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Out of curiosity, why are Plex's monetization efforts silly? Sure, the freemium model is less than ideal compared to OSS, but I gladly paid for a lifetime subsc

Out of curiosity, why are Plex's monetization efforts silly? Sure, the freemium model is less than ideal compared to OSS, but I gladly paid for a lifetime subscription to Plex Pass 4 years ago and haven't regretted it at all since.

mynameisvlad 3y ago
They are pushing their free with ads offerings and data gathering (Discover) far more in the past year or two, to the point where I have to give instructions to some of my friends because the defaults are exclusively their own offerings.
- BeetleB 3y ago
  That's because your friends are independent, separate Plex users from you, even though you and they don't want to think they are. Just because they can use the Plex app to connect to your server doesn't mean that they are not separate. I get the frustration - Plex didn't do it in the past, but if you look at it from 1000 ft, and are ignoring history, Plex isn't doing anything crazy here. If you install the app on your phone/Roku/whatever, it's on you to understand how to use it/customize it.
  - mynameisvlad 3y ago
    Except that it’s a massive change in behavior from what they have done for over a decade, which is to prioritize the product they built: a streaming media platform intended for personal collections. It isn’t about the users being Plex users “even though I and they don’t want to think they are” (an incredibly presumptuous way to phrase that, honestly) it’s about a fundamental change in behavior and execution in their product. Nobody said they weren’t within their right to do what they’re doing, but people should be allowed to point out when this happens. They are fundamentally changing the way their app works. That is an user-hostile action regardless of how you slice it. And that might be fine from their point of view, but it clearly is an issue for existing user, as this entire thread of comments shows.
jwells89 3y ago
I think the main issue is that the monetization efforts have resulted in blunted focus on the core product, resulting in things like long-standing unresolved bugs and technical oddities. For example the Plex installation on my home server will break itself in odd ways every so often and sometimes the only way to fix it is to nuke all cache, config, etc and start over which gets frustrating. It’s also brought privacy concerns, because there’s incentive for Plex to harvest and sell data from users paid and unpaid alike. I’m currently subscribed, but all of this has me on the lookout for viable replacements.
- thejazzman 3y ago
  Are you running out of space? I've been using Plex forEVER and the only time this kinda thing happened to me was when the scratch space Plex was using for transcodes and things got full
  - jwells89 3y ago
    Nah there’s at least a few hundred gigs available at any given time. Usually the breakage has to do with plugins just ceasing to function or Plex somehow forgetting its library exists, which results in only the free-stream-crap channels showing up in clients. Also, everything in my library can be direct-played by the clients I use (primarily Apple TV 4k) too, so transcoding pretty much only happens when I’m loading up my iPad for a trip (once or twice a year tops).
dotnet00 3y ago
I think part of it is that the efforts are all going to be kind of dodging bullets, in that everyone knows that a popular use case of Plex is for pirated media. So all monetization efforts have to be carefully designed to not risk implicating the project directly into that use case. Which means that monetization efforts mostly lean slightly differently from what the users would want to pay for. The only monetized features that have decent overlap with user desires are the player features, mobile apps, plexamp and its sonic analysis stuff.
- _heimdall 3y ago
  I don't quite follow here. Assuming a common use case is personal consumption of pirated content, doesn't it make sense that the monetization strategy focuses on the server/client software itself? More importantly, that monetization strategy is a great fit for legal self-custody. I have a pretty large library of content I bought on DVD and ripped for personal use. I don't share it our as torrents and watch videos locally on my own network, there's nothing wrong with that and I like that Plex is still paid for the software that makes it work well for my use case.
  - dotnet00 3y ago
    I mean, their monetization strategy has lately been more focused on service provider type stuff like advertising and movie streaming, not server/client stuff.
cchance 3y ago
I have 0 issue against plex monitization, except for TRANSCODING, wtf am i being charged to use my own GPU?!?!?!
- Zircom 3y ago
  Out of all the things to take issue with about their monetization model that is such a wild take. Do you also have issues about paying for a videogame that uses your GPU? Probably not. Any paid software you can run on your own hardware by definition is paying to use "your own" resources(CPU, GPU, storage, etc), what you're paying for is their effort in creating and maintaining the software. If they want a gatekeep features for a premium version that's their right, if you have a problem with it find something else or make it yourself.
  - tadfisher 3y ago
    Of course it's their "right", but it's also not very smart to gate a feature that determines whether or not the product actually functions. The potential customer is faced with a non-playable video and a promise that paying will make it play.
    - adamomada 3y ago
      It’s an added feature for larger servers, it does cpu transcode for free.
    - BeetleB 3y ago
      > The potential customer is faced with a non-playable video What kind of video is non-playable without GPU transcoding?
      - thejazzman 3y ago
        Who transcodes in 2024?? That's hardly even a core feature anymore. Get two copies if you want LoFi alternatives. Transcoded HDR 4k etc looks way worse than just having a 1080p copy And what I'm describing is definitely a pro scenario, so charging makes a lot of sense
halJordan 3y ago
I disagree with the implication that plex is Just Another LLC trying to make a buck. If Plex were another netflix, then ads wouldn't be silly.

mynameisvlad 3y ago

They are pushing their free with ads offerings and data gathering (Discover) far more in the past year or two, to the point where I have to give instructions to some of my friends because the defaults are exclusively their own offerings.

