Download the shit I want, stick it on a USB key and plug it into my car. The old magics.

If you're talking about ambient music then you have things like Navidrome or Jellyfin that can stream music throughout your house.

Ad hoc, on device streaming: I use PipePipe, choose a YT music playlist and just...play in radio mode. There are better options (like InnerTune) but those tend to crap out when YT futzes with their back end / aren't updated as frequently as PipePipe.

I also have an iRiver MP3 player (about size of a box of matches) that's awesome.

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

• Lidarr + Tubifarry + Slskd: automated downloads and organization
• Explo + listenbrainz: discover weekly replacement
• Navidrome: Subsonic Music Server
• Feishin: Linux Desktop client
• Arpeggi: iOS mobile client (Yes Ik iOS on privacy sub. Can’t afford to switch yet and my family has been using iPhone since I was s a kid)

Listenbrainz requires you to make what you listen to public as it is part of the open source project. If that is something you are worried about I think there are alternatives to explo that use last.fm but that is closed source as far as I know.

As others have said, buy stuff from small bands on band camp or at shows or something and pirate from whoever you see fit.

EDIT: I also should have noted, this is a self hosted setup that requires a server to be online unless you download your tracks to your client device. If you want a single device alternative, I am not personally sure what to recommend.

I am planning to get a dedicated audio player at some point this year. An modded iPod classic 5th or 6th gen with Rockbox. It's offline, and you get so much more flexibility once you mod it, you can't really go wrong. It's a bit of an upfront cost though but a worthy investment.

The android app I use for music is Musicolet. It's offline and has a lot of really nice customization options. Also free.

Hugston Media Pro, comes with thousands tv and radio channels worldwide (with bookmarks), updated newsfeed (minute/hour/day), local music player for your downloaded songs/videos. If enough users are interested I can make it opensource :)

Self-host Navidrome. Choose any of the clients that you like. Pirate stuff from big bands, buy stuff from smaller bands.

Cons: You'd have to deal with storage and hosting and access from outside your house e.g. with Tailscale. You'd also have to tag incorrectly tagged songs (surprisingly common issue, sometimes pirates tag stuff better than the bands themselves)

I use Navidrome with Feishin on GNU/Linux and it works well. Furthermore, you can also check out Soulseek (Nicotine+ on GNU/Linux).

Download it via torrent, thats your best option. It takes time to build up a sizable catalog but it helps you can download entire acts discographies one fortuitous swoop here and there

Paying is basically antithetical to privacy, I only do it for the essentials or what i cant otherwise obtain freely

If yt-dlp/Newpipe still works over a VPN then Spotube with ListenBrainz plugin is an option, but it's extremely buggy and they're working on a rewrite afaik. Or use another YT Music client, or download your music and use an offline player. If you have the time and resources to self-host that's also an option of course.

Server (navidrome) + client (feishin, symphonium) + music (soulseek, bandcamp, ripping your old cds) + remote access (tailscale or something else if you're savvy).

I have a local music library.

I once uploaded my entire connection of music (ripped from my own CDs or grabbed over the decades) to Google Music, but we know where that went. So I used Amazon Music for a few years, until the service went to shit.

Unwanted tracks in my personal playlists; songs playing out of order; ads despite paying a subscription fee to listen to music I already own.

The frustration with the entire copyright and, "rights holders" scene led me to turn away from buying anything but physical media at local music ships.

I have never used the arr tools, but if I was starting from scratch, I probably would. For now, when I want a few new tracks, I use yt-dlp or fire up jackett and find it.

Eta: frustrations

Op answer the following:

How do you usually listen to music? Not “I put on my headphones, fire up Winamp and go” but “I use curated playlists from Spotify” or “i listen to whole albums on youtube”.

What does private mean to you? What do you consider not private?

I've been enjoying using Finamp for my Jellyfin server, although you will need a proxy if you want to use it outside of your home network. I'm paying $7 a month (it used to be $5 😭) for a VPS that's running Pangolin tunneled to my home server running Jellyfin. It's basically my own private Spotify/Netflix/Audible. There are also free options like Nginx for the proxy.

Pros:

• Open source with desktop/web/android apps
• Free/cheap once set up
• Functions like major streaming services but doesn't come with their bullshit
• You have complete control over everything since it is self-hosted

Cons:

• Set up can be tough depending on your skill level
• Requires your own home server PC
• You must add all of your own content, be it through torrenting, ripping CDs, etc.

The real problem is getting the music

Is have a Spotify playlist of some 7000+ songs I want to have but finding each one individually is a nightmare. Are there ways to just put the list into some arr system and have it automatically torrented or pulled from Usenet or something like that?

I’m willing to pay just not on agregious amount of money.

Me too. I wanna support the artists I like.

I've used Bandcamp before. I was able to sign up anonymously and use a masked credit card to pay for music. Sure I could pirate it. But I feel like that's a dick move, esp for smaller bands I like a lot.

Playing music privately, that's the trivial part! A million ways to do that, without sending any info to anyone, either at home or on the go.