#Piracy #StreamingServices #MainstreamPiracy
🏴☠️ Is piracy gonna become more mainstream than ever? With streaming services raising their prices, removing content, and pushing ads, are people gonna leave streaming services in droves to “sail the seas”?
In recent years, the rise of streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Disney+ has revolutionized the way we consume entertainment. However, with the increasing costs of subscription fees, the removal of popular content, and the introduction of ads, many consumers are beginning to question whether piracy will become more mainstream than ever. In this article, we will explore the factors contributing to the rise of piracy and its potential implications for the future of streaming services.
## The Rising Costs of Streaming Services
As streaming services continue to grow in popularity, so do their subscription fees. In the past few years, many major streaming platforms have raised their prices, citing the need to invest in original content and infrastructure. For example, Netflix’s most popular plan went from $12.99 to $13.99 per month in 2020, while Disney+ increased its monthly fee by $1 to $7.99 in 2021. These price hikes have led to frustration among consumers, many of whom are looking for more affordable alternatives.
## The Removal of Popular Content
In addition to rising costs, streaming services have also faced backlash for removing popular content from their platforms. For instance, Netflix’s decision to remove beloved TV shows and movies such as “The Office” and “Friends” has prompted many subscribers to seek out these titles through other means. Similarly, the fragmentation of content across multiple streaming platforms has made it increasingly difficult for consumers to access all of their favorite shows and movies in one place.
## The Introduction of Ads
Another factor driving consumers away from streaming services is the introduction of ads. While platforms like Hulu have offered ad-supported subscription plans for years, other services have started to incorporate advertising into their content. For many consumers, the presence of ads on a paid subscription platform feels like a betrayal of the promise of uninterrupted, on-demand entertainment.
## The Rise of Piracy
As a result of these issues, many consumers are turning to piracy as a more desirable alternative to traditional streaming services. Piracy offers access to a vast library of content at no cost, making it an attractive option for those looking to save money or access content that is no longer available on legitimate platforms. The rise of torrenting sites, streaming platforms, and online communities dedicated to sharing pirated content is evidence of the growing popularity of piracy as a mainstream option for entertainment consumption.
## The Implications for Streaming Services
The increasing prevalence of piracy poses a significant challenge for streaming services, as it threatens to erode their subscriber base and revenue streams. As more consumers turn to piracy, streaming platforms may struggle to retain their existing subscribers and attract new ones. This could lead to a decline in the quality and quantity of original content, as well as a loss of licensing agreements with major studios and production companies.
## The Future of Piracy and Streaming Services
While piracy may offer a temporary solution to the issues plaguing traditional streaming services, it also comes with its own set of risks and consequences. Pirating copyrighted content is illegal and exposes consumers to potential legal repercussions. Additionally, pirated content is often of lower quality and may contain malware or other security threats.
As streaming services grapple with the challenges of rising costs, content removal, and ad integration, they must find innovative ways to reclaim their audience and address the factors driving consumers toward piracy. This may involve reevaluating pricing strategies, improving content availability, and minimizing advertising interruptions. Ultimately, the future of piracy and streaming services will depend on how well platforms adapt to the changing preferences and behaviors of their audience.
In conclusion, while piracy may be growing in popularity as a response to the shortcomings of traditional streaming services, it is not without its risks and drawbacks. Streaming services must take active steps to address the concerns of their subscribers and retain their loyalty in the face of increasing competition and evolving consumer preferences. Only then can they hope to remain relevant in an ever-changing entertainment landscape.
For many years, it was big until Netflix and others became big. Now that the streaming services got too greedy, people just go back to pirating.
Piracy is more often than not a distribution issue, rather than a cost issue. As movies or series become more distributed over more platforms it becomes tedious (and also unnecessarily expensive) and annoying to watch the content people want to.
Given the option people want to act ethically, but ethicality is abandoned in the face of inconvenience.
Yeah.
Streaming was suppose to fix cable. Now we have cable of streaming.
For basic stuff I need to pay 200 bucks on 11 streaming services not including 30 bucks for live sports.
Fuck this shit.
Piracy has been the main way people receive audio and video content for over 25 years
I’d pay for the services if they just kept their catalogue up and didn’t arbitrarily remove stuff all the time.
Let’s hope so.
Piracy is what forced those services to step up their game and provide an experience we wanted to use. Now that’s been eroded to a breaking point.
They need pressure.
Try streamio on your tv with torrents enabled and tell me it’s not incredible how it works
I wouldn’t go as far to say more mainstream than ever.
There’s always going to be a core amount of people that will still pay; for the convenience, supporting shows, financially able and don’t mind, not wanting ads, not breaking the law, lacking the know-how to “sail the seas”, watching in real time and etc.
I would expect more people will eventually find a substitute if prices continue to rise but it is not a huge amount of people all at once — everyone has their own “breaking” point if you will.
I mean…
Amazon prime has this stupid IMBD UI covering the screen and in some instances the UI actively stops me from enjoying the shows I want to watch on prime so what do I do?
I switch to a more functional, better to look free “service” that has the exact same episode I want to watch without the hassle of the stupid Prime player or its horrible UI.
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So yes, inconvenience me and I will switch to a pirate site at a moment’s notice.
Probably.
The AAA games industry right now especially is gonna be a major target too, I think. Maybe worse than the streaming services even.
They really expect us to pay more for games that release both unfinished and horrendously optimized, while also laying off half their employees on completion despite raking in record profits? I don’t think so.
Oh and soon you won’t even get to own what you’re paying for because they’re moving away from physical media too.
The current conditions are a perfect shitstorm to make me feel no shred of remorse for sailing the high seas
Yes and not feel even a little guilty about it.
