I’m calling it now. Streaming services are going to continue to double-down on artificial scarcity for flagship shows until we 100% converge on cable. They’re going to reinvent broadcast schedules after slow-drip weekly episode rollouts and half-seasons (you are here) don’t get the results they want.
I was imagining they were eventually going to go bankrupt and consolidate, with their IP ending up in, like, the Disney or Warner vault. Cable has evolved too. I’m not selling here, just explaining. Your streaming service could get offered as part of a cable package or even part of your internet. SaaS is taking over so streaming might just become another part of some software package like a cable channel.
Turns out saddling a generation with debt, and then telling them the AI is gonna take all the jobs doesn’t do a lot for moral, or our finances.
Nevermind that there’s a middle East forever war 2.0 going on that’s jacking up the cost of everything right now.
Being an elder Gen Z (1998) adds a special layer to this cuz I’m pushing 30, running an open-source OS everywhere I can and I’m indirectly being called an iPad baby lmao
Guys, learn to pirate. If you stick to media and familiarize yourself with filetypes (also enable file extensions, windows users. Chaps my ass that they’re hidden by default) then you’ll be fine. Nicotine+ for music, qbittorrent+jackett for movies/tv, or the *arr stack if you’re fancy, or Usenet if you’re paying for it.
Real Debrid type service is super cheap and worth paying for for movies and TV, used with stremio you have a near identical experience to Netflix (superior even in some ways).
seriously, signing back up just for a titlle won’t make them change. It will just lead to them releasing weekly and adding adds and all that so you have to stay longer. I don’t have a single amazon product but I’m still caught up on The Boys. It’s not that hard and you will save so much money.
Streamering platforms broke the piracy truce first. You don’t owe them anything.
Call it fracturing the resistance if you like, but I avoid streaming services, and I also avoid pirating. I can find enough through library services, PBS subscriptions, and other free, even ad-free offerings.
I don’t like giving media companies the message of “I really am very interested in watching this thing you made! I can’t resist not watching it! I just want to avoid paying for it if I can.”
I think the screwup started when companies stopped rewarding loyalty and instead aimed for capitalizing on laziness and lockin, giving the discounts up front to attract subscribers in the hopes of keeping them in a more expensive subscription afterwards.
I think the streaming sites could turn it around by instead offering a discounted rate after you’ve been subscribing for x months.
wHy Do MiLlEnNiAlS hAtE tHe EcOnOmY
Hey now, be specific. Millennials hate the shadow economy that is debt exchange and the stock market. You know… the rich man’s economy.
I’m 52, I don’t pay full price for games.
I’m over 50 and I sail the high seas. I can afford all the streaming services and even used to pay for them… until the price hikes and now the ads, so fuck them. I also never pay full price for my games.
All that money now goes to paying artists on BandCamp and a few Patreon accounts that make me happy.
I’m in my late 30’s and went back to the high seas. I used to sail the seas in my early 20’s when i was broke AF and didn’t have cable TV. When Netflix came around it sudden became easier and more convenient to just pay $6.99/ month to watch whatever I wanted. For years I got by with Spotify and Netflix and I didn’t even look back. Then, all of a sudden there were more streaming services than i knew what to do with and every few months they would all raise their price and reduce their libraries. Then they started putting ads in. Now I’m self hosting all of my media and using Stremio/Torentio for my one off TV shows and movies. I directly support creators wherever I can as well, whether it’s Patreon or Kofi or just buying their Merch.
how far things have fallen. I remember 15 years ago, I actually reached out to Netflix directly to tell them how great they were as a product. I was like 17 and stupid. I reached out to their help desk just to say “hey you guys are awesome!” how times change I guess. Yoho and all that.
Netflix and Spotify almost ended Piracy by making it easy to access whatever you wanted for a reasonable fee. Then they got greedy and everyone else wanted a piece of the pie and now we are in a worse position than package bundle Cable TV.
At around your age I am thinking about going back to my youth: throw the TV out, quit consuming shit and go out and do things. There is more than enough free music for the rest of my lifetime and I havent seen a movie or TV show in years that actually matters.
Video games a bit, but patient gamer. My s OS has been Linux for over 20 years, so even doing things with computers doesn’t cost.
I am honestly surprised, paid video on demand even survived the post-Netflix fragmentation. YouTube is free. uBlock Origin and SponsorBlock make it usable. Illegal streaming sites exist and are trivial to use without any risk.
Why even consider paid video on demand services?
Examples of trivially easy streaming sites you mentioned? (Strictly for research purposes, of course.)
I don’t watch movies or series often anymore. But when I do, I just go through the streaming sites section in the r/Piracy megathread until I find what I search for on one of them. Most of them let you search for a specific title or prefix. Some mimic the Netflix browsing experience. Some also have a download button for offline-watching. If it’s out for a while and has some mainstream appeal, you will probably find it on one of these.
those hacks are beyond technical capabilities of most people
Exactly ^
uBlock Origin and SponsorBlock
What percentage of YouTube users have either?
It must be tiny. And most are using the mobile app anyway.
On mobile I just run Vanced. UBlock and Sponsorblock are solely for my computers. Although I think a lot of people don’t want to deal with Vanced and do indeed just use Firefox Mobile. I do recommend Vanced, though.
Better yet, Jellyfin on a self-hosted server that streams your media to instances.
Good luck getting most GenZ to even read two paragraphs about how to do this, much less attempt it.
You do realise server and take back control of your tech stuff is currently getting quite trendy on socials, right? A lot of GenZ are driving this too. I’m GenZ and most of my friends would love a small server or something, and the ones that aren’t convinced love my (janky) setup.
I run my media server on my gaming PC, you don’t need anything special to do it. I haven’t had any issues gaming online while streaming/downloading either.
The younger generations seem to have no concept of what hardware and software is needed, because most of the companies that sell that stuff are trying to maximize profits and vendor-lock in, which leads them to “teach” their customers bad information. It’s the exact same reason why there are so many people who think they need 64gb or 128gb of ram in their gaming machine.
You need to bring your expectations of general society down dude. The majority ain’t capable nor willing to actually learn with alot due to the deeply rooted “piracy bad” mentality capitalism has instilled in people.
tf you expected we’re all broke. you’re lucky some of us haven’t heard of piracy yet (somehow)
Skill issue (sad gen Z noises)
It’s not just gen z.
I’m 38. I never pay full price for a game lol.
I’m not subscribed to any video streaming sites, too pricey for just watching one thing once in a while. As for audio, I have Tidal and so far it has been quite good actually; but if that ever changes I’ll just revert back to physical media/piracy.
Steam sales tend to be pretty good, what’s even better is that keysites tend to drop the price accordingly.
The other half need to get on board.
Why bother when you’re using a parent’s credit card? Why bother when you’re flush? $20/mo on a $20k income versus a $200k income creates very different incentives.
Exactly. When i was younger i had this western digital thing that let me watch videos off a hard drive on my CRT TV. I pirated everything. Didnt have cable. This is pre streaming.
I reached a point in my life where i was making enough money that a $20 sub was worth the conveniance.
Won’t Purchase Full-Price Video Games, New Study Finds
The only game I’ve ever seen sold at full price on a consistent basis was Factorio. Every other publisher seems sold on putting $60-80 on the label and then floating 10-30% discounts as the sales cycle permits.
It’s the Macy’s model for sales. “You’re getting a $20 discount on a $60 game” sells more titles than “Here’s a game for $40”.
100%
And good for them. They should be withholding their money given the enshittification. If anyone’s interested, I’ve made a recent series of YT videos on this topic, and I use chapters, so if you’re TLDW, I’ve got you there too.
