Or just buy off Bandcamp if its an option.
Buy it, download as FLAC, put in your preferred local infrastructure to play. Plex/Plexamp works well, as does local file storage and a good command line music client if you're less GUI-friendly or don't have the resources for running them.
I made this to help though https://github.com/meeb/bandcampsync
Bandcamp is the only place to sensibly buy music you can own these days which is pretty depressing.
The most infuriating thing is that bandcamp gaslights you on it. I eventually confirmed that yes, I had bought that song, after tracking down the receipt in my email provider or something (it was hidden from purchase history, bandcamp "I can't find my music" link didn't mention this, etc etc).
This isn't just an issue for playing music though - if you buy a bunch of stuff but don't download it right away you could loose it too. I bought the track I mentioned right after it was released, and the substitution happened within a day or two of that.
Like, I get it, if there was some legal issue (pirated work - and then they should issue refunds). But the fact that bandcamp tries to hide it just means that they know they have no moral grounds here.
However, Bandcamp does abide by the laws that require them to stop distributing music at the rights holders' request.
No music service, or any service, for that matter, will guarantee access to files without regard to laws. Some will try harder, some have tried harder and been beaten down.
And you can even send a mail to the artist to ask them why they removed old albums and if they can provide you a copy.
Another source are good ol' CDs. If you know where to look you can get them cheap too. Specialist charity shops that specialise in records and CDs in student or wealthy areas are good, as are second hand stores online.
An alternative to self hosting is to use an online music locker. I wrote up a bunch here: https://www.blisshq.com/music-library-management-blog/2021/0... and (disclaimer) operate one myself: https://asti.ga
That doesn't happen on other platforms?
I had two albums of a band who's front man died and they disbanded. The albums were removed but I still have them in my collection. You cant find it on the site anymore but I can still download and play them.
Or by buying vinyl at a local record store. Sadly, those are dying out, but you can find one or two good ones in any major city.
In electronic, hip-hop, and a lot of music that has a lot of computer-assisted production, a lot of producers will also release sample packs or VST presets that they sell directly on their websites. While often in small amounts, $50 or less, it more often than not goes directly to the artist with very little middlemen involved. While not a huge stream of revenue I'd imagine, it probably does help smaller artists if they can count on an additional couple hundred bucks a month from people that truly appreiciate their craft and I'd bet that if I reached out to artist XYZ whose music is no longer available on major platforms and said "hey i have been to a few of your shows, bought all your sample packs, and I can't find your tracks anymore" the artist, if small enough, would probably oblige and send along a nice little folder of music.
If you walk into a shop and all you see are old, worn out Barry Manilow and Bob Seger albums at $30+ a pop, the store isn't meant to last. Thankfully, the problem has been solving itself
they were dying out but are now coming back
Anyway as for actually getting copies of the music I listen to I think we should just pirate it completely unashamedly.
For the price of a Spotify subscription, I can usually buy a new album every month! Which is great; and I love slowly growing my album collection.
People are crazy for vinyl, but CDs are just _so_ convenient.
The CD was so clean and clear but not in a robotic way. (I don't think this album had fallen victim to the loudness war either, fwiw.) Whereas the record sounded "warm" but also a little muddy and quiet (not in a good way) in comparison. I know there could be any number of reasons for this but that's also part of the problem. Was my setup dialed in and this is how it was supposed to sound? Or, was the table not flat? Was the needle dirty? Was the tracking force off? Yes, it's fun to tweak these variables but ... it's also fun to just listen to music that sounds excellent with zero effort.
I've started buying CDs again (to my spouse's chagrin) and have no regrets. I do need to start ripping them before discrot comes for them. For anyone in the market, library sales are an excellent option to, essentially, buy CDs by the pound. They also often have rare compilations and anthologies that you won't find in thrift stores.
Sure, I'll buy that: Aluminum and oxygen are great friends that love eachothers' company, and on a long-enough timeline here in Earth's atmosphere they'll always be reunited.
But how does that timeline compare to that of a human? Or even of the compact disc itself (a bit over 42 years old now)?
