Music streaming and foss/linux

English Open Chat
1

Hi,

Looking at a number of streaming services it really seems appealing - pretty much all the music I need for a fair price, and it’s legal. Are there any foss/ethical objections to music streaming services and why do you/don’t you use them?

Thanks.

2

I use the one starting with S. Ethically I tell “for free downloaders” that S. and others may not pay their artists enough, but at least they pay them. From what their subscribers pay. FOSS is about software, not about music.

3

Thanks Knurpht!

That’s pretty much what I’m thinking. I was going more for ‘is there anything behind the curtain’, like those services following me around the webs or something. I’m more for a ‘get what you pay’ system, music streaming without the quirks. FOSS is about software, of course, but I was worried that there’s things going on in the background without our knowledge.

Thanks for clearing it up.

4

On Tue, 14 Nov 2017 11:26:01 +0000, holden87 wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Looking at a number of streaming services it really seems appealing -
> pretty much all the music I need for a fair price, and it’s legal. Are
> there any foss/ethical objections to music streaming services and why do
> you/don’t you use them?

That’s a pretty broad question, really - and up to the individual
interpretation of FOSS.

Paying artists is good. The commercial streaming services pay the
artists (some argue not enough, to which I would probably agree - but I
don’t know the details of those contracts).

I personally use Spotify (not an endorsement - I have issues with things
like the 10,000 “item” limit in the library that they refuse to fix
because of bogus logic) and they do have a semi-official (but totally
unofficial) Linux application. The browser player is decent. They also
have a library that’s closed but can be linked to open source code pretty
easily.

There are a couple text-based clients that use that library, in fact, and
they’re generally pretty good.

Jim

Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

5

If you’re interested in the FOSS angle, and you enjoy hearing new artists and songs you’ve never heard before, libre.fm is worth a try. Lots of good music by indie musicians. The site is FSF-approved, is run using all free software, and the streams are free. If you like a song and think it’s a keeper, the ethical thing to do is hit the link and buy it. I’ve had an account for several years and have always been pleased.