I’ve had an Apple Music subscription for years and use it A LOT. I tried some alternatives (Tidal, Sirius, and maybe one other?) and wasn’t super happy with the options.
Is there a service that people recommend that is good, like $10/month or less, maybe gives better pay to artists? I’d like to spend on a better company if possible too. If Apple has enough money to buy gold trinkets for elected officials they probably don’t need more from me.
Edit: Thanks for all the responses. Some good ideas for sure. Gonna start with qobuz and band camp. Cheers!
No. Buy their CDs and rip them into something like Jellyfin.
That’s not realistic. I have a CD collection, but that took decades and thousands of dollars. Plus I had access to Columbia House (if you know, you know) and a robust used market. That doesn’t exist anymore.
I don’t think a person who’s sensitive to $11 a month is going to be interested in a collection of $25 CDs.
A $10 a month streaming service without ads that is fair to artists isn’t realistic either to be fair
Exactly this. A music collection is expensive. Even more so if your tastes change over time.
Even more so if your tastes change over time.
This is a challenge. I’ve grown on hip-hop and rap, and finding the media is a struggle. For example, the first 'Run the Jewels" album is basically unavailable on CD.
I’m thinking of the other end of the equation: I don’t listen to a lot of the artists I liked twenty or thirty years ago. I’d be annoyed if I spent a bunch of cash on their albums only to have them be coasters now.
While I don’t disagree with your comment, this part:
and a robust used market. That doesn’t exist anymore
isn’t as bad as you might think, at least where I live. Used CD sales are the highest they’ve been in over 20 years. Sure, it’s not like it was at its peak, but it’s coming back in style again. The rest of your comment is definitely true though.
Buy used. OP can probably pick up five used CDs a month and stay under budget.
Of course the artist isn’t paid here, so you might as well pirate at this point.
HiFi services are more like 16€ a month, ish, which is like 180 euros a year. 5 years and you already spent over 800 euros on nothing. My last skirmish with these services taught me to buy when I can and pirate the rest. Not like artists were earning anything relevant from my subscription anyway.
I feel like that’s a couple levels of effort more than I’d like. As good as it would be to support the artists by buying CDs I don’t want to buy more plastic and clutter the house. I could also do the same from the library, but that’s not supporting artists either.
That is what we did before streaming made us lazy.
And I just had to go and remove the CD player from my old car. Sigh…
You can load the song onto your phone and play via Bluetooth or aux cable.
Throw out streaming entirely. Maybe buy an album here or there and pirate the rest. Legitimately, if you buy one album and nothing else, you are absolutely supporting the artist far more than listening to their songs “legitimately” through streaming.
A good alternative would be:
- Ripping your own CD’s and playing them on an offline player.
- Use Soulseek (would recommend Nicotine+ app) to pirate music and playing it on an offline player.
For players; on my PC (Linux) I use Strawberry. Windows has AIMP which is really good. On my Android I use Shuttle.
+1 for Qobuz.
I have my own media server where i host everything that I buy digitally in the qobuz store to support artists and I use the streaming part to discover new things , or at parties etc. Its not the cheapest, but that’s kinda contradictory to supporting artists anyway. Its a good combination since a subscription gives you a bit of a discount on digital purchases as well.
Purchasing flacs between Qobuz and BandCamp is my preferred option.
The price for Apple Music, just like the price for everything else in the economy, has inflated.
When Apple Music launched it was $9.99 for an individual. That’s $13.98 in 2026 dollars. In October 2022 they raised the price to $10.99. That’s $12.32 in 2026 dollars. Now it’s $11.99 in 2026 dollars. Adjusted for inflation, that’s the cheapest they’ve ever priced it.
Family plan price went up a bit, adjusted. $19.99 over 2022’s $19.04.
https://keepingupwithinflation.com/tracker/apple-music/
Effective date Individual 2026 dollars Family 2026 dollars June 2015 launch $9.99 $13.98 $14.99 $20.98 October 2022 $10.99 $12.32 $16.99 $19.04 July 17, 2026 $11.99 $11.99 $19.99 $19.99 Yeah Apple Music definitely provides the best service overall, it’s too bad it’s impossible to get lossless playback on Linux.
Okay but when does our pay get adjusted for inflation?
Visit the library once a month and leave with 10 CDs. Rip 'em all to mp3’s. Month by month you’ll build up a valuable collection that is yours alone. If you are an audiophile then you might not like the mp3’s but I can’t hear any discernable difference that would make me say “what poor sound quality”. If I can tap my foot or sing along then it’s more than good enough.
Many have said buy music. I agree. You own your music fully. (effectively) and don’t buy from apple. Bandcamp ftw. I’m a strange one and use Pandora for gennral vibe streaming. Then if I come across a song that resonates with me I go out and buy it. And before peeps talk bad about Pandora, I discover artists with less than 1000 views on YouTube on it that actually sound good. My only problem with Pandora is that it has a station bleed issue where songs from other stations you made will “bleed” songs into other stations. like I have a dnb station that sometimes plays hip hop instrumentals because of the jazzy vibes that dnb sometimes has. But after a few forceful thumbs down, it behaves. But don’t do Pandora if you are wanting to listen to a SPESIFIC song. Just go buy it.
I use Pandora because they have a cheap no ads plan. You can’t choose individual songs but I think it’s only 5 US bucks per month.
I’m still using Tidal, and have been for many years. It’s got high fidelity (FLAC, Dolby Whatever), large catalogue and is not expensive.
If you’re interested in a FOSS alternative, try metrolist. You can download songs and it’s a frontend to YouTube music, so you have access to their full catalogue
If you want a way that more directly supports creators, nothing is is better than buying their songs place a place like bandcamp
Apple Music has the second highest payouts to artists, only behind Tidal which is much more expensive.
You really can’t have it both ways. You either want artists to get paid, in which case you’re paying more, or you want it for cheap and artists get paid less.
all of them are the same. they dont give artists jackshit, that is the business model.
i just use Soulseek and download all the music i could want onto my phone (have 1tb microsd).
best way to support artists is buy their merch
LiDARr and plexamp
i buy music 🤷♀️
I’ll just have the old one please. (Just kidding, I don’t have any apple stuff)