I mean: At least anecdotally, I have never discovered rot on any of my CDs that did not also have other contributing condition issues. I haven't even experienced the once-reported issues of air-dried, solvent-based (instead of UV-cured) inks. (And although my sample set is not infinite, it is also not particularly small.)
cds are both younger and built better, so they will not only last to a later absolute date, they will last longer relative to their manufacturing date, but cds have a few other things that mask rot even when it starts, which is both that they are digital and the player has buffering and interpolation, and also that the data format includes redundant data for error correction. (ld is analog and has neither, later better players do add some digital processing but it can't do the kind of good job with a 6mhz analog fm ntsc video signal that a cd player can with a simple audio bitstream)
A cd with the same rot that is visible on a ld (visible in the output not visible to the eye on the physical disc) will appear to play perfectly even in the cheapest junk player.
So, it will take longer, but I see no reason to treat "longer" as "indefinite".
There is no specific time, but it is inevitable and I don't think it's in the 100's of years but in the 10's of years, and the 10's of years, especially when many are already 30 years old, is not very many more 10's of years left.
And if that turns out to be pessimistic and they last another 50 or more? That's just a bonus. Lucky future rippers who get a chance to rip with even better tech later.
Tangentially I do also assume that some day long before the polycarbonate disintigrates, there will be a practical way to read even fully oxidized discs with a different frequency laser or even a camera or microscope-based head, or even a bulk scanner that just rasterizes the whole surface without even bothering to read the track in a spiral until after the fact purely in software.
As time goes on, tools get both better and more accessible, so in 1995 it would not be possible for a person to make their own laser head, but today it probably is, and in only a few more years will just get easier and easier, and probably at a rate that outruns the rate at which the discs fully degrade.
These were stored in the case in my home, mostly coastal California, no severe environmental conditions.
Disc rot of pressed CDs seems rare, I don't think I've seen it on other discs, but if it happened to me, it's definitely a thing.
Also discrot is only a problem if you don't keep your CDs in a case, or if the case is made entirely of transparent acrylic and you lost the labels and teh little booklet. They're very reliable when properly protected from scratches and radiation.
I feel like I might be punished for stepping out of line here but CDs sound better than vinyl too.
Vinyl does theoretically have a better s/n ratio, but you can only see this in perfect setups, including a new needle in your player. Even then after just a handful of plays and vinyl is worn enough to be worse (I've heard of laser based vinyl plays which don't wear the media - I have no idea if they are real or how they compare to CDs, but I need to acknowledge them because they might be different enough to matter)
It will likely sound at least just as good as a similarly treated CD, but I doubt that it will approach the S/N ratio of a properly mastered CD.
CD has by default a perfect 0 noise floor, whereas vinyl will never have that, and typically has a pretty high noise floor, meaning that even a good vinyl press will never have the same noise floor as the same recording placed on CD.
I said all of that to say, to me vinyl is appreciable for its flaws compared to CD. Vinyl is mastered to a different spec than CDs are (when its done properly), and it can sometimes add to the experience because the mastering and pressing process focuses on different frequencies.
Aside from that, the fact that each time you listen to a vinyl record it changes in subtle ways, bits of dust get moved around, atomic scratches get worn into the surface, meaning that every listen is completely unique, ever so slightly different than any other time that album or any other similar pressing has been played.
That is one of the thoughts I enjoy when listening to vinyl that makes it likeable, a little more special to me when it crosses my mind.
Digital is almost always the same. Analog is always different.
You can also keep the FLAC files to convert them to some future format later, or even do something really wild like burn them to a CD or something.
Free, still maintained, and supports every format around.
I just went to Amazon and found what's advertised as "mp3" for a recent Taylor Swift album.
Qobuz. For a start they only do lossless: no mp3. We're soon a quarter of a century into the 21st: gone are the Napster days of needing to stream mp3s.
Then Qobuz often has albums in higher quality than 44.1 kHz / 16-bit stereo. Not that you'll hear the difference: but artists/sound engineer going to the trouble of offering higher sample rate / bit depth typically do care about producing good sounding music so there's that.
Then Qobuz allows you to do precisely what you want: you can buy individual tracks or full albums to download, no DRM.
