from the that's-pretty-inexpensive-for-buying-a-student dept.
Spotify and Hulu are teaming up to give US college students access to both companies' premium services for $4.99 a month. The new service is aptly called "Spotify Premium for Students, now with Hulu."
Spotify's announcement hints that this package is just the first of many bundles to come for the two services. This one pairs Spotify Premium, the company's ad-free music streaming service, with Hulu's Limited Commercials plan, which lets you stream current TV shows, movies and original content.
Meanwhile, torrents are free, and commercial-free--100% cheaper, 100% less suck.
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Two weeks after various outlets reported that Jay-Z's music streaming service Tidal was having money problems, Tidal will offer a 12-day free trial (Dec. 25 to Jan. 5):
Tidal is getting into the holiday spirit. The streaming service is opening up its platform to anyone and everyone for 12 days beginning on Christmas, with no credit card required (a usual requirement for free streaming trials). The free trial will cover Tidal's Hi-Fi tier as well, so if you've been wanting to try out high-fidelity music, now is your chance.
Meanwhile, YouTube has done some work behind the scenes to launch a new attempt at getting people to pay for music:
After years of bickering over rights, YouTube has finally signed all three of the major music record labels into long-term deals. This week, Universal and Sony both reached rights agreements with the Alphabet platform, joining Warner Music Group. Though YouTube still needs to make deals with companies like the Merlin consortium of smaller labels to be fully comprehensive, the way is now paved for it to launch its hotly-tipped streaming service next year. [...] YouTube's anticipated streaming service, dubbed YouTube Remix by Bloomberg, could seem a little late to the party. With Spotify readying for an IPO and swapping stakes with Tencent, Apple music firmly established and Tidal, well, just being Tidal, streaming is already a crowded space.
Alphabet has tried to crack the streaming market before, launching its own premium Google play music service in 2011, but it's not exactly been a smash hit with a market share even smaller than Amazon, Deezer and Tidal's. It launched YouTube Music Key in 2014 to offer ad-free music videos, and this morphed into YouTube Red in 2016. Hopes that this would change the music scene were dashed, however, as YouTube Red gravitated towards entertainment videos instead. The chances are, Alphabet will look to combine its Google Play service with a premium YouTube service for music fans.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Saturday September 09 2017, @11:35PM (2 children)
It's the standard drugdealer-special -- hook 'em when they are young:ish, college kids are still kinda young, plus they are probably the biggest "pirates" on the market. By giving them this "super deal" they hope to create customer loyalty forever.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @07:43AM (1 child)
You think that is a drug dealer thing?? The Catholic church says "get them before they're twelve and you got em for life.". Drug dealers are late to the game!
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday September 10 2017, @11:13AM
Unless snorting coke or smoking weed at daycare before your little nap becomes a thing I don't think they can go much younger then they do. Plus toddlers are usually somewhat starved for cash.
(Score: 3, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday September 09 2017, @11:44PM (2 children)
Believe me, you don't want to get sued over copyrights. It happened to me, over the eagle photo. To me, it was just a terrific photo. Which I used in my campaign. Which my campaign used. And the photographers sued over it. Willful infringement, they called it. Big, big hassle. Folks, you don't want that hassle. And you don't want to be like China. China engages in illegal export subsidies, prohibited currency manipulation, and rampant theft of intellectual property. They also have no real environmental or labor protections, further undercutting American workers. Just enforcing intellectual property rules alone could save millions of American jobs. You do the torrents, China can point at that. It makes me look bad. 🇺🇸
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @10:46AM
Yessir, it's all about cutting regulations and letting business flourish. Except copyrights and patents, then we want more regulations to allow business to flourish. It's the same thing. More regulations AND less regulations, whatever floats your boat. Who's with me?!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @04:15PM
sitting back and watching your country implode has been the best entertainment so far in the 21st century! thanks 'merkins!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @12:11AM
I wish everybody would boycott all organizations that engage in such practices, and I welcome and encourage all efforts to circumvent them by any means possible. Copyright is theft and tyrannical. Where can I find easy to set up I2P?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @12:12AM (8 children)
Didn't you get the news?
Google Drive Becomes Popular Substitute For Torrent Websites [designtaxi.com]
Google Drive wouldn't be my first choice, but absolutely anything else is better than torrents.
Only an asshole would design a flawed protocol which uploads while you download. Only an idiot would willfully use a flawed protocol to open yourself to copyright infringement liability by uploading while downloading. Only a TOTAL FUCKING MORON would continue to use torrents in this decade.
The cloud exists, morons. Upload or download, pick one.
Cyberlockers. FUCKING USE them.
Cyberlocker index sites. FUCKING USE them.
Why the fuck am I making this argument again. On a forum full of STUPID TORRENT FREAKS.
There's no getting through to you. You're hopeless. Fuck you!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @12:35AM (1 child)
And what if you want to upload, or live in a country that doesn't give a shit about copywrong?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @01:27AM
Upload or download, pick one.
When I upload, I register a cyberlocker account with a burner email, and share the links. Eventually the copies get taken down, rinse and repeat.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @12:50AM
Shut up! My brother taught me to torrent just before he was deployed to Iraq and killed in action. Respect the troops, jerk! Torrents are L337 and always will be.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @01:48AM (4 children)
lmao. random dingus obv has never used legit private torrent sites. places like hdb, ptp, wcd, btn, kg, bib, the list goes on and on. their respective archives and quality control are unparalleled. streaming services, cyberlockers, usenet, public torrent indexers, none of them come close. use a vpn or seedbox if you're hella paranoid, but you're totes safe as an end user without taking those precautions as the top trackers have security measures in place to protect both the site ops and the users. no random home torrenter using a respected privater tracker has ever been sued or prosecuted for their behaviors. not with oink, not with wcd, never.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @02:34AM
I got sick and tired of reading nasty DMCA letters, so I stopped torrenting and never looked back. TVMuse [tvmuse.com] is my calendar, and I download everything I want from PrimeWire [primewire.ag]. This way nobody gives a shit about what I do, which is the way I like it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @05:00AM (2 children)
Please point to a manual on setting these things up. Spread the word far and wide.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @06:13AM (1 child)
Not spoon-feeding is precisely how they keep themselves secure. That and a recomenndation system that gets you banned if you let in someone that gets banned.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday September 10 2017, @08:09AM
Sounds like a built-in self-destruct.
A invites B. B invites C. C invites D. D invites E. E invites F. F invites G. G gets banned for bad behaviour. F gets banned for inviting G who got banned. E gets banned for inviting F who got banned. D gets banned for inviting E who got banned. C gets banned for inviting D who got banned. B gets banned for inviting C who got banned. A gets banned for inviting B who got banned. And whoever invited A also gets banned. Ultimately, if he doesn't exclude himself from his own rules, the owner has to ban himself, because ultimately he was the first to invite others.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.