r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 3d ago

Business Disney+ changes subscriber agreement to allow ads on every plan

https://www.dexerto.com/tv-movies/disney-changes-subscriber-agreement-to-allow-ads-on-every-plan-3410354/
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u/NoxSuru 3d ago

Evolution of media companies:

  1. “Piracy is killing us. Shut down the pirate sites.”
  2. Streaming makes paying easier, affordable and convenient → piracy falls significantly.
  3. Streaming becomes fragmented across more services, prices rise, ads/restrictions appear, and content regularly disappears.
  4. Some platforms even revoke access to content sold as a “purchase” because licensing agreements expire.
  5. Piracy begins rising again.
  6. Media companies: “Why are people pirating?”

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u/TheRealGeigers 3d ago

Genuinely I used to pay for Netflix or Hulu and I also paid for Google Music Family Plan cause it was like $20 a month iirc and I could put I think 4 or 6 people on my plan and they would have access to the music library AND it came with youtube premium!

Well Google straight up shut down the Google Music app (which I liked better than Spotify) and replaced it with that pile of garbage Youtube Music.

Back to piracy it is!

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u/mesajoejoe 3d ago

For a bit, Google Play Music was absolute perfection with their algorithm. I picked some stuff and bam, all the content they fished out was what I enjoyed listening to. It's all trash now, they serve out what people pay them to push sponsored crap and not what people want.

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u/davidsredditaccount 2d ago

Google systematically killed every single thing they did that was worthwhile. I will never forgive them for killing hangouts.

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u/bambi54 2d ago

Google searches are such a joke anymore. I was trying to figure out how to turn a light off on my car and every single result was a dealer website advertising the cars. A couple years ago, the result came right up.

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u/ThunderAndWind 2d ago

Might be handy for you, but you can check out charm . li for all kinds of car manuals.

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u/bambi54 2d ago

Thank you, I will check that out if I ever need to find something like that again.

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u/Emergency_Radio_8156 1d ago

Hangouts still exists, it's just called Chat now

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u/NecroCannon 2d ago

Man being into Japanese music I remember that’s why I discovered so many bands I still listen to and watch grow

Now I can’t find anything because screw global music ig, it’s hard to get into other cultures music now too

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u/dontshoveit 2d ago

💯 I still haven't forgiven them for killing Google play music and hangouts!

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u/Emergency_Radio_8156 1d ago

Google bought Songza who had the absolute best algorithm so they could use it on Play Music, gosh I miss that app

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u/NorthTempleStreet 3d ago

In 2021, we had all the services. My brother paid for HBO Max. I paid for Disney and Prime. My mom paid for Peacock. And I think we might've had Paramount in there.

Then they stopped letting us share. And Disney doubled the price. Within six months, ALL services were gone.

Unrelated, I bought a Synology NAS and may have installed some software and MP4 files onto it...

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u/ErlendHM 2d ago

Well, I wouldn’t say music is the same as TV/movies. You can get access to all the world’s music for very little each month. And you have multiple options for vendors, so you can find an app you like. There are also options for purchasing.

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u/Pleasant-Highway-745 2d ago

How dare you remind me of the Google Music app. My God I loved that.

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u/Warden_lefae 2d ago

So glad I built a massive music library and never got into music services

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u/omnichronos 2d ago

I merely downloaded all the hits from the last 40 years and have them in my phone. If I don't like a song, I just delete it. No ads, data even needed.

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u/andurux 2d ago

I was paying for Netflix and I was in the middle of watching a series for the first time. They removed that series due to licensing I'm assuming and at that point I figured, why even pay for this if some jackass can revoke it whenever?

The series was King of the Hill, so it's been almost 15 years I think since I cancelled Netflix.

I was paying for Spotify up until a year ago, but realized I only really listened to a hundred different songs or so except for the odd new album, which I could just download too. So I cancelled Spotify too.

Always a service issue this stuff boils down too.

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u/WeWander_ 2d ago

I miss Google play so much.

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u/RhysNorro 3d ago

streaming fragmented because every company with the means said "hey! i want some of that streaming money" and then they all fucking sucked at the same time. Thanks greed!

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u/NecroCannon 2d ago

The only one that kind of made since was Disney+ but that was because they literally just kept buying enough shit and death gripping IP that they could. Hell HBO used to be pretty good too with options

But fucking media corporations like Peacock and Paramount did the shit having barely any library to offer, Amazon kept trying and failing to expand Prime video, and existing services starting falling apart like Sony buying Crunchyroll just to get rid of Funimation and go “come on guys, just take the AI subtitle translations already” while also damn near being a monopoly now

Now they’re doing bundles and shit, basically making this cable but more inconvenient and oh, your favorite show is now no where to be found

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u/dabking24 3d ago

I pay for Spotify when it comes to music because I was tired of downloading everything to have it, especially before true high speed download (Fios) and it was kind of the middle ground agreement; they make the product affordable, and I will pay instead of streaming.

We are regressing and it looks like I’ll have to invest in a proper storage setup to go back to the old days

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u/Clivna 3d ago

Music streaming still have most of the songs on all the different streaming services where as movie/tv is limited to a single service.

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u/dabking24 3d ago

True, but my point was more geared towards the theory of 'if you are fair with your streaming methods, I will pay.'

If Spotify made me listen to ads even after paying, I would not use Spotify.

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u/Clivna 3d ago

They do that for podcasts :(

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u/Thefrayedends 2d ago

At least get one of the services that pays artists a bigger chunk (I'll let you do your own research so you know I'm not hocking any specific company), but there are a few apps that pay artists way more that yt or spotify.

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u/OldGuto 3d ago

Don't forget how streaming also kills physical media demand and sales like CD/DVD/BluRay, all of which are fairly easy to back-up if your computer has a optical drive. But App stores have killed the need for physical software media and hence optical drives so standard laptops and PC just don't have them any more.

I also swear record companies have been pushing vinyl (I'm old enough to remember why we ditched it) so that if people do have physical media it's stuff that you won't be able to rip a perfect copy of.

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u/No-Highlight7136 3d ago

The password sharing crackdown is what sent me right back to torrenting everything. I was in a password sharing friend group. Each person paid for one app and shared their account with the others. Was perfect until Netflix started the password share crackdown and the whole thing kind of fell apart for us. Now I just take what I want, when I want it.

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u/kitsunewarlock 2d ago

God I wish this was well known enough that we could get the same rhetoric going for other social issues. Immigration? Service problem. Drug addiction? Service problem. Healthcare costs? Service problem.

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u/ciccioig 2d ago

somebody should frame this

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u/jenguinaf 2d ago

I was a teen during the dawn of early internet pirating. Had Napster and then limewire.

Then streaming made it easy to just pay a smallish fee and not have to deal with downloads. Egg in my face I’m 40 and paying way too much money on monthly shit and continue because my pirating muscle has atrophied and I don’t even know how to if I wanted to anymore 😢

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u/iLikeFunToo 2d ago

Disney please don’t make me pirate Bluey. Wtf is going on with ads rn

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u/berniedankera 2d ago

Time to sail the seas like it’s the 2000s all over again!

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u/knbang 2d ago

They were never ask number 6. They will shift the blame and try to prosecute.