Here’s a little break from politics. I was wondering if Spotify had a subscription deal, and here it is. For some reason this made me laugh: You mean I could subscribe for 5 years and it would be 60 times the monthly price? Where do I sign?
Anyway, here’s an open thread for anything but politics.
RedKitten
Yeah, a lot of subscription sites do that. You’d think that if they wanted you to sign on for a long time that they’d actually offer you…I don’t know…some sort of incentive to do so?
Jamey
It says “Change Payment Interval,” not “Save Money!” I agree that’s not a smart customer retention strategy, though.
Mark S.
I don’t know what Spotify is.
Anyone played Assassin’s Creed 3? I liked ACII a lot, thought Brotherhood started introducing a lot of tedious features, and lost interest in Revolutions before I finished it. I’m probably going to wait for ACIII to come down in price before I get it.
Suffern ACE
Bah. They’re generously offering you an inflation hedge and you turn it down. Of course, they’ll be giving you you’re money back if they should go out of business in the next five years. Or do they sell you special insurance to cover that risk.
patrick II
The other day I saw some squares of rubber floor mat for sale in a sports store. The package with 25 foot of matting was $25. The larger, 40 square feet of matting sold for $50.
mistermix
@Mark S.: It’s a subscription music service.
Mudge
Strange fact of my day..Obama and Sheldon Adelson share a birthday. August 4.
mainmati
Ok, not politics in the usual sense, but here we have PETA going all really weird about the um, sexual advantages of veganism. Who knew? http://www.brandflakesforbreakfast.com/2012/11/these-guys-love-their-vegetables.html
General Stuck
Speaking of new plans. Amazon is now offering monthly subscriptions to Prime, curiously for the same price of 7.99 a month that is identical to Netflix. I signed up for a month long trial, but will keep Netflix as it sounds like Amazon is trying to bigfoot them. And they are one of my favorite company’s,
dr. bloor
@General Stuck: Netflix will be gone or swallowed by a bigger fish in the not-to-distant future. They already did an end-run to keep Icahn from executing an unfriendly takeover.
28 Percent
There’s something to talk about besides politics?
JPL
@mainmati: He didn’t say we couldn’t talk about policy hmmm
Raven
@General Stuck: Which, nexflix or Amazon?
eta Where do you see the monthly offer?
Amir Khalid
I saw Skyfall today. It’s the first Daniel Craig Bond movie I’ve seen; I’d lost interest in the franchise after Tomorrow Never Dies. Pierce Brosnan always seemed too lightweight for the part, but there’s a proper dramatic heft to this one, and to Craig’s take on the character. A couple of iconic supporting characters make their Craig-era debuts. I may have to dig up Craig’s other Bond movies on DVD.
@Mark S.:
Spotify would be a good name for a pimple cream — one that gives you pimples.
General Stuck
@dr. bloor:
That would make me sad. I like their business model and the founder is a good liberal, I think. Pretty soon the Tyrell Corporation will own everything.
mistermix
@General Stuck: My issue with Amazon is that the number of platforms where you can watch their video is limited. Example: they haven’t released a video app for Android, but you can watch video on their new Kindle, which is Android based. Netflix is much better about where you can watch it.
General Stuck
@Raven:
Netflix
General Stuck
@mistermix:
I haven’t even checked out the streaming function of Amazon. Mostly signed up for the Kindle book checkout, and better and shipping shipping options
mistermix
@General Stuck: I was a Prime subscriber for a while, and their selection of videos was about the same as Netflix, IIRC.
Legalize
Re the thread title – Los Campesinos?
Raven
Amazon Monthly is only a test.
General Stuck
@Raven:
Here
General Stuck
@Raven:
That’s okay, it a test for me as well. first month free.
Raven
@General Stuck: Yea, it’s cool, I was just trying to figure it out. I did the freebie a couple of years ago so I don’t think I could swing that again.
General Stuck
@mistermix:
There is one movie I been jonesing to watch again after decades, that Prime has free streaming that NF doesn’t. The Spy That Came In From the Cold. Maybe my fav spy movie.
Comrade Jake
@Amir Khalid: Craig is a marked improvement over Brosnan in these bond flicks, IMO. I haven’t seen SkyFall yet but all the other Craig bond movies are worth seeing.
Schlemizel
@Amir Khalid:
I fell out after 007 stopped doing Bond films 8-{D
But I agree that Danial Craig is great in the role. Its a much different Bond, a lot more current and, to me anyway, a more believable guy. He gets angry, has doubts and regrets. I caught one on TV by accident & am now waiting to see Skyfall.
