I think it’s worth noting that this is the effect of the free market behaving as designed, however no one has risen up to challenge Amazon enough along the way. So many retailers ignored e-commerce in the early days and went on with business as usual. Fast forward 20 years and Amazon has eaten into their market shares. A large retailer like WalMart absolutely has the ability to challenge Amazon by investing in the user experience and warehousing/delivery infrastructure. But often the old heads at these companies ignore improving the user experience in favor of making cuts. Amazon didn’t happen overnight. It’s been a steady growth in their business model over decades and the user experience is key to what made them so popular. It takes seconds to find what you want, for often times cheaper than the competition and in many cases the shipping is lower and faster.

What would be difficult is for a start up company with little capital to try and take on these behemoths. Perhaps a coalition of large companies like Target, Best Buy, B&N, Kohl’s, etc. grouping together to create a large distribution network and app platform with a good user experience could compete.

Just a thought.

AWS is a whole other can of worms.

Exactly. The flaw is in the streaming service. They say “upload your music and make money” while skimming the lions share of the profits. But if they use tools that are openly available to all, i.e. generative AI (which uses copyrighted works for it generational algorithms) AND the Streaming service systems themselves, somehow this user is at fault because they don’t like the way he did it and the amount he uploaded. It seems to me it’s a problem with the system and not the user.

That’s the outcome that seems most logical. I want to see real artists get paid for creating real music. The current system is too prohibitive and unrewarding.

If an artist spends hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars creating their work, only to see a return of maybe a few dollars that’s a big problem.

If someone can use AI to game that same system for millions of dollars by creating loads of fake music in a fraction of the time; that’s a symptom of the big problem.

The current system of streaming just isn’t beneficial to artists. I imagine it’s not great for movies either. Yet, these companies are taking in HUGE profits. It was only a matter of time before someone tried to take advantage of a loophole.

If you think about it, it’s kind of like reverse piracy.

He found a flaw in the system and exploited it. Although he didn’t do anything particularly wrong, the tools he used allowed him to do it. Yet, somehow he has to pay the consequences and the companies that made the tools to exploit the system are not liable. Got it.

This is a good way of putting it.

I remember these days. Cable felt really special. Then the ads, and every channel became reality TV and less about what the channels original purpose was. TLC is all trash TV, History is all ancient aliens and conspiracy theories now. YouTube sorta has brought that back, but for me the premium subscription is too expensive. I have a subscription to Nebula where a lot of YT creators have channels and it costs far more reasonable.

No shit. It hurt like hell to even breathe with all the haze last summer.

He must’ve hurt Musk’s fee fees.

Windows 10 will be my last Windows operating system. It’s been fine and it works well enough. I’ve already started setting up a drive with Linux Mint 22 for use moving forward.

Over COVID I bought a new guitar. It had been probably a decade since I stopped playing and suddenly found myself with a lot of free time. This absolutely was the best impulse buy as it reinvigorated my love of playing and I’ve since made it part of my daily ritual. It’s done wonders for my well being and mental health.

I would counter this and say any woman with a career can absolutely not show emotion. They’re expected to behave like men, which are in turn not supposed to show emotion in the workplace. It’s less of a double standard and more of a toxic standard.

This 100%. Nothing will change by eliminating one particular group. End all foreign election influence. Candidates should only be able to raise funds from domestic citizens, period.

The for-profit healthcare system is full of corporate greed and corruption.

Abandon Harris over Gaza is 2024’s Kanye for president. This narrative is being pushed by the right and the fact that Trump asked Netanyahu to wait for a ceasefire until after the election is proof.

Mr Hogan, is a racist, union busting piece of shit.

People I’ve met that actually tried this said it tastes like shit.

Adorbs ❤️

Universal Healthcare was a losing platform because it was vilified as being “communism”. It also didn’t sit well with wealthy donors and rich democrats. It also wasn’t part of Biden’s agenda. Obamacare was.

Meta has the biggest platforms in the world that most people use. Not a big surprise, really. I have an Instagram, as much as I want to only use FOSS social media, I have friends there that will not move elsewhere.

I would be interested in seeing a reimagining of the Terminator for modern day. A whole new movie that takes place in a different timeline where the original story never existed.

I have no interest in the where the story of the current franchise has gone.