Unskippable ad
Amazon just informed me that my paid music subscription will soon include ads and lose downloads.
I've had Prime for years and mostly used Prime Music for podcasts because it was included. Just got an email saying they're adding ads and removing downloads unless I upgrade to Music Unlimited.
Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but paying for a subscription and then being told I need another subscription to keep the features I already had is getting a little ridiculous.
exactly. I have now started buying DVDs again. If you're looking for classics, they are all so cheap at flea markets or even online. So many things are just not available streaming if you don't have 10 subscriptions, or not available at all (Germany) or only availabled dubbed (X-Factor only in German? first 3 seasons of silicon valley in original langauge but fourth in German suddenly ? - that's amazon Prime).
Just cancelled all my subscriptions and pulled out my DVD collection.
I figure instead of spending on subscriptions I'll go buy a handful of DVDs and CDs every month. Support the small used game/video store in town, while also saying fuck you to the corporations, AND forever owning my own collection.
Next step will be putting them all on hard drives and getting it on personal cloud server that I can stream directly from myself.
ETA: wow this blew up. Thanks for the award?! Thanks for the library suggestion, my public library definitely has DVDs - I hadn't even thought of that. Also thanks for the server suggestions!
That requires time and effort on your part, though. I've had these thoughts when clearing out books I'm unlikely to ever read again, in raw monetary terms selling them myself via Amazon or Ebay is probably much better than using one of these 'we buy books' services who may offer you as little as £0.20 for a book, but they save me a lot of time and that has its own value. I scan all the barcodes, stick the books in a box and they send a courier to pick it up, then they inspect the books to make sure they're in a sellable state and pay me. That's it. No faff on my end listing the items, getting packaging materials for individual books and trips to the post office or dealing with issues if something goes wrong in transit or with customer payment.
Same here. I actually felt stupid when i watched some old favorites are realized thanks to compression ive basically been watching 1080p at best for YEARS when i could have been watching 4k.
Weve cut down from 5 streaming services to 1 over the last 6 months or so. Every box set we add to the collection is another subscription we dont need.
Ive broken out my DVD recorder and im going to record stuff i dont like enough to buy and then its goodbye hulu.
It's contractor esque pricing. They don't want to offer it anymore at all, but they'd lose face to remove it entirely, so they price it such that almost nobody takes them up on it (or they get an insane amount of money to deal with those that would).
That's what I did during COVID. I have hundreds of CDs, DVDs, and Blus, and spent the days (while working) ripping everything at disc quality onto a NAS, then set up a Plex server.
My favorite thing about Plex is putting the app on a Roku Stick and traveling with it. Just plug the thing into the hotel TV, get it running on hotel wi-fi, and I can stream my own stuff remotely like I never left home.
Same here. I recently spent $50 and got 3 full TV series that I enjoy watching and like a dozen movies. No worries about the licenses being removed for them! I canceled Prime, Netflix, and Peacock. I still have Paramount+ and the Disney/HBO bundle because we watch a lot on there, but I'm looking at getting an antenna now.
20 euro for a collection of like 8 classic French movies from a small independent shop here recently. And plenty of 1-3 euro DVDs like the matrix etc from flea markets.
It's crazy that the prices for digital versions of old movies is so high. I love that we can get the older movies and just plop them into the DVD binder and not have to worry about doom scrolling trying to find something to watch
I sell stuff at conventions and have been selling my DVD collection to declutter. I love the reaction of younger people when they get so excited to see physical media.
They already have for me. I don't have a single subscription to these large companies anymore. They only subscriptions I have is for VPN and a private IPTV service for live TV that has every channel in existence, every sports package too. It's $12 for 3 months and works flawlessly. Every thing else is torrented.
Just fyi, everyone is cagey about sharing the IPTV service they use. If you post on relevant subreddits you'll start getting spammed by bots pushing their own service, which may or may not be scams. Not an easy thing to get into, but good luck.
Yeah I've never used one so new to me, but might be interested. We don't really watch live tv but we pay for paramount+ just to get jeopardy, for instance. Would probably be cheaper.