You should consider that there’s a whole generation of people these days who have no idea how to download a movie or anything else. With the rise of streaming years ago many people have no idea how to download a torrent file, and will keep paying even with price increases. These companies are not simply stupid either, they know that even if a percentage of costumers will drop the subscription after the raise, the vast majority that remains are making up the revenue difference being worth it.
Of course streamers are going to push some people away with these kinds of changes but it’s always going to be a small niche. The kind of people that can barely figure out how to attach a PDF aren’t going to bother to figure out pirating unless it’s braindead easy like the streamers.
It’s never going to be as available as it was pre metallicunts Napster lawsuit, but you have to weigh that against the speeds now, also the “reletive” safety. Also there’s massive backlash starting to brew because people are realizing they don’t own shit. Buy a movie, it’s yours until sony loses rights and all of a sudden, you don’t own shit. I could honestly see jailbroken bluray devices and physical copy bootlegs becoming a thing again.
I sure hope so
First of all, I agree with the whole “distribution issue” and all that. But with the way the internet is going in the last few years I can’t shake the feeling that piracy and other “workarounds” are merely companies letting us think we’re smart.
In the last few years we’ve got:
1. Multiple torrenting sites being taken down.
2. A huge demand for VPN services.
3. Strong crackdown on account/family sharing.
4. Google becoming an increasinly worse search engine, which also affects looking for piracy.
5. Pretty big noticeable ramp-up in streaming prices.
6. Content spread between multiple services (sometimes owned by the same company).
I don’t think piracy will ever truly be gone, but it’s much harder now than it was a decade ago.
Piracy is free.
I’ve already gone back to pirating films and TV. I always used to do it when I was younger but when netflix came out it was affordable and easy. It’s too spread out now and I’d need 4 or 5 subscriptions to watch everything so instead I pay around £4 a month to stream anything I want. I still pay for Spotify but if music goes the same route and I need 4 or 5 subscriptions to listen to what I want then I’ll start pirating music instead
It’s gonna be bigger than ever. Fuck all these stream services.
Wait a minute… piracy isn’t already mainstream???
i’ve been sailing the seas for decades. sometimes i’ll sail the seas for content on streaming services i pay for 😂
We’ve gone full circle
Do people have memories so short as to not recall the Napster days? The Limewire days? Kazaa? Hell, even the BitTorrent days?
No memory of the glorious Pirate Bay, in which you could spend countless hours downloading a movie and then take a crapshoot as to whether it’d be the actual movie (most likely filmed by some creepy guy in a theater with a trenchcoat covering a tripod cam) or a black screen?
No memory of all those lawsuits that led to most of these sites being shut down?
The human memory is astounding to me. I can’t imagine one single world in which it would go back to that. Corporations control the internet now. It’s not going to happen.
The other day I logged in to Prime Video, already paying $139 a year for Amazon Prime to find out that Prime video is no longer ad free unless I was to pay another $2.99 a month…add to that all my favorite shows are on different platforms…If I want to freely watch all the shows I like or hear are good, I have to have Netflix, Prime, Hulu, Paramount+, HBOMax, Disney+, Peacock, and Apple TV+. And then on some of these apps seasons 1-3 of a show will magically disappear so you can’t watch the whole thing. Cable sucked because it was expensive, had commercials, and you had to wait a week for new content…streaming is trying to reimplement all of these things. So yeah, I’d say hitting the high seas sounds pretty good about now. I’ve also seriously thought about just cancelling everything and buying the box sets for the ten different shows I watch on repeat. Although I haven’t even checked to see if box sets are still even a thing in the streaming era. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to find out I couldn’t get the dvds anymore. These streaming services are going to kill television if they don’t calm down.
The rules and contracts are ruining this business. Time to recreate popcorn time.
I’ve never done it and never will. It’s still theft.
Than ever? Nah. It was pretty damn big before Netflix. People used to even send around burnt DVDs.
Is it increasing? Yes
I don’t know if it’s back to its heyday but it’s certainly picking up steam again with movies and shows at least.
I used to pirate everything apart from videogames. But I stopped pirating music thanks to Spotify. I’m back to pirating movies and only buying my absolute favorites thanks to price hikes.
I don’t think old school music piracy will ever make a comeback. As in very few people will have folders upon folders of pirated music because you can access most music for free on YT
Honestly it’s not even pirating anymore. Specially for movies, tvshows, books and music. I haven’t actually downloaded or torrented content for a long time. There are sites that use that technology to offer free streaming.
That question was written by someone who wasn’t around for the napster days. Napster and then limewire were huge.
It’s just as inconvenient to pirate sometimes. An app I use on iOS needs a lot of clicks, wading through strange ads and watching clips of bogus mobile games just to start the movie or show then multiple during.
Every time greedy corps make the getting of media too pricey or too inconvenient, you will see an increasing number of people get fed up and take to the high seas.
The best digital delivery models that work are the ones that respect the customer.
Probably. There’s a reason why games don’t get pirated as much as they used to. Steam figured out that most of the piracy was a accessibility issue, same with iTunes/Spotify. Cable/Media just can’t seem to figure that out. Also all companies can’t seem to get that short term gains doesn’t make for a great business model.
What is not being discussed is that pirating, while not overwhelmingly complicated, do requires a bit of technical knowledge (what does a torrent mean, how does it work, how do you use one, how do you search for one) and one thing is that technical knowledge of computer is decreasing in younger people, they learn more stuff on their phone than on a computer, on OSes that are less prone to error, and they are thus less experienced on solving technical issues.
So piracy might grow in absolute numbers, but I don’t think it will ever be higher than its relative peaked that it probably reached in the 2000s when there were a lot less people on the internet
No, but we aren’t cheap like you are.