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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

#191

Post by Forgeties79 »

ivanbakel wrote: post #97
abejora wrote: post #81

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, f…

To play devil's advocate a bit: running software isn't free. If you're paying for an online service, the hosting cost to the company does scale per-seat. It's easy to say that the company only paid the cost of development once (and even then, more users = more development demand), but you're not a user of a single unit of developed software. For streaming services, I think the development-hosting needle swings way to…

That may be the case but they are getting so aggressive that I am constantly having to reconfirm devices within my own home. Luckily I just run my own server now but we have HBO for free with my cell plan so that’s the ones subscription we still have. I have to do email 2FA probably every 4th or 5th time we open it because it’s on “too many devices.”

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

#192

Post by Brendinooo »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #92
Brendinooo wrote: post #85

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…

Exactly, what we have now is vastly better than whatever existed before (in terms of convenience and price). Watch when I want, what I want, how I want, and never pay for anything I don't want and never see ads and never have to go somewhere to get it. I especially like not paying for sports to watch the few shows/movies I like. Some people who like to (legally) own media might be disappointed, though.

As someone who loves buying music - yeah, I hear that.

I just never really felt like the incentives were quite the same to purchase movies. They've always been constrained by their formats/vendors in a way that was never as true for music, they've always cost more, I don't rewatch movies as much as I'll re-listen to albums, and I think the...I dunno...nature, telos of movies lends itself better to ephemeral access.

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

#193

Post by sixtyj »

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…

Typography of these LLM-generated sites is bad.

Design is a question of taste, I am not commenting it.

But yes, you are right that we get tired of these sites as they are indistinguishable.

Have anyone tried to print or switch page to browser’s reader mode? Here starts hell :)

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

#194

Post by aba_cz »

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…

Also the dark theme is something not everybody likes. Especially with red-green inside. Think of color-blind people. My eyes are in pain from just trying to focus.

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

#195

Post by voidhorse »

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?

Our society overconsumes by insane degrees. TBH the world would probably be a better place if most people limited their consumption to what they could reasonably acquire on disk.

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

#196

Post by OGWhales »

dijit wrote: post #112
heaney-555 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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?

buy 13 songs a month, every month, for a year, and see how big your library is. Remembering that a song at full price on itunes store is $1~ and a monthly subscription to spotify is $13 There is a compounding effect, so buying my library as it is today will cost me about $300~, but that's because I've accumulated 300 songs over the course of about 12 years. (300/12) is about $25 per year. So the delta is $131... for…

I have 15 years worth of songs, account is less than 10 years old. Arguably I would be okay dropping some of those songs if I wanted to buy the songs. The biggest difference for me though is the issue of discoverability. It is very easy for me to find and save new songs on Spotify, it would be much harder for me to find the songs I like if I had to pay for them, especially since a lot of the songs I like are not just songs from popular artists but are often just one of two random songs from random artists. Is there a good middle ground here? I keep a copy of my song list in case I want to ditch Spotify but this is the main hurdle for me.

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

#197

Post by Forgeties79 »

crims0n wrote: post #54

Important context here is that many of these streaming services operated at a loss for years, and some still are. HBO Max didn’t turn a profit until 2023 and Disney only become profitable in 2024 after bundling with Hulu. AFAIK Paramount+ and Peacock are still in the red. Point being, the introductory prices for these services were always unsustainable.

They are the ones who set the market so that’s on them. They are the ones who set what people were willing to tolerate. If it’s not sustainable, then it’s not a good business. They aren’t entitled to existing.

Armchair theories on paramount and peacock, so take with a mountain of salt:

Paramount will probably stay in the red because they are overly-catering to conservatives (a little too much emphasis on baby boomers as well), narrowing their potential audience.

Peacock just doesn’t have enough going for it period. Weak library and not a real first tier consideration for folks

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

#198

Post by segmondy »

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.

I get Netflix HD free for 2 through Tmobile, Hulu for free from Spotify, for probably about 7 years. Peacock for free from Xfinity. HBO Max for $3 for 12 months when Amazon had prime sale last year. I get prime since I have Amazon prime.

you can stream for free/cheap if you lookout for deals.

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

#199

Post by machomaster »

voganmother42 wrote: post #152
BrissyCoder wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah same. I have an agent running on it, so whenever one of my kids asks to watch something that their friends have told them about it, provided it's not retarded, I tell the agent to go find it and it shows up on the kids TV. No monthly bullshit (apart from the AI supscription I pay for anyway). Automated piracy. I love it.

Using the word “retarded” in 2026, you sound smart

To try to tone police in 2026, you sound insufferable.

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

#200

Post by whstl »

immibis2 wrote: post #33
whstl wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want guaranteed future access, then this is probably the only online option that actually fulfills this guarantee... other than that, physical media.

Physical media isn't guaranteed to retain future access. There are protocols for players to update various bits of data from the newest disk you have ever inserted into them. The Nintendo Wii certainly does this, I'm not sure if BluRay does but I don't see why they wouldn't.

That's a great point. Something I forgot: I brought a couple DVDs when moving between countries and had a player block a couple of them... :/
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