Now this could be said about most of the entertainment industry, music, gaming, etc, but I think this video brings out to light how well the evolution of streaming shows how it's killing its own evolution.
I guess maybe best to watch it first before reading any more of my thoughts around it - only 2300 views after 4 days so make sure to give the uploader a sub and like if you enjoyed it!
If for some reason you aren't able to watch the video, here's a quick breakdown from my recent memory:
In the past, piracy was quite a big thing, even regular people started pirating simply because they didn't have access to certain movies or tv shows from their location. The era between TV and internet was a big reason to this I think, most things regular folks would watch what was on TV, but if for some reason you were located in Finland such as I was, there was usually jack shit to watch. You could pay for cable but even there you wouldn't be able to find shows like The Office that were buzzing on the internets, etc, so you were kind of forced to pirate.
Eventually, Netflix took over this part and offered convenience and a lot of different shows and movies as long as you had an internet connection and a device that could play them. This removed the need for piracy from most regular folks, the fear of downloading something sketchy, the inconsistency of torrent websites being taken down, etc, so it lead to a lot of customers moving away from pirating and being driven to the convenient, clean and fast service netflix was providing. As Netlix was growing however, content producers and the studio's behind them started wondering why they're giving/licensing netflix their content when they could be doing what Netflix is doing themselves instead.
Now everyone is their own netflix, making life harder for customers who not only need to subscribe to more than one netflix, but it's also getting more and more expensive and content getting harder and harder to find as they keep switching and looking for which of the platforms gives them the most money. These actions have now caused people to have to pick which streaming platform they wanna use while being restricted to the content they can see as it can get up to $100+ per month to use more than one platform as they're fighting over content to maintain and drive people towards their service instead of others. This has now caused people to want to go back to pirating, which in and of itself hasn't evolved much but continues to offer the freedom it has always provided to pick and choose what entertainment you want to watch without the hassle of having to first check where it exists, to then sign up for that platform and then at times also check if it's even allowed in your country without a VPN - something the youtube video didn't get into but is a real problem as well. Not to mention streaming platforms even going to lengths to check if you are using a VPN and not allowing you access if you do.
Ugh, I kind of forgot what I was going to post about this now after going through the video again. It's kind of funny however how most usage of VPN's has been for streaming services, so much so that they'll use that example in most of their ads, to then realize that streaming services have caught up to it and are now not letting you watch them if you're using a VPN. Makes you wonder how these VPN services still have so much money to throw at ads and sponsorships in every youtube video.
Anyway, it's kind of weird that we haven't seen any real competitors to these services pop up in the decentralized space, maybe everyone in their fake web3's is just too busy making that quick money to actually work on solutions and just using these terms to sell out to exchanges, vc's and dumb traders rather than the long term profit they may attain by improving on aspects that'd make it cheaper for customers and more rewarding for the people putting these things together rather than those investing in them. The word crowdfunding comes to mind whenever I think about how the entertainment industry could improve. Things like spotify taking huge cuts for something as simple as providing bandwidth to a song to users wanting to listen to it while the artist gets very little in return and the end consumer may not use the services as much as it costs. What if we could just directly pay these artists a cent whenever we listen to music, how many songs can a regular person listen to in a day? 50-100? that's $1 and that's way more than what these services give them for 100 listens.
This industry is waiting to be disrupted, but for some reason things are taking longer and money's going in all the wrong places it feels like.
I still pirate stuff. Many movies that I want to watch cannot be found on the streaming services. Also TV shows are often geo blocked. For example The Rookie TV show on netflix. Here in Estonia we have 4 seasons. It should have 8 but the other 4 are only available in the states, so torrenting it is! I dont currently use VPN.
Games I usually buy, I want to support the sudio that made a great game.
Yeah, geoblock is such a weird thing in regards to streaming services...
It is because of licenses, let's say X company in Y country buys Z show's rights to broadcast in their country. You can't legally broadcast it in that country, if you are not the X company or have a sub-license from them.
So they are basically legally obligated to geoblock you.
How come no one goes after these VPN companies when they use that to literally market their product with, or does it then fall to the promoters instead that are promoting it in a way where you use it to avoid a legal obligation?
Kind of clever in a way I guess, but feels like people should've gone after the promoters for promoting it to be used "illegally" in a way.
When the streaming service licenses a content, license will usually tell you where you are allowed to broadcast it. And producers for example rather than sell you a license that will allow you to stream globally, will sell you licenses based on regions. And if that region's license is already licensed to someone else, well you can't usually buy it since they would be made exclusive in the contract for some time or all of the duration of the license. That is why they are legally obligated or else it would be breach of contract.
So VPN services advertising that way, is not really illegal.
