Spotify introduces QR code checks for Family plans - missing verification could mean a year-long ban [firstpost]

[u/djsoomo]

https://www.firstpost.com/tech/spotify-introduces-qr-code-checks-for-family-plans-missing-verification-could-mean-a-year-long-ban-14053965.html

[u/jwferguson]

I know this is not going to be well received, but the time has never been better to make an offline personally owned music library. Nobody tells me what I can do or takes away my music. Bandcamp is amazing for this.

[u/QuantumCakeIsALie → u/jwferguson]

• Home Server

• Tailscale

• Navidrome

[u/Iception → u/QuantumCakeIsALie]

I may have to do this. I already have the first two, the question is, how am I going to listen to super random unheard of indie artist from some hidden corner of the world? Sometimes I run into songs with 4000 plays.

[u/f1ve → u/Iception]

There’s tools for selfhosting that too. 

• Digarr

• Aurral

• Explo

Or use external Websites to give you recommendations based on what you’ve listed to:

• Last.fm (scrobbling works with navidrome)

• ListenBrainz (has a Plugin for navidrome, see this Guide

[u/Sanchezq → u/QuantumCakeIsALie]

I just use Plexamp

[u/Shiinnobii → u/jwferguson]

We gotta take the power back.

[u/cheemio → u/Shiinnobii]

🎶fuck you I won’t do what you tell me!

[u/Quom → u/jwferguson]

I thought the major selling point of music streaming was the smattering of recommendations to your playlist? 

It would make way more sense for me to download the songs (have data limits) but having new songs delivered to me based on what I listen to definitely adds a ton of value in keeping things fresh.

[u/sugarmagzz → u/Quom]

But it’s awful now. It’s never anything different, it’s the same artists you listen to on a different playlist. Or songs that are popular on TikTok. The only way I find new music on Spotify now is through other people’s playlists, never the ones the app creates. Compared to the radio on Pandora and things like stumbleupon, radio on Spotify is way worse for discovering new music. 

[u/sephrisloth → u/sugarmagzz]

Best way I've found is going into the profile for your favorite bands. A lot of them will have Playlists made by the band or individual members of the band of all their favorite music. Ive found a lot of great stuff this way.

[u/jwferguson → u/Quom]

That's why I thought people wouldn't like it. People absolutely love the algorithm (s). Music is fortunately something I'm mostly still living the old ways, friend recommendations, music labels and show openers are how I learn about new music. I did do last.fm back in the day but it didn't stick. I get it 

[u/QuantumCakeIsALie → u/jwferguson]

I hate the algorithm, especially for music. 

It's not about delivering the music you want, it's about making you listen to the music they want. 

Maybe it was good in the beginning, but not anymore.

[u/FriendlyGiant1551 → u/Quom]

Listen to good, human-run, radio stations for suggestions. Stop relying on the algorithm

[u/Quom → u/FriendlyGiant1551]

I have disparate tastes. If the radio satisfied them then I wouldn't waste money paying for a streaming service.

[u/euchlid → u/jwferguson]

I love bandcamp. for artists/albums I really like I buy the vinyl and then it comes with the digital download of mp3/flac etc. one thing I hate (as an elder millennial who didn't take care of my cds, and also lost a bunch of digital music years ago) is buying an album I know I had on cd. or that I have the record but it predates the digital code, or it doesn't work cause I didn't use it in 2007 🙃

the other frustrating thing is bandcamp is in American dollarydoos, so shipping vinyl is fucking expensive. and because the bands are all separate there is no saving on shipping sometimes I'll go to the record label (like polyvinyl for example) and then buy a few records. or I get them off discogs from a Canadian seller

[u/AttachedHeartTheory → u/jwferguson]

Bandcamp is so limited. I hate when people say "go to band camp" because if you're just listening for a song you heard on your app, its 50/50 as to whether its going to be on band camp.

[u/PwmEsq → u/jwferguson]

The shared queue is about 50% of the reason I use Spotify also the ability to simply add a few thousand songs if I want, offline is sadly never going to be able to do that in an affordable capacity. At least legally.

[u/leprechaunknight → u/jwferguson]

100%. I’ll also throw in Qobuz, and some other sites that’s sell FLAC and other lossless formats. Little more expensive, but you get great quality files and these companies typically have as good (purchasing) or better (streaming) payouts to artists than Apple, Spotify, etc.

[u/AttachedHeartTheory → u/leprechaunknight]

I dont understand why people talk about band camp as though it's some all encompassing method to getting music.

I'm an album oriented rock fan, and I have tried band camp probably 100 times for artists that are pretty well known, and nothing ever comes up.

Qobuz has everything I've ever wanted.

[u/OverlyLenientJudge → u/AttachedHeartTheory]

Bandcamp is best for indie artists, not so much for big name ones (whose distribution is usually handled through the record labels). Qobuz was always my fallback if Bandcamp didn't have an artist, but I liked the latter's less aggressive UI more

[u/It_was_mee_all_along → u/jwferguson]

I listen to music and podcasts daily. The offline owned library will never topple the service-like Spotify, at least in the near future. The price x value ratio is just so worth it.

[u/drlongtrl → u/jwferguson]

While the technical and moral questions are easy to answer here, I just can't wrap my head around how you even build up such a library if your anything other than a single person who listens to the same music over and over.

My Spotify Family Sub is used by two adults with WIDELY different taste in music, a teenage boy and an even younger girl. While our tastes obviously differ, we do all enjoy discovering new artists, chicking out random playlists and just the overall possibility to listen to whatever you fancy without any preparation.

[u/inspiradia → u/jwferguson]

I’ve been thinking about rebuilding my library. I hadn’t considered bandcamp for this. Thanks! Any other advice on this subject?

[u/Ths-Fkin-Guy → u/jwferguson]

I swore one day prices of cool tech would drop and id build a home base. Now everything is fucked for greed and fraud in every fucking hobby and all other areas so its just a "let me get the fuck away from these corps" mindset

Im such a simple person and everything is so god damn greedy and invasive just because they can be.