Ask HN: Google Play Music Alternative?
What are good alternatives to Google Play Music?
While YouTube Music is more or less ok as a replacement, I don't like the dark-patterns they're using to try and lure/confuse you into a subscription for YouTube rather than just listening to your music like you used to be able to.
What good alternatives exist that:
- let me upload my own music collection
- stream from a browser & a native android app
- ideally do not have a subscription
- Optional: legitimate music purchases
I don't mind self-hosting if it comes to that?
Thanks!
18 comments
[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 53.4 ms ] threadYou can stream from your web browser, a mobile app or whatever and it supports Chromecast so you can stream to other devices if you want to.
https://plexamp.com/
There's still https://bandcamp.com/ for buying music, but there are many artists I can no longer buy mp3's from now that Google Play Music is gone :-/
this is the most frustrating part of the whole ordeal, many indie artists had their digital albums on GPM and youtube music is not a replacement because you can't buy albums on it.
on the other hand bandcamp is awesome, I wish more artists would use it.
- Synology DS Audio (comes with Synology NASes)
- Plex Media Server
- Emby Media Server
They all have decent mobile apps, can stream music directly from your own server. Plex/Emby probably have a bit better apps with Android Auto support and whatnot.
No purchases unfortunately.
Upload your own collection, they've fairly powerful web and android apps. Various upload clients
Currently free - they promise a free plan going forward.
Been around for years, I don't use it as I've been waiting for them to deliver some concrete plan for monetisation before committing to the upload, but I've been following the project.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204146
You can upload your own stuff but it is subscription based, of course. Playing should work through the Apple Music app for Android.
Everything is automatically synced between all devices. Also helps algo find additional recommendations in regular Apple music.
I also use Apple Music on Android. Caching is woeful sometimes, but it does the job for now.
For Linux, can use https://music.apple.com
Seems to be getting better (has been quite buggy up to now).
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I've been umm-ing and ahh-ing about going self hosted for a while, but I can't find anything that gives me control over my library and a massive repertoire of good tunes.
The latter is probably the biggest selling point for me sticking with apple for now.
Works perfectly through music.apple.com and an oddly good native Android app.
Un ideally it requires a subscription, though there’s a generous three month free trial. I also don’t think there’s a self hosting option.
https://jellyfin.org/ https://github.com/dkanada/gelli
It's self-hosted.
The website seems down at the moment though.