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I am still happy with my decision to never get entertainment subscription services. I buy CDs (that I rip) and BDs (that I let someone else rip, since that's a
by OroPla 24d ago
I am still happy with my decision to never get entertainment subscription services. I buy CDs (that I rip) and BDs (that I let someone else rip, since that's a science in itself). This guarantees me access forever and I get to sell down the line, if I feel like it.
It is way cheaper long term.
- sdcfgy 24d agoYeah that. I am mostly running on FLAC rips I did myself.
- posh_somme 24d agoStreaming services do not offer you what you like forever, they offer you what you didn't know about for the amount of time you need to watch it. So these are two different things
- bigblind 24d agoSame here, that's the main value I get from especially music streaming services: I hear about anartist, and can immediately go check otu their discography.
- heaney-555 24d ago>It is way cheaper long term. How few songs do you listen to, and movies/shows do you watch, for this to possibly be true?
- fdgfikgfv 24d agoThere is so much garbage on streaming platforms, I rather research and pay per song/movie than waste time on trash. And that was before AI slop. Only reason I have subscriptions is family (cheap babysitter)
- rgavuliak 24d agoI have a hard time understanding your opinion. What do you even mean by garbage? There's thousands of legitimate music bands/musicians on these platforms. Naturally you won't care for a majority of it, but an interpret being niche doesn't make them garbage.
- dgellow 24d agoSpotify is full of AI slop trying to pass as artists. That’s garbage Also, the company has a pretty terrible leadership: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2025-07-31/spotifys-ceo-owns-an-ai-weapons-company-some-musicians-say-its-time-to-leave https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2025-...
- DontchaKnowit 24d agoSo dont listen to it? I mean what is the problem here. I never listen to basically anything spotify recommends me, just songs from bands I already know and love. And if I were to purchase the whole discography of the breadth of music I listen to it would cost the down payment on my house
- dgellow 24d agoI do not use the service, I was responding to the comment about garbage
- dofm 24d agoFWIW I went through a phase of this (feeling like streaming services were full of low grade stuff) until one day when basically nobody seemed to understand me except Amazon Music, which has an almost eerie recommendation mechanism that I think people don’t talk about much because the rest of the app is so meh. In one single afternoon Amazon Music served up loads of niche old favourites I had not thought to search for, introduced me to a couple of artists I would not have known existed otherwise, and probably rescued my failing love of music. I now play a game with it and pick somewhat diametrically opposed aspects of my music tastes in quick succession— Superorganism, Cardiacs, Gavin Bryars, Nanci Griffith, Vivaldi, Anouskha Shankar, say — and then see what it comes up with. Invariably one of the recommendations will be something I already adore and one will change my life. I stumbled into the Chris Thile multiverse this way, for instance.
- mrweasel 24d agoMovies and TV shows I can maybe see. There hasn't really be a show that I really wanted to watch for the past... two years, except a few that are on public broadcast or only available on DVD. Music I don't get, you can't even buy a single CD for the price of a streaming music subscription, unless you buy used, in which case you can get as many as 10 CDs per month. Video streaming and it's licensing model is horribly horribly broken, there's no reason why I should have three to five subscriptions just so HBO and Netflix can produce yet another drawn out true crime show about someone how got lost half way around the world in 1983.
- eptcyka 24d agoI stream on youtube to discover and purchase LPs and FLACs on bandcamp and tickets for live shows to support the artist and not the rent seekers.
- heaney-555 24d ago>I stream on youtube Right, so then how you really access most of your your music is through advertising or ad-blocking, not CDs.
- rovr138 24d ago...like on the radio?
- happymellon 24d agoI use Bagal Radio.
- eptcyka 23d agoNo, most often I listen to my own collection.
- tobinfekkes 24d agoSeems weird to question their statement, right? Surely they know their life. This is not that unusual. I also have never had any of these, or any other, streaming services. It's been wonderful.
- heaney-555 24d agoI'm not questioning not having streaming services. I'm questioning it actually being cheaper than buying physical media in the long term for anyone who listens to more than the occasional song or watches the occasional movie. If the answer is "I pirate stuff", that's fine. But just be honest about it.
- bigstrat2003 24d agoIt's absolutely cheaper in the long run for me. I spent a fair bit on my CDs (and digital downloads), sure. But I never need to pay another dime in my life. I'm going to guess that I spent somewhere around $1000 on my music collection. But $13/mo for Spotify for 60 years (if we figure one listens to music from 15-75) is $9360. I'm coming out quite far ahead by owning my music. If you are someone who wants to frequently listen to new music, then sure, Spotify is cheaper than constantly buying new albums. But I at least don't do that; I listen to the same music I listened to as a teenager and I pick up 0-1 new albums per year. So again, no real advantage to using Spotify.
