I’ve been wanting to get rid of Spotify for months as the service has been getting worse and worse and this might just be the straw that breaks the camels back.
Does anyone know of alternatives with
1) decent discovery for new music
2) preferably not self hosted
3) a functional Linux desktop app
4) allows downloading playlists for offline listening
getting all of these in one place and having them work well is why I’ve been stuck with Spotify for so long :/
I have to be honest, I immediately decided to quit the service and subscribe to YouTube Premium as soon as I saw the news yesterday. I would've been fine if it was just the regular full-priced subscription offerings that were increasing in price, but to do it to the student plan as well? And for what, to cover the costs of Hulu? It's not like audiobooks are included with the student plan! Given that this latest price hike now puts Spotify's student plan within a dollar of YouTube Premium's student plan while being more expensive than almost every other music streamer's student plans, I decided to take the plunge and subscribe to YouTube Premium, because if Spotify's going to increase the price of their subscriptions and not offer a good reason to do it, then why even bother?
The issue is most people don't have a setup that will even care.
Bluetooth lowers audio quality, and very few people have DACs or even phones right 3.5 jacks.
I often imagine an alternate history where Apple kept the jack, maybe added a 4.4... audio quality would be so much higher now.
Think about all the audio engineers who don't even consider higher quality setups. All the bandwidth on earth don't matter if the original master isn't perfect.
I noticed the price creeping the last time and just said to me “when it touches the $15 mark it’s gone, it seems to be approaching there so I’ll look for a different platform or just go back to mp3s.
$22/month for a family plan of 5 people to have unlimited streaming is more than worth it to me. They would have to triple the price for me to even think about it being an issue. And this is coming from someone who was on what.cd for years.
I also prefer Spotify over apple music and youtube music from a ui/ux perspective as well.
If you're actually looking for a streaming service that is more respectful of artists, Tidal (though I have a feeling it may not last). They pay up to 10x per stream in royalties, and also have a more equitable algorithm (Spotify pushes an unfair weight to more popular artists across their service, regardless of your personal streaming).
I recently switched to an iPod and have a Samba server that I can use to access my music library on the go if needed, via WireGuard. Honestly, I could not be more happier with it. I think there are very few advantages for technically inclined people to still pay for streaming services, and the fees are not one of them.
I am using Classic iPod using Rockbox, it is basically drag and drop without Apple's gatekeeping. I also changed battery and increase storage capacity using iFlash adapters. Although I am very happy with this setup, I recommend you check some cheap mp3 players that can be used with Rockbox. It was pain in the ass to open it, and second hand market is way too expensive.
I am using Bandcamp and Youtube to discover music. I also would like to check Musicbrainz.
Cancelled mine a while ago. My partner likes watching YouTubers on the TV, and I can't abide ads. So I pay for YouTube, get rid of the ads, and get free music streaming as a benefit. Win win win!
I listened to it like 12 years through proxies and always hoped they would expand worldwide, they got more aggressive with their blocking so I ditched them. I really miss their radio stations.
I haven’t cancelled Spotify etc but I axed HBO max after what seemed to be the third email about another price increase in a short period.
Funny thing is, if they just had offered me larger one-shot price increase, I’d have paid it no mind likely. Something about the drip-feed of price increases in such a short time pissed me off enough to cancel though.
Long ago I canceled my spotify because they were giving millions to Joe Rogan, but not the artist actually making music. You could spend a year making a solid album and make a fraction of what some dude that just spews gibberish makes in one episode.
Spotify is not just a music platform but a podcast platform too. I'll bet they make a good amount from Rogan's show. I don't see what the big deal is about giving money to the podcaster making podcasts instead of the artist making music.
The comment was more of social commentary on the fact that a group of people could spend a year of their lives doing something like making an album of music, and make substantially less money than someone that just makes up facts for 1 hour.
I rage quit Spotify a few years ago because they kept breaking how the app worked with frustrating regularity. This was around when they changed the hue of the spotify icon to a slightly different one.
YTM is arguably a worse product, but also a consistent one with zero UX churn, which I'll take any day of the week.
Youtube Premium is also very nice if you spend any time ever watching youtube videos.
I’ve been wanting to get rid of Spotify for months as the service has been getting worse and worse and this might just be the straw that breaks the camels back.
Does anyone know of alternatives with 1) decent discovery for new music 2) preferably not self hosted 3) a functional Linux desktop app 4) allows downloading playlists for offline listening
getting all of these in one place and having them work well is why I’ve been stuck with Spotify for so long :/
I have to be honest, I immediately decided to quit the service and subscribe to YouTube Premium as soon as I saw the news yesterday. I would've been fine if it was just the regular full-priced subscription offerings that were increasing in price, but to do it to the student plan as well? And for what, to cover the costs of Hulu? It's not like audiobooks are included with the student plan! Given that this latest price hike now puts Spotify's student plan within a dollar of YouTube Premium's student plan while being more expensive than almost every other music streamer's student plans, I decided to take the plunge and subscribe to YouTube Premium, because if Spotify's going to increase the price of their subscriptions and not offer a good reason to do it, then why even bother?
