Update; I went with Tidal. I’m a bit disappointed that no competitor has functionality like Spotify Connect without licensed hardware. I got Tidal running under Mopidy on my media box but I have to use a web browser and the Mopidy front end that works so so instead of the mobile app or desktop client. I don’t feel like shelling out for another third party service or change my amp when I’ve got a decent setup for everything else. I already miss the ability to seamlessly go from mobile to speakers to a computer in a different room. Weird because it really doesn’t sound very complicated to me when every Tidal client is already online and disconnects when playback starts on another device.
I’m getting fed up with Spotify because all the usual reasons and now the CEO calling music “content” with “nearly no production costs”. Fuck that, time to vote with my wallet after being a user after an early beta invite.
What I want is a service that
-
pays music creators decently,
-
that has a comparable catalogue outside the charts
-
and that works well with a good UI on Windows, Linux, Android
-
and either headless on a RPi or has a integration with Kodi with high bitrates or even lossless.
Searching for comparisons drowns me in click baits and auto-generated content. I’d appreciate some real world experiences.
Edit; Thank you kindly for advice on self hosting etc. I am well aware of that option, a hardy sailor from the olden days as I am. Nowadays though I can and want to pay for the hassle free immediate availability music catalogue as a streaming service that in turn pays the artists for their delicious sounds in my ear holes.
I get this by self-hosting. You can try Plex, Jellyfin, some complex tunneled MPD setup. I’m sure there are other ways.
-
I pay artists as directly as possible.
-
Anything in any format that I can find and record is available.
-
& 4. I can choose the appropriate hosting method based on context. Playing on my phone or through a smart speaker? PlexAmp app is very polished and makes navigating a large library mostly painless. Plex mobile app can work in offline mode too if you download before loosing Internet. Playing on another Linux machine, maybe a headless one connected to the stereo? I setup an NFS share and/or use MPD. There are android apps to remote control an MPD server that’s directly connected to a sound system too.
I don’t think a service will ever be able to match what I can do with self-hosting. I’m not even very good at it or put that much effort into it anymore. Other people have done so much more and there are some crazy home brew setups out there.
Are there Arrs for music? How does that work?
Lidarr. Mostly works just like the others. Seems best equipped to grab full album or discography collections. It can grab search queries from a number of other sources, so that you could (as an example) add a song to a certain Spotify playlist and Lidarr would check that list and add the song/album/artist per your settings.
Awesome, thanks!
-
I recenty switched to Tidal.
- I’ve heard from others that it pays music creators better, but can’t verify those claims.
- It has almost everything I’ve saved on Spotify, from symphonic metal to Altai throat singing. It’s only missing a couple of early Russian rock bands. It also offers importing your library from other platforms as a one-time paid service.
- I haven’t tried it on Windows. The Android app is fine, more or less the same as Spotify. On Linux, the only well-maintained client is Tidal-HIFI, which is just the web app in an Electron wrapper with some hackery that allows it to play high quality audio. There’s also a Python API (
tidalapion PyPI) that smaller projects might use, so keep an eye out for them. - I’ve never used Kodi or a separate device for audio streaming, but it looks like there’s an addon for it.
(edit) I’d love to hear the downvoters explain why they disagree. Don’t be a coward.
It’s owned by Jack Dorsey and friends so I would expect enshitification sooner rather than later.
I also recently switched to Tidal, the windows app works fine (I usually have it running all day). The only weirdness with it I’ve noticed is sometimes if I pause a track for a long time, when I return to play it again it just starts the song from the beginning. Otherwise the only thing I’m missing from Spotify is the ability to start playing by talking to our Google Home speakers - have to start it from the app to cast.
Edit: I also like that Tidal appear to promote smaller/newer artists in their Tidal Rising program
Tidal also cut their subscription cost from $21 to $11 this year. It doesn’t have the variety of Qobuz, but for me the better GUI and track radio features make it the right choice.
Service as a software subtitute is another way to hijack control over our own computing. Voting with our wallet never stops them, libre software does.
I recently looked at different streaming service companies and the one behind Qobuz looked like the least bad. Tidal is owned by @jack.
Beatport offers some very high quality streaming; but since it’s oriented more towards DJs, the discovery aspect of it is pretty lacking. If you only want to listen to the specific songs you pick, it’s pretty good. Plus, you can buy songs in FLAAC format.
Try Spotube on Android. Download it over Fdroid for the full version. It’s essentially Spotify without ads and you can link it to your old Spotify account to sync your old data.
Uh, this is a hifi community
I’ve been streaming my own stuff via mpd for about 25 years. It has its own http server (much more robust now than it was when they introduced it), plus it can broadcast via icecast/shoutcast.
is a free service that you upload and sync your music to that allows you to access your own stuff everywhere. Clients for every platform. The premium tier streams in flac, etc…