- icantevenhold 24d agoTbh just recently I found the full extended version box set of LotR on DVD just lying on the street together with ~dozens more decent movies. I could probably fund my viewing habits entirely out of found stuff. As for music; my dad ripped his whole CD collection many years ago, many thousands of CDs; more than I could listen to in a lifetime probably. Plus I buy music on bandcamp to support a few artists I really like. Paying for streaming services is just fueling the wholesale of our culture or worse the military industrial complex
- z3t4 24d agoThat CD collection will be worth a fortune because I assume half of it can't even be found on the streaming services.
- ChrisRR 24d agoIt's quite unlikely. There's very few niche albums that I haven't found on spotify
- psp99 24d agothere is loads not on Spotify. It generally just gets lost with time, though.
- icantevenhold 24d agoAlmost 90% of what I listen is not on Spotify. Besides being a plight for culture and enemies of artists Spotify is quite a bad collection too.
- icantevenhold 24d agoThe physical collection doesnt exist anymore sadly. But you are right that many of the my dads CDs cant be found on streaming services. People don’t even realise what they lost, but then again they probably don’t care either way
- sneak 24d agoDVDs are 480p.
- anticorporate 24d agoSome of us owned thousands of albums (or movies, or shows) on physical media before the legal streaming party even started. Personally, I also listen to a lot of ad-free college radio and watch a lot of online videos. Depending on what type of entertainment you enjoy, it's really not hard to pay next to nothing for it without compromising.
- matkoniecz 24d agoHow much I would need to pay to get on Spotify songs not available there?
- rovr138 24d agoYou can relisten the stuff you have. LP's, 8-tracks, cassettes, cd's, mp3 players, etc. You didn't have the whole world at your hands. You had to pick what to listen to, what to buy, what to carry. Yes, it's nice having the world available, but also, it's nice being able to sometimes think, ponder, make a decision, and explore that decision. Based on all the responses, people need to learn to make a decision and live with it for a bit. - Picked a song and it's not the perfect one? meh, okay. - Also learn to be in the quiet. Oh, the song is not meh, but bad? Turn it off. It's okay. - learn to read a book
- newsy-combi 24d agoHow few songs run on loop on Spotify? Not to mention radio.
- dijit 24d agobuy 13 songs a month, every month, for a year, and see how big your library is. Remembering that a song at full price on itunes store is $1~ and a monthly subscription to spotify is $13 There is a compounding effect, so buying my library as it is today will cost me about $300~, but that's because I've accumulated 300 songs over the course of about 12 years. (300/12) is about $25 per year. So the delta is $131... for convenience of being able to listen to a new song once or twice and never again. The irony of course being that if I ever stop paying, I have access to nothing at all.
- zeroonetwothree 24d ago300 songs is not many at all. I have purchased around 20,000 songs in my life. Would it have been cheaper to use Spotify? I suppose so but (a) they don’t have all the music I want and (b) I prefer having the independence to control my media. Also Spotify didn’t exist when I started :)
- dijit 24d ago300 songs might not sound like many, yet that is how many items have been added to my library or to a playlist in 12 years. So I can't really speak to anything else than that. That's my usage pattern, yours may be different. I keep yearly playlists (starting 2023) where I add songs I like and each one is only about 30 songs on average, so that somewhat matches the aggregate number over a decade.. I guess I stick to the things I like and find things I like in DJ sets or on the Gym radio- I'm not investigating new music through subscription services.
- OGWhales 24d agoI have 15 years worth of songs, account is less than 10 years old. Arguably I would be okay dropping some of those songs if I wanted to buy the songs. The biggest difference for me though is the issue of discoverability. It is very easy for me to find and save new songs on Spotify, it would be much harder for me to find the songs I like if I had to pay for them, especially since a lot of the songs I like are not just songs from popular artists but are often just one of two random songs from random artists. Is there a good middle ground here? I keep a copy of my song list in case I want to ditch Spotify but this is the main hurdle for me.
- deleted 24d ago[deleted]
- bambax 24d agoNot everybody listens to music all of the time. I almost never listen to music. I watch few movies and mostly, I rewatch old ones that I like. Paying that amount of money for any subscription to a content faucet (while Youtube is still free, if you absolutely must watch video) sounds crazy to me.
- MSFT_Edging 24d agoA library of 10,000 songs can fit on most phones. Until Sam Altman disrupted the entire computer economy, HDDs were cheap and when you replace your desktop, the old one becomes a server.
- myrmidon 24d agoBuying breaking bad on DVD is <3 months of netflix subscription (no ads). So if you watch <2 seasons per month on average, you already come out ahead, and this is assuming only a single subscription. People tend to wastly overpay for subscriptions because they end up underutilized and are typically never cancelled quickly enough because people are lazy.
