âSubscriptionâ doesnât feel like an accurate word for all the stuff we subscribe to.
When you cancel a magazine subscription, Time doesnât come and take all the issues back.
When you cancel a Hulu subscription, you canât watch the show for which youâve been paying for months or years.
Do you like your Spotify library? Hope youâre ok with paying for it for the rest of your life.
What do we call these? âService plansâ? âRentscriptionsâ?
With the #Bandcamp âsubscriptionsâ I mentioned in my last post, you get to keep the records!
I would 1000% become a $20/mo subscriber to Merge or Thrill Jockey on Bandcamp if it meant I got to keep everything released during my subscription period.
Pause the subscription when money is tight, miss out on a few releases, then resubscribe when and if Iâm able to again.
@jsit The realisation that Audible is actually a decent subscription in terms of being able to retain the media "purcahsed" when the plan is active.
Does seem that every time I run out of books to listen to, I re-sub and usually get successive good deals so that I can usually come away with a trilogy.
@jsit Just to add, because I realise there is some positive sentiment around this, I am cognizant that if Audibe shuts down, my purchases go away and they aren't purchases of media but just a licence to access the media.
My backup plan for *all* of my media is piracy.
The reason I don't pirate audiobooks is because I've tried it and it sucks compared to Audible. If Plex had a decent audiobook feature I might use that, but they barely have a good video playback feature at the moment.
@digitalstefan @jsit I use Libro.fm for my audio books lately. Not sure if the price is as good as Audible's, and exclusivety agreements might keep some books off, but at least they give me a DRM-free file I can listen to in perpetuity, even if license agreements change or the company goes under.
EDIT: spelling
@avghelper @jsit Thanks. That's a great recommendation. Most of the books by Peter F Hamilton are there.
I'll give it a proper look when I get through my current book.
@digitalstefan Looks like there are some iOS apps for âbring your own audiobookâ audiobook playback:
@digitalstefan And whoa, look! Audiobooks for Plex:
@jsit Holy moly! That's a great find! Thankyou đ
I think I have some mp3's of some books from a feew years ago. Will definitely investigate.
@jsit It was a great service - came out around the time eMusic really went down hill. Kickstarter tried to save it and then (much to my anger) deleted the entire site when the money didn't work out. A lot of discography data was lost.
As someone with 1000s of albums in his library, I've got a lot I could say about music "ownership" vs "rental."
@jsit Though conversely, subscribing to a paper magazine doesn't traditionally give you access to back issues. So that's something at least.
That makes me wonder what the word "subscription" was first applied to.
@jsit https://www.etymonline.com/word/subscription
I guess the original meaning is basically to agree to recurring payments. Which both meet, but the meaning has changed since we don't seem to refer "subscribing" to a loan agreement.
I don't necessarily think the problem is that it's only accessible while you are subscribed. But rather when there's no other purchase option, they can remove it at any time, and even if they decide to never offer it again you can't expect to live to see it enter the public domain.
@jsit In comparison, suppose your Disney+ subscription gave you access to all in-copyright media owned by Disney, every individual item could separately purchased in a loan-able/resell-able form, and entered the public domain after 20 years or as soon as it is no longer for sale and streaming, whichever occurs sooner.
That seems reasonable, even if there isn't an option for a "traditional" magazine-like subscription.
"What do we call these? âService plansâ? âRentscriptionsâ?"
Life services. Highly popular among gaming producers. Nowadays many don't even give you the rights to own the game you buy. Despicable, capitalist bullshittery because management needs to pretty up its shareholder reports.
@jsit I donât know anybody who keeps a stack of old Time magazines who isnât a library.
For a magazine subscription, you prepay for a magazine that youâre expected to throw away after a week. Thatâs pretty comparable to a streaming subscription that throws away any movies you download after a week.
But if it bothers you that much, call it a âmembershipâ instead. That way itâs comparable to joining a club that revokes all access to its resources when you stop paying.
@jsit same here on some of things I âsubscribeâ to like Blue Apron. If I cancel, will they try to take back all the food I ate?
It doesnât make sense anymore.
Hostage situations?
Something that kicks you out when you stop paying is a lease. These are music leases, tv leases, etc. The companies operating them are more like landlords than anything. I think "content lord" is more accurate.
Time share membership
@SeanMarsala @jsit Membership implies benefits and I think the companies have been shy to admit that their content is a "benefit." I think Disney tried the "club" idea back in the day but it didn't catch on.
Also, no one in marketing cares about accuracy of words, just how it makes the buyer feel. And once one marketing group has badly refined a term, that's the one all other marketers will use. See: Cloud Services
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