Nearly 75% of Americans are frustrated that the streaming platform they subscribe to keeps raising their prices. With 40% having cut back their streaming subscriptions in the last three months due to financial concerns and rising costs of living.
These companies continue to raise prices, hoping inertia will prevent most people from switching. This is true not only for streaming sites but also for all these platforms.
We need to move away from businesses that exploit their monopolies and try to get your content or goods directly, where possible.
Some alternatives you can check out…
Media:
- Nebula
- Dropout TV
- Corridor Digital
Music:
- Qobuz (buy directly from artists)
- Soundcloud (artist-driven)
- Bandcamp (buy directly from artists)
The same principle applies to Uber, Amazon and many others.
So how come Netflix have more subscribers each time ? Because last reports where like look, Netflix has more subscribers now. Something does not add up.
Correct me if I’m wrong
2 guesses:
First time subscriber pool refreshes every year. Teens and young adults moving out on their own for the first time or college kids getting a subscription while away from home. Most of these people will likely drop their subscription within 6 months as prices keep increasing while catalog doesn’t add enough content to make it worth it.
Secondly, Zoomers (and to lesser extent Millennials) don’t subscribe year round but rather one month subscriptions a few times a year to binge watch new shows they want to watch. Netflix doesn’t have to say how many of their subscriptions were for the whole year or how much per quarter, so they can report x million subscriptions even if the total sub time paid for was much lower.
Could they be lying? How would we know
It could be possible I guess. I was asking my self yesterday how the market and their subscribers would react in bad news. I would say negative.
It’s nice to watch tv or a film and listen to music but you don’t need to download an app as and alternate to downloading another app. There are other non-online alternatives like mp3 players and dvd’s. This keeps you one step removed from the greedy “tech bros”.
MP3 player eh? I still remember my violet blue RCA Lyra.
Yup. I found the mp3 player in a bin for five bucks. I don’t know the brand. I’m able to convert any CD’s I rent from the library to mp3 files so this is a way to get newer/different music without being tethered to, or ball and chained by, a “connection”.
I’ll throw in a recommendation for a Surfans F20. Cheap, powerful, no moving parts, dead easy to repair. And it can use Rockbox!
If you think that’s cheap then wait until you see this bad boy
Pass. Those are cheaply made and cheap. I’ve had ones like those in the past, and they’re crap. Plus “up to 32GB”.
I love that you included the alternatives instead of just identifying the problem. So many posts tell you what’s shitty without helping you know what to use instead.
I used to use bandcamp exclusively because I don’t listen to a lot of big artists and I had some lovely interactions. I asked a band called Roommate for the lyrics to a song called ghost pigeon and they actually replied. It was very sweet. Couldn’t tell what the hell they were saying.I cancelled every subscription except Netflix because my mom uses that. I steal exes’ subscriptions until I get kicked off when they eventually notice hehe, not sorry.
I am not ready for whatever it is you are trying to teach me <3
Yes. I would.
Don’t tell me whether I
Jellyfin is really easy to setup and use. Just sayin’…
There should be a starter pack for newcomers :) “Here you go, a collection of the top 100 movies and top 10 tv shows!”
Arrrrr
Strongly disagree. Lemmy keeps suggesting Linux too, but most tech illiterate casual users can’t handle that level of DIY tech. This is even more true for self-hosting. This will be beyond the tolerance and competencies and interest of the vast majority of people.
I’ve got an excellently maintained Jellyfin, Arr’s, Usenet setup. My wife will not use it. She’s gone and paid for Netflix WITH ADS and would rather use that. Any network hiccups, any need for server restart, subtitles not synchronising (or not downloaded), or trying to install Jellyfin on a new device and being asked the server URL…all this instantly scares her away. Netflix shits itself far more than my Jellyfin setup does, but she knows how to restart the phone or TV, knows how to log out and log back in and is just generally more tolerant of an outside service being down rather than my server (my responsibility) not behaving right. I would say my Jellyfin works perfectly more than 98% of the time.
It is not like my wife is some freak, I’ve given Jellyfin accounts to a bunch of friends and my mother. None of them use it.
