archonet

I assure you, the enshittification of music streaming services is already here. Even before Spotify went completely to shit there were some things that just couldn't be found on the platform, and others still that I used to listen to suddenly becoming unavailable.

I, and a lot of other people, pirate music now because (among other reasons) having a hard drive full of MP3s or FLACs is something no corporation can arbitrarily decide to take away from you at any time.

The last game I pirated was Driver: San Francisco a couple years ago, because you couldn't (still can't? maybe?) buy it anywhere except for like, second-hand physical media, and I am not going through that hassle. I can't even remember the game I last pirated before that (Probably Sims 4, because fuck EA and fuck that laundry list of DLC -- but I can't be sure).

Music, movies, and TV shows, though? Oh yeah, baby, that's a weekly activity now. Netflix I dumped many years ago when the fracturing of content to twenty different streaming services happened, and Spotify I dumped just this last year for a few different reasons (the CEO donating to AI weapons programs, introducing a fuckass AI DJ, ICE ads, getting fed up with songs I either can't find or can find but aren't available in my region, or could listen to and enjoyed and then having them suddenly become unavailable, etc...)

I'm sure, someday, Steam will enshittify. Probably shortly after Gabe dies -- and it will be a dark day for me and millions of gamers worldwide. But for now, I'm more than happy to let Gabe empty my wallet with sales and convenience, because the gettin's been good for a couple decades and will likely remain so for another couple. I can't say the same for music, movies, and TV; I don't know if I'll ever end up paying for them again unless the distributors involved sort their shit out.

Do yourself a huge favor and download Nicotine+ (which is a client for Soulseek, you can also use the official SoulseekQt I guess but it's old and not as feature-rich). That and Spek to make sure you don't get any fake bitrate files from people.

The only two real downsides to Soulseek, imo, are the fact that a lot of the chatrooms are basically unmoderated IRC (So many nazis to ignore. So many.), and the problem of fake bitrates. The huge upside is you can find pretty much any and everything on there if you wait for the right people to be online to share it. I've found quite a few rare albums and such that I couldn't get from my usual gettin' places.

the fact that Gabe said "piracy is a service problem" fifteen fucking years ago, and none of these fuckwits in content distribution have learned this at all is a source of continuous astonishment to me.

You know, it costs nothing to not put that idea into words. It also would've been entirely free to not put those words on the internet, where an idea can fester.

And yet, regrettably, here we are.

"the birth of superintelligent life"

Whoever wrote this couldn't huff their own farts harder if they tried.