There's a middle ground, too -- you can host music streaming for your own library through [Jellyfin](https://jellyfin.org/) (or Plex, or a few other alternatives) for the backend and something like [FinAmp](https://github.com/UnicornsOnLSD/finamp) on the frontend. Easy to curate your own library, and you can avoid the "sync problem" when you download a new album.
There are some bugs to iron out in the setup, but my raspberry pi home server has been running this great for 5 months now, and offline media served me very well through a cross-country move. It's a great opportunity to take back some agency from Spotify, start contributing to artists on bandcamp or similar, and cut another annoying monthly subscription from your life.
When someone hands me their phone to play music on Spotify at this point, I find the front page absolutely overwhelming. It's sort of like going back to cable after streaming for years, and seeing your first ad. You wonder how you ever put up with it.
I've been frustrated with Spotify's UI for so long now. It just seems so full of dark... or at least dim(?) user patterns. I started buying albums from bands I like off Bandcamp and loading them into Plexamp. (I really hope Epic doesn't destroy Bandcamp, it's one of the few remaining sources of high-quality (FLAC) downloadable music.)
Bandcamp is great; the only marketplace I have found with fair and reasonable terms for both producers and consumers of music. I never buy music anywhere else these days and am rather worried about Epic Games' acquisition.
I do the same thing, and recommend this setup to any music fan comfortable setting up a Plex server.
I share your concern that Epic will ruin Bandcamp, but part of me wonders if that wouldn't be a good thing in the long run. I don't think Bandcamp tried to monopolize digital file sales for independent music, but they kind of have, and that's bad.
I'd love to see a good open source music store pop up that labels and bands could easily self-host. You could probably build all the core Bandcamp features into a WordPress plugin in a weekend.
Similar feelings here. I switched from Spotify a month or two before Epic bought bandcamp, and I’m very nervous about the platform going forward. They kind of suck for mass downloads (they throttle you very quickly), so be warned before you buy a ton of albums through them. But at the same time… Bandcamp feels so much less scummy than Spotify that I’m happy to throw them Spotify subscription money every month.
I do something similar with the subsonic protocol by locally hosting Airsonic[0] and listening with Strawberry Player[1] on Desktop and iSub[2] on iOS. Using Tailscale[3], I'm able to stream my library on the go. Best part is that all this infra is free and pretty hands-off maintenance-wise.
I do the same, though I recently switched from subsonic to navidrome.
My home music server has my wife and I’s mp3 collection that we’ve been building since like 2000. However, I’m continuously buying new music on bandcamp and scouring music blogs, and the collection grew until she was overwhelmed by the selection. So then I took her old click-wheel ipod music collection (which broke, but she had the music backed up), and I put that on a USB which is plugged into our Yamaha Musiccast receiver. The interface is pretty simple in the musiccast app (scroll and choose). She’s happy to have her collection locked to like 2012 in an ipod-like fashion.
But she still misses that ipod. The screen started fading, and I took it apart to replace parts, and in the process I screwed up the battery. It only works when docked and dies immediately when undocked.
Nice breakdown! I use wireguard myself, but several friends keep trying to convert me to Tailscale. I’m strongly of the opinion that WG is working, so I’ll just let it keep working. But if I had to set up a VPN from scratch, Tailscale is awfully tempting.
Honestly, the only reason I use Tailscale is bc the set-up was easier than WG and the subnet router is handy (though not essential)[0].
I'd just be using WG if I figured out how to set it up the first time ahaha. It's nice to get rid of third-parties whenever possible, especially when it comes to my personal IT infrastructure.
Been using iTunes Match for years and it’s great. I have a load of stuff in my library which was either never released digitally (eg em:t) or was deleted (eg The KLF). Oink.
I have been using iTunes Match for years and now use Apple Music. I love it, especially the integration. Combine that with CarPlay and the audio entertainment options really open up.
Question to stuartd: I am concerned about how long Apple will support iTunes Match. Have you thought about what you would switch to in order to stream your Apple Music/iTunes when or if Apple sunsets iTunes Match as a service?
My suspicion is that they're not going to get rid of that functionality -- it continues to be a differentiator between them and Spotify. And, assuming that's right, they don't have any particular pressure to get rid of the standalone iTunes Match service. I know there's the argument that they might get rid of the $25/yr service in order to force people onto the $99/yr service. But it seems quite likely to me that Apple figures anyone still paying for iTunes Match but not Apple Music just doesn't want Apple Music, which makes the consideration in Apple's accounting department not "$99 > $25" but "$25 > $0".
Having said that, in the really early days it (or my phone, an iPhone 4 and later a 6S) was a terrible experience a lot of the time. Even with good Wi-Fi I’d wait for songs to play and then they would probably still stutter. It’s seamless now though, as long as I have a decent mobile signal.
This is interesting. Considering most of our Home internet connection have upload bandwidth far greater than music streaming. A consumer, simple and easy to use devices for this.
Steve Jobs was against the whole Streaming Music services idea. At the time I would have thought the next move for iTunes would be to have free Streaming of songs you have purchased. Which is somewhat similar to this idea.
The other middle ground, between self hosting and streaming if you will, is to connect your music library to a streaming service like https://asti.ga/ .
I guess this is effectively outsourcing the self hosting bit. You can connect to locally stored music files via WebDAV or just upload your collection to any of the big cloud storage providers.
I've been a Plex user for years. I started playing around with Jellyfin this week and I think I'll probably use both for a while since they can share the same library.
Plexamp has been great for music. I can put on any CD I own, in FLAC quality, without having to go locate the physical disc. I've spent much of pandemic filing in holes in the back catalog of my favorite artists.
If I want a mix, I tend to open up Tidal and let it build a "radio station" based on my mood.
Also a plex user for music and have also played with Jellyfin. My impression is that in a couple years Jellyfin will be the go to but that it isn't quite up to snuff with Plex yet (especially wrt music) though some projects like JellyAmp are changing that.
Navidrome is far and away the best self hosted streaming music server. I set up half a dozen and wasn't happy until I tried that one. The developer is very friendly and responsive too.
There are some bugs to iron out in the setup, but my raspberry pi home server has been running this great for 5 months now, and offline media served me very well through a cross-country move. It's a great opportunity to take back some agency from Spotify, start contributing to artists on bandcamp or similar, and cut another annoying monthly subscription from your life.
When someone hands me their phone to play music on Spotify at this point, I find the front page absolutely overwhelming. It's sort of like going back to cable after streaming for years, and seeing your first ad. You wonder how you ever put up with it.