*It's no longer running*
Friendly alert that it's currently Bandcamp Friday - one full day that the site gives 100% of purchases to the artists. It's a good way to support small artists and build up a personal collection.
this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2025
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The company that currently owns Bandcamp laid off all of the union bargaining team members when they acquired Bandcamp, or rather, didn't extend an offer of employment to all of them which is effectively a layoff or firing. Just adding on to your comment so people are more aware, in case they need extra convincing to only buy from Bandcamp on that day (or preferably not at all). Purchase directly from artists whenever possible. Pretty sure those workers who were fired are still seeking resolution, and I don't think Songtradr, the company that acquired Bandcamp, ever recognized the union even though they voted yes in their vote to unionize with OPEIU months before the acquisition. Go here for more info.
This right here is one of many reasons why you should download your purchases. Protect your collection from the inherent instability of capitalism.
Yup, enshittification comes for everything in the end. The profit motive takes no prisoners.
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What's with lastFM these days? I used it some 20 years ago when they started and they offered free, automatically curated radios (like Spotify ), but then they flipped, thanked the users for the data they collected from listening data and switched to some subscription model
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Is there a "torrenting for absolute tech illiterate morons" guide out there?
The absolute basics:
- Install qbittorrent
- Install a VPN and run it so that all your Internet traffic goes down it
- Open a Web browser and search for top torrent sites 2025. There are articles with lists of the big ones.
- Go to a torrent site and search for what you want.
- Download the .torrent file and open it in qbittorrent OR copy the magnet link and paste that into qbit torrent. Either will start your download.
Always use the VPN when searching and downloading.
There are lots of steps to make it more convenient - things like using a Virutal machine so the vpn and torrent do their thing while you do whatever else you want on your PC, or setting up a docker Servarr stack to make things more convenient, or setting up a Raspberry pi / other device as a servarr stack. But for the basics all you need is a torrent client, a VPN and a Web browser.
All the extra advanced stuff is just quality of life, like being able to leave it downloading securely 24hours a day or organising your downloads better.
PSA: you may not need a VPN at all, depending on your country or your ISP.
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Start out simple and stick with a basic BitTorrent client. Figure out where you want to download from and get a torrent client configured. I use an ISP that frowns upon piracy so here's a quick overview:
- Look for public torrent sites. I'm out of this game so I don't have any suggestions.
- Research private torrent trackers. I don't think I can provide any help with this, but there are other corners of Lemmy who can.
- Find a VPN. Everyone has thoughts on this and Proton VPN is the one I'm currently using.
- Pick a torrent client. I'd recommend qBittorrent myself.
- Configure your VPN to include your BT traffic.
If/when you want to try Lidarr, you'll be much better off knowing the basics of BitTorrent because *arr software is confusing in its own regard. Lidarr is just a tool to organize your music library folders and also automatically queue downloads. It is not a requirement to enjoy downloading music.
Usenet and soulseek are other alternatives.
VPNs are only needed in some countries (e.g. France). They're not needed in every country (i.e. Italy doesn't give a fuck about piracy, unless it's football matches).
For music, soulseek is a great resource too
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My issue is discovery. I'll take a look at what they've done here, but ive never been able to implement a reliable discovery process into my workflow. I still use local music, but my wife is not going to switch until I get at least some reliable and effective discovery built.
I scrobble all my navidrome activity to listenbrainz, which gives a weekly playlist of recommendations. You might have to wait a few weeks before it can establish your tastes depending on how much music you play.
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I simply just installed Metrolist on my phone.
100 % piracy robbing musicians, but more importantly, robbing Google while circumventing Spotify altogether.
All this work needs to pass the wife test. That is why I just hack the android version of Spotify.
What other options exist other than cloudflare?
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