#anti subscription

[gor3sigil]

As much as I beg writers to not put their books ONLY on Amazon, I beg musicians to not release their music ONLY on streaming platforms.

I know it's convenient lots of ways and they worked hard to make both artists and consumers dependent on their platforms but if we're going to try and take it down, I need people to make their own websites where we can buy independantly. I want nothing MORE than buy shit FROM artists.

And I'm not even speaking about physical releases that cost a lot of money. Put your music on Bandcamp or online linked to Paypal. Offer your books digitally on itch.io, where you can put your games too.

Diversify your platforms and format of your art, share it on more independent online and physical spaces, distribute it via mail, social medias, have an online wallet where people can buy and tip you !

I'm a very, very small artist myself, and maybe I'm super naive about all that and it's just not possible but if it is, do it. It's the only way out.

[high-sea-husbands]

“What? Are you seriously don’t pay for it, not watching legally? You should ALWAYS pay—

Actually what if you just shut up

[chibelial]

@ every company who advertises on Spotify, my hatred for you will never fizzle out and will boycott you all for this misery

[lazylittledragon]

ok nobody cares but here's my review of procreate dreams after using it for an hour

pros:

you can use all your normal brushes which is GREAT because your animation still looks like your own art

the UI isn't that difficult to navigate once you know where everything is (i don't think it's much harder than learning any other new software)

motion tweening!!!!! i just like that a lot

the fact that you can just make a fully finished animation on your ipad is very cool to me

it has that feature where you can draw outside of the canvas so your lines don't get cut off when you move things around

it's expensive for an app BUT it's a one-time purchase and not a subscription

cons:

the timeline takes up a lot of space on the screen and you can't change it (other than hiding it completely) but that's just a me problem

obviously since it's so fresh it's missing some tools like select+transform (which is VERY annoying)

tl:dr - i think it's ok!! i'll probably use other software for storyboarding because i don't think it's the best for just getting stuff down quickly but i'll definitely use it for finished projects.

[sparkle-fiend]

As an artist, I’ve been struggling lately. It feels like everywhere I look, AI art is in the news, and I’m seeing more and more artists losing work while companies like Meta take our data to train more models and everywhere they are trying to shove shitty AI features down our throats. It’s infuriating, and frustrating, and depressing - and some days it makes me want to give up drawing altogether.

It’s honestly stolen my joy in working with digital tools. How can I rely on them, when tech companies are proving they can’t be trusted - when companies like Adobe are showing that they will turn on their customer base in an instant if they think it will gain them an inch in the AI arms race. (Where the whole goal seems to be the elimination of artists altogether.)

That’s why I’ve decided to try and transition to traditional art - or at the very least, a combo approach of traditional and digital. (And because traditional is slower for me, I will also try to simplify/stylize more, and rely on references less.)

It’s scary, because I’ve gotten comfortable in the way I work, and also because I know my style will probably change a bit (and I’m worried people won’t like it as much 😓) But I feel like it’s my only way to go forward with art right now. Hopefully folks will stick with me through this journey, and still enjoy my fanart 🙏

[monstersw1thv1bes]

the AUDACITY of thinking starting a streaming service is the move here. like, I get that maybe YouTube isn't the place for watcher anymore, but then put your content on another place that already exists, don't create yet another subscription based streaming service. we don't need more of them.

gonna just say it: pirating is completely morally sound in this day and age. the ONLY reason I was willing to stop doing it at any point was because Netflix came along and put all the content I wanted to watch in ONE (1) place, which was convenient for me so I was willing to pay for it. before that if a show was on TV and I missed it because, you know, I had a life, I'd download or have my grandfather record it for me on his VCR (yeah, ig im getting old).

Hundreds of different streaming services are not convenient, and I'm not paying for a whole other subscription (I already have 2 and honestly that's too many) just so I can watch content made by TWO GUYS (sorry Steven. you seem nice but I'm just not that into you).

Also, removing content from YouTube that has been free and available on there the whole time until now is straight up just a scummy move.

I don't even wish the Watcher guys the best with this. They could have done literally anything else without being capitalist scumbags. I hope this whole idea goes up in flames, because this is the most bullshit idea ever and if we as consumers keep going along with all these subscription-based models, this is going to be a continuing trend (like it already is but people don't seem to realize that it'll stop happening once it stops being profitable. they just complain and still pay for it). and fuck that.

[variksel]

youtube ads becoming first one 5-second ad then two 5-second ads in a row or one 15-second ad then a million unskippable ads in the middle of videos instagram quietly inserting one ad in-between every 5 or 10 ig stories then 2 in-between 4 ig stories not to mention the new reel- and explore page ads. a quiet tumblr ad banner at the top of your dash then photo ads in-between posts then video ads then video ads in-between every 3 or 5 posts that play audio automatically while youre trying to read a textpost. the most popular, paid subscription, news apps adding ads between their articles, then in articles, then paywalling new articles further with a new "news +" subscription and putting ads in those as well. once every 15 tweets there being an ad, then every 5, then theres also an ad if you scroll to the replies. you cant look at tweets without logging in anymore, theres just no option for anon scrolling. facebook ai mining on instagram, facebook ai profiles hyping up ai generated photos im fucking going insane ai temu ads and gallery app ads and printer app ads and higher subscriptions while still seeing ads and i cant fucking do this anymore!!!!! its fucking shameless and worst of all its silent and nobody talks about how half the things we see anymore are fucking ads and we dont own a single thing we pay for and companies can just randomly raise their prices through the roof and nobody says anything about it

[dailydegurechaff]

Today's Daily Degurechaff is… blessed

[stavee]

Hello, everyone! If you're thinking of buying a new car, read the FINE PRINT.