You’re right, but also, a little wrong.
Jellyfin server on macos is stupidly simple to get running for local access. Literally download the app, install it, click to launch the server app, and you’re good to go.
On linux, it’s more complicated because a tech illiterate person is gonna stumble starting with linux, and then docker, etc…, so your point does stand, but it can be stupid simple.
I can’t speak to Windows because I haven’t used it in years.
stremio it is then.
normies need to be spoonfed these days, luckily we have that too.
I tried using stremio a few years ago, was really difficult to find links that would not dirupt every 10 minutes. Wondering if things have changed now?
the secret is to find links with a lot of peers, and let it buffer and pick up download speed for a couple of minutes. i tend to use 1080p link instead of 4k too.
Not that it will solve all your issues but there’s an Arr stack app called Bazarr that will make sure you’ve got the subtitles you want automatically. Removes just one more impediment :)
Eh, a Windows box with Jellyfin installed. Whoever is the maintainer needs to be somewhat tech literate. IP addresses, folder navigation, torrenting, and vpn I think would cover a bare minimum setup.
But when users are on the same network, Jellyfin is not difficult to use from an end-user perspective. My kids can navigate Jellyfin on our Roku TV. My tech illiterate wife can navigate it on her phone.
For the maintainer, I speculate it’s a tradeoff of time and money. I save $70 a month, don’t have to navigate multiple BS streaming providers, and get to feel like I’m putting it to the man.
What I did is gave my wife the NZB360 app so she can download whatever she wants.
All series and movies are than synchronized between kodi and jellyfin. She find kodi a lot more user-friendly and logical than jellyfin. She’s not tech savvy at all but the combination of NZB360 and kodi works like a charm. We haven’t had any streaming services for the last 7 years.
The level of DIY needed to set up Linux Mint or Jellyfin is an essential life skill. It is sad that people are that afraid of putting the circle-shaped block in the circle hole, but that doesn’t make the recommendation incorrect.
Of course if someone is as illiterate as a grade schooler even as an adult, just telling them to fix it isn’t helpful. Something is holding them back from learning in a healthy way, and that blockage takes emotional support or even therapy to clear.
The level of DIY needed to set up Linux Mint or Jellyfin is an essential life skill
It really isn’t
People will spend more hours of their lives looking at screens than at the faces of their children. This is not some sort of niche expertise, this is a massive part of people’s lives. Their quality of life would increase so much if they could get over that psychological hurdle.
Installing Linux Mint is easier than driving a car. It’s easier than safely changing a lightbulb. It’s easier than assembling ikea furniture. It’s easier than navigating to this comment to reply to it. It’s easier than filing taxes and it’s easier than making a budget.
I understand people aren’t familiar with it, but please, for your own sake, get familiar with it. You will benefit from it for the rest of your life.
Are you talking about already having a perfect installation medium and knowing how to boot from it?
Because when’s the last time you had to create an installation medium? That’s obnoxious as hell even for a techie like me. You have to spend time knowing how to navigate all the locks they put on hardware these days. Not to mention researching what all the options on rufus or dd mean…
But are you willing to walk me through it?
Sure, but imagine an expert in reading recommends people who cannot read learn how to read.
Does he think it’s easier to learn than it actually is? Probably.
But does that mean reading is any less valuable of a skill, that you should forego it because it is harder than he thinks and anyway there’s TTS now? No.
What if I want to but can’t somehow? I’ve always struggled with tech stuff, and not in a completely tech illiterate boomer way. Google sends me in loops when I search something like that. Even searching VPNs only gets me best and worst ratings. I’m not dumb but I am exhausted and sad for personal reasons. I’d be willing to pay someone for a couple hours of setting me up. Do I go on fiverr and hire someone for something I should do for myself? Is it wrong that I want someone to do this for me, or is it the same as hiring a plumber for something I could theoretically do myself? Do I just crave having my hand held?
If my partner paid for something that had ads when we have higher quality the same thing available for free without ads, I’d get them medical help for brain broken.
