I want to avoid Spotify and Apple Music.
I have checked out Sound Cloud and they do have the artists I’m interested in but are they more ethical than the above services?
I could also buy cds as a last resort.
I’ve been buying stuff from Bandcamp. They sold recently so their future is uncertain, but as it stands right now it seems like a pretty good deal. Artists get a good cut, and you get streaming + drm free copies of the music to download.
I don’t really like subscriptions for music. It’s like renting. I’d rather pay $10/mo buying an album and have a big library after ten years than have nothing.
I built up my music library over time and serve it from my own computer using plexamp. It’s been really quite nice.
Plexamp is the best music player in a long time
We’ve had a Pandora family plan for 5 years now. All four of us streaming on several devices with no problems.
I’ve been happy with Tidal. The sound quality is much better than the others. I’ve heard they pay artists better but I’m not sure if that’s true
Not quite the same but check if your local library has access to Hoopla. It is usually free and can get your music, audiobooks, and ebooks. There’s other free apps too like Libby for ebooks, flipster for magazines, and kanopy for foreign films and documentaries. All were free with my free library card.
I switched to Deezer when I jumped ship from Spotify. They even directed me to web tools for playlists migration.
