4.22 /// The Digital Dilemma: Subscription Overload...

Thanks for joining me for unscripted , unedited everything . Welcome to , uh , welcome to another episode of Infinite Prattle with me . Stephen Um , if you're first time here , welcome . If you're not , what are you doing with your life ? No , on a serious note , I appreciate all the support and , uh , I'm gonna make a confession .

You may have seen on the social media that I posted over the weekend that , uh , this episode would be delayed by a day Because I had recorded an episode , lost the episode , found the episode but didn't have time to upload it and everything .

Before going away for the weekend , I went to the British Superbikes in Knock Hill in Scotland and I've come back and it's the Monday now , so I'm recording this quite close to the bone . To be honest , it's like half four . I don't even know where this is going . I'm so disorganised . I've been very tired today .

It was a long drive , it was a busy weekend and I've been chilling out and I lost track of time . I was watching some football from the Euros and I lost track of time . So I'm very sorry , I'm rubbish anyway . Yeah , when I actually did discover the recording , I don't know I'd done with my microphone and I'd bodged something up and I wasn't happy .

And he does have better quality . I know I'm a bit crap with a lot of stuff and I don't really plan stuff . That's the whole idea of this podcast . Most of the stuff in my life is meticulous .

Um , when I do get down into it , I , I , I do work hard to create some quality stuff , but I , I decided just to record it , re-record it today , um , because I really couldn't talk as well the other day I , I was , um , my brain was full of stuff and I feel a't talk as well . The other day I was , my brain was full of stuff .

I feel a bit more relaxed after the weekend and , oh , I left my phone on . That's what I didn't do the other day . I'll take my phone off now , silent mode , yeah . So I just thought I'll just re-record it today , because I actually came up with a couple more ideas I should have mentioned . It was all over the place worse than usual .

So I thought , you know , I will re-record , and I also wanted to add some stuff in from last week . My downloads have like suddenly shot up , which is amazing . So I don't know that's down to one person or multiple people , but whoever's been listening recently ? Thank you very much .

Anyway , onto subscription services and , um , binge watching , um , because most , most subscription services that most people will do will be something to do with , uh , media , I would say , and , uh , the intake of media . So what is a subscription service ? Well , it's a service that you pay for to get a service .

It's a something you pay to get a service for , normally monthly or yearly , and , um , you normally don't end up owning the thing . You kind of it's on lease or it's ethereal digital media , something like netflix or disney plus or something like that .

And um , over the last I would say maybe like 10 years , it's become super , super popular and although I am going to rant a little bit about it today so rant warning I don't use these sound effects very often , for obvious reasons , I'm not very good at them .

So , yeah , even though I'm not really a fan of them , I am subscribed to quite a few subscription services , but it's the only way to get certain media now and physical . I did a podcast a while ago about physical media and how I miss it , but it also takes a lot of space in your house .

So having digital content is is really , really useful , but it's not if you want to own that thing and it is nice to own an item , um , I've got loads of cds and dvds and stuff in the loft . I got rid of a lot of my dvds . Actually , I kept like a precious selection and got rid of the rest .

Really , um , and the ones that I kept were like special ones , special edition versions , etc . And I kept the , the blu-rays that I had , um , and everything else I got rid of , uh , kept all my cds .

I've got all my cds and I've got a collection of mini discs there's an episode on that , don't get me started on minidiscs , um , and it is nice to have that physical media .

But I mean it's handy to have the digital because , let's face it , you buy a cd , you normally put it into itunes or windows media , whatever service you use , and then you can put it onto your mp3 player , but mp3 players have really died , so you upload them to the cloud , uh , through itunes or something , and then you can listen to on your phone digitally .

Um , I used to have an mp3 player . I used to have an ipod and I used to have an old sony one that I used to have , which was fantastic , far superior than an ipod , really . I thought for like build , quality , etc . But the interface was terrible . Itunes nailed the software .

The Sony I can't remember what it was called , but the Sony software was absolutely abysmal . Sonic Stage , yes , sonic Stage , anyway .

So , yeah , I'm subscribed to quite a few things and I probably need to stop because I feel like I need to subscribe to one , watch some shit and unsubscribe , switch to another one , watch some shit , unsubscribe and switch to another one . However , I have Disney+ , discovery+ , netflix . What else do I have ? Amazon Prime Video . That's because I've got Amazon Prime .

I've got Apple TV because it's like a family subscription thing , which is actually quite good good to be fair , and it's not , I think , 40 getting that is actually quite good to see , like you know , server space and um , film , tv , music , all that sort of stuff . So I've got that , uh , and it's and it's a family thing , so my wife can use it as well .