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
Casino Royale is very good, Quantum of Solace a little less so. But both worth watching on DVD.
ETA: Damn you, WordPress!
Steeplejack
(Comment fixed for moderation-inducing bad word.)
@Amir Khalid:
Casino Royale is very good, Quantum of Solace a little less so. But both worth watching on DVD.
Note: Anybody who starts talking about Bond movies, the word casino will drop you into moderation. Just a reminder.
RedKitten
@mistermix: We have Netflix, but in Canada, the selection is nowhere near as good. There are workarounds to allow us to get the U.S. version of it, though, which we’ll probably explore while I’m on maternity leave. (It’s going to be a long winter trying to keep SamKitten amused…)
sal
I read they’re considering Idris Elba to take over as Bond after Craig’s done.
Must be missing something on the math. 9.99 * 60 months is ~$600; so is 119.88 * 5. Where does the factor of 60 come in?
mistermix
@Legalize: Yep.
gnomedad
Shorter Jonah Goldberg … oops, sorry.
Punchy
We have a winner in the contest for which direction the GOP would take after this loss….
Just look at this blurb:
CheeseSauce just cant possibly lovez me this much.
Corner Stone
Random complaint ~ Apple’s decision to unbundle the YouTube app from iPad has really, really pissed me off.
The Red Pen
Wingnut discount: 10 cents a piece or 8 for a dollar.
Raven
@Corner Stone: Then this video is juts what you need, white boy.
“Let’s see, does diabetes count as a product”?
Punchy
Sorry, missed that part of the post….
Amir Khalid
@sal:
i think that mistermix is bemused that giving Spotify a year’s subscription up front — in effect, 11 months of it in advance, letting them bank the money and collect interest on it — gets you no discount at all. Which kind of stiffs you, the customer.
Trakker
For years my homeowners association has offered a 4% discount for paying the whole year at once. I couldn’t believe they are still offering it but I jumped on it this year.
Corner Stone
@Raven: Just didn’t do much for me. But I appreciates the effort.
RedKitten
@sal: Good lord — people spazzed out enough about their being a blond Bond. A black Bond? There’d be no popcorn left for the actual movie theatres by the time we were all through watching the ensuing show.
jeffreyw
@mainmati: They hate it when you tell someone to keep fucking that chicken. Will no one think of the chickens?
Raven
@Corner Stone: Aw, you sleepy?
piratedan
@mistermix: they’re not people friendly either, very brutal warehouse working conditions is my understanding from an old rolling stone piece
jeffreyw
I’ve been happy with Pandora, is there any particular benefit to Spotify? Aside from listening to the Charlie Pierce background music while reading his blog?
TribalistMeathead
@Amir Khalid:
Is Q one of those icons?
piratedan
on the Bond thread…. i think Lulu’s Man with the golden Gun is one of the more underrated Bond themes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4g1yqOpdEM&feature=related
peorgietirebiter
Years ago I was placing an order with Kodak for 100,000 feet of 35mm film stock. When I asked the rep about discounts for quantity, he good naturedly told me he was already giving us the same price they give Steven Spielberg. It’s good to be king.
Amir Khalid
@RedKitten:
Apparently Daniel Craig himself said back in ’08, why not a black Bond? The British would have no problem with it. Remember the multiracial enrollment at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books and movies?
quannlace
?? I thought they already were.
Seanly
Royale was a great reboot to the sagging franchise brought low starting with the last couple of Moore films through Brosnan. Quantum was okay. I’m looking forward to seeing Skyfall this weekend – like Craig as Bond enough to shell out $30 (ticket, popcorn I shouldn’t be having & diet soda). Wife doesn’t like spy films.
Someone mentioned Spy Who Came in from the Cold – I just watched that on NF DVD last night. Yes, I still have NF DVD subscription…
EDIT: While Quantum wasn’t as good as Royale, it still continues building the character of Bond – his doubts & regrets, his love/hate relationship (in btoh directions) with M.
Legalize
@mistermix:
Nice ;)
Amir Khalid
@TribalistMeathead:
Sorry, no spoilers from me. :)
Face
Can I use Spotify to listen to The Whitey Tape? Isn’t this subscription service good news for John McCain? What does Tim Tebow and Sullivan think of online services?
