Best music platform
Our favorite music platform:
WFMU, an independent radio station based in Jersey City, NJ.
Why WFMU: This is an independent non-commercial radio station funded by listener donations. The station offers four simultaneous streams, as listed on the home page: WFMU Live Stream (a stream of the FM broadcast in the New York City area), Rock 'n' Soul Radio, Give the Drummer Radio, and Sheena's Jungle Room. All four streams have no commercials, sponsorships, NPR breaks, or underwriting messages, and each offers an immense streaming archive, going back years, including dozens of programs.
Whatever you do, don't use Spotify. See more about Spotify's exploitative model in The economics of Spotify (The Hustle, Feb 5, 2022).
Also worth a try
- No Type, “an independent space away from the big platforms,” is a growing alternative Bandcamp. Listen, download, and purchase music from independent artists.
- myNoise is a “non-distractive noise player,” in the words of creator Dr. Stéphane Pigeon. While it’s not exactly a music platform, myNoise provides over 200 sound generators, as well as several streaming radio stations. The entire platform was built by Dr. Pigeon and is funded by listener donations.
- Resonance.fm, a London-based nonprofit community radio station.
- SomaFM offers a variety of ambient and genre-specific channels streaming online. Listener supported.
Use with caution
- Bandcamp, a platform for buying music from independent artists. However: As of March 2, 2022, Bandcamp is part of Epic Games, which is itself partly owned by Tencent, a Chinese Big Tech company. We hope that Bandcamp Friday continues to support artists with extra revenue, but long-term we are not optimistic for Bandcamp’s future. (See Mark Hurst’s March 3, 2022 column: Bandcamp risks becoming an Epic failure.)