Also, most IPTV services have an on-demand service that goes along with the live tv. For instance the one I use has like 30,000 movies and TV shows on demand. It's a good idea to do the free trial to check it out before committing
I'm sorry it's a private server and I can't really name it for risk of it getting shut down.
What I would recommend is looking up which IPTV server has the most users on discord, if it has a lot of users on discord there's a good chance a lot of people use it meaning it's a good one. And then go to that servers discord page and check out reviews and whatnot. Most IPTV servers also have a free trial you can try.
I still remember my sister basically pleading with me to not make a noise so she could hold her phone to the radio speaker to have some garbage song be her ringtone where you could barely make out the noise being made when it rang. (I imagine the song was fine, but my sister liked it so it’s automatically dookie.)
Might I recommend you a generic older smartphone instead? I tried buying an mp3 player but nowadays they are ridiculously expensive (>$100). I bought an old smartphone for like $40 and it does everything I want and then some. I went with an old generation ipod touch for a long time but screen's cracked so much my fingers bleed lol.
Already there! I use a private torrent site and then Plex to stream movies/shows to all of our devices. It takes a whole 30 seconds to get any recently released movies.
Plex is an absurd $750 for a lifetime pass now so at the very least the people that understand an increase in their services is occurring are all to happy to jack up prices themselves to monetize on people's anti-institutionalist feelings.
I'm glad I snagged the lifetime pass for $85 a couple years back. $750 is basically them saying "we don't wanna offer a lifetime pass, but since we have to, we're going to make it unaffordable/terrible deal for 99% of our user base."
Why do you think they're bribing politicians left and right to remove anonymity from the internet, ban VPNs, etc? They want to be able to kick you off the internet if they even suspect you've pirated a song or movie in their catalog. Lifetime ban.
We're already there on the TV side. If you want to watch all the current popular shows, you need to spend $100 a month minimum, closer to $200 if you want less ads (not all give you the option to skip ads).
If people keep rewarding this greed with their money, then it will continue until they don’t. Sadly it seems people are willing to tolerate this and more, so it’s gonna continue enshittifying for the foreseeable.
Note that many libraries also include access to the Hoopla app, which can be downloaded to some smart devices as well. So you may very well be able to check out a movie and watch it without ever leaving your couch.
When Netflix stopped allowing you to share your account I dropped them on principle even though I wasn’t sharing my account with anyone. I read so many other people saying they did the same. Since then the price has what, tripled? It’s like they lost a bunch of money from people canceling their accounts so they just jack the price up for everybody willing to stick with them. I’m honestly astonished that people are still paying for it! I had an ex-boyfriend paying I think it was $25 for Netflix that is insane to me! They are like twice the price of any other streaming service, it’s nuts.
It seems like every service is doing this lately. "We know you already pay for premium, but now there's ads and limitations, so you have to pay for PREMIUM PREMIUM to get rid of them". Then, in a few years, they'll have PREMIUM PREMIUM PREMIUM.
People get pretty turned off by the first episode but I think it sets the tone for the level of discomfort that you feel in different ways throughout the series.
Im still way behind at like s4 i think, but its crazy how unsettling those episodes can be. And the reason being how close it shows we are to such a sad reality
Amazon management: "Well you see, PremiumPrimeCubed puts us in a good position for Q4, looking ahead into Q1 and Q2, creating value in the emerging ad-forward sector."
You need the Premium Plus account to get rid of ads. Then once that has ads you'll need the Premium Plus Gold account to be ad free. Then once that gets ads you need the Premium Plus Gold Supreme package. And then.....
That's the problem. They assume more ads, will inevitably produce more purchases.
They also determined that showing ads to people on free or cheap plans was counterproductive. They obviously don't have the money to spend.
So they've started going after the people with money to drop on higher end plans. /S
They assume more ads, will inevitably produce more purchases.
110 upvotes. I'm slowly starting to understand the "redditor" insult more and more every day because lmao.
Yeah, companies are spending billions every day worldwide on ads, but this one sarcastic redditor that has no experience with ad systems has it figured out - ads don't actually work.