BeetleB 3y ago
That's because your friends are independent, separate Plex users from you, even though you and they don't want to think they are. Just because they can use the Plex app to connect to your server doesn't mean that they are not separate. I get the frustration - Plex didn't do it in the past, but if you look at it from 1000 ft, and are ignoring history, Plex isn't doing anything crazy here. If you install the app on your phone/Roku/whatever, it's on you to understand how to use it/customize it.
- mynameisvlad 3y ago
  Except that it’s a massive change in behavior from what they have done for over a decade, which is to prioritize the product they built: a streaming media platform intended for personal collections. It isn’t about the users being Plex users “even though I and they don’t want to think they are” (an incredibly presumptuous way to phrase that, honestly) it’s about a fundamental change in behavior and execution in their product. Nobody said they weren’t within their right to do what they’re doing, but people should be allowed to point out when this happens. They are fundamentally changing the way their app works. That is an user-hostile action regardless of how you slice it. And that might be fine from their point of view, but it clearly is an issue for existing user, as this entire thread of comments shows.

jwells89 3y ago

I think the main issue is that the monetization efforts have resulted in blunted focus on the core product, resulting in things like long-standing unresolved bugs and technical oddities. For example the Plex installation on my home server will break itself in odd ways every so often and sometimes the only way to fix it is to nuke all cache, config, etc and start over which gets frustrating. It’s also brought privacy concerns, because there’s incentive for Plex to harvest and sell data from users paid and unpaid alike. I’m currently subscribed, but all of this has me on the lookout for viable replacements.

thejazzman 3y ago
Are you running out of space? I've been using Plex forEVER and the only time this kinda thing happened to me was when the scratch space Plex was using for transcodes and things got full
- jwells89 3y ago
  Nah there’s at least a few hundred gigs available at any given time. Usually the breakage has to do with plugins just ceasing to function or Plex somehow forgetting its library exists, which results in only the free-stream-crap channels showing up in clients. Also, everything in my library can be direct-played by the clients I use (primarily Apple TV 4k) too, so transcoding pretty much only happens when I’m loading up my iPad for a trip (once or twice a year tops).

dotnet00 3y ago

I think part of it is that the efforts are all going to be kind of dodging bullets, in that everyone knows that a popular use case of Plex is for pirated media. So all monetization efforts have to be carefully designed to not risk implicating the project directly into that use case. Which means that monetization efforts mostly lean slightly differently from what the users would want to pay for. The only monetized features that have decent overlap with user desires are the player features, mobile apps, plexamp and its sonic analysis stuff.

_heimdall 3y ago
I don't quite follow here. Assuming a common use case is personal consumption of pirated content, doesn't it make sense that the monetization strategy focuses on the server/client software itself? More importantly, that monetization strategy is a great fit for legal self-custody. I have a pretty large library of content I bought on DVD and ripped for personal use. I don't share it our as torrents and watch videos locally on my own network, there's nothing wrong with that and I like that Plex is still paid for the software that makes it work well for my use case.
- dotnet00 3y ago
  I mean, their monetization strategy has lately been more focused on service provider type stuff like advertising and movie streaming, not server/client stuff.

cchance 3y ago

I have 0 issue against plex monitization, except for TRANSCODING, wtf am i being charged to use my own GPU?!?!?!

Zircom 3y ago
Out of all the things to take issue with about their monetization model that is such a wild take. Do you also have issues about paying for a videogame that uses your GPU? Probably not. Any paid software you can run on your own hardware by definition is paying to use "your own" resources(CPU, GPU, storage, etc), what you're paying for is their effort in creating and maintaining the software. If they want a gatekeep features for a premium version that's their right, if you have a problem with it find something else or make it yourself.
- tadfisher 3y ago
  Of course it's their "right", but it's also not very smart to gate a feature that determines whether or not the product actually functions. The potential customer is faced with a non-playable video and a promise that paying will make it play.
  - adamomada 3y ago
    It’s an added feature for larger servers, it does cpu transcode for free.
  - BeetleB 3y ago
    > The potential customer is faced with a non-playable video What kind of video is non-playable without GPU transcoding?
    - thejazzman 3y ago
      Who transcodes in 2024?? That's hardly even a core feature anymore. Get two copies if you want LoFi alternatives. Transcoded HDR 4k etc looks way worse than just having a 1080p copy And what I'm describing is definitely a pro scenario, so charging makes a lot of sense

halJordan 3y ago

I disagree with the implication that plex is Just Another LLC trying to make a buck. If Plex were another netflix, then ads wouldn't be silly.