Where to listen to music
*In a way that supports artists.
I guess three parts of it - discovery, support, and sharing.
1 Why
Over the last 7 years, Spotify has earned me 4.3% of what Bandcamp has. Over the last 3 months it's 1.6%. Getting playlisted by the Spotify lords and heard by 50,000 people is worth as much as ~20 people deciding to pay a fiver for a release on Bandcamp.
I cancelled my Deezer subscription a long while back. With the intention of going back to indie music discovery and support.
2 Discovery
Can't beat curation in my opinion. So either DJs, or friends recommendations.
2.1 Streaming radio
2.1.1 BBC 6 Music
2.1.2 soma.fm
listener-supported, commercial-free, underground/alternative radio broadcasting to the world
I subscribe to soma.fm and mainly listen to the cliq hop, DEF CON, and Drone Zone channels.
Question: does this support the artists? Does soma pay it forwards - maybe there's some licensing fee?
3 Support
Buy tracks from somewhere where artists get a good proportion of it. e.g. Bandcamp.
4 Sharing
Post links to music that you like, where the link goes to somewhere like Bandcamp (not a random upload of the track on youtube).