Having completed Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy last week, I'm embarking on all three seasons of "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries", recently purchased on eBay. Yes, I've seen at least seasons 1 & 2 before.

#OwnYourMedia #MissFisher #Murder #Mystery

Streaming Music

OK, this might ruffle some feathers but bear with me.

Currently I see a lot of people in my social media bubble leaving streaming services like spotify, YouTube music and similar services. That is good.

At the same time they look for new streaming providers to use. Which is bad IMHO. Let me explain.

Regardless of how „good“ (in a moral sense, not technical) a streaming provider is you will never own that music. You’re paying money for nothing in the long run. Nobody can guarantee you that your favourite artists or the service itself will be available in any amount of time.

Sure, they might want to do their best to keep you fed with music and happy but in the end you’re giving away money for what? A short lived service that can go away at the blink of an eye.

Ever since electronic distribution of music started (single files via Apple, remember?) I kept buying physical media. And it’s always the same procedure.

„But streaming is so comfortable! I can do it anywhere!“ Guess what, so can I. My music (and audiobooks) lives on a network share at home and I have a VPN client that keeps me connected so I can listen to music as long as I have some kind of data connection (Wireless or mobile data) Modern routers, commercial NAS and a plethora of instructions on the internet make it easy for almost everyone to get something like that setup! Be brave and try it!

„But they keep recommending new stuff!“ True but you could also just read review blogs. Buy a music magazine. You do not need to be spoon fed stuff.

„But streaming pays the artists!“ Yes, some more than others but a sold CD is not just money in their pocket but a solid metric on how well received something is. Playing a popular song on repeat 24/7 for weeks is a metric too but I highly doubt that artists really earn that much more.

Also the best way to support your artists is usually buying CDs directly from them. Even better when it’s „in person“ at a concert! (Yes that’s not viable for everybody but it’s an option.)

„Physical media is so expensive“ Nope, it’s not. Buy used. Most CDs are almost as good as new when you buy them. Go to any flea market, car boot sale, garage sale or online marketplace. Buy bulk! There are people out there selling complete collections of their stuff for silly low amounts of money. Have your friends join in and buy in bulk and divide the loot, sell of what you don’t want.

Own your media! You’ll be happy that you’ve done it when the next streaming service turns evil, goes belly up or simply disappears! Plus if you ever should be forced to end a subscription because money is tight: you still own your music!

PS: The above also applies to movies and books although getting them on your NAS digitally and in a universal format can be more tricky.

I've been doing a lot more with my #Homelab lately.

Most recently I copied my late dad's extensive music library over to the RAID and set up #Ampache on #YunoHost to stream it wherever I am. I'm also adding music I've bought myself since starting to wean off of purely subscrition-based access to music.

Right now I'm scanning everything to add replaygain metadata for comfortable listening.

Maybe I'll even add what I'm currently listening to to my #website 🤔

#Selfhosting #Music #OwnYourMedia

Silicon Valley subscriptions: Scam or necessary evil? 🏴‍☠️

Streevo says: OWN YOUR MEDIA locally. No overlords.

POLL: What's killing your wallet?
A) Netflix $15/mo
B) Spotify $10/mo
C) Cloud storage $$$
D) ALL OF IT 💀

#RethinkSubscriptions #Fediverse #Streevo #DigitalOwnership #OwnYourMedia #MyLibrary

The startup ecosystem in Silicon Valley rewards speed because most founders are chasing valuation, not value

Streevo? We're building *outside* that bubble—local media ownership for the post-subscription era. Who's with us? 🚀

#Startups #SiliconValley #RethinkSubscriptions #OwnYourMedia #Fediverse #Streevo

Today I bought my daughter her first set of CDs at #EasyStreetRecords in #Seattle. On the way home she wanted to open them and it was hilarious teaching her how to break through the plastic with a car key.

We then remembered that my 2011 KIA Sorento actually has a CD player!

It’s the first time I’ve ever used it and holy hell it was glorious! Both of us were AMAZED at how much better the music sounded then when streaming via Apple CarPlay. Massive difference.

#cds #OwnYourMedia #music

Gotta say, Amazon Kindle Bulk Downloader by @treetrum is fantastic!!!

📕📗📘📙

It Is one of the most #punk things I’ve been able to use in a long while! Quickly and easily grab all your #kindleDownload content via the command line. And Sam is busting his butt making it better and solving issues as we run up to #amazonKindle download cutoff date!
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Please #boost to spread reach before everyone looses access to ownership [edit:] IN 3 DAYS! 🙏🏻

https://github.com/treetrum/amazon-kindle-bulk-downloader

#ownYourMedia #abandonAmazon

#Plexamp has an algorithm based shuffle which is of course branded as an #AI DJ. Let me tell you, this thing is fantastic. Far superior to #Spotifys gimmick of a feature. No stupid voice over, no butchering of Artists names. Just enjoyable music, pure and simple.

#plex #ownyourmedia