This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Here you can find reviewed, impressive and comprehensive European alternatives for digital products and apps if you wanna break from American (big) tech companies.
Have a look, you'll be impressed...
This is a good source, but why the fuck is Spotify listed as a suitable alternative? Spotify is one of THE apps that people are trying to break away from.
People incorrectly assume "European alternative" means "better alternative" when sometimes, that's not the case. Privacy needs to be approached with skepticism, no matter what surface-level credential something has.
Things like these might be table stakes, but they should not be the end of your search for an alternative product.
I think you are absolutely right.
Wild guess: Spotify was founded in Europe.
It's now based in the US, and a lot of its revenue goes to alt-right loonies. Renewing their podcast contracts is why you're paying more year after year to stream music.
I like Apple Music because they pay artists more, but I might be a little biased as it came with my phone and computer and I have a family plan with others who enjoy it (and yes, they are family).
The true alternative to streaming anything is using Plex (or something like it) to make your own music streamer, buying all your media (that pays artists more than any streaming platform), and streaming it to yourself that way. It is illegal to rip CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays in the US, but technically if you own the media it's fine to have it, you just can't have broken the copy protection. Kind of a catch-22. But it costs a lot more as you have to buy everything. If you already have a massive CD collection, it's not as big a deal.
Qobuz,
They are French,
You have all Deezer and Spotify perks,
They pay artists,
Music is often in High Resolution, they have partnerships with Hi-Fi audio brands,
You can reach them if your favorite artist or album is missing.
Just checked out Qobuz and you can even buy the music digitally to download (like bandcamp with the advantage that they are EU-based and seems like more artists are on Qobuz), think I'm going to switch
Qobuz seems amazing. You need a subscription i think but they seem way more ethnic than their counterparts.
You can buy single tracks/albums and download them without a subscription, the subscription is more a Spotify-like thing were you can listen to all songs but can't download them without DRM
Spotify is still registered in Luxembourg with its operational HQ in Stockholm.
I will change immediately when a service distributes my payments to the artists who I’ve listened to. Every service basically pools em up and gives them to Pitbull, Justin Bieber and the blonde singer who dates a football player. Only the share varies a bit, not the model.
have a look at Qobuz. I've heard they have some of the highest payouts to artists. I don't have sources unfortunately :/
Qobuz redistributed royalties due to Labels and Publishers, corresponding to an average amount of US$0.01873 per stream¹ for the fiscal year 2024. In concrete terms, if a track reaches 1,000 plays on Qobuz, this represents US$18.73 paid to these rights holders, who then pay out to the artists, songwriters and composers, according to the terms of their contracts.
https://the-ear.net/news/qobuz-pays-artists-5x-more-to-artists/
Spotify btw fiances a lot of podcaster that helped this actual situation
I totally agree with you. Especially since they tried to take down Anna's archive...
Anyway, besides that, this remains very instructing.
Call me out of touch all you want. I have big sd cards, and mp3 files. No ads. No subscriptions. No bullshit.
And that is less energy consuming too!!
I am socked by the sheer amont of energy needed by streaming platforms (Spotify and others) but nobody seems to care.
By the way there is a telegram bot that allows you to download anything you want from Spotify. And then you own the files forever... no more connection needed.
You blew my mind twice on your comment.
I'll have to take a look at both. Thanks
👍
I have a bunch of TBs in a NAS and jellyfin/navidrome/audiobookshelf. Because I'm excessive and like making my life harder.
No ads, no subscriptions, just self-inflicted bullshit.
Kobuz is my suggestion.
I’m test driving Deezer as Spotify alternative.
Looks really promising. You can even import your Spotify playlists and music to Deezer.
Man, I remember having to use a VPN to sign up for Spotify when it launched, because it was founded in and available to the UK only.
Yes, absolutely. I'd prefer transition to FOSS/ open source. If the development is by others also better than the billionaire led organizations.
Call me cynical, but I don't expect these to be better alternatives for long. The main issue lies with the fact that these services are both centralized and profit-motivated, and I don't anticipate that the EU's privacy laws, though they are better than those in the US, will be much protection once even one of these competitors gets big enough to have a say in politics. Self-hosted, open-source apps are a far better solution than relying on yet another company that has full control of the software, especially with the barrier to entry for those apps getting smaller with each passing day.
There are multiple projects available that will let you turn even a mediocre extra PC into a platform for self-hosted apps with not a lot of effort. Yunohost and CasaOS are two that come to mind, but other options exist. Hell, even just running Nextcloud is probably enough to cover most people's SaaS needs, though it can require a bit more work than the other two that I mentioned.
You're too cynical. Yes, EU is not immune to lobbying but it's way better at regulating companies than US is. Those alternatives are clearly better now so not switching because "they may not be as good in the future" is not a valid reason to keep using US tech.
Moving to something that's still at significant risk of being enshittified is an objectively worse move than going to something that's not, though. I'm not saying to keep US tech, I'm saying to build your own now so you don't have to move again in a couple years.
If someone is able to self host then of course it's a better solution but self hosting requires knowledge, time and money and is not for everyone. EU tech is better than US tech so if someone is not able to self host moving to European providers is the next best solution and should be encouraged.
