The funny part is that I have legitimate accounts with Prime, Netflix, Paramount+, Apple and two others, but I still d/l and watch everything on Plex. (though I should probably admit that all the big names I get “free” via other services, like Prime, Tmo, etc).

It's so true though. I have been learning piano and the price for sheet music is outrageous. I was going to do the right thing and pay for it but everything is a subscription or a book. I'm not buying 10 other songs just for one I really want.

In seconds I had thousands of PDF's at my disposal. I have so much sheet music now I don't have enough ink to print it all out.

There's a structural problem - it may be beneficial for companies as some coherent entities to provide such a service, but for individuals inside them, like various kinds of sales, management and so on, it's not.

In every case where such an elusive thing as potential popularity of something conflicts with a less elusive thing like control they have in streaming services, the latter wins. Because what makes its makers rewarded on their job wins.