Ask Lemmy

Explicitly not answering the question you asked, but I think anyone considering not paying money for streaming services should consider going back to getting MP3s and CDs. And maybe you've considered it, but for everyone who hasn't:

You can download everything using Soulseek if you have access to a router.

For hardware, you can start with your phone, but because battery life is often an issue and so is space, you'll probably want a good MP3 player. Cheapest good one I've found is Fiio Snowsky Echo Mini which you can get direct from manufacturer on Ali Baba. You can use it with BT but it's very flakey, so I usually listen through wired speakers.

I don't have access to a router, so don't use SoulSeek, but rip CDs from the library and find treasures for 20 cents at the thrift stores. For one off songs, I use NewPipe to download YouTube videos.

That said, as far as streaming services go, music streaming is the least objectionable. You do have an amazing library. I got off of it mostly because I'm cheap and I also think having immediate access to every song ever written kind of music a valueless commodity in my mind.

Go self hosted

Lidarr can get your Spotify playlist and download it, navidrome can me the music server. Works awesome

if you're up for self-hosting, I generally buy music from Bandcamp or Qobuz. It sits on my home server running Navidrome, and connected to my tailnet. I stream to my phone, tablet, etc. on the go using Tailscale and a subsonic client.

it was about a weekends worth of setup to get in a good spot. couple years ago I'd have said consider setting up your local music library in Plex, get a plex pass, then use Plexamp. But with the pricing changes it's nowhere near really worth using unless you already have a plex lifetime pass.

Local library

SomaFM

Radio Paradise

Big Sonic Heaven

Insomniac Radio

A library card, a CD reader for your PC and a chonky harddrive. Pirate hat optional but encouraged

There are free tiers of streaming services out there. But you'll get ads.

Best option is self hosting your collection with jellyfin.

YouTube Music through the ReVanced app

I uploaded nearly 15,000 MP3s

Just put those on an old mp3 player

MP3s on your own device

FM radio either over the air or streamed

YouTube has a lot of good music, if you're on Android use a client like Newpipe

Jellyfin/Plex and Lidarr. If you want to actually support artists instead of record labels, buy merch and go to shows.

CDs - they are still commonly sold by artists and then you can do whatever. I rip them to .flac myself.

Right now I have them all on jellyfin, but I've been doing this for years and changed server programs many times (I've yet to find something I use at home). Originally I reencoded to .mp3 and put them on a CD for use in my cars now I reencode to .mp3 and put on a USB stick for my cars.

Soma FM Internet radio station with 30 channels, donation-supported with player and desktop site

Groove Salad Classic channel is the shit!

I just use pirated YouTube Premium and have a playlist there.

Bandcamp lets you preview entire albums, several times, before deciding to support the artist. And it's a firehose of fresh music.

If you go the route of downloading music or ripping from CDs, you absolutely do not need to stick with the over-inflated FLAC format. The files are absolutely massive, and you could easily convert them down to much smaller 192kbps MP3 (or AAC which is even better) and not notice any difference in sound quality. FLAC is for audio purists, and storage prices these days don't really justify it in my opinion.

As to where to buy music, try DRM-free sources like Bandcamp or even Amazon MP3. If you don't want to pay for it, learn to use BitTorrent or even Usenet...both while using a good VPN, natch! You can even download from YouTube Music if you have the right tool (though it'll probably come in Opus format which is fine if your player can handle it).

Apps like Metrolist that stream music from YouTube for free and without ads. Basically a NewPipe but for music specifically.

I'm using Youtube Music right now (practically free, since I got Youtube Premium for the videos) - but I've also ripped my old CD collection and am slowly buying FLAC versions of what I listen to most.

I just sync the whole collection on to all my devices using Syncthing. No need to set up a home server or have access to the internet. Probably not for everyone, but it's pretty flawless for me.

Check out your local terrestrial radio options. There are still good human-run, human-presented local stations out there which would love nothing more than to gain your listenership.

Download revanced manager. Enjoy.

I haven’t purchased media in 40 years

I think Pandora still has a free tier.

On Android; Grayjay

https://www.thecurrent.org/

Do you actually have to pay for YouTube Music? I can use it perfectly well in the browser with uBlock Origin. And on the Phone there is Metrolist (yes those client have the possibility to stop working, but for me at least everything works mostly smoothly, and if google manages to block them there is still Morphee using the official client)

I guess you cannot upload so many MP3s in the free tier? But if you have so many I would follow other peoples advice of self-hosting Jellyfin/Navdrone if you are able to. Or depending on your listening style maybe actually just copying them to your phone.