I have been very happy with Deezer

https://www.deezer.com

Beets (for library management) + Navidrome (for serving) is a great combo if you want to go self-hosted.

Options for acquiring media:

- Buy vinyl/CDs

- Ripping from streaming services (Deezer was well-known for that a few years ago)

- yt-dlp for niche picks you can’t find in better quality elsewhere

- Rip CDs from local library

- Bandcamp, Soundcloud

- Various what.cd successors, if that’s your thing

“Their apps are horrendous.”

I’ll give a counterpoint: with a subscription, Apple Music for iPad is quite literally the best personal music exploration/listening app on the market. A quiet room and good pair of headphones is all the rest you need.

Well, I don’t use iPad and usually either desktop or iPhone on the go.

You can use exportify to get playlists and likes off of there. After that maybe make a script to search for entries on whatever service you're using.

- https://github.com/jam3scampbell/music

- youtube music

Soulseek is the best option out there. Bandcamp is also good

mpeg layer 3