Fun update: I made an app over the holiday break!
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Fun update: I made an app over the holiday break!
It’s called Unstream: Find your favorite music on alternative platforms, directly support the artists you love, and move off streaming.
It was directly borne out of my desire to get off Apple Music myself, and instead build a library of music I own through directly supporting artists by buying their music.
You can check it out here, at a URL I still find amusing: https://unstream.stream
@kidlightbulbs @jonhicks This is awesome.
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Fun update: I made an app over the holiday break!
It’s called Unstream: Find your favorite music on alternative platforms, directly support the artists you love, and move off streaming.
It was directly borne out of my desire to get off Apple Music myself, and instead build a library of music I own through directly supporting artists by buying their music.
You can check it out here, at a URL I still find amusing: https://unstream.stream
@kidlightbulbs awesome timing! i am trying something similar:
https://tperfitt.twocanoes.com/2026/01/11/tim-versus-the-algorithm.html
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@kidlightbulbs awesome timing! i am trying something similar:
https://tperfitt.twocanoes.com/2026/01/11/tim-versus-the-algorithm.html
@tperfitt oh nice! I just started tinkering with a Jellyfin server myself!
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Fun update: I made an app over the holiday break!
It’s called Unstream: Find your favorite music on alternative platforms, directly support the artists you love, and move off streaming.
It was directly borne out of my desire to get off Apple Music myself, and instead build a library of music I own through directly supporting artists by buying their music.
You can check it out here, at a URL I still find amusing: https://unstream.stream
@kidlightbulbs This is awesome!
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Fun update: I made an app over the holiday break!
It’s called Unstream: Find your favorite music on alternative platforms, directly support the artists you love, and move off streaming.
It was directly borne out of my desire to get off Apple Music myself, and instead build a library of music I own through directly supporting artists by buying their music.
You can check it out here, at a URL I still find amusing: https://unstream.stream
@kidlightbulbs I'd suggest to add Nina protocol - for me it is the most profitable way of distributing music https://www.ninaprotocol.com/
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@kidlightbulbs Awesome. The biggest blocker for me was Bandcamp not having more maintstream / popular artists especially ones me kids listen to. Not that TSwift needs more money, but I'd like Lorna Shore and In Flames to get paid better from my listening.
@blainsmith @kidlightbulbs
The sad thing about that is there's nothing stopping mainstream artists from being on Bandcamp. Or from releasing more than a few singles on Bandcamp.2 examples: Imogen Heap (not on Fedi) and CMAT (also not on Fedi). Both artists have some, but not all, of their music on Bandcamp. Both have a fanbase in Ireland and UK, where Bandcamp download sales count towards the official music charts.
It looks like CMAT just gave up in early 2022:
https://cmatbaby.bandcamp.com/ -
@kidlightbulbs I'd suggest to add Nina protocol - for me it is the most profitable way of distributing music https://www.ninaprotocol.com/
@ehhh Thank you! Good suggestion, I forgot about Nina. Let me look into this soon
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@blainsmith @kidlightbulbs
The sad thing about that is there's nothing stopping mainstream artists from being on Bandcamp. Or from releasing more than a few singles on Bandcamp.2 examples: Imogen Heap (not on Fedi) and CMAT (also not on Fedi). Both artists have some, but not all, of their music on Bandcamp. Both have a fanbase in Ireland and UK, where Bandcamp download sales count towards the official music charts.
It looks like CMAT just gave up in early 2022:
https://cmatbaby.bandcamp.com/@dec23k @blainsmith yeah. I have this issue currently with Viagra Boys, a band I love & would love to support directly, but their stuff isn't on any platform *except* for Qobuz or the iTunes store. If I want to build a library & support the artists more directly, it's the best I can do for now.
I hope Unstream and other efforts like this get people more aware of the options they have and the implications of supporting music rather than tech giants.
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Platforms supported on Unstream:
Bandcamp
Qobuz
Faircamp (via the Faircamp webring)
Bandwagon.fm
Mirlo
Official websites (via musicbrainz)
Patreon
Hoopla (requires library card)
Freegal (requires library card)
Discogs
Social linksAmpwall, Ko-fi & Buy me a Coffee also available in the app as manual searches
@kidlightbulbs Hey, I've just learned of a new music service. Is there a chance it could get integrated in the future? https://subvert.fm/
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@kidlightbulbs Hey, I've just learned of a new music service. Is there a chance it could get integrated in the future? https://subvert.fm/
@Kulei hi! yes, subvert is on my list to support once they come out of beta! I'm in their forums chatting a bit about it.
