I'm a developer; The apps CANNOT tell you about this because Apple SPECIFICALLY restricts developers from saying anything about this or leading customers directly to another store in their developer agreements. They cannot even mention the existence of other ways to pay outside of the app. This is one of the reasons why they want your email, to get around apple restrictions like that.
exactly! its textbook anti-competive! i came into the comments into to say this. its the same reason that Amazon doesn't let you buy kindle books. they don't want to raise the prices or eat the cost like dropout (likely) does
@@VexeThat and dumb consumers falling for the shtick. It's all well and good to blame apple, but at the end of the day money talks. I thinks it's a 70/30 split, with consumers having the larger share of blame.
Probably because Google (who owns TH-cam) is more than happy to let someone bring down Apple if it means their customers will spend the money they saved on Google services instead
It's not a big screen vs little screen thing though, it's an Apple wanting an extra cut vs everyone else not taking the extra cut thing. You're fine subscribing on Android, it's Apple taking the extra cut. Or Microsoft, or BlackBerry, or Samsung galaxy store or whatever. It's everyone else is equal, but Apple wants their protection payments like an old school mob boss
It’s correct no matter what, Sam Reich, Dropout CEO said that 15% goes to android no matter what, so to support the people you’re subscribed to, pay via laptop
@@orangeants it's correct but either only on iphone or on dropout then? At least about you paying, not them receiving - say, about big shot subscription services
This seriously blew my mind!!! I was paying 18.99 for TH-cam premium!!! Canceled my account and signed up again on desktop and it was $13.99 and also there was an annual option with even further discount. Thank you Hank!!
I tried this but the website wouldn’t let me. The only way to subscribe was with the free-month promotion which I had already used the first time and it wouldn’t let me reuse. I had to start a whole new account.
Why continue giving the company money after they pull that sneaky bullshit? Just use an ad-blocker like the rest of us and contribute to creators as you see fit.
@@wrathofainz because the kinds of people that use adblockers are kind of insufferable, and paying 1/5(13.99) dollars a month (family plan) is really, cheaper than dealing with ad blockers that dont always work. If you only calculate the money, instead of the information you may give, and time it takes to manage everything, especially when ad blockers occasionally get wrecked, you save more money on the plan. You also get TH-cam music with it, which means you dont need junk apps like Spotify, iTunes, podcast places, whatever that you might be paying money for, but at least take your information to even more places and use up memory on your phone. You also get other things like cloud storage and stuff, but i forget the details. Point is, at the end of the day...its just simpler, easier, and potentially much cheaper than free ad blockers, and what you do when you have them.
As an app developer - THANK YOU for platforming this. If we tell people this our app can get pulled from the store. We are wayyyy too small to fight the legal battle to negotiate for ourselves.
@@nigelrobbins5588 Merrick Garland announced that the DOJ is going after them. People like us can't do what the DOJ can! I'd advise voting blue, because the other guy is on the billionaires' side!
I saved $79 for the year by ending my subscription created through Apple, going directly to TH-cam, and selecting the annual plan there instead! Thanks Hank!!
Imma keep it real with you chief, I am so unbelievably sick of subscription services. There's a new subscription service every other week that I have to pay "just" $5 or "just" $7 every month to have access to *one* piece of media because they can never keep it in the same place for too long and good GRIEF I am so tired
I was expecting a rant about how subscription services suck because you pay 60 bucks per year for one piece of content, and the phone marketplaces make it so psychologically convenient and insignificant to spend that 60 bucks with a tap of the fingerprint sensor and its ruining your wallet. No, instead I get a rant about how Google and Apple make 18 dollars per year from your one fingerprint tap, and then engage in anticompetitive behaviors by not charging that 18 bucks for their own services, meaning that I can choose between giving Apple 18 dollars or giving Apple 42 dollars!!!!!1!!. I AM A GIANT SQUID OF ANGER!!!
Same fr its so ridiculous. I pay two subscription services, one for spotify and one for my illustration program on my phone (which is thankfully insanely cheap at only $6.50 annually) but anything else, I refuse to pay for. If its a show or movie, id rather sail the seven seas. Only reason I haven't replaced Spotify yet is bc i listen to a lot of obscure indie bands that are hard to find on other music streaming platforms.
I have a specific card for subscriptions that every few years when it gets stupid, I just cancel it, and the things I actually need I just update my payment details.
