Sustainable Substitutes for YouTube Music

A music audio and video streaming service by Google, paying almost no royalty fees.

Reasons to avoid YouTube Music

Avoid YouTube Music due to its invasive data collection, which tracks user activity, location, and personal information for targeted advertising across Google’s ecosystem.

YouTube Music contributes to market monopolization, as Google’s dominance in digital services limits competition and user choice. The platform is also notorious for low payout rates to artists, often paying significantly less than competitors.

Additionally, YouTube Music’s lack of transparency in content moderation and algorithmic recommendations raises concerns about fairness and accountability.

Sustainable Alternatives

Here are some sustainable alternatives to YouTube Music

Qobuz

A French high-resolution, human-first music streaming service.

Qobuz offers an ad-free experience, providing a clean listening experience.
Qobuz is the first streaming service to publicly disclose and verify its average payout per stream, ensuring artists receive fair compensation.
Qobuz is based in France, ensuring compliance with GDPR and strong European privacy laws.
Qobuz actively labels and removes AI-generated and fraudulent tracks, protecting artists and the integrity of the platform.
Website

Ampwall

A platform for independent music by a public benefit company.

Ampwall does not welcome AI generated images and music on its platform. It will remove such content as soon as it's detected.
Artists only have to pay a yearly fee of $10, while 5% of all sales go to the payment processor (which is PayPal unfortunately).
Users don't have to pay to listen to music on Ampwall.
No registration is needed to listen to music on Ampwall.
Website

Deezer

A popular French music streaming service with a stance against AI generated music.

Deezer offers an ad-free experience for premium users, providing a clean listening experience.
Deezer actively labels and removes AI-generated and fraudulent tracks, protecting artists and the integrity of the platform.
Deezer is based in France, ensuring compliance with GDPR and strong European privacy laws.
Deezer offers a free, ad-supported tier, making music streaming accessible to all users.
Website

The 3 main issues with YouTube Music

Big Tech - Big Tech companies do not nourish people and planet. This is especially true in times of political tension.

YouTube Music belongs to one of the largest tech companies, contributing to market monopolisation and unfair price/royalty policies. NPR: How 5 Tech Giants Have Become More Like Governments Than Companies (2017)

Monopoly - Market dominance that stifles competition and limits user choice.

Using YouTube Music increases the vendor lock-in, making it harder to migrate away from Google's ecosystem.

Lack of Transparency - Opacity in operations, data handling, or supply chains, making it difficult for users to understand practices.

YouTube Music lacks transparency in the way its algorithms promote songs that might benefit the company's financials.Source:Heise: Streaming study: Remuneration models favor major artists (2025)