How Do I Listen to Music

WARNING: This article is not for perfectionists who reject non-free JS. Currently, there is no music streaming solution without non-free JS: Libre.fm's streaming service is currently down, and even Funkwhale will not work with LibreJS enabled; go to your local record shop for music CDs!

WARNING: If you are against music recommendation algorithms, you can now close this window: this article is not for you.

To be brief: Spotify.

What? Aren’t you a free software advocate? If so, why would you use such a proprietary, DRM-restricted dis-service?

The answer is: I do use Spotify, but without proprietary software and digital shackles.

What?? Are you joking???

I am not joking. In detail, I use Spotify for song lists, music recommendations, and I store my playlists on Spotify. However, the music itself comes from YouTube.

Sounds great!

Yes. By using YouTube for music, you avoid proprietary malware clients and digital shackles, while still enjoying Spotify’s music recommendation algorithm.

There are two approaches to achieving this.

The manual approach: by using Spotify web + YouTube Music web + Tune My Music

You will need the following:

1. A web browser that supports playing DRM-restricted content, though you need not enable such an option. LibreWolf or Firefox from Debian’s official repository is suitable. This will not allow you to stream DRM-restricted content — it simply ensures that the Spotify web client will not display an error about unsupported DRM and refuse to load the interface, as it does on browsers that entirely forbid DRM such as Tor Browser.
2. Spotify web client and a Spotify account.
3. YouTube Music web client and a Google account.
4. Tune My Music to transfer playlists — it does not require an account.

All you need to do is:

1. Sign in to Spotify and YouTube Music.
2. Browse Spotify (Daily Mixes, Discover Weekly, etc.) and add music you like to a "playlist."
3. Use Tune My Music to transfer the playlist to YouTube Music.
4. Open the YouTube Music web client and voilà!

Congratulations! That way you make use of Spotify’s recommendation algorithm, while keeping proprietary spyware and digital shackles at bay.

The automated approach: by using Spotube

For smartphones, there is already a free software app that does this — it allows you to use your Spotify playlists and recommendations, without proprietary malware and digital shackles, but streams music from YouTube, and it's Spotube.

You simply sign in with your Spotify account, and stream music as you like. The music itself comes from YouTube, and without DRM.

Appendix: music download solutions

YouTube and its music are DRM-free, so feel free to download music from it using various free software YouTube clients.

I recommend NewPipe, which is a fantastic libre software YouTube client that allows you to stream and download videos and music you enjoy. Even better, it allows you to download audio in the libre Opus format!

Another excellent source is Lucida, which is a music download service that fetches music from Tidal and various other platforms. The resulting music is free of DRM! Moreover, you can even download music in lossless free formats like FLAC and WAV!

If you wish to download music in bulk, this project on GitHub can be very helpful. Give it a try!