It’s a lot more work, but if you love music I highly recommend hosting your own with your own collection. Navidrome is a fantastic open source server with lots of great compatible clients.
When I talk to some friends who are music lovers, I often ask them about control. Control over what is available and control over what versions are available.
I initially loved streaming. Having a bigger collection than I’ve ever had available anywhere! But two things really started to frustrate me.
- every once in a while an album would disappear.
- you have no control over which version is available. Is it the original version you grew up with, a remastered, or a re-recording?
One of my favorite artists is Blind Guardian and at some point they released remasters of all of their early albums. I strongly detest the remasters, but that is often your only choice on streaming services.
I love having my own collection, organized how I want, with versions that I want that won’t randomly change or disappear.
I’m not going to lie, it takes work and is not necessarily cheaper (especially when acquiring albums legitimately) but the payoff and satisfaction is worth it.
Like many remasters, they just sound wrong if you are really familiar with the originals.
I’m not against remasters. I just think it is important to have a choice and it surprises me how many people who “love music” yet use a streaming service don’t seemed bothered by this.