adjl posted...
Though Spotify is also very guilty of the "hey aren't you annoyed that we interrupt you with so many ads? Pay us to make it stop!" protection racket style of marketing their premium service. I don't really have an issue with services offering meaningful perks in exchange for a premium fee, or even paywalling basic functionality that essentially frames the free experience as a free trial. I do take issue with blatantly creating problems to which they then sell the solution.
In principle I completely agree. I've just never hesitated a second to pay for Spotify. I suppose I can justify it because it was never a user-based platform to upload content. It was a platform for established musicians to distribute their music, much like a store that sells CDs. I know these days any amateur can host their music for a fee (or even anything really as long as they format like an album, ASMR artists thrive there). But it's never felt like a platform that was marketed as free use.
I'm just thankful Youtube hasn't hidden more of their features behind a paywall like playlists or comments. But I probably shouldn't be putting that into the universe...
Edit: I guess that's not fully true. They've started compressing the hell out of their content and hiding "upgraded bitrates" behind Premium service.