MONSTER ENERGY GUN! by KevinKempt
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PIN CUSHION by Siiickbrain
Also:
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Little Game by Benny
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mi tawa lon pimeja ni
There’s a bunch of others that I haven’t looked through yet. I downloaded a list of songs from my Tidal library with soundiiz so I should do the same with Qobuz then do a diff.
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Platform podcasters who spread misinformation
Lol just say Joe Rogan
spotify lost me as a customer as soon as I learned that they gifted 150k to Trump for his inaugaration party
spotify pays me half a cent per stream, the profit margins for them must be fucking insane. and the music sounds like shit. I’d much rather people pirate it than support these leeches
if you want to support artists you like, buy the music, ideally on bandcamp. if you do have to steam it, Deezer at the very least won’t vandalize the audio
What do you think about Qobuz as a musician?
Third one in a little over two years. They say it’s to keep up with inflation as if they’re a retail store operating on razor thin margins and people accept that. Meanwhile, they’re donating to fascist political parties and shafting artists by leveraging loopholes to pay out fewer royalties.
Spotify has a become a shit show lately. I don’t like that the CEO is supporting a genocidal state, the platform is full of fake AI artists and playlists. Artists aren’t getting paid enough. the price hikes and the app just feels so bloated with unnecessary bullshit. Because of this, I switched to self hosting my own music server (Navidrome, and Lidarr) and I use the symphonium app on Android. Really happy with that solution
anything to sustain the hateful joe roegan podcasts on the platform.
Let’s say it together: Enshittification
It’s been long underway for Spotify; raising prices is just the lastest step.
You guys are paying for Spotify?
I guess some people are, as long as it’s a good balance of convenience and price. Ages ago, Napster, Kazaa and DC++ were considered more convenient than buying music. I guess torrents are used for that these days.
There’s a P2P app from the same era as KaZaA, originally released the same year (2001), that’s still in active use today: Soulseek. It’s a great way to find obscure music, some of which isn’t on streaming services and is extremely difficult to obtain otherwise.
Usenet is good for less popular stuff too. Torrents die once the last seed is gone, but some Usenet providers have over 10 years retention, and you always get full speeds over an encrypted connection with no uploading required.
Edit: Support artists where possible, but sometimes there’s music that’s impossible to find, and that’s when these services come in handy.
Do I need an invite for usenet?
now I don’t want to be that person but I’d like to give artists some money somehow. Like I dislike AI as it rips people off - there is a (difficult) middle line to tread
The problem is there’s some 90s albums I can’t find anywhere - not on Discogs, not on eBay, not on Marketplace. The record labels are usually long gone. But they’re on Soulseek. I’m not sure what else to do to get them.
There’s also things like DJ sets/mixes that were never sold, only ever distributed online for free.
I work a desk job. I cant put pirated music on my work computer or ill get fired. Only real option is a pay service.
I don’t like to bring my personal stuff on my work computer, but I can use my phone for all that stuff instead. You could use a BT speaker to blast pirate metal in the office.
Firefox & ublock and there are no publicities.
My 'ol android apk doesn’t work any more thoug… and can’t find a new one (Hint hint, blink blink)
I’ve been using a cracked yt music since the Spotify crackdown. I miss my playlists often :^(
must be hard paying 5 bucks for an exporter :^(
Can’t be fucked looking into how to grab my playlists. I’m sure I will eventually
We have the duo plan, for me and my wife. Kids don’t need one yet.
Yes. Go back to your bubble now.
What bubble?
the modded app chad bubble
Wrong assumption 👋
Just saying; cancelling Spotify and changing to Qobuz takes five minutes. Sound quality is amazingly better, the curated recommendations are done by human beings that love music, and ‘just works’ with everything that Spotify does. (For us, anyway.) It’s French, rather than Norwegian-American like Tidal is, if you’re trying to stop spending money on everything US at the moment, too.
As much I despise Spotify, I’m trying out Qobuz and it’s just not really it.
No folder organisation for playlists or albums.
No Linux application.
