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A library card, a CD reader for your PC and a chonky harddrive. Pirate hat optional but encouraged
Explicitly not answering the question you asked, but I think anyone considering not paying money for streaming services should consider going back to getting MP3s and CDs. And maybe you've considered it, but for everyone who hasn't:
You can download everything using Soulseek if you have access to a router.
For hardware, you can start with your phone, but because battery life is often an issue and so is space, you'll probably want a good MP3 player. Cheapest good one I've found is Fiio Snowsky Echo Mini which you can get direct from manufacturer on Ali Baba. You can use it with BT but it's very flakey, so I usually listen through wired speakers.
I don't have access to a router, so don't use SoulSeek, but rip CDs from the library and find treasures for 20 cents at the thrift stores. For one off songs, I use NewPipe to download YouTube videos.
That said, as far as streaming services go, music streaming is the least objectionable. You do have an amazing library. I got off of it mostly because I'm cheap and I also think having immediate access to every song ever written kind of music a valueless commodity in my mind.
Buying drm free music is a good long term plan. You build a library you can share with friends and family.
People miss the value of streaming music.
For films and TV, it's simple to get what you want when you want it. People dont watch films back to back on recommendations. But being able to have access to millions upon millions of songs and have them play randomly is something you cannot get with self-hosting easily. It's a great way to discover new music and there's a lot of value in that.
I'd only recommend self-hosting music if you literally only ever listen to the same 3 albums and are too stubborn to try new music. Or you are cheap!
This comment makes absolutely zero sense.
Confidently incorrect
This comment makes absolutely zero sense.
Confidently incorrect
I will say it’s generally easier to find a movie than it is some music. But the music that’s harder to find is probably some hipster band on band camp. So you can just give them money almost directly.
Also I listen to a lot more songs in one day than watch movies.
This comment absolutely resonates with me. I selfhost Jellyfin but I am super happy with streaming via Tidal for this exact reason. It seems people consume media differently.
Not true. I self host my music, which is what got me into homelabbing in the first place. I have 7 months+ playtime of music, and a pipeline for finding new recommended content with it. And i get the benefit of not having my music removed when license deals expire or never existed. And my random play actually randomizes instead of whatever profit optimized engine Spotify pretends to be "random" playing, so I actually hear new stuff. And I have playlists that can have more than 10k songs, but I dont even need those because I have smart playlists, including ones set up to only play things i havent ever listened to. I wouldnt ever go back
a pipeline for finding new recommended content with
This is the thing I miss the most about going from streaming to self hosted. The shuffle exposing me to new content.
How do you discover new music and artists preferably based on listened music? I tried scrobbling Jellyfin to listenbrainz but had mediocre success because either I wasn't interested or it took me researching similar listeners.
Unfortunately that is a legitimately missing piece for the wide community atm. I've filled the gap myself with a personal app that pulls recommendations from deezer/musicbrainz. As I rate things up in it, it starts displaying new recommendations to me based on those bands. I might polish it up and release down the road if I get some spare cycles
My best smart playlist I had in iTunes was the one that included the top 50 of all my music with 3 stars or more (one star was not music, two stars was music I would never listen to randomly, and anything above would be actual music rating), sorted by fewest plays. I would then put that playlist on random, so music I haven’t heard a lot, like newly added music, would be in heavy rotation in the start until the play count started to match my other music.
iTunes had smart playlists? Ahead of its time!
Funny how having a bunch of mp3 in your phone or mp3 player is now called self hosting.
Actually, being able to listen to anything at any time has made me more distanced from music because I have stopped learning about artists and just used the Spotify "radio" of artists I knew from before Spotify.
After I cancelled Spotify I but buy stuff from Qobuz and Bandcamp, and I really consider before buying. Cheap self-published stuff I usually buy without thinking, but anything that has a label I only buy if I'm more sure about it.
I mostly buy albums which had also the advantage that I get to know an artist more deeply rather than just knowing their 5 most popular songs that appear in Spotify radios. Also, albums often have a theme or story that give them some personality that Spotify radios don't have. Arguably you can also listen to full albums on Spotify, but somehow I never ended up doing that.
Another advantage of at least Bandcamp is that you can filter artists by genre and country or region, which helps discover artists from cultural contexts you are interested in. That's one feature I love it for. Because this way I can find artists that I could actually see live one day, and I understand their music better because I know better where their perspective is coming from.
I am cheap, which is probably the motivating factor, but I think there is a real downside to infinitely available music.
Analogy: Attractive people dating online can have trouble starting a real relationship because they are always thinking, "Maybe I can do better."
I think it can be the same with music. If all you are asking yourself is, "Does this music immediately trigger pleasure in me?" you are ultimately chasing shallow high after shallow high. And once you are in that state of mind, you have an insatiable demmand for more music, music all the time, different music.
But there is a deeper experience you can have, when you listen to a CD for a week because it's in the CD player of your car and by the time you realize it, you're already on the highway and can't change it. You start to notice the little details, you start to appreciate the music even though it's not what you're into. And in doing so, you grow musically.