Anya
Tomorrow is my birthday, and in two weeks, I celebrate my first wedding anniversary. President Obama’s re-election is a great end to a very happy year!
I hope we don’t have any more natural or man made disasters.
rlrr
@Amir Khalid:
I remember someone suggesting Denzel Washington as James Bond some time ago…
gene108
@General Stuck:
Everybody’s trying to cut out Netflix. They have some really strong management that keeps them just far enough ahead of the curve to not be overrun by the competition.
Cable companies have streaming services, Amazon has Prime, Premium movie services, like HBO, are now streaming content and the movie companies want a lot more money for digital distribution.
It’s amazing that Netflix continues to be viable.
gene108
@Seanly:
I think Brosnan was a nice step back to the more traditional Bond films that the Dalton era was getting away from.
What would’ve been interesting is if NBC let Brosnan out of his Remington Steele contract and allowed him to make the Bond films in the 1980’s, when Moore needed to retire and they didn’t have another replacement.
I like the Craig series is getting back to a world spanning super crime syndicate, which was what the Connery era bond was fighting against.
Also, too saw Dr. No on T.V. a few weeks ago and boy is it dated, especially with how the womenz are treated. Rape is sort of implied as a consequence of not being in your place, minding a home for your husband and family.
Paul in KY
For anyone who’s interested:
That Sonos commercial featuring Janelle Monae rocking around after her shift is over, the badass song in the commercial is a Deep Cotton track called ‘We’re Far Enough from Heaven, Now we can Rock out’.
Seems to only be out in MP3 form at present time.
Amir Khalid
@rlrr:
Bond is Britain’s iconic movie hero and he needs to be played by a Briton. Denzel’s from the wrong country. Of the two non-British Bonds so far, Pierce Brosnan kept his Irish accent mostly under control, but as I said his Bond feels too lightweight. George Lazenby sounded jarringly Aussie to my ears.
28 Percent
I can’t pull myself away from Free Republic. So many threats to “starve the beast” combined with advice to “take the kids to Disneyland… while it’s still there.” Plus a lot of chatter that when their Going Galt is successful (and whatever would we do without them?) that the government will have no choice but to hunt them down and kill them because it can’t survive without their productivity… SOYLENT GREEN IS FREEPERS!!!!1!!eleventymillion!
Soylent Green is FReepers
@Anya: Happy Birthday and Anniversary!
rlrr
@gene108:
I like the Craig series is getting back to a world spanning super crime syndicate, which was what the Connery era bond was fighting against.
Bond is fighting the GOP?
sal
@Amir Khalid:
Maybe, but a factor of 60?
burnspbesq
@Mudge:
Only one of them is likely to need a criminal defense lawyer any time soon.
catclub
@Seanly: “Wife doesn’t like spy films.”
What does Bond have to do with spy films? Action, special effects. George Smiley, not so much.
TribalistMeathead
I remember thinking Tim Roth would make a great Bond, back in the mid-90s when Quentin Tarantino was rumored to reboot the franchise.
Seemed like a great idea at the time, but I’m glad we never got a Bond that eats obscure breakfast cereals and loves Sonny Chiba movies, or a Bond girl that walks around barefoot a whole bunch.
rlrr
@28 Percent:
Has anyone useful ever threatened to go Galt?
jibeaux
Netflix still has me in their clutches because they have DVDs. Not everything I want to watch is available to stream. I probably have at least 40 DVD only titles in my queue.
Amir Khalid
@sal:
I guess paying 5 years (i.e. 60 months) up front still gets you no discount, so that you’re screwed even more.
rlrr
Our local library has DVDs. We have to wait for popular recent releases, but the price can’t be beat…
Corner Stone
Daniel Craig is by far the best Bond. Haven’t seen Skyfall but the other two mentioned here are very good, IMO.
I really liked Royale right from the start. The first 20 minutes or so are simply great moviemaking. I rewatch just the first 30 minutes all the time then turn it off. It kind of bogs a bit with the whole pokeher drama scenes but otherwise I think a great movie for what it is.
I went into Quantum wanting to like it as much but I didn’t. It’s actually taken me a few viewings to really get a sense of it. It’s a very different film than Royale, in tone, pacing, intensity. I actually like QoS alot at this point.
I’m hoping Skyfall goes for a bit of both previous films and they keep Bond a palpably menacing figure with a few bon mots to the franchise.
/mancrush
JPL
OT This is so cute I couldn’t resist. Luckovich nailed it today.
