Bandcamp, for example (and there are a few smaller ones like it). It will be more expensive than streaming subscriptions, but knowing how poorly artists get compensated by these (and how the payout per stream further dilutes over time), makes one see the whole streaming model as corrupt. It led to artificially lowered expectations on what music should cost among the general public, and now of course it has become very hard to compete with the streaming platforms because of this altered consumer behavior.
Yes; not a lawyer, but as far as I can tell yes (and physical media too); you can, in advance (which I do), in any format you want without restriction - it’s just FLAC/MP3 etc. No DRM.
I do prefer buying full digital discography when available, because it’s such a good deal. For $30 or so, I get years and years of albums, while still supporting an artist with a much larger sum than I could via a streaming platform.
Admittedly, I’m still also using YT Music precisely for the reason I described above, and also because it makes it much easier to discover new music, compared to Bandcamp (something I’m hoping to potentially address in my own alternative).
This is a bummer! But it highlights more of an unfortunate reality we all have to deal with when buying digital goods online - always need to get a backup right away when possible, since no platform lasts forever.
