I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to music. I currently have subscriptions to (though admittedly a couple of them are free trials): Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube Music, Amazon Prime Music, Plex, Deezer, and I’m sure there is probably one or two I’m forgetting.

I’m going through what amounts to a crisis. I don’t know what I want to do about music and where I get it from. I have used Deezer for the last two years, but their Android app has annoying bugs that make me not want to use it. I really don’t like Spotify as a company. I technically have had YouTube Music for years because I pay for no ads on YouTube, but I hate that service with a passion. Amazon’s app is spotty when it comes to their collection, though they do have Garth Brooks. Tidal has the same issue, but without Garth. And Apple Music works great on mobile, but the desktop experience isn’t great (yes, I know about Cider V2).

Apple Music is what I use now, but I’m not happy about it.

That leaves Plex. I have a lifetime subscription, so there isn’t going to be any more money there. And ideally, hosting my own music collection would allow me the fullest control. It is what I want to do. The problem is that my music collection is not well put together. And that’s putting it lightly. Take this screenshot for example.

My Library

On screen there are like 7 copies of Bruises by Lewis Capaldi. If I were to scroll down there would be two more. Each come from a different album or source. This makes listening to a non curated playlist impossible, because I just end up listening to the same songs over and over again. This is just one example of many. Now, if I were to fix this, I’d go find the best version, and maybe the special recordings, and jettison the rest. But that would take ages as I have 100s of gigabytes of music. It would probably take me a year or more to do it, and the at the end would I be happy? I don’t know.

Part of my uncertainty there is that despite my advanced age, I do like to listen to new music. I like to discover new artists and I like to listen to what the kids are into these days. Makes me feel young. Hosting my own music library means that I lose that bit of discovery. I’m sure there are ways to get around that, but I don’t need to add another thing to my workflow. I want my music in one place, not several.

I enjoy the idea of hosting my own, though. I have a home lab explicitly for this purpose. I want to be in total control. But that means doing the work. I’ve considered just starting over. It might be expensive, but probably not as time consuming. But that’s not ideal either. There aren’t a lot of great places online to find DRM free music, and those that do, don’t have a ton of selection. Someone will probably tell me to buy used CDs, but those aren’t as cheap as I’d want them to be, and I don’t need more clutter.

As, I said, I’m in a crisis. It’s why I’m trying out all the streaming apps. I don’t want to pay for one, but if I could find one that I really like using on mobile and on the desktop, I would at least have something until I can get my own library in order. Apple Music is about as close as it has come for me, but I’m not satisfied with it. But I’m going to hold my nose, and live with it. Hopefully, not being happy with my current setup will light the fire I need to start working on my own collection.

What do you use for music? Let me know in the comments below, on the Fediverse or email me.