3 ms·

Compared to 6+ years ago, it's getting harder and harder to find specific content on services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+. There comes a point when the

by bcrl 5y ago

Compared to 6+ years ago, it's getting harder and harder to find specific content on services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+. There comes a point when the content pie is split up into so many pieces that there just isn't enough content that interests me. And good luck trying to find a lot of movies from the 1980s and 1990s! At least my local video store kept a variety of older movies around. Now content becomes unobtainium after a few years because content creators don't understand the value in sharing over exclusivity. <sigh> I don't see this getting better any time soon. Consolidation in this market can't come soon enough.

derbOac 5y ago
I don't really want consolidation, I want to be able to pay to play each work once or for a certain period of time, or indefinitely. I don't want to subscribe to a whole streaming service just for one movie, or one live event, or whatever it is. I feel like we've swapped manipulated unnecessary cable bundling with manipulated unnecessary streaming service bundling. Give people a discount for subscribing to the service as a whole, but let people just buy or rent one content item. I'm so sick of tech and media companies adversarially trying to get money from you through monopolies, network effects, and rent seeking. You want to get your customers to hate you, and to start agitating for government intervention? This is how. To me it's absurd. Imagine if, in the 1980s, you couldn't just go to a theater and pay to see a movie, that you had to buy a monthly membership to a theater chain that produced the movie. Same thing.
- bcrl 5y ago
  My (sadly passed now) brother in law ran a convenience store in a small town that also rented out videos. The big difference between a video store and a streaming service is that the video store doesn't have its content clawed back by the content producer "just because they feel like it". Sure, they had to buy video cassettes or DVDs at a somewhat higher price than those available to consumers to compensate the content producer for the increased distribution usage, but that was fundamentally a one time cost for an otherwise perpetual license. And I have the same problem with Apple's streaming music service. Content I previously paid for has been revoked as no longer being available in my region. It sucks! I think there's a clear need for better consumer protection laws or copyright reform. Loss of the first sale doctrine has been a net negative for consumers in my opinion.
  - happymellon 5y ago
    Wait, Apple music has removed music that you have paid for?
    - bcrl 5y ago
      Yes, when I migrated from one phone to another when the screen died. The listing for several tracks is still in the library, but the listing is greyed out and tapping on them pops up a dialog box stating "This song is not currently available in your country or region." Apparently buying a track is not a perpetual license to listen to it. I've lost 67 tracks that I had bought previously.
      - aaaaaaaaata 5y ago
        These stories are why I'd never use a service like this until it reaches some maturity.
        bcrl 5y ago
        It worked great until Apple decided that they wanted to be a streaming music provider a few years ago. I hate the new music app. Back when the iPod Touch was still a separate product, the music app was far better. Then an update broke all my playlists. The sad thing is that this kind of feature breakage of software is pretty much universal across the industry today. Unless one is using whatever seems to be the current new-shiny thing, you're a support burden that needs to be eliminated. Why don't developers accept that old features are still used by people? Maybe I'm just some stupid old kernel developer that places too much emphasis on not breaking other people's shit, as my values are certainly not reflected by most of the products I have to use every day (from websites to phones to user interfaces).
- bscphil 5y ago
  > I don't really want consolidation, I want to be able to pay to play each work once or for a certain period of time I'm confused. As awful as streaming is currently, doesn't it really excel at the one thing you say you want to have, but don't? Let's take my IMDb watchlist as a relevant examples. I've seen the majority of popular films that I'm interested in, so this is a list of ~500 relatively obscure, but mostly well-reviewed movies. Of this list: 14 films are free with Amazon Prime. Only 14. That highlights the common refrain about the state of streaming. Because of fragmentation, someone with the money for only one or two services will quickly find themselves with nothing to watch. 317 films are available to rent or buy with Amazon. That's remarkable! Even if you want to stick with a single service or app out of convenience, the majority of the relatively-obscure films on my list are available for online viewing. The real issue, for me, is the cost of $3-5 for an HD rental of a film. I simply don't have that kind of money. A lot of people don't, and that's one of the reasons subscription services are so popular. On top of that, DRM means that I frequently can't be guaranteed the best quality HD stream on my hardware, it falls back to a ~3000k bitrate 720p stream which is noticeably inferior. But I'm really not understanding your complaint. Granted, it would be great if we could solve the problem of availability for the last ~40% of media not available to stream or vendor-locked, but in general making rentals available is one of the strong suits of the status quo, IMO.
lotsofpulp 5y ago
> And good luck trying to find a lot of movies from the 1980s and 1990s! I tried a bunch and found them all in my iOS TV app. The app gives me an option to stream it “free” due to having been logged into Amazon Prime or HBO Max, or worst case, I can rent it for $3 to $5 I think. I also get the option to subscribe to the streaming service that does offer it. I can pretty much find all non Netflix content in the TV app in iOS/macOS and be watching it within seconds. And that is only because Netflix has opted to not be included in the TV app’s searches.
throwaway6734 5y ago
YouTube is pretty good for renting old movies