What else do I have . I think that's enough , really . I used to have powerpoint plus but I cancelled that . I think that's all actually . I think that's all , but it comes to about 70 pound a month . Normally you get a discount if you do annual , but that's a lot of money .

That's a lot of money considering there's a lot of content on my fingertips , don't get me wrong . But then I don't physically own it . If I really like a film that I've seen , I'm like well , I don't actually own that now .

But it does also get you out of the fact that if you ever Because I used to buy films and go , that's shit , I haven't bought that or I thought it would be good and it isn't Then you own a film that you don't actually like .

Whereas like , whereas the good thing about digital content is you can , you know , suppose , kind of like when you used to go to the video store and rent a video or a dvd , I used to remember going to hire a vhs and , uh , yeah , I suppose it's kind of like that .

The digital media is like the taster and if you really want to buy it then you go buy it . But then you think to yourself , well , I've already paid for it kind of , then I don't want to spend money buying it . It's a dilemma . We live in a time where , um , technology moves so quickly and physical media is being edged away .

I mean , it seems to have , although there has been a seem to be a resurgence recently in blu-ray players because they're really pushing these 4k blu-rays steelbooks they just re-released Aliens and Terminator . James Cameron's doing like , I think , his back catalogue in this 4k steelbook seems to be a thing .

Um , I think you need a 4k blu-ray player to play them and a 4k tv . And my blu-ray player is in loft , for one thing is in my , in my attic , and , uh , the one I've got downstairs is technically in my the blue , but I've got downstairs is actually my xbox , so I took that downstairs to play that . And again , xbox . I don't .

I don't have a few games on there that are digital media , digital purchases , and you can actually buy games on the internet and they send you a case . So you get the game case with it , with the artwork in and sometimes a manual , weird um , but then there's no cd or dvd . Whatever it is , it's like a dvd , isn't it ?

Like a blu-ray disc , basically , but there's no CD or DVD , whatever it is , it's like a DVD , isn't it ? Like a Blu-ray disc , basically . But there's not a disc , it's a code to go onto the Microsoft shop and download the game . That's the freaking point . Like , if I buy a game physically , I want the actual physical disc .

And the risk of doing all this , especially making purchases digitally because I have some iTunes stuff , normally through the fact that I've bought the blu-ray and they used to give you a digital copy to download on , like what's called ultraviolet or itunes .

So they normally give you a choice uh , sometimes it was just ultraviolet and sometimes it was both or a mixture . You can redeem it on multiple sites , um , so I've got a lot of films through that and I've bought some stuff myself .

But the risk again with that is if they decide to close or the companies go bankrupt or the terms and conditions change or they want to make you see a different version of that film , you can't do anything about it . You can't do anything . They've got you , they've got you , they've got you .

Like in a vice of give us money , we'll give you what we want you to see . So the library's changed on these downloadable services and then we'll also . We could just remove stuff whenever we want to , we could change the version on that film . Yeah , there's and there's not a lot of choice . I mean , the disney plus app seems to be pretty good .

I think you can like . You can choose , like the kind of the options . I think I watched aliens recently because he had the upgrade that to the 4k and I watched aliens on there and I'm pretty sure I give you the option to watch the movie or the theatrical , the directors of the theatrical version , because I love the director's version of aliens .

I love the directors' version of Aliens . I love the directors' version of Alien as well , actually A lot more features in that . And we're not going to talk about Aliens . I'm going to do a very special couple of episodes of Aliens because I've got to like nearly the end of Series 4 and I've not even spoken about Aliens . It's one of my biggest loves .

Yeah , but like loves . Um , yeah , but like they really have you by the balls , really that they could just change their terms and conditions whenever they want to and you've got nothing you can do about it and you don't actually physically own anything . Um , whereas at least you buy blu-ray .

You've got that forever and you could supposedly keep a blu-ray player , even if it becomes an antique and you could potentially repair them or maybe buy another one , you know , yeah , it's a strange thing . It's a strange thing .

I'm a fan of having access to stuff wherever you want , because obviously we carry these little digital assistants around in our pockets Little digital computers , really , aren't they Like phones and tablets and we can just consume . Oh , I'm also subscribed to YouTube as a subscription and , to be fair , that's the one I use kind of the most .

I follow there's a couple of episodes on my subscriptions and they did pretty well . Actually , people seem to like them . So I might do some of that lines again . But I just went through all the people I like to watch on youtube , or my my favorite people at that time , and , uh , I consume quite a lot of my media through youtube .