Right?? I think people live in their own little bubbles and don't realize that the purchasing decisions that individuals make vary so so so so so wildly. Just because you and your friends may act one way doesn't mean there aren't 100 million people that think and act extraordinarily different than you lol
The main purpose of an ad is for you to associate a brand name with a product. On the occasion where you do need something and your first thought is a specific brand of that product that's advertising working.
I’m not saying I’m immune to advertising in general; but if you really annoys me with your product/service, it’s very likely that I will remember your brand name.. so I can ignore it and look for alternatives (only if I ever need something similar), such as a certain website that sell Chinese products that spammed me on YouTube for months.
Also doesn't work. I buy what's cheap. Toilet paper I usually go midrange store brand, once cottenelle was on sale and OH GOD IT WAS SO GOOD but if it's not cheaper than midrange storebrand? Not getting it. Just gonna sadly check for that coupon for the rest of my days 😂
Exactly this. Ad science is refined, effective, and sometimes sneaky. Everybody thinks that they are immune to ads, they are not. The most effective ones you don't even notice.
I saw an interview from somebody who did advertising at Disney. When the movie Finding Nemo came out, they had been running an ad campaign for months before hand to drum up interest in the movie. However, the ads weren't adds. They added "fun fish facts" interstitials and segments on cool ocean life to their programming, so kids would be interested in fish and want to see the movie. They had been constantly bombarding them with advertising and they never even knew it was happening.
A natgeo segment about cool ocean life isn’t the same as interrupting my show/music every 7 minutes to play a 2 minute ad break about some fuckass drug/dumb knickknack/overpriced car I’ll never buy. Or if I was, it won’t be because they stopped what I’m trying to enjoy to show it to me. Companies should just prioritize SEO so that one day when I google “item X for sale” their stuff shows up. I will NEVER buy anything that is shown to me via an ad.
That's my point. There is a lot more to advertising than just those ads. Ads like that serve a specific purpose, but there are many others.
People said the same thing about audible when it was the big advertiser all over the place. Their numbers will show you that the ads did, in fact, work, and they worked very well.
You can say you'll never buy anything shown to you via an ad, but I can absolutely guarantee you already have unless you just don't buy things. There aren't many companies out there with an ad budget of 0.
“Let’s take some of the research we did about ocean life for our story about ocean life and produce some quick educational content about ocean life to add to our shows that generates interest in stories about ocean life so when our movie about ocean life comes out, people will want to see it” as a consumer ad blitz psyop feels like the Key and Peele sketch about robbing a bank.
My parents fall for this crap all the time. But they are from a different generation. I’m a millennial and I LOATHE ads. I use Adblock on my PC, pirate everything, and shop predominantly at locally owned businesses who don’t have the budget for annoying ads.
Seeing an unskippable ad for something makes me immediately not want to buy it. Its like driving and seeing a billboard but instead of glancing at it you are required to park in front of it for 30 seconds before you can keep driving
Correct me if I'm wrong but this can only go so far right? Like, I don't enjoy cheetos enough to buy them and no amount of advertisements for them will make me get a bag.
They can only influence me within the sphere of things I would have interest in already. I think this line of thinking is why people believe it doesn't work. they assume the goal is to get them to buy things they wouldn't have otherwise.
At least that's why I thought it didn't work on me at one point.
Yes but that is also why data is such a hot commodity.
It's all for targeted advertisement so that if you don't like cheetos, you won't get the cheetos ad as often. But you will also still be aware of it if you want to try or if buying for someone else too.
Its creating a series of "if then" statements designed to target you. If you like soda, then here are ads for new flavors or brands on the shelves. Whereas the person that prefers flavored water will gets ads for those brands.
Its the exact thing cable TV did. Was originally sold as ad free TV at a cost. Then cable tv started putting ads and asking us to pay more to just fast forward the commercials...
The ads I get but the download thing would be highly annoying. I have Playlists on YouTube Music downloaded for offline listening and offline Netflix content for traveling.
Removing the ability to download offline would be a deal breaker and I'd stop being a customer.
