I predicted this at least 7 years ago. Streaming services need to band together and offer their wares as a bundle deal. The current one is a loose loose situation.
I said it when youtubers started launching their own subscription services. "But $10 is not that much, why can't you bla bla" Yeah $10 is not much, but to watch all content I'm interested in it's not $10 it is ten times ten at least. And to be fair I don't even bother pirating their content, it's not even worth the effort to look for it. I simply forgot they existed.
You know, for some it does have to do with money. This is usually people with plenty of time on their hands, but not very much money. Young kids, college students, etc.
For adults that pirate it usually has less to do with the money and more to do with not dealing with the bullshit.
1.) Having to find which stupid streaming app that has the title you want
2.) Installing more apps you don't want on your device, each of which with their own data collection schemes
3.) Creating more accounts, adding your credit card information to more companies systems, etc. increasing exposure risk
4.) Regional blocks, time blocks, etc.
5.) Having your quality dependent on bandwidth/route fluctuations
6.) Having to flip back and forth between a boatload of menu hierarchies/interfaces.
The piracy customer service is simply so much better.
It's fast, it's easy, and once your save your file to your library it's in a single user interface, it will always play fast and smooth regardless of how your connection fluctuates, or even if you have a connection at all. You don't have to have your payment information out there on various services, or worry about a **** ton of apps all spying on you in the background. And there is no DRM. I can use the file how I see fit accross any of my devices. I can even re-encode it if I so desire.
Now there's a service I'd pay for!
It reminds me of
this comic from The Oatmeal from a few years ago.
Because I truly do believe in content creators getting paid for their work, and I do want to pay them. I just don't want to deal with the bullshit, and if they are going to try to inconvenience me in order to drive whatever the business goal du jour is, then two can play that game, and I can inconvenience them by pirating.