Hmm I can't really agree with the video that piracy died, it never died for games, and it just got reduced for movies... Before you used emule to download possibile movies which half of the times were porn, but then things evolved... Since when cinema tickets have been risen to like 15€ per person i gave up with it and started watching pirate streaming, quality is great, free and no need to download anything or risk viruses, they just keep changing domain daily... I was willing to pay to support good movies but not getting robbed
Oh and about vpn, next year there will be a spike since our brillant government decided that for porn site you nees an authentication token that verify you are adult lol
Yeah I guess died down for a bit in terms of the things netflix offered, but definitely never died down completely. I hear people here in the philippines for instance are very heavy pirates lol.
I was never too into piracy. These days we pay for Netflix and Disney+ plus we get free streaming from the UK channels (BBC etc). That gives me plenty to watch. If I want to watch a certain movie they don't have then I could pay to watch on demand from Google or elsewhere. As it is I can barely keep up with the shows I like. I know others who get movies via other means, so it's probably not that hard. I also buy a fair bit of music to support the artists. I have a decent job, so I can afford it.
Myeah, I kind of thought that way as well but when you get down to the nitty gritty and understand how little you actually support the artist vs the companies behind it, it feels kind of pointless. Like imagine buying a $20 album and the artist only gets $2 off of that, which they then have to pay taxes for, after/if the label has recouped its costs/marketing/etc.
It's just, how are things still like this and how are things not moving more p2p with the tech we have is my question or general wondering.
I know some people will use that argument to justify piracy (sticking it to the man), but I buy a lot from Bandcamp where the artists get a fair share. I've sold my own music there. We need to get more content on Hive so people can support it with votes.
Sure, but more importantly also with hive and hbd payments where the artists get 100%.
I've also bought music through Rising Star for crypto.
Greetings, friend. It's difficult in my country not to use piracy; many families prioritize food, but that's another issue. I've always thought Spotify's practices were unfair. It's comparable to putting in the effort to make a post and then having to give away 90% of my rewards if it gets published somewhere. There should be corrections, but I suppose, as you say, there must be vested interests involved.
It's difficult to subscribe to multiple platforms just to watch a movie; I suppose it's to avoid monopolies, but it hurts many users. I agree.
I’m not currently paying for any streaming services. I only sign up for a month if there’s something I absolutely want to see, and after that I cancel again, because I don’t really watch TV. I’m one of those people who just watches YouTube and TikTok, and that’s it. Most streaming platforms don’t even have the kind of series I’m into, so there isn’t much there for me anyway.
I buy games. Usually not at full price. And I have never preordered a game before. I like to support my favorite developers But for instance dragon age veilguard I will not even pirate. From what I heard it seems like a complete trash. Shame because Dragon Age Origins is one of the best games ever made.
The quality of some of the services has also dropped heavily. My netflix looks worse than it did 5 years ago. They've had time to invest in the infrastructure to make their content delivery better, but instead we get 480p videos. Pirating looks so much more desirable for simply watching content without buffering and at high quality.
In Cuba, it's common to consume pirated materials because we don't have access to the same online shopping services that are common in other countries. And regarding VPNs, we have to use them frequently due to restrictions on accessing many websites.
Netflix was the pirate killer when it was just $10. As you mentioned too many different streaming services now. Some even advertise the other under their brand. Cutting the cord is getting as costly as keeping the cord.
Paying $100+ a month just to watch stuff without hopping around platforms will be irritating. I can see why people circle back to old school piracy
Is annoying when people complain of paying and still they don't get to see what they want to view and that's can force them back to the old sin/conduct which is piracy.
Here in Nigeria people prefer streaming whenever they want or fill like viewing any current movie because sometimes is not available while sometimes they won't like to do a monthly subscription and will not be available to use it due to daily activities.
Need I say more, in today's world.., not so much. I play on the PS5 and buy everything.
https://peakd.com/hive-174578/@slobberchops/the-software-piracy-chronicles-of-slobberchops-the-thg-years-part-twenty-five-the-final-chapter
Hey friend, it's a big dilemma, but sometimes it's necessary to resort to piracy. However, it's fairer for everyone to get their fair price for their product, but the reality is different.
i still do some piracy , since not everything is being broadcasted here simply because some distributors don't want to sell it here
Even video games are ridiculous these days when ps1 was out and ps2 you can get games around 1 to 3usd now you have to pay 60usd and above per game so I turn to piracy.
Retroarch, duckstation and psxxx or something I forgot some of their names but you can play ps1 to ps3 games and all the handhleds out there for free just need to set up the app and you good to go.
Even watching anime you need to pay so much money. Netflix not worth it either not sure why people are paying for it pirate everything because the amount of money we pay it doesn't worth that much to watch quality of movies are getting worse anyway.
I will only pay if I'm rich if not pirate is the way 😂😂
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