I’ve recently been made aware of the non-sustainable business of Spotify (and other streaming services) https://youtu.be/gDfNRWsMRsU .

I think the best solution for all parties would be a federated streaming service. Instances could be hosted by record labels or indi-Artists. Of course there needs to be a fair donation/subscription. (Maybe similar to Patreon - get some extra goodies for supporting your artist directly)

Does something similar exist already? I would rather put my money somewhere where small artists are actually paid fairly for their work. (And put my own works there as well)

Thanks for reading :) I wish you a very pleasant day and I’m looking forward for your input.

  • locness3English
    23·
    1 year ago

    I believe purchasing mp3’s is a good solution.

    • aleph@lemm.eeEnglish
      11·
      1 year ago

      Obligatory mention of Bandcamp and Qobuz here - buying music outright ensures a much bigger payout for the artists.

    • Salix@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Unfortunately, not everyone can afford that. Spotify family plan is significantly cheaper than buying every single album from every artist I and my family listens to. Just for myself, I’d have to spend $5000+ for the amount of music I listen to if I bought the mp3 or flac files.

      • Lennard@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        That’s a great point. While I don’t think streaming services can uphold their low prices (and I’m also happy to pay 20 bucks when the artists gets a fair share) I think buying all albums you maybe wanna listen to is way to expensive. Buying music also raises the barrier to discovering new music and cultivatinng a diverse taste in music.

    • Michael Kovacs@mastodon.social
      1·
      1 year ago

      @locness3 @Lennard yeah, I think this is honestly the most straight forward option. Why create a whole new music ecosystem in the fediverse that will probably still skim off the top in order to support server costs among other music industry things when one could just purchase the music directly from the artists on something like Bandcamp? Then you also actually own the music instead of being locked into a streaming service AND the artists see a bigger payout for their work.

    • Lennard@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I agree that it’s a great way to support your artist, but honestly I don’t think it stands a chance to become as big as streaming services. The convince of being able to explore almost every artists catalogue at the touch of a button is just too good. (Also great for sharing music or creating a shared playlist)

      I think the problem of storage space is also often overlooked. Not everyone has enough storage on their device. (I know I didn’t, when I still used MP3s on a modern smartphone)