Shawn in ShowMe
@Amir Khalid:
Everybody already recognizes Bond as a white guy. It’d be different if Bond had been in mothballs for 30 years and the franchise was rebooted with a black guy — he would be “our Bond.” Anybody that does Bond any time soon will just be criticized for not being Craig.
Besides, the next great international action hero will be the Black Panther once Marvel gets a script together.
Anya
I know we’re not supposed to talk about politics but I have to say this. In my opinion the biggest losers in this election (aside from Romney) are:
1. The Catholic Bishops
2. The Adelsons
3. Netanyahu
rlrr
@Shawn in ShowMe:
We already have the recent incarnation of Nick Fury…
EconWatcher
@burnspbesq:
I’d read that Adelson might have issues under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, but is there supposed to be an investigation underway? I had not heard. Of course, he’ll claim it’s politically motivated.
Corner Stone
@jibeaux:
I think someone in management finally started to understand their business model for what it really is. The DVD portion is the only toehold they have left into viability.
And they have been systematically reducing the breadth of choices for streaming and combo stream now or DVD. I’ve noticed several things I had on Play Now removed without warning and when you search for them they have them. But now just DVD only.
rlrr
@Anya:
Netanyahu may actually be winner, with Obama restraining him, Bibi may be less likely to start a disastrous war…
skeeball
At least spotify didn’t follow the planet fitness model
http://funtimeshad.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/planet-fitness.jpg
rlrr
@JPL:
Also Toles…
cleek
anyone want to try a Name That Tune ?
Yutsano
@cleek: CLEEK!! You live!
gbear
Today is my 28th anniversary of sobriety. The last evening I got drunk, I had an evening band rehearsal (with lots of beer) and the band leader asked if anyone wanted his two comp tickets to see The Cure play at First Avenue that night. I didn’t have time to find someone to go with, so I have the spare ticket pinned to a bulliten board in my kitchen so I always remember the date, time and place: 2:30AM at the corner of Nicollet and Frnaklin in Minneapolis while driving home (drunk) from an after concert drinking party. I used to drive with an open beer in the car all the time back then. I’m so lucky I never got busted.
Keith
@Mark S.: I haven’t played ACIII yet, but I am a HUGE fan of the series. It’s kind of like being in a movie trilogy (and then some). I never played Revolutions and am considering playing it before ACIII (mainly because I need to get to Halo 4 ASAP)
gene108
@Corner Stone:
A lot of that has to do with copyright laws. Copyright laws allow you to buy a book or DVD, in this case, and redistribute it as many times as you would like. The provider of the content only gets paid for your initial purchase.
No such rules exist for redistributing digital content. Netflix has to pay royalties for each download or each digital subscriber, depending on the terms of the royalty deal with the studio, where as they don’t have to for DVD titles based on the level of their distribution.
What this has led to is Netflix losing access to digital content as the studios – after realizing how successful Netflix has become – began demanding bigger royalty payments. At some point negotiations didn’t work out and Netflix no longer has access to some digital content it might have had awhile ago.
JPL
@rlrr: I love that smile. Thanks.
Foregone Conclusion
Skyfall is excellent. Go see it.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@gene108: Remember when competition was supposed to be good for the consumer?
pseudonymous in nc
@Steeplejack:
Quantum of Solace notoriously started filming when the writers’ strike kicked in, without a fully completed screenplay, so Marc Forster and Craig himself ended up writing a lot of the dialogue.
Raven
@gbear: Great! I’m just at 20 but three times in a month after I quit I got pulled over. I always thought that was some kind of sign that I was headed in the right direction.
maurinsky
I’m going to see Louis CK tonight. Woot!
cleek
@Yutsano:
someone pulled the wooden dagger out of my heart.
NotMax
@gene108
True to the Fleming source material.
Cris (without an H)
Reminds me of a shampoo bottle I bought. It was a 24-oz bottle, and it had a big bright label that said in big letters
“50% MORE SHAMPOO”
and smaller below it,
“than 16oz size“
Amir Khalid
@Cris (without an H):
There was this box of US-made granola I mentioned a few weeks back: sugar was not among the listed ingredients, but “dehydrated and crystallized cane juice” was.
ericblair
@Corner Stone:
For the streaming side, I think they have a chance to endure if they really push to get Netflix clients on all the platforms they can. It’s like Steam for gaming: there are a lot of places to get downloads, but if you need to screw with different managers for each game it’s not worth it. If you get it on Steam, you get one platform, you can access your games if you move devices, and you have only one account to screw with instead of six.
