{"products":{"streaming":{"meta_title":"WaveFlow vs streaming: owning your music or subscribing","meta_description":"Owning your files and playing them with WaveFlow, next to Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, TIDAL and YouTube Music: prices in France, sound, offline, catalogue, and what stays when you stop paying, every source dated.","headline":"Renting access to everything, or owning what you love.","short_answer":"A streaming service gives you a catalogue that runs past a hundred million tracks on the services that publish a figure, suggestions that learn from you and nothing to look after, for about 12 euros a month in France. WaveFlow does none of that: it plays the files you own, for free, as well as they were recorded, and they stay yours whatever happens to a subscription, a catalogue or an account. Streaming wins on what you can discover; owning wins on what you keep. Plenty of people do both.","matters":{"catalogue":{"waveflow":"What you own: your files, your rips, your purchases.","other":"Over a hundred million tracks on Spotify, Apple Music and TIDAL, from the day you sign up."},"discovery":{"waveflow":"Daily Mix, On Repeat and mood radio from your own library, and a plugin that lists new releases from your artists.","other":"Personal mixes, radios and editorial playlists built to bring you music you do not know yet."},"effort":{"waveflow":"You buy, rip, tag and back up your files yourself.","other":"Nothing to manage: search, press play, on every device."},"cost":{"waveflow":"The player is free; the music costs what you choose to buy, once.","other":"About 12 euros a month for one person in France, every month you listen."},"sound":{"waveflow":"As good as your files, up to high resolution and DSD, with bit-perfect output.","other":"Lossless on four of the five, high resolution on three; quality varies by track."},"stays":{"waveflow":"Everything: the files are yours, the player keeps working.","other":"On the services that say so, downloads stop playing and catalogue songs leave your library."},"rare":{"waveflow":"Live recordings, out-of-print albums, your own rips: if you have the file, it plays.","other":"The service's catalogue, plus some of your own files where it allows them: local files on Spotify, an uploaded or synced library on Apple Music, Deezer and YouTube Music, each with its limits."},"account":{"waveflow":"No account, and an offline mode that turns off the online features.","other":"An account is required, and suggestions are built from what you play."}},"wins":["Catalogue: over a hundred million tracks on the services that give a figure, the day you subscribe, on every device you own.","Discovery: personal mixes, radios and editorial playlists that know far more music than any one library.","Nothing to manage: no files to buy, rip, tag, store or back up."],"both":"WaveFlow does not ask you to cancel anything. Keep a subscription to discover new music, and buy the albums you want to keep: WaveFlow plays them from your disk, and WaveFlow Server sends them to your other devices, without an account with WaveFlow and without a monthly bill.","faq":[{"q":"Can WaveFlow play Spotify, Apple Music or Deezer?","a":"No. WaveFlow plays files you have: from your disk, from WaveFlow Server, or from a network share. A service's catalogue only plays in its own apps; several services also play some of your own files, within the limits shown in the table above."},{"q":"Why are the prices for France?","a":"A price only means something in one country, and France is where we could read the regular price of Spotify and Apple Music on their own pages. Deezer, TIDAL and YouTube Music did not show a current French price from where we read them, so the page says not confirmed rather than convert one."},{"q":"Is streaming lossless now?","a":"On most of them, yes: Apple Music, Deezer and TIDAL announce up to 24-bit / 192 kHz, and Spotify Premium up to 24-bit / 44.1 kHz. YouTube Music announces up to 256 kbps. WaveFlow plays your files exactly as they are, whatever they hold."},{"q":"What happens to my downloads if I stop paying?","a":"Spotify's free plan downloads podcasts only, Apple Music removes catalogue songs, and Deezer's downloads stop playing offline; TIDAL and YouTube Music do not say. With WaveFlow there is no subscription to stop: your files stay where they are."