New cars these days are coming with top of the line trim now, practically whether you like it or not. Do you get to buy these cheaper, then??Mmm depends.

Do you have a hands-free unlock car that uses one of those neat fobs that knows when you're by your vehicle to unlock it? Yeah, they're making that subscription based now. A friend just realized this on his new leased truck. He had it "free" for two months and then they removed the functionality.

How about apple car play or android auto? They're also becoming subscription based.

Heated seats? Mirrors? Steering wheels? You guessed it baby. Subscription based.

You get all the features in your car, but can only use them if you pay them more.

Absolute bullshit. Signed, someone in automotive

[gor3sigil]

I recently stopped using Spotify. The one thing that prevented me to do so was that I wasn't able to support artists without it because albums, even digital, tend to be a bit expensive and I'm not in a position where I can currently afford it + the slow death of physical discs makes it next to impossible to get a second hand copy of RECENT releases for a better price. Especially indie ones because most of the time they release like 100 to 500 copies of cassettes/CDs/Vinyls and that's it.

So back to 🏴‍☠️. I'll try to buy a couple of my fav releases a month to support artists. But Spotify, I can't anymore. Not only does it really NOT support artists, but the CEO is pro Palestinian g3n0cide, and just to be honest, I HATE subscription/streaming shit. It killed so much of the joy of curating a collection, it also became really not so affordable as it was, you don't own anything anymore, everything is slowly becoming subscription based and that is not something that I want to partake on. I'm sorry, but I'd rather steal than contribute to a system that robs both creators AND consummers with a false "but it's cheaper for THIS MUCH content !" crap.

And if we want to have a sliver of a chance to ever own the things we pay for, I encourage everyone to do the same.

[nando161mando]

san francisco, 1977

[millionsknives]

they’re gonna kick me out of bible study

[unsubscribed]

The unachieveable dream of paying for a good, permanently recieving that good and then never hearing from the person you paid for it again.

[caracalled]

thinking very hard about making yt videos about anti-consumerism.

like i tried to find a video on quittung streaming/subscription services and alternatives to them and there was just?? nothing? all people were making videos about was either how streaming sucks now or which services are the best value, but nothing about living without them?

it feels like the people around me (including me a little while ago?) are dependent on at least one service, whether it be spotify, adobe cc or netflix and there are so many other options out there but it seems completely ridiculous to people how you could live without streaming and that’s… silly??

i kinda get it because up until very recently i could not imagine not having spotify but now i have an old ipod and i borrow cds from friends or the library, or get them at thrift stores or buy music on bandcamp (i think people know some other ways to get music online too yarr) and genuinely. it’s nicer than spotify. I’m not overwhelmed all the time, it does the same thing, i don’t constantly get bored of music and hop to the next song because the process is a lot more slow-paced anyway and most importantly, i don’t stress about people seeing my playlists/spotify rewind/listening activity. nobody knows about my music now and now that thats the case i realise how much those things stressed me out before.

anyway. thinking big thoughts on this one. i think it could genuinely be a good video that would be fun to make? plus it’s a niche that hasn’t been filled yet?

[fractallogic]

Also, briefly, do the BookTok/BookTube people not know that… instead of paying for kindle unlimited, where you might have what feels like an unlimited library of books… you could instead get a library card for free and also access their ebook options

And you can also get out-of-state/non-resident library cards, usually by paying a small annual fee (in 30 seconds on Google, I found a list ranging from $25-175/year), if your library doesn’t have a great selection, which, in many cases, is cheaper than ku and also has the benefit of supporting libraries

Like all these people are like “is kindle unlimited worth it” and it might be for some people (and honestly can’t think of who, other than Jeff bezos, off the top of my head), but the answer for 99% of you is no, actually, libraries are better—and those library cards will in all likelihood get you additional services on top of ebooks, like hoopla or kanopy (streaming movies and music). Your university library also does community member cards, where generally you can access these services too.

For real, y’all, kindle unlimited isn’t worth it, even if it IS cheaper than buying a book a month (but also, on that note, consider: used bookstores, thrift shops, etc.). JB gets enough of our money.

[princealberich]

Imagine if default phone things had ads. Ad before every call. Ad after every 10 messages sent. Your alarm is an ad. Dear old Auntie Phillys calls crying and sobbing to inform you that Uncle Joe just passed away in a tragic accident but 5 minutes in she has to listen to an ad about shaving your balls with manscaped in order to continue