The main reason I dropped prime is that the shipping stopped working. Two days slipped most of the time.
But what put me over the edge was their music stopped being included, it was another fee to remove adds and unlock everything.
And video had these annoying preroll ads. Frequently for things I already watched.
Now there will be ads throughout and it’s a monthly fee to get what was free.
I do like some prime shows -maisel and peripheral - but those get conveniently packaged up and downloaded through trackers.
The best UI experience for streaming is just torrent files autodownloading and being available the day after. No ads, no confusing interfaces. Id pay for this, but I can’t.
The big issue in my opinion is that movie execs have this misguided belief that if you stop people from pirating your content, every prevented download will turn into a sale at full price.
But I expect that people will simply stop watching mediocre movie and low-effort series. Or wait for rebates, like those people who avoid cinema and then rent the bluray later. As a result of this misunderstanding, they try technical solutions and the effect is that probably every 2nd person who reads this has Sonar setup to fuel their "web-dl subscription" to Prime. The correct solution would be to lower prices (and that somewhat includes less ads) to make it more attractive to pay for that content. And they will need that strategy anyway to survive a direct competition with Disney = the Marvel cinematic universe.
I myself cancelled Netflix when I noticed that none of the people I talk to regularly care enough about their Netflix shows to remember the story... And from that I concluded that it must be mostly filler content.
That applies to me. I rotate some of my streaming subscriptions are shows/movies release. Peacock, HBO, Netflix all are monthly and I turn them off periodically.
I haven't used Amazon for years but it's amazing they were able to include all of the things you mentioned for the price. Fast Shipping, video, music.
But the only way I can look at it is the consumer benefits while the rest are either subsidized or screwed over. Fulfillment workers are in horrible conditions, musicians make nothing on their music, and filmmakers lose their royalities and pay and increasingly become a sort of gig worker.
But what put me over the edge was their music stopped being included, it was another fee to remove adds and unlock everything.
And video had these annoying preroll ads. Frequently for things I already watched.
Now there will be ads throughout and it’s a monthly fee to get what was free.
I do like some prime shows -maisel and peripheral - but those get conveniently packaged up and downloaded through trackers.
The best UI experience for streaming is just torrent files autodownloading and being available the day after. No ads, no confusing interfaces. Id pay for this, but I can’t.