Going to the dark side (Music streaming) ... suggestions?

[malukopower]

I think I know what you mean and that method is even worse than youtube and spotify in terms of paying artists.

Disclaimer: I haven't used most of these so I can't speak to the user experience for their apps or websites.

TIDAL pays better than most and has higher fidelity streams.

An incomplete list of streaming services and payouts from this article published in Jan 2024:

• Spotify: $0.003-$0.005 per stream. Artists can expect around $400 for every 100,000 streams.
• Apple Music: $0.006-$0.008 per stream. Artists can expect $600 to $800 for every 100,000 streams.
• Tidal: $0.0125-$0.015. Artists can expect $1,250 to $1,500 for every 100,000 streams on this platform.
• YouTube Music: $0.001-$0.003 per stream. Artists can expect $100 to $300 for every 100,000 streams.
• Amazon Music: $0.004-$0.007 per stream. Artists can expect $400 to $700 for every 100,000 streams.
• Deezer: $0.005-$0.007 per stream. Artists can expect $500 to $700 for every 100,000 streams.

I've seen different figures but most of the articles I can find about this agree that Tidal pays the best out of all these, but it's still not much. I've also seen claims that Napster, ironically, pays even better than TIDAL but I haven't used that since the days of Metallica getting mad at them. I have no idea what their service looks like today. If making sure artists get fairly compensated is important, your best bet is Bandcamp, but that's a lot less convenient than the more conventional streaming services.

oh, yes, i meant that as a way to avoid the spotify/youtube business model and financing them, but still be able to listen and discover almost any music available on the internet.

to support the artist directly I opt to buy records on Bandcamp Friday or straight from the band, as well with their merch.
if I was rich I'd buy a lot more records, but that's not the case unfortunately. especially while living in Latin America, which makes media much more costly and seeing foreign bands live more difficult, since only greater bands tour around here and with expensive ticket prices.