Self-hosted music discovery still falls short of Spotify
SoulSync and Aurral can help replace parts of Spotify, but they still feel weak for finding new music. Aurral is improving its music discovery tools by adding weekly discovery and new-release playlists, but new tracks can only be previewed for 30 seconds before they are downloaded. That makes it hard to browse freely and listen before deciding what to keep.
SoulSync works well for syncing and downloading Spotify playlists, and it can work with other too. The problem is that Spotify can often block its API access. SoulSync also does not solve the bigger issue: new music usually has to be downloaded before it can be played freely.
Its also feels cluttered, with too many windows, popups, and tabs to keep track of easily. Replacing Spotify with a music setup may still take more effort than it is worth if music discovery is the main goal.
Key points
- Aurral now has weekly discovery and new-release playlists, but only allows 30-second previews before download.
- SoulSync is strong at syncing and downloading Spotify playlists.
- SoulSync may run into frequent Spotify API blocks.
- Both tools make it hard to browse and instantly play new music without downloading first.
- music can work for a personal library, but replacing Spotify discovery is still difficult.