When they all started touting these services back in the 00’s I was like “Why are you morons falling for this shit for?!” Because that all the shit inherent to such a platform was gonna happen sooner or later. Then a few years later “QQ - my fav show got removed from the service and now I can’t watch it” or “XYZ got censored!” or “These services are getting worse all the time.”
The whole time, I’ve been sitting on my metaphorical Queen Anne’s Revenge and laughing at them. And of course, now that they all want to come back, I’m gleefully throwing down the gangplank!
We all just rent stuff now and it’s super annoying since the company decides when the rent is over, not us. Despite paying for the service each month, we have no say in what stays and what disappears.
Compulsory licensing for streaming should be a thing. It exists for radio, why not video? Let services get 1-2 years of exclusivity. After that it's fair game for any streaming service to stream it. All services pay into a pool that gets refistributed to the rights holders. We have been doing that for decades for radio, for the EU blank media tax, etc. It's a solved problem.
Minus the crypto (save for big maybe monero), I completely agree. I just don’t want to primarily support the middle men and would rather support the creators. I don’t mind giving them some money to distribute the media, but not even close to the lion’s share they get now.
It's sad how certain words and technologies get saddled with reflexive opposition even when it makes perfect sense to use them. Nuclear power is another example.
Spotify’s model is basically how can we screw everyone, and keep the maximum for ourselves. Bandcamp is probably a better example, where artists actually get the bulk of the sales.
Yea after The Verge got their new "look" I now read everything on there in reading mode, its a sh!tshow, the person responsible should be shot in the face with a cream pie
Blaming the shareholders is partly disingenuous. Yes the shareholder problem is real, but yes the corporation has power to address it directly. There is no law that says short term profit must be maximized.
And good riddance to the streaming services. We just don’t need them.
How come there can be laws about manufacturers not selling directly to consumers for cars where it makes no fucking sense but not for media where it might actually be beneficial.
Laws regulating TV shows? I just don’t see any need for it. We will all be fine without that media. Read a book or take a walk or browse free online media.
Of course simultaneous price increases suggest a possible antitrust issue, and that should be dealt with (but don’t cross your fingers) along with all the other antitrust issues in other areas.
Laws around content producers distributing their own content so we end up with every company with it’s own streaming service. That way we would have 3rd party ones that have all the content and we can choose based on platform features rather than content being held hostage.
I’m sure it would be difficult and maybe impossible to do in practice but I can dream right.
Isn’t that what cable channels were before? I guess some channels were owned by production companies (or at least co-owned), but a lot needed to be licensed. That’s still kind of the case with older shows on today’s streaming platforms, but the self-produced garbage does indeed seem to dominate.
Seems like for most people they would be better off cancelling most streaming services and only renewing for a month or two when enough new content is there rather than having multiple ongoing subscriptions.
Hey, let’s make a startup! We charge users fixed fee and in return give them account in ONE streaming service. They can choose which one but and change them every month.
This is still the major benefit over old cable services. It is trivial to cancel. You can cancel right after signing up again and ride out the month. Not so much with old cable packages.
I think many people are afraid that they’re always going to find content they want is on a service they just let lapse. That isn’t even a big deal, just renew it then, but if it isn’t then you save money.
Disney makes it a little more enticing because their bundle is cheaper than Hulu or Disney Plus on their own, but if all the stuff you watch on a month is on Hulu then you’re not saving anything by keeping the unused Disney sub.
18 years with Plex, and I have zero regrets. I always knew this age of streaming would sour sooner or later. I’ll admit, the good times lasted longer than I expected.
You know Plex is trying to become a streaming platform, right?
no they’re not. they’ve had streaming options for many years. you can also just turn it off. it’s very easy.
also… so what? they offer some streaming content alongside their media managements capabilities. people just like you have been crying foul over that for a solid decade, claiming that Something Bad™ would happen. Guess what? It hasn’t.
From someone who’s spent around 20 years with xbmc/Kodi. Even better, it’s free.
they’re free because they’re far inferior. they lack many features Plex has which my users and I use constantly. Same with Jellyfin… none of the alternatives can do all of what Plex does. not to mention that I strongly dislike the interfaces of the alternatives. they’re, at best, undercooked, unrefined. If they work for you, fine, but they don’t work for me.
Finally, Plex is also free. There is a premium tier that’s paid which includes a few premium features, but, as a Kodi/Emby user, it’s nothing you haven’t already been living without. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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