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Apple Music isn't the best streaming music service — it's just the least annoying
(www.androidpolice.com)
this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
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I don't think his post is meant to be hostile. It's not pointless, but it would add more of a discussion to elaborate on the topic.
On the topic of choosing to own (download (without DRM)) your music, one of the benefits is that it allows you to have all your music available in whichever music player (app/program/streaming service) you like. You can access the music while offline, without being required to pay some subscription fee. If downloading, it's generally also very easy to switch between different players if you so desire to in the future. You can control the metadata (swap album art, edit track info, etc.) You can sometimes even use owned media in tandem with streaming services to put all your media in one place within a streaming service's app/program. Usually, doing this requires less purchases/downloads to get all your media in one place, but still requires a sub.
On the topic of using Apple Music as a player.. I'm not sure if it's still this way, but you needed to use iTunes (on a PC!) to import local MP3 files to Apple Music, which, iTunes, love it or hate it, requires you to not only own a PC, but it has its limitations such as FLAC files being unsupported... That being said, Apple Music does provide a great convenience for many people and it's often cheaper than legally purchasing all of your songs. You can even add your downloaded songs from a PC (but not locally from an android device for some reason??)
I prefer to own my music. For anyone who likes the idea but doesn't know where to start, I can give some recommendations for convenience.
For music acquisition, use a legal website like Bandcamp to purchase your music, most of the money goes to Artists, compared to some other platforms. Alternatively you could pirate.. (illegal! I don't care if you pirate, but I'm not gonna write a tutorial.)
If you want to sync owned/downloaded files, use: SyncThing - free software that lets you automatically mirror file directories between your devices, syncing your libraries with no fees required. Available on Android/Win/Linux/Mac
For players, I recommend:
Android:
PowerAmp - trial & one time purchase, has theming support, massive customization options
Oto Music - lite version or one time purchase, supports downloading & embedding lyrics
PC:
MusicBee - free, has theming support, allows loading network files (local or remote)
Plenty of players available for different functional needs and/or aesthetics, but these are what I currently use.
On a thread discussing the various streaming options all of this information is entirely irrelevant. Managing a digital library is not appealing to 99% of people.
You may as well tell people to cook their own food in a thread discussing the various food delivery options.
I wouldn't say that's true. Probably 99% of people who use a streaming service still manage their library on that platform in some capacity (playlists, etc.)
Now if you're talking about "owning and managing your entire library" then yeah, I'd say most people probably don't care or are too lazy to bother with it. (and I don't mean that as an insult)
Still, for people who like or listen to music that isn't included in their primary music streaming service's library, owning portions of their library will often give them the capacity to mix in the rest of their music to their platform of choice. I wouldn't say that's irrelevant when talking about streaming services. Sadly, Apple makes this process more difficult than it needs to be.
Well put. I typically use 7digital and sometimes HDTracks. Bandcamp confused me but I need to give it another go.
Purchasing music also gives a much higher percentage of money to the artist compared to streaming platforms.
Retro Music is my favorite player for Android and Elisa for Linux (maybe Windows too).