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Finding a decent copy of music was in no way "simpler" than Spotify/YT.
Depends how far back you go maybe? I remember being able to suss out pretty reliable rips on usenet in the 97-98 timeframe really easily through the alt.binaries groups, and eventually on tpb without too much trouble. On top of that, FLAC just a smidge later.
Look I used a lot of Usenet, it had a lot of benefits, but take a real close look at yourself in the mirror when you ask yourself this.
Did you just suggest that Usenet is simpler than Spotify? Usenet is great for a lot of reasons, but simplicity is not one of them.
I see your point, but piracy has at all times provided me the music I wanted with the portability I wanted with the quality of files I have wanted.
I guess it's a matter of perspective.
Is there a simple way for Spotify to give me high quality files that I can play offline or host myself with no DRM? (Maybe the answer is yes, but I haven't had that impression.)
That's been my criteria for listening to music pretty much since mp3s came into existence.
I can't argue with you very hard though - if the goal is just "something that lets me play music" then I suppose spotify is simpler.
Spotify sure isn't providing a sonically decent copy today though.
They aren't cut off in the middle, the wrong song, labeled with the wrong artist, a "rip" from somebody with a microphone and FM radio, corporate honeypots, or literal viruses.
Kids these days... 🤣
Not the point now what I suggested but
Nobody but niche users care. It's good enough for 98% of users and their speaker quality.
In fact they are out there in droves buying shitty quality records for the warmth introduced by the format.
At least now it is pretty simple. Not sure about Spotify, but you can download exact audio files Deezer has. That's my favorite method unless Deezer has a bad remasters of older albums, then I fall back to Soulseek to do some hunting of better version.
None of that is more simple than clicking a link and having everything on all of your devices.
I'm not saying Spotify is the end all. They have a lot of terrible shit. But none of the torrent/usenet based shit or open source crap is easier to use. Nobody is going to secondary sources on Spotify for bad remasters. You are handwaving away the pain in the ass part.
Obviously it's not more simple and never will be, but at this point pirating music is as simple as it was using ITunes
How many people you know using iTunes for music? The apple folks I know are streaming from Apple music.
Nobody, everyone is streaming since it is more convenient. All I was saying is that getting local music is also more convenient now.