Obviously the answers here might be a bit lower than other places…
Spotify. It is the only subscription I have aside from my VPN, and mostly because their library is MASSIVE.
With how much I drive I’m constantly listening to the damn thing and being able to pick a genre and let it shuffle without thinking about it is 1000% worth the ten bucks a month to not be constantly picking songs, downloading them, sorting and transferring the library to my phone, maintaining storage space, etc…
Yeah, discovery was one of my main reasons for using it. Getting my own music just sounds like a huge undertaking considering how I listen on a whim.
Use a modded apk?
Sure. I could. But you misunderstand my point. As Gaben said, piracy is a service problem, not a cost problem. Spotify’s service is clean and very nice to use, add on the available library and it makes it very worth my time to pay for and support it.
Hell yeah. I’ll pay a reasonable price for a service with lots of stuff on it if it’s reliable and has a great UI. I’ve considered Spotify, even though I have my beautiful flac collection. It’d be nice not to have to worry about converting them to my phone so I can listen in my car.
I stream natural gas, electricity, garbage pickup and internet. That’s all.
I don’t pay for a fuck.
Spotify. It’s the only paid streaming service I’ve ever used.
We’ll see what YouTube is going to do with their war against adblockers but if it gets too inconvenient to use I’ll probably get the premium. I get so much value from that site that I almost feel bad for using it for free.
I only have YouTube Premium because it’s convenient to download and watch things on mobile devices. I torrent and use adblocker and yt-dlp on my PC, but it’s just easier to have for my phone so I can download things for work or whatever.
Technically none, but my partner pays for Spotify and I’m on a shared YouTube Premium plan. I used to have 5-6 subscriptions and cut them off in January 2022. No regrets! Even buying an old machine second hand, an external storage, and a VPN still costs way less than my many subscriptions. It’ll be hard to give up Spotify… Too convenient.
Spotify xModManager for android with ublock manager on the desktop is a great way to cut the cord on spotify premium :)
If you wanna give your money to something useful, give it to local journalists that do investigative journalism.
A good quality usenet server.
I have been trying to get into Usenet. Which server and indexers are you using?
Basically you want one primary usenet service, doesn’t really matter what (they all have pros and cons but for a normal users they’re basically the same), and another secondary service on a separate backbone (see https://whatsmyuse.net) to get good coverage without being hurt too hard by takedowns.
It’s kinda not cool in the usenet world to recommend specific services because there’s so much shilling going on. I’ll tell you what I use but please don’t take it as a specific recommendation. No affiliation with any of these.
For indexers I use nzb.su and drunkenslug. The former seems to have better coverage but the latter is faster. I hear nzbfinder is good too.
I use frugalusenet but only cos I got a deal that makes it $34/year. It comes with a free secondary block account on a second backbone so it’s kinda helpful in that way. But overall coverage isn’t as good as two well chosen providers. They often post good deals to Reddit/etc so keep your eyes open for a good one (Black Friday is a good time)
Some other person here, and thank you for the info! I’m soooo out of touch on Usenet… I used it as a chat room wayyyyy long ago when I was a wee one, but never for downloading stuff.
Just Spotify, they haven’t ruined their service yet. I will never be one of those boomers who manually download all their mp3s and think normal people want to transfer files around between devices.
I will never be one of those boomers who manually download all their mp3s (…)
I take it as a personal insult, and wish you to step barefoot on a Lego!
I don’t think the average baby boomer knows how to download an mp3 or play it on a smartphone.
who do you think are the people filled in IRC chatrooms? anyone under 40?
Gen X: still the forgotten generation.
Yeah, (wild estimation) 0.5% of boomers worked in various fields of computer science and were absolutely brilliant with what they accomplished. They built the foundations of everything that we used today, and enabled us to work at levels of abstraction that make our lives way easier.
But still, the average boomer needs to call their grandkids over to switch their TV from HDMI 1 to HDMI 2. I’m being a little bit hyperbolic, but the boomers who didn’t work in tech spent most of their adult lives with virtually no exposure to the computing metaphors that younger generations understand implicitly.
The difference between them and younger generations is that the average millennial grew up using computers, and so the average millennial had vastly better computer literacy.
Spotify (great service and easily worth it) & Amazon Prime (but that’s really an extra bonus on top of the same day and next day free delivery?
I’m surprised at how many people are paying for YouTube premium. Just patch the YouTube app with revanced and you get better than YouTube premium for free
I pay for it mostly for Youtube Music, which I guess I should just patch with Revanced… Could save me some money. I have to be honest, since the end of Vanced I’ve been struggling to follow along with Revanced (especially given the large amount of fakes online). Would you mind sending me a link to what you’re using?
Only helps on mobile, though.
Apple TV+. They are releasing some really spectacular shows (Ted Lasso, Severence, Silo) and enough fillers between the spectacular stuff.
If you like sci-fi try “Foundation” on Apple+
None. I run Jellyfin locally. No license bullshit or fifty different services. Don’t even need internet if it goes down and I can curate my own library.
I’ve never heard of this, and it seems like something I’d love to try!
I have a GSA, but I have no idea what to do with it. It’s been flashed with non-Google BIOS stuff I guess? I suppose I’ll try to figure out UNRAID and pop Jellyfin on it somehow!
None :). I have neither the luxury nor the budget to pay for subscriptions.
I pay for the only streaming related site worth it’s money and that’s Real Debrid (or any of the equivalent alternatives). Stremio + Torrentio Addon to friends and family even if they don’t know shit about technology cause it’s so damn easy and fast.
The only streaming service subscription I pay for is Dropout.tv.
I get Netflix for free. I get HBO Max for free. I used to get Spotify for free but gave up my spot in the family plan as I don’t use it often enough. I can’t tell you the last time I’ve used Netflix or HBO Max.
I replaced Audible with Audiobookshelf, and replaced Crunchyroll & Hulu with Plex + automations. No replacement for Spotify yet, I can use YouTube ReVanced to listen to a YouTube playlist while driving.
YouTube music ReVanced exist. I also use xManager for Spotify.