I really liked Spotify, but when they started subsidizing hate speech I left. For the last year, I keep trying different platforms and cannot find anything that works well. I am ok with spending money for no ads. I have very diverse music tastes so want to have different “stations” based on my mood. Any suggestions?
Do you mean because they host Joe Rogan?
Yes, that was the final straw for me.
Me too. I’ve been using Youtube Music since then since it’s bundled with Youtube Premium. I think it does a reasonable job of introducing me to me music, and playing things that I enjoy. I make an effort from time to time to seek out new music so that I don’t get stuck in an algorithmic echo chamber.
The algorithm does have a tendency to play the type of music I’ve been listening to recently, and to forget about some of the stuff that it hasn’t happened to play in a while. To compensate for that there is a playlist of everything you have liked, and the “archive” mix, a playlist of music you haven’t listened to in a while.
This is what I have been using. I like many of the features but am frustrated with others. For example, there are artists that I absolutely hate but still get put into the playlists.
YouTube music has the best algorithm for radios in my opinion. But my account is almost 20 years old so it has a lot to work with.
It also has a lot of rare music that will never exist on other platforms e.g. old myspace bands that were mostly lost with the myspace database disaster. The original files and copyright are likely lost, so it’ll never show up anywhere else.
I’ve heard good things about Tidal, it integrates with Plex which is why people in my circles like it, but overall from what I hear good quality, they pay artists fairly, and no ads
Have you tried Apple Music Yet?
I hate I phones and most things Apple. Maybe I am being stubborn? Is it worth looking into, even on an android?
It works pretty well on Android. They have a lot of curated “categories” which are like a mix of Spotify’s curated playlists combined with Pandora radio, which is pretty cool. Also, lossless audio is included at no extra cost, which is great if you have a DAC and nice headphones on your Mac/PC
I use AppleMusic and love it….but I’m super invested in the Apple ecosystem. It’s part of a monthly subscription bundle that includes Arcade, AppleTV and cloud space so….perfect for me. Can’t see it making much sense for android users.
I use Apple Music on Android/Windows, would recommend
It’s actually pretty good , i think it’s the only apple service that has good integration outside of apple devices. It works with android, windows and even has a web app. You can of course try it out for I believe 3 months for free.
Apple also pays one of the highest rates to artists compared to other services.
https://www.headphonesty.com/2021/11/how-much-does-spotify-pay-per-stream/
I left Spotify for similar reasons. I chose Tidal because comparatively more is paid to artists (still tiny amounts per play). Just like switching from anything (Reddit to Lemmy, PC to Mac, Coke to Pepsi, underwear to commando, iPhone to Android), there are differences to get used to but it’s not too bad. They do have curated playlists by editors, radio station based on your taste, “rising” track by genre etc. I think they have a free tier if you live in the US. but unfortunatley not yet available outwith.
I like spotify due to the many options I have (web player, awesome mobile apps, and 3rd party clients like ncspot (cli), or psst(GUI client written in Rust)).
I have tried Tidal, but the cost seems a bit prohibitive at the end of the day. For privacy-minded/tech-savvy folks, I would say local music library is the best solution and after that, self hosting some subsonic-compatible software like https://www.navidrome.org/docs/.
I personally have a small VPS running anyways so I use gonic (https://github.com/sentriz/gonic) on the server and symfonium(https://symfonium.app/) on android as a client. So, personal music collection combined with spotify premium, is, IMO, as good as it gets.
Have you tried deezer?
Deezer is pretty good at auto-generating playlists/stations based on tastes, genres and moods.
Deezer for audio quality
I use Astiga, which is like a private Spotify you need to fill with music yourself. I buy CDs which I rip to get music to fill it with. Leaves me with higher quality audio and no trash to filter trough while never having to worry about licencing issues removing my favourite music, and leaves artists with much more financial support than services like Spotify will ever offer.
If you’re running android and interested in trying an open source project, check out ViMusic. Uses YouTube music’s api behind the scenes
Tried many, but stuck with Deezer as it has got excellent pod cast support.
Had many issues with offline support with Spotify, and their support was horrible.
I’ve used Spotify, Deezer, Tidal, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music
Id rank them:
Apple Music
Spotify
Amazon Music (hot take I know)
Deezer
YT Music
Tidal (expensive and didn’t like the UI
On Android/Windows btw
I really like spotify for Spotify connect.