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 post was submitted on 22 Jan 2026
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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.
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 :/
https://the-ear.net/news/qobuz-pays-artists-5x-more-to-artists/
Spotify btw fiances a lot of podcaster that helped this actual situation
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.
Deezer is the way if one wants to continue streaming.
Deezer is France-based.
Wasn't there some kind of controversy with them? CEO being a trumpet or something?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Blavatnik This guy owns the company that owns Deezer.
There we go
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.
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.
I’m test driving Deezer as Spotify alternative.
Looks really promising. You can even import your Spotify playlists and music to Deezer.