What kind of illogical comment is that? First, you bring in Microsoft to a discussion it is not a part of; second, just because Microsoft does it wrong, it doesn’t give Apple a license to do things the convoluted way too.

Apples and oranges. For all its faults (and there are lots), Microsoft doesn’t require you to own a Microsoft phone or tablet in order to set up an XBox’s parental controls. You can do it from a website with any device you want - including the Linux machines I use almost exclusively for computing.

Spotify does have a terrible interface though.

I’ve used Apple services. My kids have iPads. The parental controls and shared app library controls required for them was a pain in the ass to set up, because there is no web interface for it. You have to use the iOS or MacOS app store for certain steps.

I succeeded only because I managed to get a hold of an old, unused Mac from my work, which I could configure with my Apple account.

That’s the fediverse for you! I’ve had better software discussion outside of it tbh.

Anyhow, library management on Apple Music is also way less annoying than on Spotify, especially when handling tracks you import from your local library.

Tidal pays artists even more, and has some features Apple Music doesn’t have for the same price (or cheaper if you’re Military/First Responder)

But of course Apple Music is better for some people for certain features it has. And Tidal’s hi-fi plan is more expensive. I get the knee jerk dislike of Apple, but nuance almost always gets lost online.

That being said, Spotify sucks lol

I don’t understand how it would be convenient at all to have your whole collection just online, restricted to a single proprietary site/app. I do use musical streaming, but it’s for discovering new tracks. All the actual listening happens locally on my computer and player. I cannot afford to actually buy the music, but if I did, I probably would pay for the albums I listen to the most, not the whole library.

I’ll admit it sounded a little showy to me too, but a lot of the nicher things with their own benefits sound pretentious when just being said in plain wording. I like fountain pens because they’re pleasant to write with but are more expensive and less convenient. Always sounds pretentious just saying I like them and why if I don’t throw in the caveats like I did here.

There’s the chance he is trying to, of course. I try to assume the best these days for my own sake though

I don’t think his post is meant to be hostile. It’s not pointless, but it would add more of a discussion to elaborate on the topic.

On the topic of choosing to own (download (without DRM)) your music, one of the benefits is that it allows you to have all your music available in whichever music player (app/program/streaming service) you like. You can access the music while offline, without being required to pay some subscription fee. If downloading, it’s generally also very easy to switch between different players if you so desire to in the future. You can control the metadata (swap album art, edit track info, etc.) You can sometimes even use owned media in tandem with streaming services to put all your media in one place within a streaming service’s app/program. Usually, doing this requires less purchases/downloads to get all your media in one place, but still requires a sub.

On the topic of using Apple Music as a player… I’m not sure if it’s still this way, but you needed to use iTunes (on a PC!) to import local MP3 files to Apple Music, which, iTunes, love it or hate it, requires you to not only own a PC, but it has its limitations such as FLAC files being unsupported… That being said, Apple Music does provide a great convenience for many people and it’s often cheaper than legally purchasing all of your songs. You can even add your downloaded songs from a PC (but not locally from an android device for some reason??)

I prefer to own my music. For anyone who likes the idea but doesn’t know where to start, I can give some recommendations for convenience.

For music acquisition, use a legal website like Bandcamp to purchase your music, most of the money goes to Artists, compared to some other platforms. Alternatively you could pirate… (illegal! I don’t care if you pirate, but I’m not gonna write a tutorial.)

If you want to sync owned/downloaded files, use: SyncThing - free software that lets you automatically mirror file directories between your devices, syncing your libraries with no fees required. Available on Android/Win/Linux/Mac

For players, I recommend:

Android:

PowerAmp - trial & one time purchase, has theming support, massive customization options

Oto Music - lite version or one time purchase, supports downloading & embedding lyrics

PC:

MusicBee - free, has theming support, allows loading network files (local or remote)

Plenty of players available for different functional needs and/or aesthetics, but these are what I currently use.

You realized what? I don’t understand