Piracy forced the creation of the streaming economy because their only choice was to make it easier to stream than pirate. Now every streaming service is racing to the bottom based on the belief they have captured the audience forever. The only ethical solution, therefore, is to start pirating again.

this isn't an exaggeration, I used pirating as a way to find new music and then went out and bought CDs (or later, individual tracks on itunes) even though I was a literal child on an allowance

music gift cars were the number 1 christmas and birthday gifts I got

then spotify was just like $5 a month (more now) so naturally I took that up

now I buy vinyl and more than half of the records I've bought include a download code for the album because the artists who release vinyl these days fucking get it

I've not been much on the high seas as I get youtube music free with youtube premium for the occasions I wanna listen to a new album, but with that said: it's all bandcamp and ebaying CDs. I've spent more on CDs than I used to on spotify, but it's pretty neat! I have my entire collection digitized and I can listen to it anywhere in the flat, even if the internet is down, even if Spotify loses the license for whatever my favourite album of the month is. And as a bonus, the musicians get paid. It's a pretty neat system!