You're refusing to pay for a product today based on what they might do in the future? Does the future possibility degrade today's product? Can't you just cancel your subscription if ads start showing up?

> Does the future possibility degrade today's product?

In some cases, yes. I specifically don't use Spotify in part because I can possibly lose access to my playlists and music I listen to in the future. Building a music collection is a big part of listening to music for me, so the future possibilities of the service actually degrade todays product.

I don't watch streams so I don't have any input on Twitch, but I could imagine someone having a similar outlook.

I don't use my twitch account ever anymore but I don't think there is really the same concept in twitch. I think most people probably watch 1-2 of their favorite streamers since watching streams is already such an incredibly time intensive activity. The most active someone can get is probably clipping short videos and curating clips.

I don't think you lose access to any of this when you unsubscribe, I think you just start seeing ads again when watching the live stream.

Frankly they already did it once. If you had a subscription you used to not get any ads on any streams, since about a year they reneged on that, and a subscription grants you no ads *only on the subscribed channel.

“Vote with your wallet”

That's exactly what keeps me from even considering many subscriptions. As long as they're not clearly ad-free I don not care to even try them to check whether they are.

I'll happily pay for things like LWN, though, even though I'd get everything ad-free two weeks later anyhow.

/\----- This.