I use streaming services for taste testing, but if I really like something and want to own it, I turn to a DRM-free platform (e.g. Bandcamp) to buy from the artists, then use my own solution for playing that music on my devices (in my case Navidrome).

And as a bonus you'll put a lot more money in the pockets of the artists you love.

My favorite way to support artists I love is to go to their tours and buy their merch, including vinyls that are too cumbersome to actually listen to :D.

I wonder if another app might solve your issues? Certainly my combo of Navidrome + substreamer (on Android) doesn't have any of those issues. My music is tagged and has embedded artwork and the app just uses what's there. Then I just use MusicBrainz Picard to ensure my tags are clean and in good shape.

> My favorite way to support artists I love is to go to their tours and buy their merch, including vinyls that are too cumbersome to actually listen to :D.

This is the way!

I use that with Apple Music.

It’s still only $25 per year.

All my obscure old hip hop cds nicely looked after by Apple and available to stream or download anywhere.

Where are you seeing this happen? The only thing I ever notice is album covers swapping out. In the 6 years I've been a spotify customer, I can only ever recall 2-3 songs becoming unavailable.

I also grab mp3's using ymusic and a hacked pandora app on my phone. I miss the days of what, waffle, and oink though. Still haven't gotten into orpheus yet.

Also op above is right, bandcamp is awesome.

There are sites like bandcamp, boomkat, beatport, bleep, 7digital, but they all have smaller collections, so may not have what you're looking for.

There's also budget options of questionable legality hosted in countries with a more flexible approach to music licensing, like e.g. mp3va.com.