I pay for Spotify for several reasons :
- Unlike Netflix & co. for movies/shows, the catalog size is satisfying on Spotify & co. for music ;
- Remote playback and volume control over Internet (branded “Connect”) ;
- Contributing to creator revenue.
- Voice assistant compatibility ;
Yet, I use a family subscription, which I share with strangers, because Spotify increase their prices often, and my wallet doesn’t like that.
Fun fact : when Spotify realizes someone’s doing that and prevents new people from joining (which only happens when people join and leave a lot), creating a new account with a new family subscription (even with the same IP address, home address, username and bank card) and moving everyone to it works fine.
rezifon@lemmy.world 4 days ago
I pay for the streaming services to fund the development and production of the shows I enjoy watching.
I torrent the content for my convenience.
MouldyCat@feddit.uk 3 days ago
they wouldn’t just slowly starve to death you know. they’d start making the price more competitive and the service more user-friendly before they’d even had to pawn a single Porsche.
irmadlad@lemmy.world 3 days ago
This is basically what happened to the music industry. Shawn Fanning scripted Napster, others followed suite. The RIAA squealed and threw a tantrum, busted a realitivly small amount of people, and then all of a sudden, we had .99$ downloads that were quality. The music industry has always been reactive in lieu of proactive. When AM radio first became a thing, the music industry execs squealed because the morons couldn’t figure out how to make a buck off of AM radio. ‘They’re taking our jerbs!’
AFAIC, Shawn was the pivot point in a digital age of music. I don’t condone it, but I understand it.
rezifon@lemmy.world 3 days ago
How many people listed in the credits of your favorite show do you truly think own one, much less multiple Porsches?
MouldyCat@feddit.uk 3 days ago
I don’t think those people are responsible for pricing. The Porsche comment was a flippant way of pointing out the whole parasitic machine that sits atop the actual creatives - the actors, the set designers, the script writers, all those people that you and I do want to support. All those people are not involved in pricing decisions or exclusivity contracts, and they’re mostly paid a salary so by the time a movie or series is out, they’re already on to the next job. By refusing to subscribe to all the myriad streaming services, you are mainly putting pressure on those executives to make a more appealing product.
I think you’re right in that it’s very reminiscent of US tipping culture (I’m not in the US), in that the people at the bottom are the ones who do the real work and yet they don’t get a fair share of the profits and instead have to take on unfair risk (i.e. the risk of not being tipped).
That said, I need to confess that I’m partly playing devil’s advocate, I pay for Netflix and just the other day I paid YouTube to “buy” a digital copy of a movie - for the exact reasons you said, I want to support the creative people behind the shows & movies I enjoy. I just don’t think it’s accurate to say that there’s a moral requirement to pay for entertainment, especially given how unfair the system currently is.
Strider@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I see it differently. The service (as in content and delivery) should make me want to pay.
I’m all for paying the creators.
rezifon@lemmy.world 3 days ago
But, I do want to pay. I want to support the artists who create the shows and movies that I enjoy. I want people to be able to earn a living in the creative arts.
Strider@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I don’t think anyone is debating that, as in, of course everyone can relate and do that, if possible.
But the latter detail is the issue. Sometimes the middle man screws up so badly that even then it does not matter.
If you need to use a VPN to get your shows: it’s impossible in a legal, contract respecting way to get your content.