Part of the problem between Apple and spotify is that Spotify is a direct competitor of Apple Music. The DOJ is actually suing Apple for monopoly behavior
I need an endlessly growing playlist on this channel filled with practical rabbit holes clarifying what to consider when making personal consumer decisions that our ed system does not prepare us for.... It's exhausting going down these holes by oneself and Hank has the energy😊
@@andrewenderfrost8161 I guess he's well connected, but idk I mean suit like they only care about profit and aren't really attached to what they're managing.
They are both just insane monopolies that would have been unheard of before Reagan’s presidency. We really need to stop the “anti-regulation” propaganda we are being fed by large multinational corporations.
@@wow-sham1300 these large corporations purposely delay the cases as long as they can to force negotiations; because the DOJ is required by law to provide Congress with estimated budgets for large ongoing cases/investigations. There are also (lobbied) Congressmen who also help delay the cases by purposely underfunding them; like the long-serving Congressman from Alabama does for Lockheed every single time! Until we can get Citizens United overturned by Congress, money rules the courts.
Travel tip; This same thing with rentals from VRBO and AirBNB a lot of rental companies have their own websites where they rent their rooms/houses for cheaper. Same with hostels, if you go to the website directly it's cheaper. The reason is the same; the big sites take a cut of the cost.
I always do this, especially with hotels I find if there are any problems it's much easier to resolve if you booked with the hotel rather than a 3rd party site.
Mobile Developer here, who just finished implementing our subscription service for Apple. Believe it or not, it is actually against their terms of service to tell users where else they can subscribe. This is why Spotify doesn’t say “Go to our website to subscribe there”. They are legally obligated to not tell the user where to go. You also aren’t allowed to use third party services like Stripe that has a SIGNIFICANTLY lower tax
Comparing it with Stripe is just weird. Stripe is a payment solution, not a app platform. So even on the App Store, after paying Apple 30%, they still have to pay the payment provider and network (Think you bank and Visa respectively) a transaction amount for everything you buy. Apple charges you to use their platforms to sell apps and services. Stripe is a way to allow you to collect payments from your customers no matter if you own a shop, or selling a service etc
The 2021 Epic v Apple court case (which Spotify also supported) means that Apple legally can’t prevent developers from telling customers about alternative payment methods outside their platform, which would let them avoid Apple’s 30% fee. That ruling was on hold while they both appealed to the Supreme Court, but their appeals were denied last year. Apple threatened to collect a 27% “commission” fee from developers who added links to alternative payment methods, so companies like Spotify are threatening another lawsuit if Apple tries to collect: that’s why we still can’t buy Spotify Premium through the iOS app
This is a nitpick, but Google doesn't own Android (android itself is open-source). Instead, Google owns Google Play Services, through which people get their apps, pay subscriptions, and do most things on Android phones. Of course this *practically* means Google owns Android, but does mean we could conceive of a better world where we own our phones instead.
I don’t think this is a nitpick because it brings up a HUGE selling point of android phones for me. You don’t actually need to use google play store for 100 percent of the apps of your phone the same way ios has it. There are a lot of app store platforms that are unrelated to veither party and i can still use them !
People are hard at work designing a google-free ecosystem for Android. F-droid is a good start. It's an alternative app repo. You can always install an app via an .apk file. I donno if Apple would allow anything like that.
I live in Australia, and our courts found Ticketmaster to be in breach of resale (aka scalping) laws. I’ll paraphrase but TM’s response was basically: “Whatcha gunna do about it?” To which the Aus Govt asked: 9:51 “umm plz stop?” TM: “Left of read” AuG: “😢 Okay”
I also got a John Green ad opening this video. I had to paused it and showed it to my wife. Was a serious ad,but a funny coincidence. Love both of these magnificent human specimens. Thank you all for your works.
As a Dropout subscriber THANK YOU for this. I will be cancelling my Apple subscription and going direct through them going forward. Same thing with TH-cam….actually the money I save on adjusting my TH-cam subscription will pay for my dropout subscription 🧐
This is related to why I learned to check if artists/artisans on Etsy have their own website. I realized they are either making you pay more to offset the cost by purchasing on Etsy which takes a cut, or the artist is getting paid less for the same product. I didn’t realize this sort of commission thing happened with subscriptions via what platform though.
Oh wait that's smart. I've been going to their Etsy this whole time instead of their site because it's easier for me to save things and navigate, and I like having everything in one place
It's every platform. Book an hotel? Pay for groceries with a credit card? Somebody's talking cut and bullying the vendors into painful terms. More and more internet companies are taking ownership of product discovery and using that monopoly to force small vendors to either sign up to terrible terms or be forgotten by everybody who only uses the most popular service to find what they want.
