cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/25889784
I’m self-hosting my own music server and I want to
- add new music to it
- buy it and thus reward the artists whose music I put on there (i.e. no piracy)
- not deal with physical media (I’m not a collector, and I want to avoid plastic waste)
- own the files; no DRM or similar bullshit
- use a European vendor, or at least non-U.S.
I used to buy my music through Amazon, but I’ve cancelled my account in early 2025 (for obvious reasons) and I’m not going back. I’d love to hear your suggestions: what platforms do you know that fulfil the above criteria? And how do you get your music?
Coming in to back up Qobuz. Between qobuz and bandcamp i have been able to find 100% of the music i want to own and i feel good about it
For me, I mainly use Bandcamp, 7digital & Qobuz for Western music. Sometimes the artists sell directly from their own sites though; for e.g. I bought Willow’s empathogen album directly from her website.
For Japanese music, I use Ototoy. They accept foreign cards, but for some releases they won’t let you add it to the cart unless you use a VPN set to Japan.
For less available stuff, I sometimes buy second hand CDs from Discogs / eBay / Music Magpie / similar sites, rip and then resell the CD if I don’t wish to keep it.
For new CDs that I do want to keep, I buy from wherever the artist is selling. CDJapan for Japanese stuff.
7digital, UK/German Company and they even sell FLACS with up to 24bit. And their support is amazing. Had an album missing a song and they got me another album for the same price as a replacement. The one missing a song is still in my library so basically buy one get one free. Mayor downside you can only download an album 3 times before you have to contact support to reset it.
Bandcamp is where I try to grab most of my music.
If you buy your music on a bandcamp friday, 100 % of the money goes to the artist.
Dates this year:
- March 6th
- May 1st
- August 7th
- September 4th
- October 2nd
- November 6th
- December 4th
And even if you don’t, IMO they are pretty transparent on their fees
Isn’t bandcamp an American company?
(And yes, I read, that over 80% of the profit go to the artist directly).
That’s fair, I didn’t see the European requirement, sorry about that!
Another vote for Bandcamp.
There is Qobuz (edit they do streaming and purchase). I used to purchase a lot of music on iTunes too, back when they went DRM-free but I went back to… physical media.
not deal with physical media (I’m not a collector, and I want to avoid plastic waste)
This probably not the ideal solution you are looking for, but you can purchase the disc, rip it and then donate it to someone else.
There is Qobuz
And they have the niche things I’m after. I haven’t known about Qobuz, thank you
My pleasure: I’ve been their customer for many years, before moving back to physical.
Audials (Romania, Germany) e.g. “Audials Play” offers legal recording of internet radio stations by capturing unencrypted audio streams for personal, non-commercial use, effectively acting as a digital recorder. It enables users to listen to and record thousands of stations, automatically splitting tracks, adding ID3 tags, and according to law, does not bypass copy protection.
