I honestly don’t really know how I can best divest from streaming, so this is like, the path i’ve been taking. Know it will take time, don’t put yourself under pressure to buy all the CDs/records/etc right now to get away ASAP.. Even if they’re real cheap, it can lead to overbuying fast, which i have already done, so I try to be mindful of what music I want to buy and the format, even if it is really cheap.
I do wanna highlight bandcamp as a good “alternative“, it’s kind of different since not every artist will be there? But it’s also a really awesome tool to discover new music. Feels more like listening to something in a music store headphone jack than a song on youtube, if that makes sense. Bandcamp also pays artists more fairly. You can get realll niche with your genre searches, and it’s so likely that there’s someone in like, Christmas Island making your dream sound you never would’ve found otherwise. It’s not perfect as a streaming service FS, the UI isn’t my favorite, but it is goated in its own way.