Especially for channels where they have ads popping up during the vid, and it pops up based on irl time and not video-watching time (i.e. if there's an ad every 5 minutes, if I have the vid paused for 4 minutes, YT is gonna show the ad after about 1 min of video time).
Health services are already the big thing, and you’re right - it’s going to get worse. Within the past few years, the number of teledocs who prescribe glp-1s with the “first three months $149” then the price skyrockets to $349 - $600/month has increased exponentially.
Ads on their music service would be massively unpopular. That would be a day 1 unsubscribe for me. That would definitely encourage me to get myself a network drive and stream from there.
I'm close to just canceling Prime all together. I rarely even shop on Amazon anymore, their video platform sucks and has horrible originals, and now they're further enshitifying their music platform.
I cancelled about 3 years ago and decided to generally avoid Amazon. I expected it to be difficult but it's turned out to be surprisingly easy. They are rarely the cheapest overall. They are only useful for the occasional odd item but you can usually find that on ebay or aliexpress more cheaply.
Pro tip: if you really really really need something and can only find it on amazon do what I do...
Put it in the cart and hit the buttons as if you're going to buy it. At some point you will (most likely) get hit with a "1 week trial of prime for $3.99" offer. Buy it, then buy the items, then cancel and get a refund on the prime trial right away. It's not a 100% refund but you'll only end up spending about $0.40 for a few minutes of prime rather than the full week.
It's not about the $3.60, it's about being petty. And when it comes to scamazon I'm petty af.
Canceled it a long time ago and haven't had a second thought about it. You still get free shipping on orders over $35, just maybe a day or 2 later. There's no reason not to cancel.
I cancelled prime 6 months ago. I still use Amazon because I have to, but as long as my purchase is $35+ I still get free shipping. But they try and trick you to pay the 6.99 shipping so you have to manually select the free shipping option. And it’ll say it’ll take 5 days for you to get your package, but I often get them anywhere from 1-3 days. And once you do a $35 order, your shipping is free for the next 24 hours.
Funny when I don’t have prime they wait until the day before it’s supposed to arrive and then ship it. Like they make sure I won’t get my package any quicker than if I had prime.
Whenever I order a package on Saturday , it always gives me like a 5 day window for delivery, it always shows up the next day on Sunday. And I live in the middle of nowhere so it’s quite odd that I always get those orders super quick.
When I’m ordering during the week, it’ll be anywhere from like 2-3 days before I get it. Sometimessss it’ll be longer
Have you heard about... Stremio? Glorious program, it lets you stream movies/series directly from torrents, like PopcornTime. If you can find it in the Bay or other torrent sites, it's most likely there. No need for Amazon Prime, Disney+, Netflix, Hulu or whatever.
Used it for years. As far as I know, you can download the app on adroid, pc's and Chromecast. No need for account/signing up, but it makes it easier.
Stremio isn't a site. It's just a content delivery app that you still need a source to stream from, like Netflix or Prime Video. However, you can use Torrentio (free extension but with some issues) or pay a small amount for RealDebrid and use that with Stremio. It's next level streaming experience ngl
No problem! Just remember to download the plugins ThePirateBay+ and Torrentio. if I recall correctly you need them for most torrents, if not you just get the option to buy/rent from whichever streaming platform has that movie/series.
I spend way less on Amazon without free shipping. I just don't impulse buy things under $35. The only nice thing about prime were the occasional free weekly membership deals to non shitty video streaming services.
Damn straight. I ditched satellite TV about 10 years ago and now I just steal everything I watch and listen to, and I encourage everyone else to do the same. Fuck these corporations.
I’ve been using a YouTube to MP3 converter since the early 2010s. Doesn’t cost me a dime and I can download anything I want. Usually at a quality comparable to the streaming services.
I dont know about you guys but I've been truely cord cutting these shitty companies just trying to take our money! I only buy 2 streaming services at a time and if i cant find anything I wanna watch, I cancel then start a subscription elsewhere. Or Pirate that shit but absolutely done giving these people money!
most people stream music from a phone and with limited storage space that means you are now limited on what you can actually listen to when competing with your photos and videos. Add to this the time and hassle of finding and downloading .mp3 files and the lack of easy discoverability options when not in the streaming ecosystem where endless songs are available at just the tap of your finger and its obvious why people pay for streaming music.
