this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
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Piracy was, is and remains a service problem, as Gabe Newell of Valve (Steam) once stated. Most people are perfectly content to pay a reasonable price to get access to the things they want. But if you make that impossible, they’ll find other options.
Take anime for example: even if you subscribed to every streaming service out there, you still wouldn’t be able to see everything you wanted. Some things aren’t streamable or sold ANYWHERE, or only on a service that’s actively blocked in your region. Which means there is simply no legal way for you at all to get that content.
Music on the other hand solved that dilemma. You can use Spotify, YT Music, Apple Music or a host of other options. You pay a flat fee and you can listen to pretty much every song you want, as often as you want. Nobody’s pirating MP3’s these days, because nobody needs to. It’s now more convenient to just stream it.
I’d really like to see someone do the same for books. An unlimited digital library that lets you download anything you want for a flat subscription fee. I’d pay 10 bucks a month for that for sure. Because that would make it more convenient than pirating is right now, with a more consistent experience.
Music is definitely not a solved problem. About 30% of my favorite older tunes aren't available on streaming at all, as I discovered when I tried to find a way to casually share with some friends.
They also treat artists like shit. I switched over to Tidal simply to get access to Joanna Newsom's music, as she won't tolerate Spotify's terms. Tidal isn't much better, but it is slightly.
I was looking forward to blockchain cutting out the middle man in paying artists. Too bad it has so far not happened that way.
Block chain was ruined by the early adopters.
I really like Tidals algorithm for new music. I struggle to find new music I like so find it immensely helpful and it is much better than spotifys.