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Fun update: I made an app over the holiday break!
It’s called Unstream: Find your favorite music on alternative platforms, directly support the artists you love, and move off streaming.
It was directly borne out of my desire to get off Apple Music myself, and instead build a library of music I own through directly supporting artists by buying their music.
You can check it out here, at a URL I still find amusing: https://unstream.stream
@kidlightbulbs great initiative, thanks!
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Fun update: I made an app over the holiday break!
It’s called Unstream: Find your favorite music on alternative platforms, directly support the artists you love, and move off streaming.
It was directly borne out of my desire to get off Apple Music myself, and instead build a library of music I own through directly supporting artists by buying their music.
You can check it out here, at a URL I still find amusing: https://unstream.stream
@kidlightbulbs@musicworld.social Sounds like a good idea, I like the aim.
Is Unstream freedom-respecting software? I couldn't find any link to the source code nor licensing information...
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@kidlightbulbs@musicworld.social Sounds like a good idea, I like the aim.
Is Unstream freedom-respecting software? I couldn't find any link to the source code nor licensing information...
@contrapunctus this is a great question! The source code is here https://github.com/brandonlucasgreen/unstream
I aim to respect the freedom of Unstream users. I collect zero user data and only capture basic anonymized analytics for the website. I haven’t thought at all about licensing info, but I’m open to making the code open source, just haven’t gotten there yet
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Fun update: I made an app over the holiday break!
It’s called Unstream: Find your favorite music on alternative platforms, directly support the artists you love, and move off streaming.
It was directly borne out of my desire to get off Apple Music myself, and instead build a library of music I own through directly supporting artists by buying their music.
You can check it out here, at a URL I still find amusing: https://unstream.stream
@kidlightbulbs Pretty cool project!
Any plans on your side to also support youtube Music in the Mac App?
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@kidlightbulbs Pretty cool project!
Any plans on your side to also support youtube Music in the Mac App?@hannsr thanks! I’m investigating other music players to support soon, but in the meantime I’m about to announce a chrome extension (& soon after a Firefox extension), if either of those would work in the meantime!
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Fun update: I made an app over the holiday break!
It’s called Unstream: Find your favorite music on alternative platforms, directly support the artists you love, and move off streaming.
It was directly borne out of my desire to get off Apple Music myself, and instead build a library of music I own through directly supporting artists by buying their music.
You can check it out here, at a URL I still find amusing: https://unstream.stream
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@hannsr thanks! I’m investigating other music players to support soon, but in the meantime I’m about to announce a chrome extension (& soon after a Firefox extension), if either of those would work in the meantime!
@kidlightbulbs thanks
Yeah I saw the hint about an extension. I'm personally on 99% Bandcamp already, but a colleague asked about youtube after I shared it at work. -
@kidlightbulbs thanks
Yeah I saw the hint about an extension. I'm personally on 99% Bandcamp already, but a colleague asked about youtube after I shared it at work.@hannsr oh amazing! I appreciate the word of mouth promotion
Chrome extension is technically live if they would like to try it, I’m just making some tweaks. I’ll also look into supporting browser-based players like YT Music in the Mac app. -
@HypostasisGR yes!!
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Fun update: I made an app over the holiday break!
It’s called Unstream: Find your favorite music on alternative platforms, directly support the artists you love, and move off streaming.
It was directly borne out of my desire to get off Apple Music myself, and instead build a library of music I own through directly supporting artists by buying their music.
You can check it out here, at a URL I still find amusing: https://unstream.stream
Cool — I had no idea Frost* was on Bandcamp!
One suggestion, if I may: for names longer than a few characters on mobile, could you make more space for names in search results, rather than shortening them quite so much? That would make the list easier to navigate.
Thanks again for setting this up.
![Dec [{(:no_ai:)}]](https://cdn.masto.host/mastodonie/accounts/avatars/109/294/420/470/083/565/original/e4aa324b482bd55c.png "Dec [{(:no_ai:)}]"){kind=avatar}
