It's certainly alive and exists.
But access to music is easy and affordable. It's more inconvenient for me to pirate it than just use a streaming service.
I also listen to a lot of independent artists and rather buy their stuff to support them.
I prefer there not being any lag in-between songs, which most streaming services have.
I usually use a streaming service like YouTube (through piped) to find new artists, then use soulseek to download their entire discography.
The problem with streaming is that the companies will eventually figure out new ways to squeeze every penny out of you. The once 'free' YouTube is now blocking adblocks, and Spotify requires DRM to be installed for it to function.
For me, piracy isn't just about convenience or price, it's mainly about control over the media I have.
The only music I pirate is stuff that isn’t on Spotify, namely Nintendo game soundtracks
Expect a cease and desist order
Spotify is very affordable and provides pretty much all music on earth. I'm not interested in jumping through hoops to download songs if I can just conveniently stream them all from one legit service.
Still no word on the hifi tier though
The soulseek network is still alive and well.
It's pretty amazing. Everything I had wished Limewire was.
I agree, Nicotine+ and Soulseek is the way to get music these days.
And for those saying using streaming services is easy and affordable so they don't bother, I would remind you, it is... for now.
Look at what has happened time and time again with all these companies and how they just slowly squeeze their users over time or just flat out kill the service entirely. As someone that is really into selfhosting, and prefers to be in control of my data and privacy I would urge you to move away from those services. Setup Airsonic, Funkwhale, or some other streaming music service and control it yourselves.
If you close your eyes, you can metaphorically hear the tides changing on the music streaming industry. The fall of Netflix is such a stark reminder of how fast these convenient services can morph into user hostile experiences.
Plus, there is the added philosophical discussion about what it means to allow a centralized corporate media conglomerate to curate your music for you. I'd imagine that their insentivisation structure over what should be heard is different than yours.
For serious though, I hypothesize that your library/playlist data (xml, maybe? somewhere? I'm just starting the journey of offloading.) is more valuable to users than the music itself. Next step is figuring out how to export Spotify's data.
Can’t. I’m addicted to the algorithms. Music discovery guided by AI is too much fun. If I was only using streaming services to listen to music I already know or the new albums from artists I already like them I’d be with you, but now I’m hooked on finding new stuff.
"Guided by AI" I think you mean algorithms programmed according to strict music licensing contracts from the labels that say a service needs to suggest label-preferred "complimentary" artists over actual similar music that you would like based on a collection of characteristics in a given song/band's sound signature.
You're not wrong and I'm happy that piracy communities exist in spaces where access is easily cheap and accessible if only for the days that those industries get greedier. But for now, I'm happy to pay when it's affordable and easy to access.
I half agree with what Gabe Newell said in regards to piracy being a service issue and not about price. I think it largely is a service issue. Access is the greater problem. Price is secondary as long as it's somewhat reasonable. I don't pirate video games because I can get them reasonably, but he is a smidge wrong insofar as I don't buy the outrageously expensive games. Steam's major success is having good sales that keep me away from pirating because the possibility of games I want going on discount at some point is realistic. It's telling that the only time I did dabble in video game piracy was to relive my childhood memories of Nazi Zombies from the Call of Duty video games. I dabbled in it then because Activision is selling their decades old games for outrageous prices considering their age and their "sales" are weak considering the already overinflated price. I refuse to pay for that. And so I sailed the high seas.
The music industry is still affordable and accessible, so I don't feel that pressure at all. Back when Limewire was around the pressure was there partially because I was a kid and didn't have much money and hunting down CDs I wanted for the obscure music I liked was challenging. It was mostly an accessibility issue that Spotify fixed. If their prices move beyond my means then that relationship will no longer benefit me and the sails will raise once more.
You can do both - pay for music when it comes from sources like Bandcamp, Qobuz, etc where you get to own the FLAC file. Don't pay for things like Spotify where the music you've "purchased" is not yours to keep.
Alive and well is doing some heavy lifting if you consider being a husk of your former glory "alive and well". Yes you can definitely find stuff there that can't be found anywhere else, even through conventional means. But it's certainly not the soulseek of yesterday.
Soulseek has most of what you need. 3ost has pretty rare stuff and rutracker as well
Finally someone else that uses Soulseek. It's been around for years and is the best place to download whole albums or discographies in high quality.
I buy on Bandcamp and pirate through Soulseek (specifically Nicotine+).
I also buy Vinyls.
Torrenting music has been pretty trash for me so I haven't bothered in ages.
Bandcamp is great. Fuck corporate labels who prevent artists from releasing their music privately on the platform. It's an abhorrent business practice.
bandcamp
I didn't know about bandcamp. I'm gonna buy some albums there. The music is drm-free? I think that what bandcamp and itch.io are doing should be the future of the industry.
Yes, the music there is drm free. Keep in mind it's not ALL music. It's mostly music from independent artists. But they are the ones that need the most support. So go all in!
RIP what.cd
Locating, storing, labelling, and potentially hosting pirated music is just not something people wanna do. Plus music streaming isn't a fragmented mess like video streaming is atm. I never stopped pirating tv and movies except for a brief window of time when Netflix was king, but music so easy and complete on every platform it isn't worth it.
I pay for family spotify - we all use it a lot and the Daily Mixes, Release Radar, Discover Weekly playlists are unbeatble. I've used Tidal, Deezer, Youtube music before but their playlist creation is nowwhere near as good.
However I do download from Deemix as a backup . For me 128kbp is totally fine for what I need - yes its not the highest quality, but through bluetooth speakers in the car or bluetooth headphones it sounds absolutely fine for me. It might not be CD quality, but its better than broadcast radio, which is perfectly good enough for me.
128kbp
You must love AM radio
128 is perfectly fine / it’s What you are getting most movies you download and way better than FM and most DAB.
I really like Apple Music. Actually supports lossless, unlike Spotify, and it just feels much more music focused. Spotify has become too bloated, and I view it more as a "sound" app than a music app.
For me it's pretty much dead. Since I've got YT music subscription I don't download music anymore, except some rare, obscure bands from past. Because modern, rare obscure I can support via Bandcamp and the likes. For real gold mine of music checkout soulseek. If it's not there, you can assume it doesn't exists
Soulseek is the goto piracy thing for music.
Streaming service ripping is alive and well.
Youtube scrapers like Newpipe and alternative frontend makes listening easy if you aren't quality obsessed. This has been adequate for my levels of listening.
Some private trackers have massive music collection dumps.
However, I'd say directly supporting artists through storefronts like bandcamp is the best way to go, where it's available. No DRM, no bullshit, the artist benefits. This, to me, is the best alternative to piracy.
Napster, Deezer, Tidal aren't terrible offerings either FWIW.
I still use soulseek, been using it for nearly 20 years at this point
why pirate when bandcamp has everything I want on FLAC for pennies and I get to send lewd messages to my favourite artists when I buy stuff
The album prices are pretty high sometimes and many artists are not on bandcamp
why pay pennies when you can pay 0
Because I actually, you know, like the artists I like.
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