When phones have upwards of 128gb of storage? The fuck are you on about? I have had less storage on plenty of my PCs over the years and had plenty of space for days of video and weeks of music. I remember nearly 20 years ago, upgrading to a 512gb drive in my PC being a game changer for the weeks of video I had on there.
It's too bad for people that memory costs have soared over the last couple of years. Thank god I got that 4TB 990 on prime day just before the Liberation Day tariffs went into effect.
Unfortunately it is rarer and rarer to find microSD card slots in phones now. You would figure the higher end stuff would have room for more storage. "Fuck you and your storage white girl!" said Apple at some point.
Just like the said, "Fuck you, get bluetooth and like it!"
All the other idiots now accept the lack of features as gold because Apple said so. I fucking hate that company more than I did in 2010 when their enshitification drive started at a slow burn. It is too bad. They make high quality hardware and their OS tends to be very lean and very reliable. They make what you want, then they take it away and tell you that you never wanted that to begin with.
edit: 1080p on a phone is also silly. That screen is fucking tiny. 720p might even be overkill on a 5"-8" screen. If I need to worry about pixel shots on a screen for gaming, I am using a bigger and better screen. I love casual gamer. I love hand held gaming in it's new golden age. You are not making pixel shots on that screen without some cheat mode software enhancement. "buh-bu-bu-but the 3rd world deserves good video service too!" Yeah, and no one is noticing that 1080p vs 720p on the budget phones that get into the back woods and there is generally not enough cell coverage to make that possible in much of the 3rd world. I watched plenty of TV at 720p over the last decade on a 27" 1080p screen. 4k pixel density is just stupid at such a small scale. CMV
No, they’re paying for 2-day shipping on amazon orders. Amazon just happens to have this shitty music app on the side that they are now charging for instead of giving for “free” with the prime subscription.
I'm going to start downloading and storing my music again, like I did in the 2000's.
The whole point of streaming was to be cheap and convenient. If it's getting too expensive to keep your service cheap, just reduce the audio quality, don't force ads on us.
I've had prime since it came out in 2005. So, over 20 years now.
I cancelled it this month.
Price went too high for what I use it for (free shipping).
Extra crap they added and said thats why the price went up because of all the extra "value" i never used except prime streaming occasionally.
If you sit and really think about this for 2 seconds the current system sucks so bad. It prioritizes quantity over quality. They're pushing down the (criminally unpaid) real artists to promote AI slop artists just to make even more money. They are totally okay embracing enshitification because they don't care about your experience, the artists, or music in general.... They care about shareholder value and maximizing profit. It's fucking sick man.
I went back to buying albums just a few years ago and deleted Spotify and I honestly appreciate the artists and music so much more. I feel like I listen to whole albums again and try and appreciate and understand what the musicians are doing. There are no ads. There are no rate limits or buffering. They can't take away the album I purchased when their license ends. The money (largely) goes to the artists. I didn't realize how much they had corrupted the enjoyment of listening to music. One day you notice and realize it's so not worth it and you just bail - godspeed.
Dude what. When I was a kid, I was averaging something like €20 per one fucking song because every motherfucking band realized they only need one good song per album and the rest can be bullshit filler.
I'd rather go back to travelling bards playing folk songs on hurdy-gurdies than having to pay for albums.
Honestly, Apple Music has by far been the most affordable and has stayed pretty steady with its pricing for the 10 years I’ve had it. I believe it was 9.99 when I signed up in 2016, now it’s 10.99. But I do the yearly so it actually comes out to be like 9.08 a month and there are no ads. Unlimited downloads, podcasts, etc.
Even Spotify is more expensive than Apple Music and I hear people enjoying Spotify less and less especially with all the AI that’s on there now
Couldn’t get Apple Music to work on my telly or speaker. Spotify works on basically everything and lets you switch device within the app without losing your place.
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u/ATLienRabb 15h ago
These companies are going to bring back another pirate golden age.