On the production side of it, I think there's also kind of a severe rot that might settle in when you're trying to chase people that will give you literally 3-seconds of their time before skipping, and that will change the music if they aren't constantly being pleasured or if they hear anything the slightest bit unfamiliar.
Since nobody has made an investment in the music, nobody is willing to give anything different a chance, and it just drives musicians away from making music and into making muzak, music that is just engaging enough, but never takes risks.
That seems like a very unique and specifically-you scenario. I don't think most people treat music as a competition like that, either on the consumption or creation sides.
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If you want to look at mp3 players, they are also called DAPs for Digital Audio Player. There are a few options nowadays. Some are touch screen android devices, some are more simple with button controls and some can be loaded with Rockbox. The Echo mini is a little limited, but works pretty well. They came out with the Echo at some point which seems a little better made. If you go that route, keep an eye on fiio's website. They've made some interesting updates to the firmware over time.
Yes, I'm trying to bait the hook as deliciously as possible, but i admit if someone can't deal with any kind of technical friction and hate learning anything, this probably is not the hobby for them.
I still make my popcorn in a pan with oil.
Do you actually have to pay for YouTube Music? I can use it perfectly well in the browser with uBlock Origin. And on the Phone there is Metrolist (yes those client have the possibility to stop working, but for me at least everything works mostly smoothly, and if google manages to block them there is still Morphee using the official client)
I guess you cannot upload so many MP3s in the free tier? But if you have so many I would follow other peoples advice of self-hosting Jellyfin/Navdrone if you are able to. Or depending on your listening style maybe actually just copying them to your phone.
Local library
SomaFM
Radio Paradise
Big Sonic Heaven
Insomniac Radio
Local library is underrated AF
Thanks! I also found out Los Angeles KCRW NPR radio has an app for streaming.
YouTube Music through the ReVanced app
if you're up for self-hosting, I generally buy music from Bandcamp or Qobuz. It sits on my home server running Navidrome, and connected to my tailnet. I stream to my phone, tablet, etc. on the go using Tailscale and a subsonic client.
it was about a weekends worth of setup to get in a good spot. couple years ago I'd have said consider setting up your local music library in Plex, get a plex pass, then use Plexamp. But with the pricing changes it's nowhere near really worth using unless you already have a plex lifetime pass.
Oh, shit, I do have a lifetime pass and hadn’t heard of Plexamp. Thanks.
I can second this. It's the current best option in my opinion.
Check out your local terrestrial radio options. There are still good human-run, human-presented local stations out there which would love nothing more than to gain your listenership.
Where? Everything everywhere seems to be a mix of clear channel, church broadcasts, or the rare public radio station that isn't classical music 24/7.
Your mileage may vary, of course. Some places still get a little luckier than others with this sort of thing.
Bandcamp lets you preview entire albums, several times, before deciding to support the artist. And it's a firehose of fresh music.
I uploaded nearly 15,000 MP3s
Just put those on an old mp3 player
Seriously. Why are people so obsessed with streaming music when they have tons of it that can just be right there with them, no external connection needed?
MP3s on your own device
FM radio either over the air or streamed
YouTube has a lot of good music, if you're on Android use a client like Newpipe
CDs - they are still commonly sold by artists and then you can do whatever. I rip them to .flac myself.
Right now I have them all on jellyfin, but I've been doing this for years and changed server programs many times (I've yet to find something I use at home). Originally I reencoded to .mp3 and put them on a CD for use in my cars now I reencode to .mp3 and put on a USB stick for my cars.
I just use pirated YouTube Premium and have a playlist there.
Soma FM Internet radio station with 30 channels, donation-supported with player and desktop site
Groove Salad Classic channel is the shit!
Tuned in just yesterday after while, its so chill. Love SomaFM.
Love Soma FM!
If you go the route of downloading music or ripping from CDs, you absolutely do not need to stick with the over-inflated FLAC format. The files are absolutely massive, and you could easily convert them down to much smaller 192kbps MP3 (or AAC which is even better) and not notice any difference in sound quality. FLAC is for audio purists, and storage prices these days don't really justify it in my opinion.
As to where to buy music, try DRM-free sources like Bandcamp or even Amazon MP3. If you don't want to pay for it, learn to use BitTorrent or even Usenet...both while using a good VPN, natch! You can even download from YouTube Music if you have the right tool (though it'll probably come in Opus format which is fine if your player can handle it).
When using lossy, use Opus.
It really does sound amazing. Haven't tinkered with it enough to adopt it fully, but I'm willing to experiment!
I haven’t purchased media in 40 years
I'm using Youtube Music right now (practically free, since I got Youtube Premium for the videos) - but I've also ripped my old CD collection and am slowly buying FLAC versions of what I listen to most.
I just sync the whole collection on to all my devices using Syncthing. No need to set up a home server or have access to the internet. Probably not for everyone, but it's pretty flawless for me.
Apps like Metrolist that stream music from YouTube for free and without ads. Basically a NewPipe but for music specifically.
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I think Pandora still has a free tier.
On Android; Grayjay
jellyfin and tailscale
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this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2026
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