Blaze (he/him) They're not what they pretend to be!
BrundleFly2077Serious question. Who’s the alternative to Spotify?
The Ramen DutchmanBuying from, and supporting the artist directly, IMO.
Many European metal bands host their own webshop selling their merchandise, records, cassettes and CDs; many small and independent musicians sell their songs on Bandcamp (US based website that does take a cut from each payment, 15% I believe goes to Bandcamp, so that is something to keep in mind)
Honestly, the benefit of streaming services is not being able to listen to music legally. It’s discovery. Playing a song I like and getting recommended a similar song turn an artist I’ve never heard of has introduced me to a lot of great music. That’s not something you can replicate by going to the webshop of your favorite band and buying their newest album.
VitteliusThat’s something you could recreate with a scrobbling service like last.fm (don’t use last.fm though, they are owned by CBS).
A quick Google search leads me to ListenBrains, which is also American, but operated by a non-profit.
I’ve used neither service and my music listening habits never relied on algorithmic recomendations, so I could totally be talking out of my ass here. But it could be worth a look.
The problem there is that scrobblers aren’t nearly as convenient as a streaming service. With a scrobbler I have to actively check out recommendations. With a streaming service I can just have it play related songs until I get one I really like.