Um , I like the content that people put out there , um , yeah , so I think that's the one I would always probably keep .

I'd like it to be cheaper , because I'd like you to have the option of only having the video or audio . But if you subscribe to YouTube , they basically give you YouTube music and YouTube , and I'd like to . I would prefer , maybe , to save a few quid and knock the music bit off , because I already have the Apple iTunes stuff .

Yeah , music bit off , because I already have the apple apple itunes stuff . Um , yeah , but the subscription thing is , I think , getting out of control . It is getting out of control . The prices are going up as well , um , and I don't think that we get anything more for it .

Like all the stuff's gone up and I know they've got server charges and electric charges and stuff , but I wouldn't , I wouldn't mind , necessarily , if they said , right , everything we've ever done is on this thing , like , I know netflix like changed that stuff around because obviously we're signing contracts and deals with certain film uh , companies to you know , have a

periodic , um , license for playing their stuff , um , but disney , like if all of disney fox stuff was on , was on there , like every single thing they've ever done , everything , like literally I'm talking everything shorts , cartoons , features , live action , you know , going way , way back , I wouldn't mind , but it isn't , it isn't , and that's where they've got you , you

see , because you're subscribing to , you know what is relevant to them and what they want you to see . It would be , it would be so much better if , like , there was just one archive of all film and they maybe logged how much you're consuming and then they charge you by that , charge you by data . Would that many ? Would that be any better ?

I , I don't know . I suppose for the casual viewer it might be a thing , but for people that you know engage a lot , maybe that would cost them an absolute bloody fortune . I don't know , it's a strange thing . It would be even cooler if you could . Actually , I don't know .

Sky did a thing for a while that if you bought the film from Sky , the digital version version , they would send you a hard copy of the dvd . I think it was , I don't think it was a blu-ray , but it was the dvd . So you still had a hard copy , which I think is quite cool . Cool thing to do .

Um , yeah , it's just a weird world that we've come into , where things just seem to be we don't need to own it . But maybe that's coming from the concept of like touching what I said earlier , that we don't want to own stuff because we've got too much shite in our houses . You know how space is precious not that you don't have .

From looking at this bedroom I'm sitting right now , however , um , but space in your house is a premium . You know you want to keep your house kind of decluttered . You want as much space as you can , you know , for the important things , just for mood around it . I like things , though , but there's the other way of looking at it .

I suppose there's like $7.99 for Disney+ . You could watch like a film a day . I don't know how many films are on there , how long it would take you to get to the end . But if you decide to buy a film a day , you're probably talking like anywhere between 5 and 15 quid maybe for that content . So that makes the physical media so much more expensive .

But then what price do you put on that ? Because then you can keep that forever . And I read somewhere actually recently and I think my mate told me this as well that DVD media content was wiping itself .

I'm not sure if that was just like rewritable formats , though , but if you had like a rewritable DVD , they were actually degrading to the point they wouldn't read , which is actually quite scary , because I've got some like backup dvds of like photographs and stuff like that . So what , what is safe ?

What is safe because we back all our phone stuff up to the cloud now ? Well , that all disappeared . Thousands and thousands of phone phone pictures and my dog would disappear , yeah , but it is a strange thing . But binging stuff has become a massive thing and I think , because we can get everything just straight to our phones , like it's a bad thing .

In a way , like mindfulness plays a part , like before I had a phone that could do all this stuff . Like I was like off the grid , a little bit . Like I am of a generation where I had a phone at 16 , I think it was Like I didn't get a phone when I was super , super young . I might have been still 15. , but I wasn't too old .

I wasn't too young , should I say . But children now , like five-year-olds , six-year-olds , have like smartphones or tablets . It's bloody crazy , it's unneeded , it's not necessary . It's not necessary . I don't think , and I would like , I'd love to revert back to a time where we were more engaged with each other rather than having this content .

But it's certainly drawn me in , like the first time when I subscribed to Netflix , I had a day off and when Breaking Bad was online , I decided to watch it because I had a couple of free episodes from itunes . They used to do a thing where it was like the 12 days of christmas . It was a great thing .

Um , if you had an itunes account , they would just literally say you can download . I think it was an app . Actually , you download an app and it just revealed something every day with a link . So , like the first day might have been like the first 12 day of Christmas might have been like we're going to give you a song for free .

