Picture taken by me
Going selfhosted
My last post was a long time ago, and this post is long overdue. But better late than never. For around 3 months now I use Navidrome on an old laptop here. And while this works perfectly for me and setting up was quite doable, it also made me realise that for many people this would probably not be the case. So I still hope that there will be better music/streaming services created.
The technical hurdles
While getting started with Navidrome wasn´t that hard for me, getting it so I can connect from outside my network took some figuring out still. But this was around the amount I expected. Only I think for many that just want to listen to music this would be too much of a hurdle to take. There are services where you can rent a managed Navidrome system. So for those this could be a solution, and while I think that artists will still get more money if you buy their music and put it on that service, it is a bit against why I wanted to leave Deezer and I rather spend those 3 dollars extra on music.
That said, it runs now smoothly for 3 months and I have no complaints.
Another point is the apps. I decided to buy an app for my phone. If this was needed I don´t know. But I'm quite happy with the app Later I also found Airsonic refix which is a browser app that I quite like.
The other hurdles
I think I'm lucky that I still got remember a bit the last days of the CD era. And still had quite a bit music stored away on a harddrive. However, I never really took the time to organise it. So organising it. Converting it so that everything is around the same volume. Finding missing artwork. It all took quite a bit time get this right. And I think that for many won´t see that it will give enough benefit to go through this process.
Also, I had a starting point. I think many now don´t have any library to start with. And losing access to all that music, while you don´t have anything really to replace it with, must be quite hard.
Luckely second hand there is a lot to find. And also I can here rent a CD in the library for around 1/3 of the price a CD would cost to buy. Also when you have some friends that are taking the same route, you can share some of your cd's and music and I think you can get quite some music for far less money then you would think.
But this can be a bit tainted view, because I listen to a lot of older music, which makes it easier to find cheap. However it would benefit a person to strive to get at least a bit of a collection themselves. Because I think streaming services will only get worse.
Trying out a crypto music service
While I was certain that I would also selfhost, I was curious if there was a crypto app that would be at least a bit acceptable as music service. There was one, Audius, with some bigger artists and names behind that I decided to try. For me it was a big dissappointent. I already had doubts, because to be really successful you need to have quite a lot of known artist on your platform in my opinion or you need to be able to upload your owned songs. (of course there can be niches like bandcamp, that target indie more). But this was a project created by some known names in the music industrie.
I had an older phone the time that I tested it, so I don´t know if my phone was to slow for the app, or that the blockchain part made everything soo slow. But my phone was fully capable of playing Deezer and youtube, so that everything loaded slow and couldn´t play music without stuttering was unexcusable.
And beside the few artists artists that backed the project, there was not much mainstream music on there. Only many covers. So not a good fit.
And that this project with some known names was in my eyes so bad, made me a bit disappointed.
To be fair, I don´t really need a crypto based solution for streaming music, but I hope that there will be a service that I wouldn´t mind using. Because like I mentioned earlier, I think what exists now, will get worse.
Why do I think streaming services aren´t enough anymore
I like music, but I don´t listen it through the day, so for me, I got the feeling that I should use it more, or that I was overpaying. And this wouldn´t be so bad, if my money would go to the bands I listen, but now my money goes to other artists, that in many cases I don´t like and I don´t want to sponser.
Also from the songs I like during my time of streaming services, around 4 % isn´t playable anymore. So I can't trust that I can play the songs I like in the future.
Also as long as you use them, you don´t build up any library, so, when they get worse or continue to increase there prices, where can you go? You have to start over, so, starting over as soon as possible makes the most sense.
What do I want from a service?
That said, I hope that there will be a service I like, because I would like that there is a good option without the need to selfhost.
And in my usecase, with my selfhost, I still would like to have a service that is pay to play. So I can pay let's say a cent or two for each play. That way I still can listen to each song (without ads) that I want, but also have to benefit to invest in my own library.
And I think it is a shame that almost all pay as you go subscriptions are gone, for almost everything. All you can use subscriptions are "cheap", but only if you use them a lot. So you get pushed into using a service more, otherwise it would be a waste of your money. And it is now good for you choice, look for instance to all the video streaming services.
This would make it so that people will be building up their library as they go, or buy cheaper if they already played one artist/song a lot.
Also you need to be able to upload your own songs, and they need to be fitted into the algorithms. I wouldn´t mind if you had to pay a bit for the storage/data usage for songs you own on the platform. To cover the hosting costs.
And I would love it if a service had an API so you get a own algorithm provider to discover new songs.
If such a service would exist, maybe I will retire my Navidrome, but for now, I'm very glad that I invested the time to set it up. And for the people that are curious after reading this, I can advise you to try it out
