Moving away from Spotify

I recently pulled the plug on Spotify, and I know others are looking to make the switch as well. So, here’s a simple-to-advanced guide to taking control over how you listen to music.

The motivation for the move is simple: the platform has become more about itself than supporting music and moving art forward. The convenience isn’t worth supporting Rogan, AI music, or whatever Spotify chooses to grift.

It might be important to mention that I prioritize discovering new music and listen fairly actively. I listen while I’m working, set aside time to find new music each week, and like to have access to my music library while I’m out and about (read: car singing and when I’m on runs).

Also: I listen to 0 podcasts on Spotify, so I’m a terrible person to ask about how to move those. If I find a good guide, I’ll update this post.

Changing services

Streaming alternatives

My pick: Qobuz ($13.99/mo). It’s not as fast as Spotify, but I appreciate the editorial and discovery mechanisms. And, I can download albums for offline listening without any issues. They publish their royalty rates and pay higher than others.

Youtube Premium/Music ($7.99/mo) is also a great source for DJ mixes and rare cuts that are not available anywhere else. There’s also a trove of rare music on Soundcloud if you enjoy digging.

Also consider: Deezer, TIDAL.

Buying digital music

My pick: Bandcamp (~$9 per album). Support artists directly and stream releases you’ve purchased or download them for use elsewhere. Since I’m mostly streaming through Qobuz, I use Bandcamp for downloading and archiving.

Migrating streaming services

My pick: Soundiiz. Qobuz offers a guide and migration tool. They all work roughly the same. I moved 3000+ favorites and 60+ playlists in about 10 minutes.

Advanced setup

Getting organized

My pick: Beets. An open source music organizer for large collections of media. Helps keep files downloaded from Bandcamp clean and centralized.

Buy physical media and rip it

My pick: Direct from the artist or Discogs Marketplace. CDs and vinyl have different ripping processes, but I still find myself creating digital backups of physical media, especially rarer 45s that don’t have official digital releases.

Creating your own streaming service

My pick: PlexAmp. PlexAmp is an incredible streaming app if you are in the plex ecosystem (or open to it). Requires PlexPass ($249.99 lifetime).

Also consider: Jellyfin

Archiving and backup: self-hosting

My pick: Mac Mini M4 with OWC Thunderbay. Beets organizes music on RAID drives so my archive is good to go. Runs docker with plex to serve PlexAmp.

If you’re looking for a straight-up alternative, Qobuz would be the first place to start. If you’d like to geek out more and take more control over your media, it’s not difficult to get some systems setup. Either way, there are better alternatives to Spotify, the switching cost is low, and there’s no better time.