To be fair, Etsy's cut is a flat 20 cent fee for the item plus a 3% payment processing fee for the banks - much smaller than a 30% cut. Unless they're frequently selling individual products for less than a dollar it's likely not a huge deal, but if you like a seller and want to support them, obviously that's something they would appreciate 👍 Some Etsy sellers offer discounts or sales for using their external website as well so it's worth checking out!
My man, you can listen to audiobooks through the library for FREE and some libraries will let anyone join even if they don’t live in the district but are in the same state. Free books wooo!
I do use Libby extensively, but it is important to note that most of the time, it is not a comparable service - you do give up quite a bit to have it be free. In my experience, if you want to listen to something, you need to wait weeks or even months depending on the book and catalog (and I have 3 libraries with separate catalogs connected!) and then if you can't finish it in two weeks, which can be challenge, especially if your book is 30-40 hours like the ones I listen too, you have to stop in the middle and start waiting again! I love it, but to many not having to wait is more than worth the money. Also books you want to listen to might not be in the catalog at all, which I've also experienced.
@@bengardner8639not to mention the audible originals that will never be on Libby. The same book may eventually appear there, but it’ll be years later after the exclusivity deal, and it usually requires the publisher to re-record a new version of the audiobook, and it tends not to be as good as the original.
@@bengardner8639 As someone who works in a library, just wanted to add to this that the waits are so long because libraries get gouged per-use for those audiobooks and a lot of libraries are underfunded so they can only afford to offer a few digital 'copies' for large communities. The more popular books get reeeaally long waits, and we have to be strategic about what we add to the catalog at all. All that to say, keep advocating for libraries! They're awesome, but they could be so much more awesome if they were well funded.
@@bengardner8639 are these public libraries with their own services? And you have to wait for the book as if it were loaned out irl in the old days? Why do they make you wait for digital products? That doesn't seem to make any sense. Is it a competition thing? So that people have a reason to get something like audible?
@@bengardner8639i also use libby and absolutely love it! It is a digital library so my expectations were already aligned with the experience of needing to wait for more popular titles and perhaps having the wait again to finish a book or audiobook. That is why i love he “available now” filter while i wait for the more popular titles to get of hold like the disc world series.
Seems to me that it's quite clear why they don't want people talking about the store fee. 1: it makes them and the platform look bad driving up prices or extorting companies we actually wanna support. 2: it's blatantly anti competetitive and they wanna hide it. 3: more people would use a browser to sign up and they want to keep their cut. Feels like every day I find yet another reason to hate corporate America and the current trajectory of technology
@jrisner6535 At the time the iPhone was the smallest phone available. I would like for the thing to actually fit in my pocket after all. Also my hands really aren’t that large. This trend of phones in general getting larger and larger needs to stop.
You know. Hank is the only person to actually convince me that Rocket Money could actually convenient. I feel like he just explained it more thoroughly than others. I still probably won't use it, but I've been convinced that it really might not be as pointless as I thought it was.
I might give it a go. Hank's not infallible, but I trust him to tell us if he finds out something sketchy. And I could seriously use an app that tracks my subscriptions
I'm glad folks have a tool that will help you save money, let me start with that. It is *wild* to me that people have subscription services they've forgotten about? I know what my subs are l, and they're well within my financial tolerance and for things I actually use. It seems odd to me that folks don't watch their money, and companies like Rocket Money can be profitable.
I used Rocket Money for a year, but cancelled after they charged me a $35 fee they were not upfront about in their marketing or TOS. They reversed the charge after I requested a refund, but I'd steer clear
i've actually used it cuz i have adhd and forget what i subscribe to thinking oh it's less than 20 bucks it will be fine lol ya but those add up annnyway i used it for a bit to get my money under control and it worked it found all the subscriptions i forgot about and i was able to get rid of a lot of them.
Long time Dropout subscriber and it's absolutely worth it. And now we get Hank's Cancer Comedy Extravaganza?! I'm so glad I signed up via their website all that time ago. WOOOO!!
Agreed! If you’re on the fence, look up Harland Spinks’ video on Dropout, and why it’s so important to support creators independently from the platforms.
The 30% tax I have known for a while. The apple issue is, when you are in the walled garden you cannot talk about the walls. If you put anything in your app to redirect payments your app will be denied.
With FTC banning non-compete, it looks that much worse that Google and Apple are allowed to get away with banning any language that mentions more competitive pricing online.
that's basically what happened between Epic and Apple, they removed Fortnite because Epic added a payment option that circumventeded Apple's payment processing fee
The extra 30% sucks, but at least it’s really easy to cancel subscriptions. Just a single click and no chances for the service to trick you into staying on.
