I’ve been happy with Tidal. Their library is extensive, you get better sound quality and it’s cheaper than Spotify. No podcasts or audiobooks but I use different services for those anyway.
This question deserves better reaponses. If you can’t or don’t want to self host, Tidal and Qobuz are probably the best alternatives.
Tidal doesn’t do podcasts though so if you need to replace that as well, take a look at Antenna pod which as a bonus is available on F-Droid.
MP3s and FLAC. The only thing the services offer that’s even remotely useful is finding new music that I might like but… gasp I was doing that before the internet, too.
I’ve been converting my FLACs to Opus 256 and have been very happy. I use copyparty to host the music on my PC and stream it to my phone when I need to.
Very similar but V0 is less efficient because it’s bogged down by maintaining comparability. Opus will typically use somewhere between 25-50% less data while maintaining the same level of audio quality.
Qobuz is what I’ve switched to and the only complaint is the lack of certain niche releases, but I gone through and requested they be added. It seems like the company that aligns most with my ethical values that I could find.
Tidal. It’s okay but the windows desktop app is buggy. Keeps playing a different track than it shows on the UI. Search isn’t great. Android app lacks voice input support.
Have they fleshed out their catalog yet? I’ve tried them a couple times and each time it gets a little better, but each time it’s still miles behind spotify or ytmusic.
I remember they not having a lot of Japanese stuff, last I looked, but that has since largely changed on basically all platforms ever since Japan loosened up their sphincter just a tiny bit.
A couple of weeks ago I opened Spotify and SoulSeek on split screen and began the process of looking through my library and downloading all my music. Then once I was done, I went on Bandcamp and bought a few albums from some of my favourite artists that I couldn’t find on SoulSeek.
It took me a couple of hours over the course of about 3 days, but it was well worth it in the end. I now have everything I had on Spotify saved onto my phone and PC. It feels very liberating, and I can now delete my Spotify account.
I set up a Plex server with all my old media, I downloaded my old music collection from my google data (if you ever had your own files stored in Google Play back when it wasn’t just a store but also a media player, it’s still downloadable from Google). I use the plex amp app, it looks like a Spotify skin but works with my personal collection. It’s been pretty great, I run it off an old beat up gaming laptop and 20tb USB drive.
I have been self hosting since 2008. Went through around 7 different apps since then, and I am currently using Navidrome, which is a fork of Subsonic with the android phone app Symfonium. For a while there self hosting looked pretty bleak around 2020, but it seems to have found a resurgence which I love because the development has been big again leading to more modern looking players and a lot of great new functionality.
I have gone with a combination of buying/downloading music that I really enjoy and using Qobuz. The quality of music is great, but the selection and discovery just aren’t as good as Spotify.
What alternatives are people using? I switched to Amazons service a while back but didn’t like it at all.
I’ve been happy with Tidal. Their library is extensive, you get better sound quality and it’s cheaper than Spotify. No podcasts or audiobooks but I use different services for those anyway.
This question deserves better reaponses. If you can’t or don’t want to self host, Tidal and Qobuz are probably the best alternatives. Tidal doesn’t do podcasts though so if you need to replace that as well, take a look at Antenna pod which as a bonus is available on F-Droid.
MP3s and FLAC. The only thing the services offer that’s even remotely useful is finding new music that I might like but… gasp I was doing that before the internet, too.
I’ve been converting my FLACs to Opus 256 and have been very happy. I use copyparty to host the music on my PC and stream it to my phone when I need to.
What’s the benefit of Opus 256? Haven’t heard of that before.
It offers the same clarity as MP3 320 with a smaller file size It’s just more efficient compression
Is it like V0?
Very similar but V0 is less efficient because it’s bogged down by maintaining comparability. Opus will typically use somewhere between 25-50% less data while maintaining the same level of audio quality.
If you mean another streaming service and not just hosting music yourself like others are suggesting, I’ve heard good things about Quboz.
Quboz is awesome and the audio is high quality.
It lacks so much music that I like. I tried it once and couldn’t use it.
Qobuz is what I’ve switched to and the only complaint is the lack of certain niche releases, but I gone through and requested they be added. It seems like the company that aligns most with my ethical values that I could find.
Tidal. It’s okay but the windows desktop app is buggy. Keeps playing a different track than it shows on the UI. Search isn’t great. Android app lacks voice input support.
Have they fleshed out their catalog yet? I’ve tried them a couple times and each time it gets a little better, but each time it’s still miles behind spotify or ytmusic.
I don’t typically run into missing stuff, but I usually find music through their UI instead of searching for particular tracks.
I think they advertise a larger catalog than Spotify, but that could be padded with tracks nobody cares about.
I remember they not having a lot of Japanese stuff, last I looked, but that has since largely changed on basically all platforms ever since Japan loosened up their sphincter just a tiny bit.
A couple of weeks ago I opened Spotify and SoulSeek on split screen and began the process of looking through my library and downloading all my music. Then once I was done, I went on Bandcamp and bought a few albums from some of my favourite artists that I couldn’t find on SoulSeek.
It took me a couple of hours over the course of about 3 days, but it was well worth it in the end. I now have everything I had on Spotify saved onto my phone and PC. It feels very liberating, and I can now delete my Spotify account.
I set up a Plex server with all my old media, I downloaded my old music collection from my google data (if you ever had your own files stored in Google Play back when it wasn’t just a store but also a media player, it’s still downloadable from Google). I use the plex amp app, it looks like a Spotify skin but works with my personal collection. It’s been pretty great, I run it off an old beat up gaming laptop and 20tb USB drive.
I have been self hosting since 2008. Went through around 7 different apps since then, and I am currently using Navidrome, which is a fork of Subsonic with the android phone app Symfonium. For a while there self hosting looked pretty bleak around 2020, but it seems to have found a resurgence which I love because the development has been big again leading to more modern looking players and a lot of great new functionality.
Symfonium is awesome! I use Jellyfin for my media server.
I have gone with a combination of buying/downloading music that I really enjoy and using Qobuz. The quality of music is great, but the selection and discovery just aren’t as good as Spotify.