Title is misleading. This is about the “free” add-on perk to Amazon Prime that was added to make the price raises for Prime somewhat less offensive, similar to Amazon Prime Video.
This is not about Amazon Music Unlimited, which is their computer Apple Music and Spotify.
As expected. This is the default path, happened may times before starting with premium TV channels.
Yup! Amazon Prime Video starts showing ads in January unless you pay $2.99/month xtra (Dec 2023) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38776591 ...
If they had just raised the rate and left the service as it was, I'd only have been slightly annoyed at them. But to alter what I had, and then ask that same amount to put things back the way they were? That was a slap in the face.
There is only one way to stop this: Never subscribe, ever. No streaming, and no cloud. If you don't have the [unencumbered] file, it's not your media. Vote for a government that will levy hefty taxes on recurrent revenue model businesses when what is delivered could be delivered permanently in one transaction, like another sin tax. Vote for defanging DMCA and mandating implementation of open protocols for commercial…
This is why I have everything on CD, ripped to SSD. Pay once, play forever.
This is what Amazon did with Amazon Prime. I was paying for no ads, then they added ads and demanded a ransomm of $36/year to return to the no-ad experience I was already paying for. I cancelled Prime and vote with my wallet by not giving them money. I also had AWS cloud stuff. I pulled everything. I don't believe that should even be legal, and there is probably a regulation against it that just isn't being enforced because the like of Amazon vote with money, because corporations are people and money is speech. The entire economic system in the USA is designed to do one thing, and one thing only. Find every way possible to make sure money goes up from the poorest to the richest. Citizens United must go if we want to see adults running the country again in good faith and with common-sense regulations opn the wealthiest corporations, and those with monopolies. We we are seeing is what happens when capitalism no longer has gaurdrails to protect consumer. I'm not anti-capitalism, but I do argure that umnregulated capitalism is unsustainable, and regulation is necessary bot both the good of the corporations and more importainly, the midle-class down to the poorest amongst us. Consumer protection used to be a thing, but all of the agencies that were a bulwark against enshittification have been dismantled or destroyed completely. Corporations are not people, and money is not political speech. Enshittification couldn't happen the way it is now where there were things the Consumer Saftey Board and other organizations that made sure there's no lead in your kids toys.