VERY IMPORTANT FOR NON-AMERICANS, some subscriptions are regionally priced, if you subscribe through your phone the subscription is competitively priced for your region but the website remains in dollars. Check for regional pricing! You'll get absolutely fleeced if you have to pay everything in USD!
Hate to see very useful apps charging a whole monthly wage for a year subscription cause they don’t adapt regionally, i always remember the game dev that charged only 30% of the American price in Brazil and it turned out to be 60% of the income cause we have a super powerful word of mouth and praise for thoughtful companies
Sometimes this geolocks your subscription. TH-cam knows your location, in order to make sure the video being shown is legal in your local area, but if they notice you use a (example) Brazilian YT Premium account in the (Example) U.K. for more than 30 days, they'll cancel your premium account and ban it from subscribing from anywhere other than the UK.
@@chesspiece4257because many of the audio books are not readily available and must be put on hold. Also, the selection of the audio books are much smaller. Plus he makes enough money to be able to afford it easily.
Hank fortunately uses his powers for good but yeah he does live on a different tier than most of us. That's fine in my opinion but it is something to know. Plus his cost of living in Montana is quite low
I think you just made me understand why Amazon doesn't sell ebooks on its app (they have enough power in this segment to say "go to my website and buy this there" and people WILL go instead of buying it somewhere else).
They actually lost a bunch of ebook sales from me because I never use Amazon on my laptop. I just assumed the book wasn’t available and didn’t care enough to investigate
They do the same thing with Amazon Prime in Asia. You can't purchase a subscription via Google Pay. It's the only streaming service in the Philippines that you can't pay for with Google Pay
Yes, they used to do so until Google prohibited them. To be fair, it was in retaliation for Amazon refusing to sell Chromecasts on Amazon, among other things. It really is that dumb.
Yep. Comixology (the leading app for digital comics) used to allow in app purchases until it was bought by Amazon and it switched to website only purchases immediately (Comixology was later killed by Amazon so they could force people to use Kindle instead)
@@TheOneTrueKit The fact that they prevent devs from talking about it is blatantly deceptive if nothing else. If they want to be excused, they gotta be open and upfront so that ppl can knowingly and willingly make decisions
Dropout addressed this in a video once awhile ago where they had a discount code for online subscriptions that left dropout's cut unchanged while giving a discount to subscribers. Which is just classy. Also like they just don't miss with their content. Would recommend.
@@kashiichan You don't need a discount code, if you go to the website right now there's a 20% off your first year offer right there for the taking. It's the exact same discount amount that GourmetBurrito is referring to that they did a "pay us less" video about a while back. I think they just kept it permanently because they realized it incentivized people to sign up on the website. (I guess Hank missed that because they didn't discount the monthly subs.)
@@kashiichanright now theyre doing 20% off the yearly subscription, which makes it $4 a month in the long run. that's automatically applied when you go on the website i think
I just checked the website and it seems they have 20% of the first year without a code. Personally, I just bought a single month first before going for a full annual subscription, seemed safe, and I don't regret it. The stuff you downloaded even stays available after your subscription ends, so with a big enough sd card you could download multiple seasons of d20 and watch them after the test subscription ended.
@@kashiichan yeah they have a newsletter that you can find if you google dropout newsletter. At the very least, you can get 20% off the first year subbing from their website if they dont have any other promo going right now
This is a good time to remind everyone that you should not give your trust to any corporation. Doesn’t matter if you like using Apple devices or androids or windows, every corporation has problems and every one of them will betray you for money. Stay vigilant
This is so validating to me as a millennial. I have an instinct that certain transactions are for the "big computer" whereas other transactions are okay for the small computer. 😅
I never understood the love people have of Apple. It's expensive for the sake of expensive. You show you spend a lot of money and sometimes get to deal with fun compatibility issues with other products.
The *only* reason people like it (well, people with functioning brains) is the privacy it has, I don’t know the exact details but I know that apple is pretty secure in that respect
The only reason people think it's secure is because, at first, no one really used Apple devices back in the day. So the idea was they were safer simply because it wasn't useful for most to try and do anything to it. Windows and Android were more prevalent, so the work to mess with it went further. Once that started becoming a surface level thing normies would say without context, Apple latched on. Now adays, it's about the same but actually kinda worse. Cause now not only does iOS have a fantastically large and relatively uninformed consumer base to attack, but their systems collect so much useful information about a target that it's just bursting with potential attack vectors and rewards. The other side is the framing of anticompetitive practices as security benefits. If I ban you from buying a machete for yard work, I could say it's because their dangerous, and I'm protecting you. You would rightfully see holes in that argument. The same goes for a large amount of the things Apple does in the name of security.