That's kinda my point, though. The solutions I mentioned in my original comment are already approaching the same level of simplicity as a smartphone, and they should be recommended over centralized options as much as possible. I'm not suggesting that the average person should try and host their own email, but with something like Yunohost, running a copy of Nextcloud or Seafile is about as difficult as installing their corresponding apps on your phone.
This is a good source, but why the fuck is Spotify listed as a suitable alternative? Spotify is one of THE apps that people are trying to break away from.
Qobuz has been the better alternative. From France, pays artists considerably better, has HiRes as standard. Human curated content and also has a DRM free digital store to actually buy the music. (and on one of their streaming tiers gets you a discount on purchases).
I have really been enjoying it as it works on my dedicated Digital Music Player so if there is something I want to listen, but don't own there is the option, and I still get the convenience of using it on the TV with the nice sound system.
So no smartphones.
Nokia is Finnish and I'm not sure if t hat's considered European. It's not American though. In fact the only American company left making phones is Apple. The problem is, the rest of them uses Android, which spies on you. Counterpoint: Apple won't let you install apps your government doesn't approve of. Counterpoint to the counterpoint: Android. Fucking. Spies. On. You. Counterpoint to the... you get the idea: Apple still hasn't shipped a working software keyboard. Pick your poison. Spyware or a broken keyboard and you can't use a few apps you may not care about... but you're buying from an American company whose CEO kisses Trump's arse and literally gave him a solid gold participation trophy.
I want to see real Linux phones that don't run Android and are somewhat competitive with Android phones, at least in the mid-range space. No one expects them to compete with the iPhone, or the equivalent Android phone that comes out 3-5 years later and stops getting updates while the iPhone it matches on performance is still getting them... but it shouldn't have to. We kinda hit a plateau a few years ago.
Otherwise, definitely worth a look.
Nokia is Finnish and I’m not sure if t hat’s considered European.
Pff of course they are!
Not all android spies on you. Have you ever tried GrapheneOS? It's very secure and pro-privacy. Technically it's not android (if you really want to nitpick), but you need a Google Pixel to run it.
Yes, GrapheneOS is Android (it's AOSP without Google Play Services and GApps, with open source replacements). It's like what CyanogenMod was back in the day. I haven't used Graphene; I've never owned a Pixel. And Graphene is only on Pixels.
I've used a ton of Android custom firmware... from around Ice Cream Sandwich through Lollipop — back when Android was named for desserts. My favourite CFW was LiquidSmooth based on Jellybean, based on AOKP, which was an AOSP fork that tried to be "cool." It wasn't quite as cool as Paranoid Android (which was fucking awesome), but it was way more stable. And CyanogenMod was the most stable but "boring" by comparison. I mean it wasn't flashy. But LiquidSmooth was rock solid. So no, I haven't used Graphene, but I've used forks/ROMs like it.
If Google Play Services is running on it, and you're not blocking it with a firewall (not sure if you even can, but I suppose it isn't impossible), then yes, it's spying on you. (I do not think GrapheneOS runs Google Play Services.)
Linux phones exist, but they're:
There's also Jolla with Sailfish OS, but don't know if they are any good
I want to see real Linux phones that don’t run Android and are somewhat competitive with Android phones, at least in the mid-range space.
There's a large graveyard of attempts at this. The most recent and successful is probably Tizen. Prior to that Firefox OS. People just don't buy them so there's no market for them.
Jolla from Finland has quite the successful preorder phase right now for their next true Linux phone though. I have a preorder voucher myself and am quite intrigued in how it will turn out and if it’ll actually proof usable in daily life (considering banking or healthcare apps its probably gonna get tricky but I’ll see)
We indeed need to degooglize smartphones.
There are ways but difficult to implement for now...
i remember learning to degoogle with adb. it wasn't easy and i had to reset more than a couple of times
then i installed LineageOS, after adb it was easier. For somebody else it may be "difficult" indeed
then i installed GrapheneOS for a friend. It can't get any easier. Their web installer makes degoogling accessible to everyone.
Their web installer makes degoogling accessible to everyone.
With the right hardware
I mean, the best way is to throw iPhone money at Google, and get iPhone 11 level performance out of a Pixel 10, then wipe the firmware and replace it with GrapheneOS. This is problematic for a couple reasons. One, if you're gonna pay iPhone money, maybe just get an iPhone? Solves a big chunk of the privacy issue, but doesn't get you away from American tech companies, which was your original point. So we set that option aside. Two, you have to give Google money, so they win either way. Sure, they lose out on that targeted ad money, but they sold you years-old tech at a premium price — so they win. Of course, you can buy a used Pixel, but it's gonna be even less powerful (assuming it's an older model).
I think the best option is to take the open-source AOSP (Android Open Source Project) that the closed-source Android is based on, and make a fork that doesn't use Google, like Amazon did with Fire OS. Then you'd just need a hardware partner.
Apparently, Graphene OS is looking into this, but I don't like the idea of a stripped-down Android phone. If I'm paying iPhone price on years-old hardware, the OS better kick some ass. The alternatives to iPhone just offer too many compromises in the name of virtues that I don't really think matter enough. If we can't get an alternative that can match iPhone on performance, it should have an awesome user experience.
Jollaphone would be an alternative. Not a good one though.
I heard of Sailfish OS, linux-based but with an Android compatibility layer.
