This is a good alternative client for Android TV.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.s0und.s0undtv&hl=en_US&gl=US

And this is a Chrome extension that is an alternate client with ad blocking. It’s pretty good though unfortunately it does not seem to support raids, your video will just end instead of switching to the new channel.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/alternate-player-for-twit/bhplkbgoehhhddaoolmakpocnenplmhf?pli=1

Not a tracker, but #bookz on undernet has been good to me.

Plexamp is pretty great but it won’t feel very slick without a connection to the server. You can download tons of stuff, but that means digging into the downloads section, and ignoring most of the stuff on the front page where it offers artist mixes, etc. For a person who needs a simple interface, it would be a minefield of buttons that lead nowhere.

I am all about raising the Jolly Roger, but honestly think that if it is affordable, the best option would be just subscribing to a music service. The user will have access to everything, can probably use voice commands on the device, and can enjoy whatever auto-playlist features are on offer. “Hey google, play oldies music.”

Depending on how well the user is able to operate a device, a set of internet radio stations like SomaFM might be better.

Good to know, thank you!

(Yeah, weird that Bandcamp has zero genre tags, ever!)

What kind of files can you get, and do they come tagged well?

Deemix is so good. It’s a great benefit to having a legit sub.

At the time I posted that I did not see it on Planet, which I also use, and it’s still not there. I found it on Slug.

I just checked abnzb and they don’t have it either.

(Planet is good and it is my primary because I bought lifetime, but Slug has been really great when Planet doesn’t have something.)

Thanks to OP for mentioning this! The old shows were fantastic.

I see the new shows on my Usenet indexer as Connections season 4, WEB-DL.

I was looking into those services too, thanks for letting me know this one worked for you!

Handy site, bookmarked. I don’t use Telegram because of the phone number requirement, but it’s good to keep track of what it has.

Whoa, I thought that was only for Win 11. Cool, thanks!

Looks like a good option, unfortunately it would not run for me on an Android emulator in Windows. (LDPlayer 5)

For now I am not messing with my extensions to prevent the YT message. I found that the extension Kill Sticky, which eliminates all kinds of elements that cover content, blows away the popup. So, I just dismiss the message with one click when it comes up.

Eventually the adblocker situation will improve, I hope, but for now doing it this way is only a minor inconvenience.

Edit to add: Well I got the “countdown” popup, and you can certainly dodge it by blowing it away with a tool that deletes overlays… but the countdown continues and then it does block the content in a new way. Other people posted that accepting the ads once resets the countdown, this did not work for me. I ended up installing my own Invidious instance since I have a Linux box on my LAN but I look forward to better anti-anti-adblock extensions.

SmartTube on Android TV still works great.

It’s not really like radio, it’s a bunch of people running their own shows at times of their choosing. But if you follow a bunch of people who are doing 2-3 shows a week, pretty soon you will find that when you look at the “Following” page to see what’s happening right now, something worth listening to is probably on.

Here’s what my Following page looks like at the moment: https://i.imgur.com/7OXkRbN.jpeg

Not too good, but it’s early still. Only one person I follow is live and it looks like they are chatting instead of playing music, which is unusual (and I won’t bother to listen).

There are some recommendations below. If I click Show More, I can see 8 other live streams. (I can see more under the Browse feature.) : https://i.imgur.com/U5Bvec5.jpeg

Some of these 8 I recognize as being not my taste, some show genres I don’t care about, but there are a few that I will check out. OK… the reggae dude was playing hip-hop which isn’t my bag but I might check back later because I like reggae and ragga. The funk dude was playing great music but wouldn’t shut up. SlugRadio is playing some good EBM that is new to me, the DJ puts up a track ID in the chat stream, and most importantly doesn’t seem to be on mic all the time. So that’s a good find and if the music stays good, I’ll probably Follow that channel. (this is what the stream looks like: https://i.imgur.com/cCFPpG7.jpeg)

One other thing…

Twitch lets you watch replays of shows which gives you even more ways to find something to listen to… But, they process saved videos and knock out copyrighted audio, so most recorded DJ streams are mangled. For some reason, Twitch gets away with letting people do anything they want when the show is live, while YT uses realtime detection to mute your stream and issue a copyright strike.

Got it, thank you!

Sadly you can’t download anything. There’s a note at the bottom of the page:

Note: Site in archive-mode. Downloads temporarily disabled. Working on appropriate route to release archive legally.

If you’ve got a copy…

Genre tagging is a huge pain in the ass!

Picard is probably the most popular tool for this, but a problem with any auto-tagger is that you may disagree with the genre selection. Because the data is all crowdsourced you also see inconsistencies… Like “Hip-Hop” and “Hip Hop” both in use. Either you live with that stuff… Or, you do it yourself.

2500 tracks isn’t actually that much to do manually. Chip away at it with a great tool like mp3tag, and once you are caught up, do new additions as you get them.

Someone here said:

It does tend to work better with albums, I’ve mostly moved to getting an album when I’ve wanted a single song…

This is so true. Loose single tracks are a pain in the ass too. Try to get full releases.

Yeah, it can be flaky. Scan your episode lists and if anything is missing a Watched indicator that you know should be there, set it manually. I don’t know the Roku GUI (every Plex GUI is kind of different) but either long-pressing the action button or using a button on the screen should let you set an ep to Watched.

I would add SmartTube for Android TV.

https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTube

I was surprised to see only one other reference to Twitch. I have found Twitch to be AMAZING for new music discovery. MOST of the time when I listen to music, it is actually through Twitch. I have many good hosts saved and checking the who’s on now page is the first thing I do when I want to turn on music. And when the apocalypse comes, I have a good library myself now…

There’s a catch, of course. A lot of Twitch streamers are fucking irritating! It takes time to find channels that meet my needs…

• Plays my kind of music (classic rock, 80s, industrial, darkwave, synthpop, electro, gothic rock, some dance genres like filth… to name a few). If anyone wants channel recommendations I am happy to list some.
• Ideally, the video feed clearly shows the track ID (so I know what music to grab!)
• The host isn’t on mic all the time. It just kills me when I find someone playing good music with track IDs and they talk too much. The more of the video frame taken up by the DJ, and the bigger the mic, the greater the chance that they won’t shut up, haha.

A good host will namedrop and raid hosts with similar taste, so once you find a couple that you like, your list of follows will expand quickly.

Here are a few more tips…

• If you follow someone on Twitch, there is a separate toggle for receiving notifications when they go live. For 95% of the people I follow, notifications are OFF. A few are so good I want notifications.
• “Alternative Player for Twitch” in the Chrome extensions is a cool alternate client that MUTES ADS. There are a few such extensions, this one has been the most reliable for me. However, for some reason it does not support taking you on a raid (that is when your channel ends and sends all the viewers to someone else).
• There is a cool alternate client for Android TV called S0undTV.
• Some Twitch hosts will put their shows on Mixcloud too, so check their details
• Even if a host does not list the track IDs for what they are playing you may have success IDing music with something like Shazaam. On-screen ID is so convenient though.
• Get to know a mass tagging tool like mp3tag, and you can RAPIDLY expand the size of your music library.
• It seems impossible to tell Twitch to not suggest channels that you are not interested in. You can spend hours trying to kill off bad recommendations but it doesn’t matter. For example I do not care about game streaming or people playing live music but I CANNOT get them out of my Recommended list. You just have to learn to ignore them.