No lyrics.
No support for smart speakers.
No information linking to artist tours and merch.
No dedicated classical music app.
Generally lacking when it comes to non western artists.
Prides itself on providing high quality music, yet still only has lower quality masters for some artists compared to Apple Music, Tidal, and even Spotify.
I want to love it, like the way it loves and respects the music industry, with it’s special magazine etc, but it’s just not it.
They don’t have any other recommendations apart from those human made ones though? Couldn’t find what I wanted.
The UI is awful and their artist pages are normally blank for indy artists.
The migration is pretty seamless though, and they apparently pay their artists way better.
They have the human made ones, they have the “artist radio” function that plays songs similar to a band you like, they have a weekly top 30 based on stuff you’ve been listening to. The headline ‘albums of the week’ are based on what they like, which I don’t think is unfair - I’ve really enjoyed some of them.
I listen to a lot of metal and electronic, and I’ve always found the descriptions excellent - usually several paragraphs even for the most obscure of bands. Was well impressed that they had Lambrini Girls as one of their ‘albums of the week’, and their album at studio quality. Not that that’s essential for punk. Admittedly I don’t listen to a lot of indy, but they’ve always had what I’ve wanted to listen to.
My main complaint about the UX is that it’s nearly identical to Spotify, but I suppose there’s not much else you can do. Something particular about it that you dislike?
Thanks for the long reply.
Did not know the radio function existed. On mobile at least I can’t find it on the artists page? I have to go into the … Menu on a track in a playlist?
I listen to a lot of instrumental stuff while working, so I may be going too indy? Someone like soundcriters should should have something on their page?
https://open.qobuz.com/artist/5003476
I dislike that you have to go to a playlists page to play it in shuffle, you can’t do it from the playlists menu.
Double clicking should play a track but doesn’t.
At my PC now, where the radio option doesn’t seem to exist at all!?!
“Go to Radio” on the app. Hmm…
Yeh, found it in the android app (on tracks, not artists). Not there on desktop though.
I can play the radio on the app to my desktop though… Guess that works. Not exactly great UX though.
Thanks for pointing out that it exists though!
Strange, it has the ‘autoplay more like this’ option on the web player (which does basically the same) but not the explicit ‘artist radio’ option. Huh.
Ah, I turned off auto play because it would randomly start playing other music instead of continuing my massive playlist…
Qobuz catalog is extremely lacking IME.
I’m glad to hear this! I’ve just cancelled our Spotify this past week and my partner is looking for a new service (I only listen to the same albums on repeat so I’m going to survive).
There is a ReVanced version of Spotify, for people who didn’t already know. Block ads and get premium features for free: https://revanced.app/
(There’s also YT Music ReVanced)
Can’t I just go with piracy
This is more convenient than piracy.
Having the files locally is more convenient though
How is having any song you want being one search away less convenient than having to curate and organize a music collection, and then go digging though folders to find the song you want?
Look, I’ve been collecting music since 1998 and even I admit that streaming is a lot more convenient. Only reason why I still collect music is because I am a DJ and don’t always have a reliable wifi or data connection at every gig. But even then I’ve culled the vast majority of 50k+ tunes down to about a 1000 of the best and most popular on the dance floor. Then swap songs in and out as needed. The modern era makes it easy to re-obtain a deleted track, and often in higher quality than I originally ripped it at (I use a spectrum analyzer on my collection to verify).
Often without internet access so having it local is pretty important.
On desktop install Spicetify in your Spotify client. It does many things, including block ads.
I heard the ReVanced patching stopped working recently. Is that not the case anymore?
Not sure cause I use YT Music ReVanced instead for the larger music selection.
If you are going to steal music you may as well just steal music
Blocking ads isn’t stealing
I will cancel it
You mean replacing a bunch of people with AI didn’t work?
Never will. All the tech bros can stomp and wine. But it will never replace real people with real skills. It’s fucking stupid that these business majors can dictate stupid decisions.
They have prices? People are paying? 🤔🏴☠️🦜
