ListenBrainz is used to track your music listening habits. So you just use whatever application you are using now, and submit the listening data to LB. This page should help you find if what you’re using now to play music is compatible with LB somehow. If you’re on Android I think you can use the ListenBrainz official app, but personally I have no experience with it, since I only listen to music on laptop/

Yes me too. I have no idea.

Yes I think it is like you describe.

Here is someone from MetaBrainz explaining why.

Yes, there is not a feature for private profiles. If your listening data is a privacy concern to you it’s better not to use LB.

MetaBrainz is a non-profit dedicated to open-source and open-data. So if people don’t like the algorithms LB has integrated, they can just build their own.

About not delegating your brain to machines, that’s a fair point, and I would encourage people to consciously choose where to use machines and where to use their brain. If you enjoy searching for music, it would be foolish to delegate it to a machine. For me personally though it’s usefull, using an algorith here allows me to spend energy on other things that are equally stimulating for my brain. I particularly like LBs ‘fresh releases’ feature, which gives you heads up about new releases by artists that you’ve listened to.

• Eavesdrop.FM, submits Plex music listening data to ListenBrainz
• phooks, a python script that submits local Plex listens using web hooks and file lookups

source: https://listenbrainz.org/add-data/

Fair enough, personally I don’t mind using algorithms as long as they are fully transparent

I agree on the social aspect lacking a bit. But who knows, ListenBrainz got better and better over the past years, perhaps with more users there will be more demand for social functionalities aswell, and perhaps they’ll be implemented in the future. LB was very rudimentary when I signed up, it’s nice seeing it grow and improve.