Cross-platform Spotify alternatives?

mulcahey@lemmy.world to Open Source@lemmy.ml – 7 points –

I'm looking for a FOSS alternative to Spotify, preferably one that works across Android, MacOS, and Windows.

Does anything like that exist?

  • On Android, I'm using ViMusic. Works great!
  • On MacOS, I've tried nuclear and Spotube. Neither seems to work great.
  • Haven't tried anything on Windows yet.

Suggestions appreciated. Thanks lemmy!

9

The problem is that music isn't generally FOSS - people would like to be paid for their work. So the next best thing is to set up your own music service where you can add your own music.

Here's a good discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/rdxbxp/is_there_any_spotifylike_selfhosted_music/

FOSS doesn't mean that you can't be paid for it...

That's true. However, FOSS usually means that it's free (F) and open-source (OS). Music isn't usually open source - they don't usually share the sheet music or allow free editing/covering/forking of the music. So the worlds don't completely mesh. You can look at a FOSS solution for managing music, but you won't find a ton of FOSS music.

There's an app called BlackHole, but the music library it provides is very small and oriented in music from India.

I don't have much experience with FOSS alternatives for Spotify because I rarely use the service, but maybe you could find what you're looking for in this list from alternativeto.net ?!

Not sure about android but Psst is a rust based Spotify client that compiles nicely for Linux, Mac and Windows.

That's an interesting project! But it looks like it requires a Spotify Premium account. So is it just Spotify in a different skin?