I reverse proxy my jellyfin so for them it’s easy.
watch.domain.com or something like that
Mine is reverse proxied too. My wife has seerr with auto approval for her. The barriers are multiple and not well understood by us enthusiasts. There’s perceived complexity of use, unfamiliarity with the platform, choice paralysis (when everything on the world is at your fingertips), a longing for algorithm suggestions, etc etc.
Like I said, I’ve given user accounts to a bunch of people I know. For all these people I’ve installed the apps for them and logged in for them when I’ve been at their houses. They just need to launch the app and watch. I check server logs from time to time…none of them use it.
But my 5year old definitely uses it happily on his child account and has never had a problem. My 7 year old has accidentally uninstalled the Jellyfin app before and he came to me to ask “what does server URL” mean, I told him the login process once and he happily does it himself. Lack of understanding is not the problem for adults. Tech companies really have a grip on the population in making their services addictive.
My wife uses it occasionally bouncing between Disney and mine.
I did warn her that once our credit card benefits expire for Disney plus, I won’t pay for it.
However, I’ve already migrated her to Bitwarden and YubiKeys so mine is receptive of better security and open source alternatives.
Thankfully she’s pretty anti corporate and manages to keep up with the ever shifting target of digital sovereignty.
She also works far from the home during the week and has her own apartment… Which means that Disney does ban her occasionally due to mismatched IP address. Which further the cause of Jellyfin.
The MIL has jellyfin but I hardly see her use it.
It certainly isn’t the top movies but there is quite a bit of public domain stuff to be had. Just about every movie you ever saw in a dollar store dvd collection is public domain. Check out whats available on Archive.org for instance. Lots of old sci-fi and noir style detective movies etc.
Nebula and dropout are the only subscriptions I pay for. Love some Patrick Willems and some Irish anti capitalism rants from Brennan Wee Wulligan
Leaving this here for the next guy: https://www.nebula.tv/ https://www.dropout.tv/
There is always on-again, off-again drama with Bandcamp. While it’s generally not as bad as services like Distrokid or others, it’s always worth a bit of digging (and reading fine print) if you leverage any third-party service. They were also bought out by Songtradr some time last year or so.
@topsongattourney has a review of their TOS here: https://youtu.be/EywCOmOUreQ (probably a bit dated by now) While her style is a bit drama focused/click baity, she has worked with Benn Jordan and Venus Theory in the past which is a major plus for her reputation for me, IMHO.
(OP, I am not sure if the list of service providers you listed were in a positive or negative context by the way you worded the description, but that is probably just a “me” problem… Regardless, I 100% agree with the purpose and motivation of this post.)
Music services are always in a state of flux, so review everything before you distribute or sign-over any works. It seriously sucks that new producers have to basically be lawyers as a side-gig these days and has absolutely prevented me from releasing anything at all.
If you have access to hosting you could check out Faircamp. You can use it for both streaming and selling downloads to people directly. It’s pretty easy to use for a website generator 👍
Let me edit the original post to make this clearer!
Thanks for flagging the issues around Bandcamp. Music streaming options are a minefield!
for TOS i use: https://tosdr.org/en/service/609
How do they come to their conclusions? And how often do they adjust for updates? (If you know offhand, I’m sure I could find that info but I’m lazy atm)
they link the related documents at the bottom and if you hover over the little clock next to a point it shows when it was last updated
I bought a subscription to Shudder, as I like horror movies and there really aren’t many in other streaming services.
It’s like they want me to quit. Removing content, they rewrote the app to use custom components that break every accessibility feature, and they’re hiking the price. To give an example, they REMOVED the ability to see what language a movie is in or the genre.
What the fuck? It’s my only US based service, it’s terrible now.
No, they actually do want you to quit Shudder. AMC’s been trying to shutter it for over a year now, and I’m surprised it’s still up at the moment. They even cancelled JoeBob’s show, which was one of the few draws for Shudder overall.
Hell yeah Dropout!
Hell yeah, I think that was my first cata, all the way back on 3rd Mix!
Leaving this here for the next guy: https://www.dropout.tv/
Every time I see a headline saying “X% of Americans did a sensible thing”, my immediate reaction is “only X%?”
