Piracy.
Your public library.
Consume less media in general.
Buy stuff once (eg: DVDs, drm free music)
this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2026
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And piracy is still free, just as it has been my whole life.
Here I was giving them training wheels, and you said, "Nah, here's how you take a hairpin turn with a stick shift." 😅
Don't make me tell them about them about the *arrs, usenet and jellyfin. Minds will be blown :)
The *arrs + JF + sabnzdb + torrents = complete and total replacement.
That exact stack has been the ruin of many a poor boy.
Just a hop, step and a leap from there to Proxmox and complete ungovernablity (host ALL your own replacements - Immich, Syncthing, Lemmy instance, Pi Hole, Paperless, Calibre, Navidrome...all the black magics)
DANGER. HERE THERE BE DRAGONS. (Expensive ones)
Jump aboard, matey! The seas are always open and full of joyous plunder.
I know this isn't the point, but has Spotify ever been good, as in a well designed UI? I feel like every time I've used it, there's been some bizarre design choice.
I'm on Android and using ArchiveTunes to stream free music. No more Spotify.
People still pay for this shit?
Jesus dude, buy an android TV and use Cloudstream or Stremio and the cost will just be the device itself. If you have decent internet but your ISP blocks that kind of streaming traffic, use DNS over HTTPS
We use deezer and basic netflix since a month and I don't know how but we never had a single ad (using firefox with ublock on linux mint)
Edit: works as well with tv websites.
And public library is the best
I have to admit my biggest grievance with Netflix at the moment is their anti-sharing technology. It bad enough that they no longer consider my kids at college as my family but when I use “Hide my Location”, then neither am I
For videos, how about just …. Not?
People used to be glued to the tv, the “idiot box”, consuming whatever media offered by a few dominant companies and on their schedule. Despite “free” (with ads) broadcasting we all opted for expensive (with ads) cable and let them drastically raise prices. We had a brief renaissance with streaming, lead by Netflix, but they’re becoming “the new ComCast”. Ever increasing prices, shittier service, hostile to customers.
Video is no longer the only option to decompress after work and they keep making it worse. It’s time to just say no
Genuinely pisses me off to read comments like this. People are asking for a solution to a problem and instead they get this self-righteous "oh why don't you just do something entirely different" shit. I swear it's 100x worse on Lemmy than on Reddit too.
I know it isn't coming from a place of ill intent but still.
it reads to me like their solution is to cancel it. What other solutions could there be?
OP asked about alternative streaming platforms
Ok, my solution is to just not. I’ve cut way back on my consumption of tvs and movies. They’re just not worth it anymore and I have many other choices for mindless entertainment
Not streaming and finding a different way to enjoy your time. Honestly, at this point, I'm getting less interested in things I enjoyed as a younger person and more wanting to do models and tabletop things I can now afford to buy.
I think that's a great comment to make under a post that asks about hobby ideas. Some people work 12 hours a day and just want to watch a show or movie when they're too exhausted to do anything more active.
The quality of popular media has declined, but I still like watching DS9 when I'm tired, for example. I have other hobbies, but they take energy and have a different sense of enjoyment than a piece of media I have fun with.
It's always appropriate to talk about getting into hobbies. Not all are strenuous or high energy. Even just reading about your hobby is good as well. Most of us have time and energy to get online and talk on platforms like this. Why not discuss it with others as well? I'm offering something that isn't piracy, not that I think anything is wrong with it, but because people don't consider alternatives to what they do on the norm.
How do you know that?
I have a friend who recently retired and is building all the Lego sets he could never afford to buy!
Just steal everything. The powers that be rob you blind every day in a death by a thousand cuts kinda way.
They don't give a fuck about you, don't pay them any courtesies in return.
👉 Your local public library. You can borrow movies and books. Return them so someone else can use them too. Not run afoul of the law. Libraries are great!
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fmhy.net is a constantly updated directory of streaming piracy sites. Make sure you have an ad blocker and enjoy any show from any service instantly with no sign up.
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How is this a surprise to anyone? They came to replace cable.
No, you still don't get it.
THEY CAME TO REPLACE CABLE.
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Spotify specific:
Use the free service to listen to new stuff in order to find groups you like. For the sub cost you can buy an album per month and have it forever. I work in areas that don't have great data connections, so having a local copy keeps the jams going without interruption or ads.
Soma.fm and radio.garden are two streaming music service replacers. I have not used Soma, but Radio Garden is interesting because it gives you a map of every single participating radio station on the planet and lets you just scroll around the entire globe and pick a radio station.
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The sea awaits you.
Streaming is not frugal by definition since you don't own anything.
- Buy from Bandcamp, own and stream forever for a cheap price
- Torrent movies
- Torrent or Soulseek music
- Listen to podcasts, there are billions of those, it will last forever
- Free music on SomaFM, ByteFM, Radio Paradise, Shoutcast, etc.
- YouTube client like NewPipe if you have Android to listen to music
Buy from Bandcamp, own and stream forever for a cheap price
It's also important to emphasize that artists make more from a Bandcamp purchase than if you had just streamed a few times on Shitify.
You would need to listen to a song 400+ times on Spotify to earn the artist $1. Or you could throw them a buck on Bandcamp Friday and get to download it forever. Plus the artist gets paid immediately from the Bandcamp purchase instead of quarterly streaming royalties.
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Fmhy net
If buying isn't owning piracy isn't stealing
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