I abandoned my music library after I went to Apple Music. But 5 years later I'm going back. The licensing issues and split albums OP mentioned have basically annoyed the hell out of me. Quite a lot of old music from my childhood is basically gone for good from Apple Music/Spotify. I have a smart playlist which basically lists all tracks which are no longer available on Apple Music and it has a 7 day playtime. Quite a good chunk of my library is basically greyed out and when these albums return they are basically messed up, if not outright replaced with other versions.
The reliability and simplicity of my own music library can't come back soon enough. I'll still keep AM and Spotify for discovering new music though.
> I abandoned my music library after I went to Apple Music. But 5 years later I'm going back.
How do you deal with the cost? I pay $18/month for Apple Music (Family) and I can listen to thousands of tracks in a single day if I wanted to. That same experience would cost me thousands of dollars up front to kick start it.
This also isn't to mention the fact that not all music is available to buy legally online. Dimmu Borgir, for example, use Nuclear Blast and I struggle to find retailers online that can sell me MP3s outside of iTunes. I don't want to have to deal with (read: rip) CDs and vinyl is a joke at 3x the price (not to mention simply being a dead format.)
So how are you going to curate a library, legally, so that the artist is supported, assuming you have at least 20-30 artists you like.
You use an example of your ability to stream a thousand tracks in a single day if you wanted to, I don't have the same aspirations, so I'd also not pay thousands of dollars up from to kick start it.
To answer your question of how do I curate a library, legally, is just over time. I have a lot of musicians I like, and when I find them, I purchase their music, and I listen to it.
I do it less than a thousand times a day however. But I've been at it for thousands of days.
> To answer your question of how do I curate a library, legally, is just over time. I have a lot of musicians I like, and when I find them, I purchase their music, and I listen to it.
I guess I can just start buying their albums today, slowly, but I often found it difficult to even find a vendor of their stuff online.
Have your tried Bandcamp, Qobuz, Boomkat, Bleep and others?
Personally I buy and find all my music in lossless digital formats. Any release I want to have. Interestingly you may have a harder time finding very popular mainstream music in a lossless format.
You should be able to upload your library to Apple Music (visible to just you). It used to be called iTunes Match, but my understanding is it’s integrated to Apple Music now.
I did but those files are not immune to Apple Music's licensing issues or bugs. If the track was matched and not uploaded, then those albums can still be greyed out when they are pulled from the catalog. And iTunes match still is not accurate. A lot of times tracks in one album are matched to individual singles on apple music.
Uploading your local collection directly into your iCloud Music Library should prevent Apple from messing with the data. I uploaded some albums months ago and they've been untouched by Apple so far.
The reliability and simplicity of my own music library can't come back soon enough. I'll still keep AM and Spotify for discovering new music though.