}]}},"compare_page":{"breadcrumb":"Breadcrumb","crumb_compare":"Compare","kicker":"Comparison","updated":"facts read on {date}","short_title":"The short answer","matters_title":"What matters","better":"Better here","tie":"Tie","tally_label":"Tally","tied":"Tied","values":{"yes":"Yes","no":"No","unconfirmed":"Not confirmed"},"how":{"builtin":"Built in","official_addon":"Official add-on","third_party":"Community plugin"},"beta":"In the 2.0 beta","method_title":"Method and sources","data_link":"The data behind this page","correction":"Report a mistake","sources_other":"Sources for {name}","read_on":"read {date}","faq_title":"Questions","all_comparisons":"All comparisons"},"streaming_page":{"crumb":"Streaming","title":"WaveFlow vs streaming","side_name":"Streaming","versions":"WaveFlow {player} and WaveFlow Server {server}, next to five services","matters_intro":"Eight points that separate owning your files from renting access to a catalogue. Each side gets a sentence, and the better one on that point is marked. Where it depends on you, it is a tie.","matters":{"catalogue":"What you can play","discovery":"Finding new music","effort":"What you have to look after","cost":"What it costs","sound":"Sound","stays":"When you stop paying","rare":"Music no service has","account":"Account and listening data"},"table_title":"Five services, side by side","table_intro":"Read on each service's own pricing, plans and help pages on {date}. Prices are for one person, per month, in France, at the regular price after any trial.","table_caption":"WaveFlow and five streaming services: price, catalogue and what each one offers","col_row":"Point","rows":{"price":"Price per month (France)","catalogue":"Catalogue announced","free_tier":"Free plan","lossless":"Lossless","hi_res":"High resolution (above CD)","offline":"Offline listening","own_files":"Plays your own files","synced_lyrics":"Synced lyrics","keeps_downloads":"Downloads still play after you stop paying"},"free":"Free","free_note":"Open source, no account.","per_month":"a month","price_unread":"No current French price could be read from the service's own pages.","millions":"{count} million+ tracks","not_stated":"No figure given","your_files":"The music you own","notes":{"waveflow":{"free_tier":"Everything is free: no subscription, no account.","lossless":"FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF and DSD.","hi_res":"As high as your files go, with exclusive output on every system.","offline":"Your files are on your disk; offline mode turns off the online features.","keeps_downloads":"There is nothing to stop paying: the files and the player stay."},"spotify":{"free_tier":"With ads; only podcasts can be downloaded.","lossless":"Up to 24-bit / 44.1 kHz on Premium.","offline":"10,000 tracks per device on 5 devices; online every 30 days.","own_files":"Local files stored on the device.","keeps_downloads":"The account returns to the free plan, which downloads podcasts only."},"apple_music":{"free_tier":"No free plan; a few radio stations play without one.","hi_res":"Up to 24-bit / 192 kHz; above 48 kHz needs an external DAC.","own_files":"Up to 100,000 of your songs in the synced library.","keeps_downloads":"Catalogue songs become unavailable; music you owned before stays."},"deezer":{"free_tier":"With ads; limited skips on mobile outside some playlists.","hi_res":"FLAC up to 24-bit / 192 kHz since October 2026, depending on the track.","offline":"On up to 3 devices.","own_files":"MP3 upload on the web, up to 2,000 tracks, paid plans only."},"tidal":{"hi_res":"FLAC up to 24-bit / 192 kHz.","offline":"In the phone app.","own_files":"TIDAL Upload is for music you hold the rights to, not a personal library."},"youtube_music":{"free_tier":"With ads, no background play and no downloads.","lossless":"AAC or Opus up to 256 kbps; lossless is not mentioned.","offline":"With Premium; online every 30 days.","own_files":"Up to 100,000 uploaded tracks, offline even without Premium."}},"years_title":"{years} years of a subscription","years_body":"What one person pays over {years} years for the {count} services whose French price we could read, at today's price and with no change to it.","range":"{min} to {max}","years_note":"Prices change; this is today's monthly price times {months}. WaveFlow is free, and the music you buy is a one-time cost that depends entirely on you, so we do not put a figure against it.","wins_title":"Where streaming wins","wins_intro":"Streaming is the better choice for a lot of listeners, and we say so plainly.","both_title":"You can do both","cta_desktop":"WaveFlow for desktop","cta_server":"WaveFlow Server","method_body":"Every fact about a service was read on its own pricing, plans, help or press pages on {date}; nothing comes from reviews or from memory. A row is yes only when an official page shows it, no when an official page rules it out, and not confirmed otherwise.","method_prices":"Prices are for France because a price only means something in one country. Deezer, TIDAL and YouTube Music show the price for the country a page is opened from, and ours opened outside France, so their prices are left as not confirmed rather than converted from another country. Deezer's own help article gives 11.99 euros for Premium, but for a partner offer and from figures of October 2025, so it is not counted.","method_waveflow":"WaveFlow facts come from its repository, at the {player} release.","tie":"Tie","tied":"Tied"},"__i18n_root":"3b3390b6"}