It should probably be said that the cuts artists get from the streamers are seen as insufficient and that platforms where you give more directly to artists, like BandCamp, are a better way to support artists you like.

Also: choose a platform that pays artists more. Apple and tidal pay out much more per stream than YouTube/spotify.

But any form of paying is much much much better than piracy.

I liked the good ol' days when you could buy an LP/CD album and know that you'll have access to the music without depending on subscription services keeping them available.

I'm particularly annoyed by Spotify only keeping 'Remastered' versions of tracks that sound smooth/full/pleasing to new-time listeners but shave a lot of character off the original.

You still can buy albums if you want. New, used, digital. Lots of options.

The „remaster plague“ is extremely annoying. But that's because artists re-record their music in order to have to give the record label less money.

I would rather support the artists on YouTube premium. But I have no easy way to port my music from Spotify to YouTube premium

If you only listen to music that is on streaming services, then of course you would think that they have "basically all music", since everything else is forgotten. I pirated music before Spotify was available, which exposed me to a wide variety of international artists, and I still periodically look up some of my favorites on streaming services, only to find that they are still absent. So I continue to pirate and buy albums from time to time.

Buying used records or borrowing them from the library does not earn artists money either, but no one bitches about that. As far as I'm concerned, downloading rips is the digital equivalent.

Spotify has been missing almost every hip hop b-side I've ever looked for. Like, the eps and lps that got these artists careers started aren't there. I had no idea how many b-sides some of them have until I started looking them up on soundcloud etc too.

Buying physical media you have the right to resell that one physical copy. Libraries pay extra fees for lending. In both cases only 1 person can use that copy at a given time, and the artist is paid for each copy. Downloading rips where thousands of people get an album in parallel without paying is in no way remotely equivalent.

The occasional bootleg of an impossible to licence recording is something most music lovers do. But make your default consumption route a paying one. The services are absolutely amazing for what they cost.

Yeah, some music hasn’t made it to streaming. Usually for sad reasons. Those artists need legitimate support even more. Buy em.

But please don’t equate pirating to library lending.