Content creators will need income to continue to exist. The form that is in can change, and I don't think there is a single right way for them to do that. It is a difficult one, and we still see it evolving around us.
Right now I'm trying out the unlimited music on Goggle. I'm in free trial but there would be a monthly fee if I wish to continue. I've listened to more music than I have done in a long time while I try to find new stuff I like, but there is an awful lot I don't like too, and their library is far from complete especially once you get out of the English language content. Also I can listen to old stuff I never got around to buying. Roughly speaking, the value proposition is do I listen to enough new stuff equivalent to an album a month? Which is what it would cost to buy stuff outright. Having almost anything available (with some exceptions) all the time is powerful, but will I realise enough value from that? Could I not just play things on youtube as a one off? I haven't decided yet.
It is a similar situation with video. I buy very few DVDs now, but I'm also not on any streaming service. I don't have enough hours in the day to consume it. Music you can listen to while doing other things, but you can't effectively half-watch a film. Having said that, I did try Amazon Prime trial before although there wasn't a huge amount I wanted to see on it. Maybe once Clarkson/Hammond/May's new show is done I'll give it another go.
Above aside, as a consumer I want easy to access content to effectively consume it, and I don't want intrusive interruptions. There is an ongoing battle between advertising and adblocking and it will be interesting to see where that goes. I'm not anti-ads in general, but there are still too many bad ads. Pop ups, pop unders, full screen ads, pre-roll video ads, autoplay video ads, repetitive ads, ads pretending to be something else... I could do without those. Is it really a win for the service being advertised if they're tricked into getting those impressions? Take away the ads and we're left with subscription models. I think we have to wait and see how that balances out. What is advertising worth, compared to what people would pay to go ad free?
I feel the major players over-value their content as a whole. They seem to think of consumers as having limitless pockets. We don't. We have finite time and cash. We can't spend more just because they produce more. And this entertainment is split over multiple areas, music, video, gaming... if we spend more in one area, we would likely spend less in another.
On gaming, who else looks at mobile freemium games and wonder where we're going? You can easily spend more on mobile game extras than you do for top tier PC games. And for multi-player games, it is hard for them to avoid pay-to-win. Advertising is also a problem here. I've seen some games with great potential, which were rendered unplayable due to intrusive advertising.
Specifically no Windows 10, how free it is is questionable. It only applies to those who have a licence anyway, so at worst they lose the upgrade fee, not the buy it new fee. If there is a legit way to get Win10 on a no-OS system I'd be interested to know about it. MS is likely banking on getting as many people up to a common platform to extract value going forwards.