- names_are_hard 24d ago2 seasons per month? I started watching The Sopranos this week, I watched 1.5 seasons over the weekend.
- myrmidon 24d agoSure, but do you actually do this every weekend? I mean obviously there are people that consume a lot more movie entertainment than the average, but I'm personally getting nowhere close to 70 seasons per year. Bingewatching occasionally might not be enough to economically justify your subscriptions.
- sejje 24d agoEven if he does do it every weekend, most of us don't. So the rest of us can accept the math.
- names_are_hard 24d agoFair enough. I don't know how often I do it.
- throwthrowuknow 24d agoIt should be easy to calculate this for your own needs based on your playlists. The advantage of buying is that you build up your own catalog of artists that you listen to regularly which means you don’t have to keep paying for them. So, at first, buying the albums would be more expensive but after a few years it would become much less expensive. The exception would be if you are always looking for the latest tracks by a large number of artists but I don’t think that’s most people. Older popular music can be purchased second hand or as a various artists album which also saves money.
- voidhorse 24d agoOur society overconsumes by insane degrees. TBH the world would probably be a better place if most people limited their consumption to what they could reasonably acquire on disk.
- OroPla 24d agoAs you age, you have less need to grow your collection. You'll also forget about stuff from decades ago and can watch everything again without remembering much of anything. Similarly, as you age you'll have less time spending on entertainment. The initial investment might be higher, but it will eventually be cheaper. And you'll curate more instead of mindlessly watching whatever crap there is. Don't just look at the next decade. Look at the entire rest of your life and keep in mind that inflation made a thirty cent school meal go up to five dollar over the course of someone's life. Your money will continue to lose value, so you'll have to pay more and more for streaming. And you can never stop without losing access to everything and being left with nothing.
- pixel_popping 24d agoIt's not way cheaper long-term at all, I mean unless you really watch/listen to a tiny amount of content, you can rip the same way with Netflix, Hulu and so-on as well so I don't see how that makes it more durable? What you are doing is practically the same equivalent as downloading torrents, how do you have "more guarantees" than just downloading? PS: I'm saying this because what you are doing is already illegal so there is virtually no difference.
- amenghra 24d agoIf you buy the DVD and rip it to make it easier to watch / as a backup, it might be legal in your jurisdiction.
- footy 24d agoThat depends on your jurisdiction. In mine it is legal to rip DVDs or BDs I own to watch later and for backup. I own many of my favourites in this way.
- bigstrat2003 24d agoIt's definitely cheaper long term for me. I don't watch/listen to a tiny amount of content, but the cost of buying the stuff once and never paying a dime after comes out far ahead of the cost of a subscription every month for life.
- amelius 24d agoI'm not even buying. If governments think my data is worthless and e.g. don't kill the businessmodel behind data brokers, then why should I respect their copyright laws?
- Pavilion2095 24d agoThese streaming services don't even support 4k hdr on linux, leaving people with no choice.
- ChrisRR 24d agoWell they do have a choice, and that's to switch to windows. I run linux too but I'm not going to pretend like my choice to run a niche setup means I'm entitled to pirate content because they don't 100% support it
- amelius 24d agoLinux is hardly a niche. There are a lot of consumer products that contain Linux in some form or another. Just nobody wants to support it properly.
- ChrisRR 23d agoIt literally is a niche. The amount of desktop users using linux is way smaller than windows
- Pavilion2095 24d agoWe aren't talking about a choice between running a mainstream setup or a niche setup though. There is much more to this choice—I'm sure you understand what I mean. I don't want to dive into this discussion, I just want to highlight that it isn't as simple as you suggested.
- ndriscoll 24d agoI don't see why you'd be any less "entitled" than you would be to go outside and play in the dirt or watch birds. What difference does it make to them? They've told you they don't want you as a customer anyway, and you're not using their resources since you'd be downloading it from someone else, so your decision has literally no impact on them, and carries no moral weight at all. Surely we are all entitled to do anything that does not affect others by default?
- throwatdem12311 24d agoI buy movies on Bluray and physical games for “trinket” collecting aspect mainly, but it’s also a gatekeeper to my consumption habits. DRM-free Digital is a better method of preservation I only buy things that I’m really motivated to watch and play, and it makes it much more fulfilling as a result. Netflix turns watching a movie into something that just feels as hollow as doomscrolling Facebook.
- ChrisRR 24d ago> It is way cheaper long term. I would think this is only true if you watch a small number of shows and rewatch them often
- bakies 24d agoThey're $20-50 for complete series on dvd on Amazon right now. That's 14-35 new shows to get every year for the same price. I believe it's cheaper. This is why so many companies push subscriptions. If DVDs made them more money than they'd be pushing you to buy them.