Similarly, it’s great if you can get video content from all sorts of sources, but if that means you can only watch it on the Windows box in the basement instead of the nifty 72 inch TV and/or Bluray player you’ve got upstairs you’ve got a problem. If Netflix can dominate that space they’ve got their niche.
I know that other companies have thought this way, since there seem to be a bunch of weirdly-named services on my Sony Bluray player that come and go, but if Netflix can retain name recognition, and also a really good preference and rating system, they should be on top.
Corner Stone
@ericblair: The big content owners have much less incentive to play nice with Netflix on the streaming side. For hard media like DVDs they were a little confused at first, and I think they licensed the content to what they saw as a second order distribution hub. IOW, the media giants got blindsided. Shocking.
Now that they’ve had several years to see how they were left in the dust, they’ve been squeezing Netflix at each go round. But media owners really don’t want to set up a franchise to handle distribution so it still makes some sense to partner with Netflix. (edited: or some other distribution partner, but we’re specifically doing Nflix here)
For streaming, IMO, there is no such incentive and it’s the great growth engine of the future. If they don’t copulate the proverbial goat harder than any goat has ever been boned in the history of porking.
So, IOW, we’re hosed as consumers for the next 5 to 8 years.
edited a little
gbear
@Raven: Did you lose a lot of weight after you quit? Somehow my metabolism made a major change 6 months after I quit and I lost almost 30 pounds in two months without changing any other habits.
Froley
Just want to mention two music things I’ve really enjoyed this week. First, the Max Richter redoing of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” is fantastic, my pick for classical album of the year. Second, the Stella sisters are great. Unlike some other kid acts there’s something beyond novelty in it; I hear some real talent and I’m excited to see where their careers go.
ericblair
@Corner Stone:
Well, I agree that we’re hosed for the forseeable future, since the content providers seem determined to strangle the golden goose just like the recording industry is. However, I think there’s a role for a common portal like Netflix or Amazon. Your usual viewer isn’t going to want to root around for ten minutes trying to figure out which site (each with separate credentials and layout) has the movie he wanted to watch, and find out whether he can watch it on the TV, Bluray, game machine, laptop, desktop, or whatever. Or he can’t get Warner Brothers movies because he’s got a Verizon connection.
Steeplejack
@Shawn in ShowMe:
Or reboot the Shaft franchise (again) and upgrade it. I saw the Samuel L. Jackson one again last week, and it held up surprisingly well.
Rafer Janders
@jibeaux:
I have a full queue of 500 movies, and of those, only about 100 are available streaming, with the other 400 being DVD only. It’s not even close.
What’s also baffling to me is that, thanks to the first sale doctrine, Netflix can happily continuing buying and renting DVDs, and nobody else can get into that business. In streaming, however, Netflix is at the mercy of the studios, networks, other content providers, and rival services such as Amazon. If I want to stream, it’s as easy for me to do so with Amazon as with Netflix. If I want to rent DVDs, it’s Netflix all the way. And yet Netflix seems bound and determined to sideline its DVD business in favor of streaming.
Cmm
I am a long term and very satisfied Netflix customer, since 2003. Love the streaming, there is plenty more available than I can watch. Stuff comes and goes and comes back again. We have recently cut our DVD sub to one disc at a time, down from 3, plus streaming. We also have Hulu to catch current episodes of shows (my GF) and Criterion movies (me). We have Amazon Prime but don’t think I have used it for streaming, we have gotten it the last few years for the free shipping. But I buy so many more ebooks, including as gifts, that I don’t know if keeping Prime will be worth it.
The one thing I do miss is having access to extra features and commentaries. Obviously not on streaming, and many of NF’s rental discs are specially made to be rentals and don’t have the extra content, so that hardcore fans have to buy the retail version on DVD.
I also do not have cable or satellite, and only installed a digital antenna last summer for the Olympics. Netflix is our main source of tv viewing.
The Claw
Back to the topic:
I can assure you that Spotify does not have control over its price structure. Music industry lawyers don’t miss many tricks, and Spotify doesn’t have the leverage to try many. If Spotify’s business model is anything like the ones I’ve seen in the music startup line before, they are making very very little money on the subscription fees. That all goes to the industry. They will make their money on the ads and resale of marketing data.
Most music startups end up being a form of indirect payment from the site’s investors to the music industry. The industry remorra doesn’t mind killing the host. Someone else will try next year.