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?
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.