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Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

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Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#311

I disagree that we're at peak monetization (see what the price of a premium cable package used to be) Since you mention Spotify I'm super happy with it. It's basically everything I ever wanted consistently. Can recommend new music better than any person I know, and I can feed it any song that I and somebody else like as a radio station and get a pretty decent list of songs we both don't mind. Granted I don't listen t…

I’ve been a Spotify premium customer for years. For music discovery, they’re incredible. But I really hate two things about Spotify: 1. Sometimes music I have in playlists disappears, for licensing reasons. I understand the reasoning but it makes me irrationally angry 2. There’s still no way to remove playlists from the home screen. No, spotify, I still don’t want to listen to your Dad Jokes podcast. I feel like some…

> No, spotify, I still don’t want to listen to your Dad Jokes podcast. I feel like some bozo product manager has had a bonus package attached to podcast listens and he’s doing what he can to get more podcast listens, instead of making me (the customer) happy.

Two things I have an issue with when it comes to Spotify and podcasts:

1. Podcasts are _still_ open and distributed via RSS. They're probably the last medium to truly exist in this way in a mainstream fashion. With a company like Spotify "embrace, extend, extinguish", then putting podcasts behind a walled garden is a real risk. (Remember when Chrome was the cool and hip browser instead of an ad space?)

2. The annoying, pushy UX (you're making my music listening experience worse)

Given 2., it's hard for me to imagine that 1. isn't a wet dream of some myopic, OKR-obsessed product person at Spotify.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#312

I see no moral problem with file sharing. Personally it's rarely worth the hassle, though I occasionally convert a youtube video to and mp3 for niche songs I can't find on spotify. I'd say it depends on how you value your time and how difficult it is to find what you want. "Piracy" is the legitimate competitor of streaming services. It seems like we have had a period where streaming offered a better product, but havi…

Well interestingly enough, it really is developers that can make a great piracy user experience. Why don’t we?

It's probably easier and faster to explain and setup someone for torrent than to signup for netflix

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#314

I'm not going to speak about my personal practices, but I find the current landscape of streaming services unusable and unsustainable from a customer perspective. I share a Netflix and Prime account with my parents, and support for that is soon going to end. I don't feel like either of those services provide enough value to me to consider paying for them entirely by myself. The content is mediocre at best, finding an…

My household has one streaming service at a time. We have lists (shared reminder lists in iOS) that we make for whenever a friend mentions a good movie - it goes on the Apple TV list, or Disney plus list, etc. then once enough films build up (can take 2-6 months sometimes) we purchase a subscription and watch all those shows for one month.

Considering how frecuently movies (and third party shows) disappear from one platform to appear in other that seems hellish.

It's easier to pirate stuff.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My household has one streaming service at a time. We have lists (shared reminder lists in iOS) that we make for whenever a friend mentions a good movie - it goes on the Apple TV list, or Disney plus list, etc. then once enough films build up (can take 2-6 months sometimes) we purchase a subscription and watch all those shows for one month.

I'd love a website I could enter my account info for these streaming sites and turn each one on, one month at a time, with a click of a button. This would attract the ire of streaming companies though.

Realistically it’s already very easy to do this. Sure it’s not one click, but it takes all of 30 seconds.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#316
Not speaking personally, of course, and I do not like the word piracy, but.

The tech is on the side of those who wish to share. The idea of sharing is 100% identical to the entire point of libraries.

I have no problem with shaming and otherwise encouraging people into paying things that they should pay for if they can.

I have a huge enormous problem with directing law-enforcement and other restrictive and punishing actions to individuals for consuming things they want to consume, when the marginal cost to do so is zero.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#317
post #301

I pirate everything. Haven't subscribed to a service like Spotify, Netflix, etc. in many years. I can listen to my music in CD-quality and bring it anywhere. Same with any movie, TV show, etc. And I know that no one is selling what I find interesting as analytics data. At the same time, I want to support creators, and I'll donate/use services like Bandcamp to directly support folks I appreciate. I have a $100/mo "don…

I channeled the money I was spending on YouTubeTV into a seedbox that has 0 personal information about me, paid for with Monero (XMR). Much better bang for the buck and completely removes all the potential adverse legal effects that you could have by torrenting on your home / work connection.

I was happily paying a netflix and spotify sub for over a decade, but once we started getting greedy with Paramount+, AppleTV+, Discovery+, Peacock, etc. I decided it was high time to sail the seven seas again, which I hadn't done since college.

I keep waiting for all the netflix-likes to fail and people go back to just selling their content to netflix, but I don't think it's going to happen. I might be yaaar matey for the rest of my life.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#318

I don't think I would ever resort to piracy, as a middle aged guy with a family, the reward is not worth the risk to me plus I am lucky enough to be able to afford to watch what I want if I really want it. With that said the quality of options available on streaming services has really gone down. I am subscribed to Netflix, Prime, Disney+, Apple, Hulu and HBO Max; and there is nothing to watch. I am likely going to c…

> I am concerned with the channels attempts to front and center homosexuality targeted at kids

This is the first I've heard this complaint. Could you share some examples of this type of content and why it's concerning to you? I don't have Disney+ or kids.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#319
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, I canceled Prime a few years ago. I reasoned that if I needed the product fast then it would be faster to physically go to target or walmart. And if I didn't need it fast, then the default shipping would be fine. Their add-on services all felt lackluster too. Most of the prime video content is not well-rated.

What do they charge in the US? It costs me 3 EUR / month here in NL which is worth it. Amazon regularly either undercut or price-match other stores and for 36 EUR a year I get enough entertainment from Prime alone. Netflix is 15 EUR / month and I honestly just keep it for the kids + my wife..

In the US Prime Video is $9/month, full Prime is $15/month. I think it's half price for students.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#320
Honestly, I can't consume all the new media that's being created by all these services, so it's a waste to subscribe to more than one or two... I'd gladly pay $3-$4 to watch a movie once (even if it's just me watching), but when you see prices like $20 and $30 it means I need to turn it into a have friends over party to justify the expense. There's still a huge mismatch between the value consumers see and what Hollywood sees in movies - and as long as that gap persists it creates incentive for piracy.
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