A guide to switching your Music Streaming provider to support more ethical and European-based companies!

Spotify are not a “big tech incumbent”?
- What? They absolutely are lmfao, they absolutely dominate the industry in casual music listeners.
  Oh I see what you meant... 🤦‍♂️
- Definitely not FAANG or MANGA or whatever we're calling it now.

Qobuz also sells DRM free files in both high resolution and lossy file formats. https://help.qobuz.com/en/articles/10167-what-are-the-different-audio-formats-available-for-download

Bandcamp is US owned, but still worth mentioning I think because of their commitment to high revenue sharing, about 80-82% goes directly to the artists. They have custom playlists, and offer high quality formats as well.
If the goal is a quality product and an ethical approach to supporting artists I'm not dead set on only using European alternatives
- They also have Bandcamp Fridays, where 100% of the revenues go to the artist. Personally I always wait till those days to buy music on there
  
  May be worth mentioning that it's not every Friday that this happens. I was under the impression that it was, and would have accidentally made a purchase on a random Friday if I had not looked further into it because I wanted to check which time zone was used for the cutoff.
  The remaining 2025 dates:
  May 2nd
  August 1st
  September 5th
  October 3rd
  December 5th
  https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/bandcamp-fridays

For Quboz, there's also an option to buy albums or single tracks. You can just download the DRM-free high-res audio files.
- who gives a fuck if they dont sell in EU
  
  who gives a fuck if they dont sell in EU
  They sell in some countries of the EU, but yeah, they don't serve the entire EU.

Qobuz is unavailable in Poland. So much for being European.
- Additionally, Spotify highest quality, while not perfect for nitpickers, is actually totally fine and good enough for 99% of audio equipment used by consumers. If you play your FLACs through wireless headphones… oh boy you have some learning to do.

I'm using Rokk for somedays now. It's a new Provider from Germany, specialy for Metal and Rock Music.
https://rokk.app/for-fans/
You can try it a month for free.

Did qobuz by now implement a way to check their catalogue without agreeing to an abo?
I won't switch to a company that obfuscates their offer behind a paywall.
- Their catalogue isn't visible even if you are in a supported country? Ouch. I hate how Qobuz keeps coming up in these threads, but they still don't serve even Eastern Europe, let alone Global South countries - I don't want to listen just to classical and jazz.
  
  Correct - I wanted to compare my Spotify playlists with the alternatives but qobuz wants a credit card before allowing you to check their offer... Won't do that.

I can also recommend soundiiz for transferring between them (its in that useful resources note in bottom right corner). I paid $5 for 1 month but was a few years ago
- Qobuz includes a soundiiz subscription to allow you to transfer your playlists and favourites from other services.

I really wanted to like Qobuz but the recommendations are terrible. Like I'd be listening to deep house and it would suggest Johnny Cash.
- True. I think Qobuz is only good for people who already know what they want to listen to or are willing to wade through public playlists. Don't expect to to get recommendations like Spotify or Tidal does...
  
  I mean Spotifies recommendations haven't worked out the concept of an instrumental playlist yet....
  
  I don't completely agree. Qobuz has curated album pics picked by their critics. I have discovered some pretty good artists that way and it brings me out of my music bubble to try new things. The latest album of Etienne de crecy or the one from Gabi Hartmann were both recommended and they are amazing.
  
  @UndergroundGoblin @unsettlinglymoist Isn't it one of the reasons for switching away from US BigTech to escape from AI generated influence?
- @unsettlinglymoist @Sunshine
  "Stop listening to that crap, here's some real music!" 🤣
  Then again, I'm old, and I don't understand why you'd want a computer program to tell you what music you might like 🤷🏻‍♂️
  
  I was never a fan of a computer telling me what i might like. But i'm listening to music for 6 to 10 hours every single day for decades now. I can't contain my music knowledge anymore, and to not get bored i need some: if youblike this you might like that. But also they are very wrong 99% of the time. But i still crave that 1% that is a banger and might have never found.
  
  Haha yeah, maybe Qobuz was hinting that my taste in music is trash! I do appreciate the occasional Johnny Cash though, just not mixed in with my deep house!
  As for the recommendations algorithms... You no longer have to read artist bios/interviews or suffer through radio programs, instead you effortlessly get a list of recommended tracks based on whatever song or playlist you specify. It works so well that I don't really follow any artists these days and currently all my top 30 tracks are by artists I didn't know existed two months ago. It also allows you to deep dive into new and obscure subgenres with basically no effort.

I don't get it, why doesn't Torrents, the largest of the group, not simply eat all the other music services?
- they did, that's why spotify won
  
  I did not know it had finished eating

I would also add Mirlo (https://mirlo.space/pages/about) Even if US based they are a coop (the company is managed by its members), and "allows for direct and ongoing support of artists. It’s different from other crowdfunding platforms because it:
is rooted in mutual aid and is stewared by a worker co-op, which intends to exit-to-community as a multi-stakeholder cooperative;
It’s open source and is working together with other similar products to build towards a standard-based and sustainable ecosystem."

Deezer has hi-res audio

I switched to Qobuz today. I used to use Tidal because I wanted to be able to get the best possible quality from a streaming service, and I wasn't happy with the way Spotify pays the artists. But after Trump got elected and turned the world upside down, I kicked every US services out of my portfolio.
Qobuz feels quiet clunky, and the desktop application lacks some basic functionalitys, but overall I think it's a good alternative.

Isn't Soundcloud German?
- And Deezer is French. Both are listed outside the non-US owned circle but marked as options to boycott the US. The chart is wrong.
- Yeah idk how someone can make that mistake. Its listed on their about page and Wikipedia.
- I don't know if this works for others, but when I log out of Soundcloud I never get ads. HTH!

Honestly another circle with “pays artists less shit than others” or “pays small artists at least partially” would be good. Fuck Spotify.

For some reason listed all the way in the corner, I used to love Bandcamp but they are US based sadly. Always thought of them as the good guys but they are owned by Epic now so who cares. The French Qobuz should be a good alternative for buying DRM free albums, haven't tried them yet though.
People give Spotify shit for paying artists awfully, does anyone know if this is better for Qobuz? I feel like revenue is always going to turn out bad when you're not buying any albums. €15 per month for 2x access is just not that much over a few hundred listens.
Also like someone pointed out Soundcloud is German. Worth mentioning again. This doesn't seem like a very carefully curated list, so I expect there to be a lot more options.
- Epic divested itself of Bandcamp last year. I’ll continue supporting artists that way
- People give Spotify shit for paying artists awfully, does anyone know if this is better for Qobuz?
  https://community.qobuz.com/press-en/qobuz-unveils-its-average-payout-per-stream
  
  TL;DR: 0.01873$ per stream.

I'm sorry but I've downloaded Symphony and have abandoned music streaming altogether.

Deezwr gives bonuses to bigger artists it's really unfair

Lol at Spotify being one to consider over Apple Music when it has way more market share

not listed but for those who also like classical, idagio is based in germany

Listing yt music first?
I don't know anyone irl that uses it, Spotify and Apple Music are definitely larger
- I don't know of anyone using apple music