The second day would have been like an app for free . The third day would be a film , and it would just go through the 12 days and you get 12 unique items from Apple . But there was always so much backlash about it , like they give away a film and they go oh my god , why have you given us this film ? It's the worst film ever .

It's something free , calm yourself down . I downloaded pretty much . I think it was only one thing I didn't download from then . It was something I was really not interested in , but I didn't and that's the reason I didn't download it .

But anyway , got these two episodes , or one episode from of Breaking Bad through that system and it was on Netflix and , uh , had it on my phone for a while and it came to Netflix . I thought I'm gonna watch this because I've seen the first episode ages ago and it was really good . So I just watched it from start to finish really quickly .

To be fair , it's a brilliant series . If you've never seen it , I really , really enjoyed it great acting and great storyline and loads of twists and turns and just always left you wanting more .

And I had a day off one day and I think I was on the first series and I really wanted to watch it and I thought , you know what , I'll put some washing in and I'll sit and watch an episode during breakfast and then I'll go and do something and then might watch one later on .

I always had a bit of a reward system for myself and I ended up sitting watching it all day . I think I'm much what must have watched like nine or ten episodes back to back .

I end up being nearly on season three by the time I finished , didn't get anything done , felt really guilty because I just literally melted into the settee all day , and that's what it leads us to do . You know , we've got this content and we feel obliged to watch it and my bloody netflix , disney and all that .

All my watch lists are ridiculously long and then I just sit and scroll through and can't decide what to watch , and then I end up not watching anything or scrolling on my phone and doom scrolling and I've been sat there and I think I've done nothing . I could have done anything else .

I could have been in the garage pottering around , could have gone for a walk , could have listened to a podcast or an audiobook yeah , it's crazy . And there's another subscription . There you go audiobooks and podcasts and like , even I have a subscription service .

Hopefully don't throw it down your throat um , no one subscribed you anyway , which is fine , it's just fine . Like I'm a small outfit , I'm an indie podcaster , do all this myself . Um , but yeah , everyone's asking for money . I mean , I'm , I'm not asking for it , I suppose I am , but it's funny to keep myself going really like it's only to keep the process .

And maybe , you know , make it cost neutral . If I , if I hit cost neutral , I'd be happy . Obviously , these big companies , they don't want to do that . They want to make a living out of it . Don't be wrong if I could make a living out of this , if I to make a living out of it .

Don't get me wrong if I could make a living out of this , if I could make a living out of prattling down a microphone . I think hell would freeze over , but it would be nice . But yeah , everyone's on this subscription thing , like Patreon and all that , and I don't know where it would end . I don't know where it'll end .

Will people wake up and think , you know , want to go back to physical media or buying stuff ? I don't know , I don't know . It's just all a bit too much sometimes for me . So I think I need to re-look at my subscription status and maybe go back to the times of actually buying some physical media of the things I really like .

I mean Hummer and Ironweather should get the Aliens 4K just because I like to collect the Alien stuff . I'm not sure . I'm not sure I would like Aliens on VHS and UMD as well . Anyway , I'm not talking about Aliens . What am I talking about that for ? Anyway , what do you think about subscription services ? Do you have loads of subscriptions ?

Even car companies now are even doing subscription services for the features in their car which are already baked in and you have to pay to unlock them , like you know , driving assistance things and stuff like that . What do you think about that ?

Because surely if you buy a vehicle , everything that's pre-programmed into it should come with a price , or would you be willing to maybe unlock a feature later on ? And I suppose cars are a lot of the times cars are kind of subscriptions , higher purchase and stuff like that . You're really only hiring it out . Maybe that was the godfather of subscriptions .

Whoever's come up with the concept is a genius . It's made a lot of people a lot of money . But do you subscribe to a lot of stuff ? Do you wish you didn't ? Do you wish that you had more physical media ?

Is your playlist as long as mine and you never actually get to watch anything because you're too long scrolling through your playlist thinking , no , I can't watch that today . No , I can't watch that today . No , I can't watch that today . No , I can't watch that today . No , I can't watch that today . That's all I ever do .

Let me know in the comments and , you know , make contact with me . I really am not impressed . I really am interested is the word . I'd be impressed as well , I'm sure , in hearing your thoughts . So , yes , thank you for listening to me . That was subscriptions and binging . Try not to binge too long . Get out and walk around a little bit .

Need to take my own advice on that and until next time , I will speak to you soon . Thanks for listening to Infinite Brattle with your host Stephen . Thanks for listening to Infinite Prattle With your host Stephen . Follow me on social networks at Infinite Prattle and don't forget to subscribe . Thanks very much .