- wiether 24d agoAre you really buying and watching DVDs in 2026? I bought some complete series in DVD in the past but, even putting aside the inconvenience of having to manage discs in the player, there's the quality issue. I got my 1080p copies on the high seas and that's just a whole different experience.
- basscomm 24d ago> Are you really buying and watching DVDs in 2026? > I got my 1080p copies on the high seas and that's just a whole different experience. There's _a lot_ of stuff that has only ever been available in SD (or equivalent). Some of it was shot on film that could maybe be remastered, but that costs money. Some of the older/less popular stuff wouldn't be profitable if it was remastered (assuming remastering is even possible). > even putting aside the inconvenience of having to manage discs in the player You're allowed to rip media that you bought
- bakies 23d agoNo I'm not, but I'm slowly being convinced to. I've started listening to the radio, tape, and records. I don't really consider that inconvenience. Radio is actually more convenient than streaming, it's made me listen to more music.
- sejje 24d agoThis strategy could at least amass a huge horde of older media (which I think still constitutes the bulk of GOOD media), if combined with thrift stores, for very cheap. Probably you could profit during the buying & selling of the media. They all have piles of audiobooks, audio cds, dvds, a blu-rays for $1-$2 each. Sometimes big boxes at yard sales for a few bucks.
- segmondy 24d agoI get Netflix HD free for 2 through Tmobile, Hulu for free from Spotify, for probably about 7 years. Peacock for free from Xfinity. HBO Max for $3 for 12 months when Amazon had prime sale last year. I get prime since I have Amazon prime. you can stream for free/cheap if you lookout for deals.
- Aurornis 24d ago> It is way cheaper long term. Buying CDs would be so much more expensive than my Spotify subscription with the variety of music I listen to. Another helpful element of the streaming services is no incremental cost to try out a new movie or series. I can start a new show and drop it 15 minutes in if I decide I don’t like it. I will listen to 20 or more new bands each week on Spotify. It’s how I discover new music. For someone who only listens to a small number of the same CDs over and over it might be cheaper, but it’s not a generally true statement.
- OroPla 24d agoTry before you buy is what piracy is for. I would prefer if there was another venue to try before paying, but the industry hasn't figured this out in the past hundred years, so piracy it is. Streaming could be an acceptable compromise if it was $10 a year for everything in existence, but the catalogues are splintered across multiple services and even when you combine them all there are plenty of things not available.
- Nicook 24d agoTry bandcamp (no really it's actually been improving over the years). Also there's still youtube for trying popular ones. Should cover "trying" almost all music legally afaik.
- sejje 24d agoYoutube? (since this is about music)
- OroPla 24d agoThere are a bunch of albums I found on Youtube that I ended up buying, yes. It's only a very small percentage of my collection, though and not generally how I discover new music.
- ryanchants 24d ago> I can start a new show and drop it 15 minutes in if I decide I don’t like it IMO, that can also be a problem. When I was young and buying CDs, occasionally you would buy one you didn't like at first. But since you had spent money on it, you'd listen to it. And I discovered some good music that way. Same thing with movies and tv shows. Sometimes it takes a bit to get going, or I 'm in the wrong mindset for it, but repeated viewing or just sticking with it gets me through that.
- dgellow 24d agoI just always cancel my subscription directly after subscribing. So only pay for a month basically. A new show is out that you want to watch, subscribe, cancel directly, watch it. And just repeat when the next season is out. I never understood why people maintain their subscription across multiple services
- bookofjoe 24d agoBecause it's a pain to mess around subscribing/cancelling over and over. Time is far more valuable than money and the older I get the more the disparity grows.
- dgellow 24d agoThat takes 30s
- abdulhafeth 22d ago[flagged]
- ok123456 24d agoI am still happy with my decision to use torrents for the past 25 years or so. It is way cheaper long term.
- tuna74 24d agoYes, and you don't support the people making the media either!
- ok123456 24d agoCulture is a sewer.
- upboundspiral 23d agoBut by torrenting you are participating and engaging with that culture... I get it, the big brands etc aren't very palatable. And some things get lost with no way to purchase because the companies don't care. But for things that are readily available I find it just as easy to buy if for a few bucks on ebay / local library sale / etc.
- ok123456 23d ago> But by torrenting you are participating and engaging with that culture... I'm not participating in the part of the relationship that normalizes destroying general-purpose computing. They want us dead.
- OroPla 17d agoAs far as supporting creators (or rather rights holders) goes, whether you pirate, buy a used copy or use a library makes absolutely no difference.
- upboundspiral 16d agoVery true. It's more of a personal choice based on my own values for myself: If I buy secondhand, I still provide value to someone (the used books store, etc). There is an "equivalent exchange".
- swed420 23d ago> It is way cheaper long term. Plus the collection can be inherited by somebody later. If they don't want it, it could be re-sold at second-hand prices.