Whenever you buy music, try to buy from the band directly if at all possible. If not, check that their label has a merch store. Prices won’t be much different but in most cases, the band gets a larger take of the sale.

I went from Spotify to Napster, but Napster has a much more limited selection and in top of the albums were missing and even songs from the albums they do have. So I went back to Spotify, but after the latest price hike I switched to Tidal. I am liking it so far. Everything band I have looked for has been on there.

I’ve been buying stuff from Bandcamp. They sold recently so their future is uncertain, but as it stands right now it seems like a pretty good deal. Artists get a good cut, and you get streaming + drm free copies of the music to download.

I don’t really like subscriptions for music. It’s like renting. I’d rather pay $10/mo buying an album and have a big library after ten years than have nothing.

Not quite the same but check if your local library has access to Hoopla. It is usually free and can get your music, audiobooks, and ebooks. There’s other free apps too like Libby for ebooks, flipster for magazines, and kanopy for foreign films and documentaries. All were free with my free library card.

I built up my music library over time and serve it from my own computer using plexamp. It’s been really quite nice.

We’ve had a Pandora family plan for 5 years now. All four of us streaming on several devices with no problems.