It said in the last 3 months. That seems nuts to me, like a crazy high percentage. Why now? Everyone i know who cut streaming cut it a long time ago
Ah. I did not read the article, so egg on my face. Yeah, in that case it’s pretty significant, even considering the known phenomenon of people who only subscribe for the duration of the run of something they want to watch.
Can vouch for Qobuz. You can buy DRM free high quality music as files, directly downloaded. Then you can listen anywhere.
The only reason I haven’t cancelled Netflix yet is that my kids watch a bunch of random stuff on it. Since they’re using a kids’ profile it doesn’t have ads, and since they browse for stuff ad-hoc it would be difficult to try to torrent and put on Jellyfin beforehand.
I’ve put all the movies my (primary school) age children could think of on my server, all the TV shows (Bluey, Sesame Street, Spider-Man, Teen Titans Go, etc etc) and also any YouTube they’ve been interested in (mostly video game playthroughs) downloaded and onto the server. Works out well to get a separate kids profile set up. Give it a shot.
I really ought to do that, although I also need to buy some more hard drives to make it happen 'cause I’m running out of storage space. That makes it an ongoing subscription cost vs. higher up-front cost issue too, not just an instant savings from cancelling.
Kids don’t need more than 1080. I don’t even get more than that for myself unless it is a particular movie I want to keep as a collectible an rewatch repeatedly. Most YouTube play through videos are 6 to 10 hours and I’m not going to waste space beyond 720 on those. Young kids don’t mind.
I get HBO for $3 a month.
How
Black Friday… OBVs
It’s probably “included” in a bundle that’s distributing the cost. My parents get “”“free”“” netflix and something else with a higher cable bill.
In this specific case she just doesn’t use it and pays for it outright (no cable) and is unwilling to cancel. She only watches TikTok snippets of Chinese dramas on her phone. There’s always a child screaming or someone about to be hit by a train for max drama. I worry about her. Having aging parents is weird
My mom’s been obsessively watching AI slop about “dr Sanji Gupta’s miracle pink gelatin” weight loss thing… this week, it’s an obviously fake Kathy Bates talking about how ozempic nearly killed her and thanks to close collaberation with “dr Gupta” shewas able to lose 150 pounds.
A. She was on mounjaro.
B. She openly credits her weight loss to lifestyle changes and working out for a solid year.
My mom doesn’t want to hear it. She just keeps watching this slop.
Omg that is so frustrating! Gotta laugh so you don’t cry I guess. It’s like they get stuck on a topic and can’t do anything else for a while.
My mom has really rigid thinking and finally got divorced, thank god, so she is all about doing whatever she wants all the time, with some odd results. I don’t want to control her, but I do get concerned when it feels outside the bounds of normal behavior. I see her often and try to challenge her beliefs because it feels like she reads something once and then believes it forever, if it’s from someone she views as an authority figure. She’s an engineer and not dumb or senile (yet) but has a hard time accepting new beliefs. The kind of person who thinks something is wrong because it’s illegal, and when I asked if the same thing would be right if it were legalized (gay marriage, weed, etc) she short-circuits. It isn’t even due to age because those conversations were half my life ago. Strange for me because I’m the opposite–every day I change my opinions . I tell her things I know a lot about and studied in my education that she paid for and she won’t listen, but will if a man tells her the same thing, e.g. using Metamucil, which I recommended but which she only adopted because a male coworker told her to. I push her a little because it’s good for your brain and I want her life to be as full as possible but I have to walk that line of making sure I’m not dictating.
Seems she puts herself in strict categories and can’t view life as ever-changing. She’s like an anti-Buddhist lol. Sorry for the personal rant you just struck a chord.
We’ll be dropping Netflix soon. Just want to watch a couple of things that I’ve had in my backlog and then they are gone. Their content does not justify their price point.
Eventually my neighbor will probably cancel their Netflix. Or change their password…
the only reason we keep ours is because we see our neighbor still watches it. fair trade for free plums.
FUCK PLUM SEASON IS COMING