I'm with you in this yet the only disadvantage for me with YTP is lack of lossless.
The issue is most people don't have a setup that will even care.
Bluetooth lowers audio quality, and very few people have DACs or even phones right 3.5 jacks.
I often imagine an alternate history where Apple kept the jack, maybe added a 4.4... audio quality would be so much higher now.
Think about all the audio engineers who don't even consider higher quality setups. All the bandwidth on earth don't matter if the original master isn't perfect.
As far as I know, Spotify still doesn't have lossless
They've added it as an option recently.
I noticed the price creeping the last time and just said to me “when it touches the $15 mark it’s gone, it seems to be approaching there so I’ll look for a different platform or just go back to mp3s.
$22/month for a family plan of 5 people to have unlimited streaming is more than worth it to me. They would have to triple the price for me to even think about it being an issue. And this is coming from someone who was on what.cd for years.
I also prefer Spotify over apple music and youtube music from a ui/ux perspective as well.
Thanks for reminding me why I don't have a Spotify account.
What do you use?
The pirate bay + musicbrainz + foobar2000
I personally use jellyfin and supply the media myself, though there are much better ways to do it.
Alternative: https://nuclearplayer.com/
I want to support the artists, though.
Then buy the record at bandcamp. My band made 10 times more in a month at bandcamp than in 4 years of spotify.
There is also navidrome https://navidrome.org
I just started using Finamp for Android
https://github.com/jmshrv/finamp
I recommend the beta edition as the UI is quite evolved from the previous version.
That testimonials section is pretty incredible, to the point I'm not sure if the whole thing is satire or not.
If you're actually looking for a streaming service that is more respectful of artists, Tidal (though I have a feeling it may not last). They pay up to 10x per stream in royalties, and also have a more equitable algorithm (Spotify pushes an unfair weight to more popular artists across their service, regardless of your personal streaming).
I recently switched to an iPod and have a Samba server that I can use to access my music library on the go if needed, via WireGuard. Honestly, I could not be more happier with it. I think there are very few advantages for technically inclined people to still pay for streaming services, and the fees are not one of them.
I've started doing the same thing; I'm back to paying for my music, and listening to it on the devices I choose.
What iPod do you use? Any docs you like on how to? I tried to get a shuffle working but couldn’t get it to connect or power on.
How do you like to discover music now?
I am using Classic iPod using Rockbox, it is basically drag and drop without Apple's gatekeeping. I also changed battery and increase storage capacity using iFlash adapters. Although I am very happy with this setup, I recommend you check some cheap mp3 players that can be used with Rockbox. It was pain in the ass to open it, and second hand market is way too expensive.
I am using Bandcamp and Youtube to discover music. I also would like to check Musicbrainz.
Cancelled mine a while ago. My partner likes watching YouTubers on the TV, and I can't abide ads. So I pay for YouTube, get rid of the ads, and get free music streaming as a benefit. Win win win!
We’re not there yet, but boggles me that we’re getting close to the big disruptive startups of the 2010s getting disrupted themselves.
More in the on demand space, but here too I’m sure
Pandora is still around, as well as a few other similar services
I listened to it like 12 years through proxies and always hoped they would expand worldwide, they got more aggressive with their blocking so I ditched them. I really miss their radio stations.
I haven’t cancelled Spotify etc but I axed HBO max after what seemed to be the third email about another price increase in a short period.
Funny thing is, if they just had offered me larger one-shot price increase, I’d have paid it no mind likely. Something about the drip-feed of price increases in such a short time pissed me off enough to cancel though.
In related news, I bought a CD player today
Source: https://newsroom.spotify.com/2026-01-15/premium-pricing-upda...
I don't think it's nearly as good but I use Apple Music streaming since it's bundled and doesn't actively fund Joe Rogan's insanity.
Long ago I canceled my spotify because they were giving millions to Joe Rogan, but not the artist actually making music. You could spend a year making a solid album and make a fraction of what some dude that just spews gibberish makes in one episode.
Spotify is not just a music platform but a podcast platform too. I'll bet they make a good amount from Rogan's show. I don't see what the big deal is about giving money to the podcaster making podcasts instead of the artist making music.
The comment was more of social commentary on the fact that a group of people could spend a year of their lives doing something like making an album of music, and make substantially less money than someone that just makes up facts for 1 hour.
I have youtube premium to avoid youtube ads and now I use YouTube Music myself and it's great. Saves me money and I love it
I rage quit Spotify a few years ago because they kept breaking how the app worked with frustrating regularity. This was around when they changed the hue of the spotify icon to a slightly different one.
YTM is arguably a worse product, but also a consistent one with zero UX churn, which I'll take any day of the week.
Youtube Premium is also very nice if you spend any time ever watching youtube videos.
awesome! Thanks for the 3 month free!
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