What about them?
If I purchase music, it's because I want to listen to that music.
Whether that's Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Lari Basilio, Nick Johnston or anyone else, what business is it of yours (or anyone else, for that matter) how or where I listen to the music that I've purchased?
This is the first I'm hearing about Funk Whale and I fully intend to install it, as I've been looking for a decent self-hosted, streaming music server to listen to music owned by me.
It's likely that it won't meet my needs and I'll move on to something else.
I suppose that just about any music streaming server could be used to take food out of the mouths of the starving children of musicians.
Rather than assuming (as it appears you are doing) that everyone who uses a self-hosted streaming server is engaged in stealing from musicians, please let us (me, especially) know what platform you would recommend as a personal streaming server.
I'd really appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!
Absolutely not saying everyone will use it in a way that devalues creativity as a living, you rightly used the word 'seems'.
The interconnectedness of digital content ultimately stifles competition. It means less chance of you ever hearing the next Jimi Hendrix. Given there are about 7 billion people and there's only been one Jimi convinces me this is true. Of course there have been, and are, many Jimis, but you'll likely never get to appreciate them. Maybe you're ok with just Jimi and all the stuff already out there. If so, maybe music isn't so important to you.
You have the right attitude to the software. I don't want to suggest an alt here. I'm talking more broadly. I would ask you to think about this from the reverse perspective, and if it is whatever it is you do to make a living could be made once, and distributed for free to the effect you couldn't do it anymore - is the point.