According to the WSJ, Costco has been talking with streamers about a package deal similar to how Walmart+ now includes Paramount+. I wouldn't be surprised if Costco starts bundling A1 into the Executive membership to make it seem like a good value when it raises its fee later this year or next.
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PSA: Apple Sending Emails About Apple One, Apple Music, and Apple TV+ Pricing Increases
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Most of us who are “hooked“ as you say are not irrational. We have evaluated the tradeoffs of accepting increases or leaving and come to the rational conclusion that the juice associated with leaving is not worth the squeeze. I have seen a lot of people complain about those big bad corporations much as yourself, but they think nothing of buying $6 lattes that cost $4 just a couple of years ago at Starbucks. It’s all relative, not to mention personal.
Their profits are record high with massive increases. That was never a risk. Greedy Tim at it again.
Not really. I buy a lot of vinyl, they’re typically the most expensive compared to smaller sites. Same with PC hardware. Yeah, the shipping is great, but they don’t add anything new to the service and continually look for more ways to add a line item to your bill (Prime Music, Prime Video Channels, etc)
Well... i mean, if you are out buying a $6 latte, you are keeping someone local employed, paying their wage, and having a physical instant benefit to yourself. If you just stay subscribed because the fee is small but only watch it a few months a year, then you are padding shareholder's pockets with no benefit to yourself.
Exactly right. They know that people will pay. I started seeing all this price increases news and just went down my list of subscriptions and made some decisions.
Canceled
Hulu
Apple Music
Apple TV+
Netflix
Funimation
Disney+
Starz
Was paying for all this services and in the end wasn’t using them. If I want to watch a movie here or there, I rent it or buy it. Now I can better use that money for something else instead of throwing it away. Happy before and happier now. If down the line any of them becomes a necessity (which I doubt) then I’ll consider it.
Yes always try to compare base price first. Problem is if it's not too bad, it's more worth it to get it in less than 24h sometimes, than to wait a week just for someone else to ship. And like I said, it could cost more for fast delivery that the base cost increase on Amazon
From $2-10/month more for Apple Music and meanwhile:
1. STILL no real "Apple Music" client for Windows
2. No direct integration between the majority of streaming hardware solutions (other than Sonos) and Apple Music (Airplay does NOT count) due to lack of an API
1. STILL no real "Apple Music" client for Windows
2. No direct integration between the majority of streaming hardware solutions (other than Sonos) and Apple Music (Airplay does NOT count) due to lack of an API
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My frustration also isn’t with the price increase, but with lack of service improvements! For instance in the tv app, there is no see all option tab for your up next scroll. Very basic function that’s not there, yet increased prices.
Gave up on most TV and films years ago -- and have NEVER missed it. We cancelled all of our services save HBO, and I only watch that if I'm holed up in a hotel room with nowhere to go.
There's a great big world out there beyond the trees...
There's a great big world out there beyond the trees...
Every couple of years I look at what Prime costs vs what I get from it.
So far I get a lot for not a whole lot compared to similar services. True it is not as "cheap" as it used to be but it is still the most bang for the buck for my usage.
I'd appreciate this sort of thing too, although I'm thinking that sort of granularity would be too detrimental for them. In your case, best bet is to do A1, cut your losses on AA (at least you're not paying extra for it at this point), and then add News+ a la carte for $90 per year through Costco (so that'd come out to $7.50 per month). If you don't have a Costco membership, make friends with someone who does (they can buy the News+ card in-store and give it to you, or buy it online and pass the code onto you), or see if your local laws/store policy will let you buy without one (if so, there will be a +5% surcharge, but you'll still be coming out ahead ($7.88/month vs. $10 a month normally).
Ditto. Closest thing I came to that is Apple Arcade. I really enjoyed my free trial of that, and wouldn't have minded doing an annual sub for that. Esp. with Costco's cheaper $45 per year rate. However, several things that stopped me include:
1) I went on travel and took a break from it
I got used to not having AA again. Once you get used to something, you don't feel the need for change. :|
2) I found a few other games to keep me plenty occupied
Non-AA on my iPad, and Android ones for my phone
3) My iPad only has 64 GB of storage
This can be managed, but still has to be something I'd need to deal with. Esp. since some of the games on AA eat up 2 to 10 GB, apiece!