I've got both a collection of audio files I ripped myself from my own CDs (which I keep too), in a 100% bitperfect / lossless way (verified with an online DB of people who also ripped their CDs) and a Qobuz subscription.
The one criticism about Qobuz would be that music discovery ain't the best out there: the UI is actually quite bad. But it's good stuff for people who care about quality and who love to own their music.
Most network streaming devices now support Qobuz: for example I've got a fully integrated Yamaha amp that contains a network streamer (Yamaha R-N1000A) and MusicCast (Yamaha's music streaming app, like Sonos I guess but Yamaha) supports Qobuz (and Tidal and Spotify).
You don't just rent temporary access to an online service that may disappear under your feet or remove songs you used to listen to: you can actually buy and own individual tracks.
Check the plans they have: depending on how many songs you buy, one may be better than the other.
IIUC Spotify, under the pressure of both Tidal and Qobuz, announced they'll be moving to lossless streaming. It's 2024. At fucking last.
I'll also mention: Bleep.com, Boomkat, Ninja Tune (label that directly sells), Junodownload.
But that's the whole point of buying it, mp3 is safely on my SD card, plays just fine
What was the deal with this?
While not legal, having the subscription fix any moral problems I’d have with the idea.
Now if only there was a way to download things from YouTube Music with a Premium subscription. It's practically impossible to search for "YouTube Music download" without falling into the 'youtube-dl YouTube mp3 audio tracks!' SEO hole. Vague naming on Google's part.
The best way to support artists is to purchase albums the week they're released... Sales numbers are a key metric when labels decide touring and investment in the next album... Could mean a better studio or more resources...
If you are committed to the download off of tidal strategy, then please make a playlist of the tracks you download and play it overnight... Otherwise, none of your money supports the artists you listen to.
I'm actually working on a IoT device where one of the main goals was selfhosting audio content for my kids. Uses AI for the user interface. Similar to Alexa but battery powered. Still in private beta (orders are closed right now) but here is the link for anyone curious. https://heycurio.com/
Sending voice clips of children to an always listening server is just a bit too dystopian for me.
* The prices are a lot higher there than anywhere else
* They don't remember my payment information. I would opt-in to this if it's a legal concern. It's so annoying every single time having to enter it in all over again. I'd do PayPal but they charge a fee these days.
* Their tar'd up download format sucks, and requires me doing a lot of re-naming and re-foldering things to get it to a sane format.
* They started removing some of the things I PAID FOR from my account. Not cool. It's fine if you have to remove it from sale but removing it from my account should not be legal.
* Many popular tracks from otherwise not-so-popular albums are locked so you can't buy just that song, you need to buy the whole album
* If you've bought a few songs from an album, you don't get an appropriate discount if you later decide to buy the whole album - which some digital stores are good about.
Try BookOff, yard or estate sales, or "friends of the library" events. You will burn some time searching, but the hunt can be fun on its own.
I got one that wasn't; the music CD was published by SONY JAPAN. Had to do some shenanigans to play it on a PC drive. Decided it was best to rip it just in case.
I now see record stores so full of Vynil that it feels like I timetraveled back to my teenage years when CDs started to being sold, alongside laser discs on a little store corner.
Analog hole.
It takes a bit of time, but if you really care about the music, it's worth it.
Note: I suspect that the streaming services watermark the songs. I have some from Apple Music that it refuses to sync over its cloud service. Doesn't bother me, though, because I primarily sync via wire.
Check your supposed lossless files in Fakin The Funk or manually in Spek and become horrified at how many of them are complete garbage.
I don't use streaming platforms other than being aware of new musicians in YouTube, which I eventually buy their albums.
Nope. Not even remotely. Only if your taste in music is very narrow.
Just this weekend I tried to buy some Christmas songs that were popular and common on the radio in the 80's. I could only find about half of them on Amazon or Apple Music.
Most had some version available, but not the canonical one I grew up with. Some didn't exist at all.
Found this out when I was adding Johnny Winter / Guitar Slinger to the collection and noticed it was blocked for sale. https://www.discogs.com/release/3318469-Johnny-Winter-Guitar...