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The same nine streaming subscriptions cost $702/year more than in 2021

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Re: The same nine streaming subscriptions cost $702/year more than in 2021

#81

Post by abejora »

We noticed this also for the online software services that we use. Many of them increased in price, which I can understand with rising costs. However, a large number of them also have/introduced a 'hostile' structure that force you into paying through the nose. Case in point was the timesheet software that we used:

* They increased the cost of all price tiers.

* They moved features from lower tiers to higher tiers, forcing you to pay more.

* And this all was leveraged via "per seat" pricing. So a modest increase in price quickly becomes a lot, simply because of the multiplicative nature of per-seat pricing.

This per-seat pricing is especially absurd to us. To run the software it makes little difference whether there are 3 users or 6 users, yet the total cost of those 3 additional users was an additional 500 dollars! This got so out of hand that we decided to build our own timesheet software, which we now happily use. I have always seen software as the promise that you only need to build it once, and can reuse and leverage it many times over to reduce your costs. However, this does NOT seem to be the case anymore.

You see the same in streaming services: limits on the amount of devices you can have in your family, moving features into higher cost tiers, and so on...

Re: The same nine streaming subscriptions cost $702/year more than in 2021

#82

Post by walrus01 »

jbs789 wrote: post #76
walrus01 wrote: post #57

From an aesthetic point of view, I am getting pretty tired of this obviously LLM generated static site content template design in 2025/2026. 98% of the time when I see one of these it's a bunch of "content" generated by Claude or similar. Quoting the site: "Written by Rashid N. Rashid N is the editor of HonestlyRanked. He reviews every figure this site publishes against its source before it goes out, and has never ac…

Yeah it was interesting to me that I identified it immediately. Perhaps been spending too much time w/ Claude It's capable of many different designs but this site tells me Rashid didn't even bother.

New proposal for LLM-on-LLM wars: Have an automated system that retrieves every front page URL link on HN and feeds it into a "smart" LLM for analysis of whether or not the site html, css, JS and general template layout match that of a known LLM generation engine. Then give it a "probably vibe coded slop" rank number. If you can't beat 'em, let them fight...

Re: The same nine streaming subscriptions cost $702/year more than in 2021

#83

Post by icantevenhold »

heaney-555 wrote: post #48
OroPla wrote: post #25

I am still happy with my decision to never get entertainment subscription services. I buy CDs (that I rip) and BDs (that I let someone else rip, since that's a science in itself). This guarantees me access forever and I get to sell down the line, if I feel like it. It is way cheaper long term.

>It is way cheaper long term. How few songs do you listen to, and movies/shows do you watch, for this to possibly be true?

Tbh just recently I found the full extended version box set of LotR on DVD just lying on the street together with ~dozens more decent movies. I could probably fund my viewing habits entirely out of found stuff.

As for music; my dad ripped his whole CD collection many years ago, many thousands of CDs; more than I could listen to in a lifetime probably.

Plus I buy music on bandcamp to support a few artists I really like.

Paying for streaming services is just fueling the wholesale of our culture or worse the military industrial complex

Re: The same nine streaming subscriptions cost $702/year more than in 2021

#84

Post by Pavilion2095 »

ahmedfromtunis wrote: post #35

Any price comparison over time should include inflation. Otherwise this is akin to comparing speed of 2 objects in a relativistic setting without stating the frame of reference. Side note: I don't know why, but the existence of a "cite this" section on this page made me sad.

Inflation isn't accurate variable because salaries of many people are lagging behind inflation.

Re: The same nine streaming subscriptions cost $702/year more than in 2021

#85

Post by Brendinooo »

Still a great ecosystem and value for dollar overall! That's one reason why prices have gone up.

No long-term contracts, no additional hardware needed, no hidden fees. Still the option to not see ads for most of the services. You can freely jump from service to services.

Plenty of promos out there still, too: for example, I get $10 back per month on an ad-free Disney/Hulu/ESPN bundle through my credit card. That plan costs me about $31/month: $31 doesn't buy me a meal out with my family, it doesn't buy me a single football ticket, it might get me into one movie with the family if I do some cheap matinee (not counting gas to drive up and snacks).

Re: The same nine streaming subscriptions cost $702/year more than in 2021

#86

Post by anticorporate »

heaney-555 wrote: post #48
OroPla wrote: post #25

I am still happy with my decision to never get entertainment subscription services. I buy CDs (that I rip) and BDs (that I let someone else rip, since that's a science in itself). This guarantees me access forever and I get to sell down the line, if I feel like it. It is way cheaper long term.

>It is way cheaper long term. How few songs do you listen to, and movies/shows do you watch, for this to possibly be true?

Some of us owned thousands of albums (or movies, or shows) on physical media before the legal streaming party even started.

Personally, I also listen to a lot of ad-free college radio and watch a lot of online videos. Depending on what type of entertainment you enjoy, it's really not hard to pay next to nothing for it without compromising.

Re: The same nine streaming subscriptions cost $702/year more than in 2021

#87

Post by jbs789 »

bnastic wrote: post #44
nottorp wrote: post #27

Ok a price increase but: "nine streaming subscriptions". No one sane will do nine streaming subscriptions. The market is insane in itself for assuming that.

Apple Music, Netflix, Disney+, BBC. That's four. I don't want any of them. Three I have to take due to kids' nagging, the fourth I have to take due to state apparatus' nagging and legal threats.

The TV license is insane to me, as a non-brit moving to the uk. I am happy to pay a reasonable price for something I use. But the threats I get about a GBP 1,000 is very un-british. I don't know who runs the TV licensing scheme but they need to be sacked. Thankfully if you can look past this gamesmanship then it is possible to call them and decline to participate in this nonsense.

Re: The same nine streaming subscriptions cost $702/year more than in 2021

#88

Post by matkoniecz »

heaney-555 wrote: post #48
OroPla wrote: post #25

I am still happy with my decision to never get entertainment subscription services. I buy CDs (that I rip) and BDs (that I let someone else rip, since that's a science in itself). This guarantees me access forever and I get to sell down the line, if I feel like it. It is way cheaper long term.

>It is way cheaper long term. How few songs do you listen to, and movies/shows do you watch, for this to possibly be true?

How much I would need to pay to get on Spotify songs not available there?

Re: The same nine streaming subscriptions cost $702/year more than in 2021

#89

Post by vehemenz »

jbs789 wrote: post #66
ahmedfromtunis wrote: post #35

Any price comparison over time should include inflation. Otherwise this is akin to comparing speed of 2 objects in a relativistic setting without stating the frame of reference. Side note: I don't know why, but the existence of a "cite this" section on this page made me sad.

This site is showing you inflation! The relevant comparison would be your individual wages.

Showing the CPI next to these price increases wouldn’t hurt. If anything, it shows the problem with a single measure of inflation.

Re: The same nine streaming subscriptions cost $702/year more than in 2021

#90

Post by ozgung »

delegate wrote: post #56

BitTorrent: 0% increase. Just saying.

In the old torrent days I was only watching classical masterpieces and top level world directors. In the streaming era I only watch mediocre straight-to-streaming movies, few popular TV series and too much reality TV that I'm not proud to watch.
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