Millenial here, I have zero subscriptions, the only thing close to that is that I manually pay for a gift card for Geoguessr once a year.
I do it this way so I don’t forget the cost of the service and should I come onto bad times, it is not something that will automatically renew and keep charging.
I am considering getting a lifetime subscription to Nebula, it is very expensive, but just a single payment that can be budgeted for, and once paid I’ll keep access even through bad times.
Fellow millennial here. I’m in the same boat. Zero subscriptions except for Curiosity Stream, which is like Netflix for educational documentaries, and it’s dirt cheap.
I bought the lifetime subscription to Nebula. It’s been worth it; I have a few channels I follow and I appreciate the extra content and freedom of video producers to say/do whatever they want without platform censorship. YouTube has so many restrictions, no one can post content without bowing to Google censorship.
Parody laws should allow people to actually review or poke fun at other media, but Google will demonetize or block any content that they arbitrarily decide is copyright infringement. Most film review channels I follow have to be extremely creative in how they show clips of movies. Most of them mute music scenes, and some will insert their own public domain (or homemade) music over scenes to avoid a ban. It’s ridiculous how far the MPAA and RIAA have gone in locking down media from public consumption.
Also millennial. The only thing I pay for is Tidal. Music streams, at least for now, are operating as they should. You pay one a month, get all the content and no ads. I’m using it everyday and it costs almost nothing.
I wouldn’t be so sure about that lifetime subscription. Companies already started changing the terms of use while subscribed. Sony’s has been removing movies that have been purchased from people’s librarys.
I wouldn’t be so sure about that lifetime subscription. Companies already started changing the terms of use while subscribed. Sony’s has been removing movies that have been purchased from people’s librarys.
I understand why you’d be worried but comparing a multi-billion multi-national corporation like Sony to Nebula is like comparing CNN or Fox News to 4ZZZ Community Radio, they are worlds apart
The founder and CEO posts on reddit responding to peoples questions
No, that’s completely fair. And Dave’s well-publicised admiration for Jimmy Donaldson certainly doesn’t help in that respect. (They also seem like they may have previously had a professional relationship, though the details and extent are unclear.)
But everything he or the other founders have said about Nebula makes it sound like they’re doing the right thing, and they are very deliberately avoiding the number one cause of companies that were once fair ceasing to be fair: venture capital. There’s no outside source that could turn around and demand to get a greater return on their investment against the wishes of those operating the company.
A lifetime subscription ($500 $300*) is roughly the price of 17 10 yearly subscriptions ($30). How many years do you think Nebula will remain as good as it is now? You should probably think of some of that money as being a donation and not a guaranteed product.
For some people, that’s probably fine. The service might have given them $300 worth of value already, so buying it’s a no-brainer.
but yeah would need to really love nebula to get value out of the lifetime subscription and their mission is a good one so i think saying you’re half subscribing half donating would be accurate
I buy the music I want to have track by track on iTunes, I have 800 songs in my library, my thinking is that if I get on hard times, I will at least be able to keep access to my music without any added cost.
I do this and download it to local storage. It’s all DRM free and I can stream it myself with Jellyfin or throw it on a USB stick to play in my car. Even if Apple goes belly-up or something they can’t revoke that access.
GenX here, I have a streaming service (Paramount+) for exactly one reason: It comes for free with my Walmart+ account, which I use frequently. Every 6 months I switch between that and Peacock, since both are free and I can change my choice twice a year. So I watch what I want on Paramount+ for 6 months, then switch to Peacock for 6 months, rinse and repeat.
As far as a lifetime subscription to Nebula, I’ve watched way too many sites fail/die to consider a lifetime subscription to anything on the internet. They could shut the site down tomorrow, and now I’m out $500 ($300 if I happen to get a discount from a creator code).
As far as a lifetime subscription to Nebula, I’ve watched way too many sites fail/die to consider a lifetime subscription to anything on the internet. They could shut the site down tomorrow, and now I’m out $500 ($300 if I happen to get a discount from a creator code).
There’s no “happen to”. It’s the default expectation. You can go through literally any creator on the site to get that, it’s not a time-limited thing or anything like that.
As for the rest of it, it’s certainly a possibility. But it will only take 10 years before that lifetime membership becomes strictly better than paying yearly. And the reason they’re doing it is to avoid one of the biggest sources of companies with fundamentally-sound businesses going bankrupt: investors deciding they want to squeeze. They use the lifetime memberships as an alternative to seeking outside investment from venture capital. And from what we’ve seen, it certainly does appear to be a fundamentally sound business. It has seemed to be growing in both the amount and the range of content it offers at a pretty steady rate, and all indications are that their subscriber count is growing along with that.
It certainly is a risk, without a doubt. There’s a reason Nebula themselves say that the objectively best option is the yearly membership. Lifetime membership is directly presented by them as an investment you can make in the company; something to do because you believe in what they’re doing and want to help them, with the potential for some payoff down the line (but honestly not very much).
Gen Z here, also do not have any subscriptions except for a library card which is only 12 € a year (and also my server and domains and rent and electricity and internet). There are just so many movies and games to be watched and played I don’t see myself running empty anytime soon. Often times I visit there without a specific thing to rent and go out with 5 movies to watch, they actually curate the shelf fairly well and have more interesting/new things out for display. For newer releases I do go to the movies but my library does get a copy once there is a physical copy you just have to wait a bit until its your turn.
Millenial here, I have zero subscriptions, the only thing close to that is that I manually pay for a gift card for Geoguessr once a year.
I do it this way so I don’t forget the cost of the service and should I come onto bad times, it is not something that will automatically renew and keep charging.
