Music Piracy absolutely still exists although WhatCD going down hurt it a bunch. However, the real trick of music streaming sites is to build in all of the scrobbly/suggestion/organisation features in.

Piracy grows when it is more convenient than legal consumption. I'd rather download a torrent of a DvD I own than go and fetch it, put it in a cd tray, play it with shitty un-skippable intro etc. However - I'd rather spin a film up on Netflix than go hunting through a shitty folder structure of my own idiotic devising. I'd rather watch a series on netflix, which remembers where I am in the series and auto-plays next than manually load up episodes on the odd evening when I've got time.

Admittedly Netflix seems to be going out of its way to make the UI intolerably aggravating, but at some points it seemed pretty well done.

> However - I'd rather spin a film up on Netflix than go hunting through a shitty folder structure of my own idiotic devising. I'd rather watch a series on netflix, which remembers where I am in the series and auto-plays next than manually load up episodes on the odd evening when I've got time.

There is desktop software that does all of this locally, including auto-play, intro skipping, remembering where you were in a media file, even auto-downloading subtitles and displaying them. Nor do you have to navigate through your own 'idiotic' folder structure as you put it, because software like Everything exists.

Just because you never bothered to set it up doesn't mean this functionality doesn't exist.

Netflix's selection of films is also so atrocious as to be dangerous for the Bildung of our youth.

uPNP is pretty cool.

1. $10/month is not an issue for me financially.

2. I want to support the artists who make my media financially, and doing that on an individual basis would be too inconvenient.

3. I know what I’m getting, P2P was always a gamble.

4. Current streaming services (movies and videos) have a significantly better UX that isnaccessible to anyone.

Just wait for a year or two. All the content big creators(HBO, Disney, etc) have become jealous of Netflix and are preparing to silo their content to their exclusive streaming services for all that sweet cash.

Once this process is compete and the silos are created Napster will rise again.

I know it's not the same from a technical standpoint but BitTorrent is still alive and well. Being peer-to-peer it could be considered a spiritual successor to Napster. I'm not ashamed to admit that I still use it to download movies or foreign TV shows that aren't legally available on the streaming services I use (at least in my region).

In my case it's strictly a case of availability - I happily pay for Netflix, Amazon Prime and Spotify as well as whatever software I use. I wish the content creators would wise up to this - Steam solved this issue for gaming years ago.

> Being peer-to-peer it could be considered a spiritual successor to Napster.

Napster's popularity was not because of P2P or something else. The only reason Napster succeeded was convenience. Bittorrent cannot be the successor because it is not as convenient.

> In my case it's strictly a case of availability - I happily pay for Netflix, Amazon Prime and Spotify as well as whatever software I use.

Everyone pays now because it is convenient to pay at 2-3 places for all your needs. Once you have to start paying at a separate place for every different series/movie you want, you will stop paying. It is not only about availability. It is about availability AND convenience

And Steam is facing the same issues as Netflix with Epic Store and Origin breaking away because EA and Tim wanted more money.

Convenience and price both play a role. Like it or not, streaming music has most content on each of the major services, is fairly cheap, and is very convenient. It's not a shift I'm entirely happy with and I keep a foot in each world (owning and streaming) at least in part because I already have a big music collection.

Video and other content is much more of a mixed bag with very fractured availability and simple lack of availability under a subscription for a lot of content.

Netflix selection has been dwindling in my country while prices keep going up...

I think the TV and movie industries haven't felt the effects of piracy like the music industry did in the heyday of P2P, there's a big difference between the behavior of the music industry who'll sign a contract with any reasonable streaming provider and that of say, HBO or Disney who want full control of their content.

I dont think so, IF Roku, Amazon, and Apple make it easy to 1) manage subscriptions and billing in once central place and 2) give you the option to open each channel/app specifically OR allow you to search AND browse across all of them at once. It's that last browse part thats important. If I can click "all available movies" and see my movies from CBS, FX, HBO, Disney, Paramount, Amazon, Netflix, Vudu, and Apple (without Amazons way of not showing you if it costs money until you click) I think the platforms (Roku, Amazon, Apple) will keep people away from more complicated piracy. As long as the platform abstracts away the silos, making them an optional way to browse, people wont go running.

> I want to support the artists ..

That is like eating in McDonnalds to support the workers there.

You mean you want to support the big media corporations that make good artists available to you...

Just making sure that you know what you are doing.

And like in today's thread about Instacart stealing tips, make sure the company you're paying actually supports the artists.

Your #1 does not really help your #2.

I've never pirated music. I did torrent few movies and shows . when there was no easy legal way to get them. A couple of apps too. Never music though. And I had no bittorrent client for a few years now. Why… That's a good question. First of all I am not interested in hoarding all the media ever produced. Most of it would not even be interesting to me. Second, I want so show some appreciation to the artist I like even if they get only a small percentage of what I pay. I may be outlier in my relationship with the music though. I do not get the urge to have it in my ears for 24/7. It is something I listen to not just a background or the way to drone out my own thoughts. So the smaller collections of the stuff I really like is enough.

Streaming services make one to pay over and over, more and more for the same content while actively pursuing new ways to limit the accessibility to the content and to sneak in advertisements. It's a doomed industry.

I use several streaming services and I've never had to pay over and over for the same content. Hell, more often than not, I don't have to pay anything for the content I actually want to see, as long as I'm willing to tolerate advertising, which is fine by me as long as it isn't too intrusive.

I understand this is a Napster thread and as a result the most enthusiastically pro-piracy, anti-capitalist contingent of HN is going to show up and wave the black flag but at least try to be honest about the pros and cons for both. Streaming services do have their dark patterns and anti-consumer practices but they still offer something of value to the consumer, and despite what people want to believe, are more convenient than piracy for many people.

I'm not who you replied to but I believe "over and over" was a reference to recurrent subscription fees.

> I'm not who you replied to but I believe "over and over" was a reference to recurrent subscription fees.

I mean that with subscription services one is unable to backup, or even "come back" repeatedly to the content. Let's say watching the same movie from time to time - it's not possible because service providers go out of business, copyright deals change, markets become more/less prioritized, different platforms are supported, the repertoire within the subscription changes over time. Thus watching the same movie requires buying it over and over again.