Sorry, I can't hear it over the sound of all these downloaded MP3s I still keep around
this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2025
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Nah bro, device storage is cheap nowadays. CD readers/burners to USB are also cheap. Just buy music and put it on your device of choice.
You can also just buy digital downloads from sites like Bandcamp and Quobuz, and even iTunes if you click past the Apple Music streaming part.
Why would you not stream that to yourself? No need to buy additional hardware to get in the way.
Because there is no need to send music over the internet when you can just save it locally and have it everywhere and always with you.
To be clear: I am talking about running my own sever/stream.
I almost always have it with me because the internet is nearly everywhere. On a plane, in my car, at work, at the place I am typing this to you which is thousands of miles away from my server. When I am at home it still is playing from my NAS on my local network.
How am I supposed to cart around 5 TB of music with me? I don't want to have to copy a tiny bit to my laptop, tablet, phone, and steamdeck. If I absolutely know I am going to be out of internet range I can have it copied temporarily to a device with downloads, or syncthing. Even doing that at least I can be nearly anywhere in the world to do the download.
Its not like this is hard, or expensive.
I mean most phones have +64gb of memory, no? With that space I can have hundreds of songs that I can listen at any time without having internet connection or not. Why would I stream it to my self (which requires internet connection) if I can just have it in my phone or computer?
You do have it on your computer: your server.
So when I listen to music locally, I just open clementine and it knows all the music on my server, and plays from the network share.
When I go out, I stream to my phone from the same server. How often is your phone NOT on the internet? I mean its a phone right?
Here I am about 5,000 miles away from my server, and I still stream to myself, to the laptop I am working on. Should I load up my phone, laptop, tablet, and steamdeck prior to leaving the house, or just know I can stream anything from my 6TB collection (seems big, but I only do FLACS) at any time?
If you DO feel you need to have some offline, it still makes sense to have a server. Just use syncthing or any decent music program to bring over what you want before you leave the internet.
Well it sounds cool. Definetly trying it out once I have my own server (with everything that is involved).
Hey some good people are here on Lemmy under selfhosted. I am sure there are more.
A server can be nearly anything, a $50 used computer can work, the cost of hard drives can run a bit more. Its a neat little hobby and doesnt have to be expensive. OpenMediaVault (as the OS) is free and get you started as a NAS out of the box.
In any case, lots of people are happy to help and there are tutorial videos as well.
My server says streaming is working great. My radio station list says streaming is working great. SomaFM is working great, and the archive fills the rest.
Eh, I switched back to running my own server like five years ago. Sure, technically I'm not giving individual artists their $0.0005 a stream, but nowadays I discover more music, attend more shows, and buy more merch.
During the couple of years I spent streaming, I discovered like Alvvays and Yumi Zouma. Nowadays, I discover new bands monthly if not weekly.
Like AI, streaming recommendation engines are mediocrity machines. All they can do is find you things that sound like the things you already listen to. Sometimes, if you're adventurous, you find things you love that sound unlike anything else you listen to. If you find a great thing like that, it can change you. Unlike recommendation engine music, which will try to keep you the same forever.
What's your discovery means now? How do you get exposed to things not currently in your wheelhouse? And once you find that thing, how do you integrate that into your library for listening on an often enough basis?
I find that I binge explore, grab 12 new artists like an old mix CD and see what sticks, but then feel like a hoarder when it sits unplayed in my library for a year.
I use https://www.albumoftheyear.org/ and I subscribe to pitchfork and the rolling stone in my RSS feed.
I also Shazam when I'm out and hear something I like.
Wait, Shazam started working again?
Wait, Shazam didn't work?
Did it not at some point?
Not who you asked, but I can tell you where I'm at with that. My primary listening is on an mp3 player, and I also use a home server for listening on speakers/tv. Switching to a separate device used only for music has made my listening far more deliberate. When I pick up the player, I'm making a point to listen to music, not just have it on in the background like I used to. It's also a pain in the ass (comparitively) to make playlists on it (I purposely chose a scroll-wheel style and no touch screen) so I'm listening to a lot of full albums now, which I never really did before, exposing me to a lot more than I used to since I don't just throw the song or two I like on a playlist and leave the rest.
There's been an interesting side effect that I didn't expect: Being more deliberate with my listening has sharpened my ear to music, I hear music in movies and shows in a way I never used to, I'm beginning to recognize voices and band styles by ear, I actually focus on music now instead of it just being part of the background. As such, I find a lot of new music these days by looking up songs from movies and tv. For example, the most recent:
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I completely devoured the Sinners soundtrack. (Ludwig Göransson is a fave and I've always been a fan of Buddy Guy)
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Watching Dope Thief, I realized I never skipped the intro. Got me hooked on Little Simz
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James Gunn has some great taste. Beyond season 1 of Peacemaker, Season 2 has already got me absolutely loving Foxy Shazam, and after the latest ep I've been getting into Hardcore Superstar.
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Strangely enough, Rick and Morty has some bangers in the later seasons, and got me listening to stuff I never would have like Kishi Bashi.
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Additionally, there's the news. I've been listening to Bob Vylan and Kneecap, and only heard of them because they stood up to support Palestinians.
Not only has my listening become more deliberate, but my sourcing of new music has as well. No longer relying on an algorithm to do the work for me has allowed me to hone a new skill and learn how to find new music myself.
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I stopped using Spotify over a decade ago. Now I just use Pandora which is actually still pretty good. And occasionally I'll use YouTube music if I want to check out a new band or something. But Spotify is pretty usless.
Pandora is unavailable in Europe, does anyone knows solid alternatives ?
The Pirate Bay is my favorite alternative. You should try it out. The library is enormous, and the monthly subscription charge is negligible. It even works on all major platforms!
I know it's unpopular, but I have YT premium and use YT music since it's included. It's expensive for a streaming service, but it's also the only streaming subscription I have.
I won't get yt premium out of sheet principle but with the whole side loading crap going with android I might have to.
ProtonVPN.
VPN for streaming on the go ? Too much hassle 😓
Really? You just turn it in and let it run... It'll drain your battery a bit faster but theres almost no effort on your part.
A long time ago, you could go to a special store and trade government paper for music disks and tape that you got to keep forever.
Well hey old man, go to bandcamp and pay a quarter or an eighth of the price of that frisbee to get lossless audio files that you can download and backup to your heart's content.
Spotify was always for chumps.
This one time at band camp...
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