I am considering getting a lifetime subscription to Nebula, it is very expensive, but just a single payment that can be budgeted for, and once paid I’ll keep access even through bad times.
Fellow millennial here. I’m in the same boat. Zero subscriptions except for Curiosity Stream, which is like Netflix for educational documentaries, and it’s dirt cheap.
I bought the lifetime subscription to Nebula. It’s been worth it; I have a few channels I follow and I appreciate the extra content and freedom of video producers to say/do whatever they want without platform censorship. YouTube has so many restrictions, no one can post content without bowing to Google censorship.
Parody laws should allow people to actually review or poke fun at other media, but Google will demonetize or block any content that they arbitrarily decide is copyright infringement. Most film review channels I follow have to be extremely creative in how they show clips of movies. Most of them mute music scenes, and some will insert their own public domain (or homemade) music over scenes to avoid a ban. It’s ridiculous how far the MPAA and RIAA have gone in locking down media from public consumption.
Often your public library will have access to Kanopy for free. Also full of educational documentaries.
You do have a limit on number of “items” (a series, a seaon, or a single movie count as an item), but I’ve never reached it
Also millennial. The only thing I pay for is Tidal. Music streams, at least for now, are operating as they should. You pay one a month, get all the content and no ads. I’m using it everyday and it costs almost nothing.
I wouldn’t be so sure about that lifetime subscription. Companies already started changing the terms of use while subscribed. Sony’s has been removing movies that have been purchased from people’s librarys.
I understand why you’d be worried but comparing a multi-billion multi-national corporation like Sony to Nebula is like comparing CNN or Fox News to 4ZZZ Community Radio, they are worlds apart
The founder and CEO posts on reddit responding to peoples questions
https://www.reddit.com/r/Nebula/comments/1qicazx/comment/o0swr01/
At the risk of sounding cynical. I also wouldn’t trust any company to stay fair forever.
No, that’s completely fair. And Dave’s well-publicised admiration for Jimmy Donaldson certainly doesn’t help in that respect. (They also seem like they may have previously had a professional relationship, though the details and extent are unclear.)
But everything he or the other founders have said about Nebula makes it sound like they’re doing the right thing, and they are very deliberately avoiding the number one cause of companies that were once fair ceasing to be fair: venture capital. There’s no outside source that could turn around and demand to get a greater return on their investment against the wishes of those operating the company.
A lifetime subscription ($
500$300*) is roughly the price of1710 yearly subscriptions ($30). How many years do you think Nebula will remain as good as it is now? You should probably think of some of that money as being a donation and not a guaranteed product.For some people, that’s probably fine. The service might have given them $300 worth of value already, so buying it’s a no-brainer.
* with any(?) referral link, see comments below
you see $500? says 300 to me:
https://files.ikt.id.au/r5f04y.webp
but yeah would need to really love nebula to get value out of the lifetime subscription and their mission is a good one so i think saying you’re half subscribing half donating would be accurate
Double checked, and now it looks like I’ve got a referral cookie somehow. $300 is probably easy to get if you click through from anyone promoting it.
But if I open the join page in an incognito session, the price is $500.
I buy the music I want to have track by track on iTunes, I have 800 songs in my library, my thinking is that if I get on hard times, I will at least be able to keep access to my music without any added cost.
I do this and download it to local storage. It’s all DRM free and I can stream it myself with Jellyfin or throw it on a USB stick to play in my car. Even if Apple goes belly-up or something they can’t revoke that access.
I also have 300+ CDs though.
Wouldn’t be surprised if you had a few CD players to go along with them?
That was my plan, but I haven’t got to it yet.
I’ll have to spin up a VM with Windows, install iTunes and start downloading
GenX here, I have a streaming service (Paramount+) for exactly one reason: It comes for free with my Walmart+ account, which I use frequently. Every 6 months I switch between that and Peacock, since both are free and I can change my choice twice a year. So I watch what I want on Paramount+ for 6 months, then switch to Peacock for 6 months, rinse and repeat.
As far as a lifetime subscription to Nebula, I’ve watched way too many sites fail/die to consider a lifetime subscription to anything on the internet. They could shut the site down tomorrow, and now I’m out $500 ($300 if I happen to get a discount from a creator code).
There’s no “happen to”. It’s the default expectation. You can go through literally any creator on the site to get that, it’s not a time-limited thing or anything like that.
As for the rest of it, it’s certainly a possibility. But it will only take 10 years before that lifetime membership becomes strictly better than paying yearly. And the reason they’re doing it is to avoid one of the biggest sources of companies with fundamentally-sound businesses going bankrupt: investors deciding they want to squeeze. They use the lifetime memberships as an alternative to seeking outside investment from venture capital. And from what we’ve seen, it certainly does appear to be a fundamentally sound business. It has seemed to be growing in both the amount and the range of content it offers at a pretty steady rate, and all indications are that their subscriber count is growing along with that.
It certainly is a risk, without a doubt. There’s a reason Nebula themselves say that the objectively best option is the yearly membership. Lifetime membership is directly presented by them as an investment you can make in the company; something to do because you believe in what they’re doing and want to help them, with the potential for some payoff down the line (but honestly not very much).
Gen Z here, also do not have any subscriptions except for a library card which is only 12 € a year (and also my server and domains and rent and electricity and internet). There are just so many movies and games to be watched and played I don’t see myself running empty anytime soon. Often times I visit there without a specific thing to rent and go out with 5 movies to watch, they actually curate the shelf fairly well and have more interesting/new things out for display. For newer releases I do go to the movies but my library does get a copy once there is a physical copy you just have to wait a bit until its your turn.
Wow love libraries
Edit - & quality curation by those who care!