by bcrl 5y ago

derbOac 5y ago

I don't really want consolidation, I want to be able to pay to play each work once or for a certain period of time, or indefinitely. I don't want to subscribe to a whole streaming service just for one movie, or one live event, or whatever it is. I feel like we've swapped manipulated unnecessary cable bundling with manipulated unnecessary streaming service bundling. Give people a discount for subscribing to the service as a whole, but let people just buy or rent one content item. I'm so sick of tech and media companies adversarially trying to get money from you through monopolies, network effects, and rent seeking. You want to get your customers to hate you, and to start agitating for government intervention? This is how. To me it's absurd. Imagine if, in the 1980s, you couldn't just go to a theater and pay to see a movie, that you had to buy a monthly membership to a theater chain that produced the movie. Same thing.

bcrl 5y ago
My (sadly passed now) brother in law ran a convenience store in a small town that also rented out videos. The big difference between a video store and a streaming service is that the video store doesn't have its content clawed back by the content producer "just because they feel like it". Sure, they had to buy video cassettes or DVDs at a somewhat higher price than those available to consumers to compensate the content producer for the increased distribution usage, but that was fundamentally a one time cost for an otherwise perpetual license. And I have the same problem with Apple's streaming music service. Content I previously paid for has been revoked as no longer being available in my region. It sucks! I think there's a clear need for better consumer protection laws or copyright reform. Loss of the first sale doctrine has been a net negative for consumers in my opinion.
- happymellon 5y ago
  Wait, Apple music has removed music that you have paid for?
  - bcrl 5y ago
    Yes, when I migrated from one phone to another when the screen died. The listing for several tracks is still in the library, but the listing is greyed out and tapping on them pops up a dialog box stating "This song is not currently available in your country or region." Apparently buying a track is not a perpetual license to listen to it. I've lost 67 tracks that I had bought previously.
    - aaaaaaaaata 5y ago
      These stories are why I'd never use a service like this until it reaches some maturity.
      - bcrl 5y ago
        It worked great until Apple decided that they wanted to be a streaming music provider a few years ago. I hate the new music app. Back when the iPod Touch was still a separate product, the music app was far better. Then an update broke all my playlists. The sad thing is that this kind of feature breakage of software is pretty much universal across the industry today. Unless one is using whatever seems to be the current new-shiny thing, you're a support burden that needs to be eliminated. Why don't developers accept that old features are still used by people? Maybe I'm just some stupid old kernel developer that places too much emphasis on not breaking other people's shit, as my values are certainly not reflected by most of the products I have to use every day (from websites to phones to user interfaces).
bscphil 5y ago
> I don't really want consolidation, I want to be able to pay to play each work once or for a certain period of time I'm confused. As awful as streaming is currently, doesn't it really excel at the one thing you say you want to have, but don't? Let's take my IMDb watchlist as a relevant examples. I've seen the majority of popular films that I'm interested in, so this is a list of ~500 relatively obscure, but mostly well-reviewed movies. Of this list: 14 films are free with Amazon Prime. Only 14. That highlights the common refrain about the state of streaming. Because of fragmentation, someone with the money for only one or two services will quickly find themselves with nothing to watch. 317 films are available to rent or buy with Amazon. That's remarkable! Even if you want to stick with a single service or app out of convenience, the majority of the relatively-obscure films on my list are available for online viewing. The real issue, for me, is the cost of $3-5 for an HD rental of a film. I simply don't have that kind of money. A lot of people don't, and that's one of the reasons subscription services are so popular. On top of that, DRM means that I frequently can't be guaranteed the best quality HD stream on my hardware, it falls back to a ~3000k bitrate 720p stream which is noticeably inferior. But I'm really not understanding your complaint. Granted, it would be great if we could solve the problem of availability for the last ~40% of media not available to stream or vendor-locked, but in general making rentals available is one of the strong suits of the status quo, IMO.

lotsofpulp 5y ago

> And good luck trying to find a lot of movies from the 1980s and 1990s! I tried a bunch and found them all in my iOS TV app. The app gives me an option to stream it “free” due to having been logged into Amazon Prime or HBO Max, or worst case, I can rent it for $3 to $5 I think. I also get the option to subscribe to the streaming service that does offer it. I can pretty much find all non Netflix content in the TV app in iOS/macOS and be watching it within seconds. And that is only because Netflix has opted to not be included in the TV app’s searches.

throwaway6734 5y ago

YouTube is pretty good for renting old movies