Streaming services

Film and music services, from subscriptions and public film archives to stores where you buy music outright. When we judge an ethical streaming service, we look at who owns it and how much of your money reaches the people who made the work.

For music, Bandcamp takes 15% of digital sales and banned AI-generated music in January 2026; the trade-off is its 2023 sale to Songtradr, which then laid off half the staff. For film, BFI Player is run by the BFI, a UK cultural charity, at £6.99 a month, with free archive films too.

How we choose: we check every service against the 6 principles in our manifesto (who owns it and how it makes money, what it collects, how it treats people, honesty, openness and staying power). Last checked on 13 October 2026.