I had to wonder just how much I'd get out of A1 and a quickie eval says "not a lot".
My iPad is a gaming device and I have no other Apple devices, so iCloud+ is useless to me. ATV+ isn't too shabby, but I don't need it year round. If I was going to do it annually, it has to be on the cheap side, of which it wasn't, and even less so after its price went up. Contrast that to say, Curiosity Stream which is only $20/year for HD, so I'm fine with keeping that even though I haven't really used it.
I sampled Music and News+. They're not too shabby, but they're take it or leave it at this point. I have YouTube Music for free due to a family plan, which I'll use simply b/c I have it. I've been using YouTube normally to supplement Sirius XM (this I'll contiue to do if it's cheap. NOT $330 per year!), but ad-free is all the better! Fitness+ no longer requires an Apple Watch, but an iPhone that can run ios16.1 ain't cheap, so I won't be getting one of those either.
I still have Apple Family Premium but I don't watch TV/Movies. I don't do any of the fitness features. I just use Apple iCloud storage and listen to the Apple music I purchased and downloaded many years ago.
I should probably cancel.
I should probably cancel.
If your are thinking (considering your options) then you’re not hooked. You’re one of those who make a sound decision fit to your like, budget or needs. The world actually needs more people like that. I’m not complaining on anything. Simply saying that the reason why companies keep raising prices is cuz people simply keep paying. People don’t speak with their wallets as they used to. Some are even happy to pay the extra. I don’t drink coffee, nor alcohol nor do drugs. But if can I would rather spend the money on food. A dinner with my wife. I think is of more benefit and more enjoyable. As I said before, we can’t expect prices to remain the same for ever. We have to be realistic. However, price increase must be relatively fair with inflation and should always offer an least a new feature or anything to minimized the pain. Average inflation is 8-9.5%. So if your increase is 20% with no new features, I find that very unjust.
In my case, since I don’t need certain things, I canceled, save the money and use it in other areas where it is of more benefit to me.
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It's been interesting to watch that product evolve, such as making it available to people who don't have an Apple Watch.
For me, I wouldn't subscribe simply because my Bodybuilding.com membership includes not only workouts, but also discounts on supplements, so it's a better value. But Fitness+ probably targets a different part of the fitness market than what I'm in.
Bodybuilding.com includes discounts but only from retailers who sell supplements for more with the discount than you find them elsewhere online. It's like people who believe GNC is a good deal during member week each month when things are 1/2 off. When they're 1/2 off there, it's still only around normal retail price. The rest of the time they're charging 2x or more what everyone else charges.
You make an interesting point, but it leads to a conclusion that we might be better off if subscription models were eliminated and everything were a la carte. In that case subscribers would be spending a lot more time and effort buying their usage on a pay as you go basis. That time and effort is worth something to users, not to mention to the company processing all demand on an a la carte basis. Subscription models can be very profitable for companies and convenient for users. There is a balance that needs to evaluated by companies and customers alike.
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Definitely different markets, Fitness+ for me hasn’t realised hypertrophy potential.
HBO is my favorite by far. Always stuff I like on there, and even with ads, they periodically show one 30s ad at a time. Not like the ones that go 3-5+ minutes
I wouldn't mind this if we could be guaranteed that the money is indeed going to them, and that their pay raises will be nontrivial. Not just "we're giving them a $1 an hour raise", and taking credit for that like it'll have any noticeable impact on their cost of living.
Heh... I had to deal with a similar thing when I purchased my 9th gen iPad. 64 GB of storage, or a whopping 256 GB. The latter is also a whopping +$150 to the price of the iPad. I would've liked to have the option to pay half of that to go 128 GB, or to 192 GB. I initially regretted springing for 64 GB. In my defense, I did plan for 64 GB to be more than enough. I'll play a few games, but otherwise, it's a gaming device with some consumption. No multi-media really*, nor productivity. AA was the wrench in the works, esp. given how some of the games eat up 2 GB to 10 GB apiece! ATV+ would've been nice to download some content for offline viewing, but I rarely travel, so it didn't really come up. I've come to accept that 64 GB was the right call. I'm busy with other games (iOS not requiring AA, and Android), and also busy with other streaming services, so that extra money would've gone to waste!
* I still need to look up how to transfer files to and from my PC, as it's no longer plug and play out of the box