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As I've said before: Spotify / Tidal / YouTube Music is great for discovery, IMO. Just not consumption. I use them for checking out new artists, or albums by a

As I've said before: Spotify / Tidal / YouTube Music is great for discovery, IMO. Just not consumption. I use them for checking out new artists, or albums by artists that I haven't heard before. But once I've passed from the "Huh, that was interesting" stage to "Yeah, I think I'm gonna listen to this album again in the future", it's time to buy it, rip it to MP3/FLAC(if I bought a physical copy), and get it into my media collection backups.

adriancarrieres 5y ago
I should probably do that as well, but I listen to so much music that it would be really painful to back it up.
- AdmiralAsshat 5y ago
  I have 1.5TB of music. It's because I have so much that I make sure I've got backups, backups of backups, etc. Just get some kind of syncing client so that you can just copy the deltas when you're making backups of backups. Offsite/cloud backup couldn't hurt, either.
iso1210 5y ago
> rip it to MP3/FLAC Alas that's illegal in the UK
- Nextgrid 5y ago
  To be fair, piracy was always illegal - it didn't stop it.
gatonegro 5y ago
This is essentially what I've been doing. Spotify is usually decent enough when it comes to recommending new artists based on what I'm listening. When I find an artist whose work I plan on listening on a regular basis, I'll jump to Bandcamp or some other site where I can buy the song or album I'm interested in. Sadly, the list of such sites seems to be shrinking with every passing year, and I've found many artists I'd like to support by buying their stuff, but they only offer streaming options. I've noticed it happens more frequently with artists that have been scooped up by a major label or one of its subsidiaries, unsurprisingly.
colinmhayes 5y ago
The whole point of music streaming services is to avoid doing this. Maybe it works for you, but that does not sound like a sustainable strategy for someone who listens to 100+ albums a year.
- AdmiralAsshat 5y ago
  I don't see why. Maybe for those like me who still buy physical CD's and rip them, okay--but let's assume you buy all of your music, just digitally, meaning you purchase MP3 albums in full from Amazon/iTunes/Bandcamp, etc. Most of the work is already done for you, since the services themselves already function as sort of a "cloud backup"; your computer or smartphone fries, you can always sign into the service again from your new device and pull everything down once more. The only remaining piece is to have your own offline backup of all the stuff you purchased, in case Epic were to shut Bandcamp's doors tomorrow. It's even less likely that Amazon or iTunes would go away quickly. And FWIW, I do personal rips when I have to, but I'm also as lazy as the next guy. Best case scenario is I buy a physical disk from the artist directly on Bandcamp which automatically includes a digital version as well. Next best, Amazon albums that include AutoRip. Finally, physical copies from private storefronts or used markets, and I'll do the rip myself.
- faeyanpiraat 5y ago
  I have like 400 favorite songs from wide variety of genres, and I've seen some songs becoming unavailable over time. And I don't know what it was, so I have no way to get it back in any way. Not a huge loss, but annoying.
boxingrock 5y ago
exactly, when i'm listening to music for 8 hours a day, discovering new artists and community made playlists is the killer feature. what i'm starting to hate about spotify is the politics behind what music is available. i invest the time into building out playlists just to have half the songs get blacked out a few days later because "money", yet the record label has the album on youtube as f2p. also, show me how my monthly subscription is divided up while you're at it.

adriancarrieres 5y ago

I should probably do that as well, but I listen to so much music that it would be really painful to back it up.

AdmiralAsshat 5y ago
I have 1.5TB of music. It's because I have so much that I make sure I've got backups, backups of backups, etc. Just get some kind of syncing client so that you can just copy the deltas when you're making backups of backups. Offsite/cloud backup couldn't hurt, either.

iso1210 5y ago

> rip it to MP3/FLAC Alas that's illegal in the UK

Nextgrid 5y ago
To be fair, piracy was always illegal - it didn't stop it.

gatonegro 5y ago

This is essentially what I've been doing. Spotify is usually decent enough when it comes to recommending new artists based on what I'm listening. When I find an artist whose work I plan on listening on a regular basis, I'll jump to Bandcamp or some other site where I can buy the song or album I'm interested in. Sadly, the list of such sites seems to be shrinking with every passing year, and I've found many artists I'd like to support by buying their stuff, but they only offer streaming options. I've noticed it happens more frequently with artists that have been scooped up by a major label or one of its subsidiaries, unsurprisingly.

colinmhayes 5y ago

The whole point of music streaming services is to avoid doing this. Maybe it works for you, but that does not sound like a sustainable strategy for someone who listens to 100+ albums a year.

AdmiralAsshat 5y ago
I don't see why. Maybe for those like me who still buy physical CD's and rip them, okay--but let's assume you buy all of your music, just digitally, meaning you purchase MP3 albums in full from Amazon/iTunes/Bandcamp, etc. Most of the work is already done for you, since the services themselves already function as sort of a "cloud backup"; your computer or smartphone fries, you can always sign into the service again from your new device and pull everything down once more. The only remaining piece is to have your own offline backup of all the stuff you purchased, in case Epic were to shut Bandcamp's doors tomorrow. It's even less likely that Amazon or iTunes would go away quickly. And FWIW, I do personal rips when I have to, but I'm also as lazy as the next guy. Best case scenario is I buy a physical disk from the artist directly on Bandcamp which automatically includes a digital version as well. Next best, Amazon albums that include AutoRip. Finally, physical copies from private storefronts or used markets, and I'll do the rip myself.
faeyanpiraat 5y ago
I have like 400 favorite songs from wide variety of genres, and I've seen some songs becoming unavailable over time. And I don't know what it was, so I have no way to get it back in any way. Not a huge loss, but annoying.

boxingrock 5y ago

exactly, when i'm listening to music for 8 hours a day, discovering new artists and community made playlists is the killer feature. what i'm starting to hate about spotify is the politics behind what music is available. i invest the time into building out playlists just to have half the songs get blacked out a few days later because "money", yet the record label has the album on youtube as f2p. also, show me how my monthly subscription is divided up while you're at it.