When Apple first made the iPhone it was the coolest phone out there and for years it was the best phone. Other phones were good but iPhone was great. That's not the case anymore but the superiority complex hasn't gone away.
THANK YOU Hank. I've been paying $29.99 for Premium Family for the past two years because I had subscribed through my iPhone. I had no idea that the original price was $22.99. I paused your video, chatted online to a youtube customer service representative, found out that I can't get any of that money back, but at least I was able to unsubscribed on my iPhone, and will be subscribing directly through TH-cam once this month's subscription ends. Stinking Apple.
I didn’t think I’d be unsubscribing from dropout today…but you made me do it. I’m then immediately going to resubscribe through their website so that they make more money.
@@dead-raccoonNot if you take tons of photos and store them locally on your phone. Especially if you are a parent (like Hank), who usually take tons of photos/videos of their children.
I just read the Financial Times article on enshittification coming for everything. It’s not exactly the same as this, but the lack of enforcement against anti-competitive activities is a big part of it.
Yup. Laws are only as good as the funding for enforcement (and actual enforcement). Apple disappointed me when my laptop was stolen (with all my music), and Apple hadn't allowed cloud storage (claiming copyright bs) and wanted me to buy everything over again.... No more 🍎 products for me
We can thank the lobbyists for that. That can get away with it because lobbying is considered protected by the first amendment. The US needs to realize that if a company is considered a person they need to be held legally accountable, fines are not real punishment when the scale of the crime turns a fine intp just another cost of doing business. Especially when the fines are passed on to the customer as increased pricing.
In my country, the biggest ebook seller does exactly this. They sell through 3 channels, the normal web, android, and Apple, and buying through Apple is always the most expensive. But no one’s keeping quiet here. People frequently ask why the price is higher buying through Apple, to the point that it is the norm for writers to write on their profile pages telling people not to buy through Apple. And the ebook store itself lays bare the price structure to everybody selling anything through their site, stating how Apple will take a bigger cut, so it is now common sense to set the price higher for Apple to compensate, then tell your readers to avoid it.
Glad to see Hank getting this info out there to people who aren't immersed enough in tech news to know about these large cuts that the app stores take from subscriptions!
I love these Google sheets video. I know we are getting screwed but I don’t have the energy to figure these out for myself. Appreciate the spreadsheeting Hank.
Yeah, subscribing to a Twitch streamer via the website is $5/month, but it’s $6/month via the iOS app. I don’t believe you can use a Twitch Prime sub on the app either.
I’ve been a TH-cam premium family plan subscriber for 4+ years and I switched to iPhone a few years ago. When I updated my payment info through my phone, the amount went from 19.99 per month to 29.99 per month. It took me over a year to notice the difference. But I leaned this same lesson. I don’t subscribe to anything through my iPhone without checking the website directly first.
Its worth noting that the number of people who own personal computers is decreasing significantly. Its such a terrible experience to use internet browsers on mobile phones that there is probably a large demographic of people who not only wouldn't get the subscription online, but probably couldn't.
I wonder if it's possible to do it using the desktop version of the website on your phone? I have an android OS, and I can choose to view the desktop version of a website when I'm in the internet browser, instead of the automatic redirect some site have to the corresponding app. Still inconvenient, but then you don't need a separate device.
@@emilywatchesmoviesonly where libraries are free, which is not everywhere in the world - but then again, the majority of people where I live (and where libraries cost a subscription fee) use android anyway...
@@AstridLys You have to pay to use the library? I truly didn't realize that was a thing anywhere. I mean, we have private libraries here that I'm sure involve a fee... but I truly thought that most countries had free public libraries.
It's almost like every time corporations get their hands on new technology one of them leads the way on using that technology to exploit people with it as much as possible.
I get you. It's like watching Kermit the Frog rant about taxes or something, arm flails and all. It's so funny and charming. There's anger but it's not ANGRY.
Not sure if someone already commented about this, but I’m pretty sure this is the same reason you can’t purchase kindle books in the Amazon app or Kindle app on an iPhone. I’ve always found that irritating and now I know why it’s that way. Thanks for keeping us educated Hank! 😊
Just commented about this 😄 It's odd, though, because I have android and it behaves the exact same way as you describe. Also, I can't buy books from my kindle paperwhite device anymore, either.
I don't think enough people are talking about your sick transition from the video to your added information while you were editing the video at 10:02 . Incredible work.
Basically, YT is passing along the cost of Apple’s in-app purchasing fees. That’s literally the only reason they charge more to apple devices. And guess what a lot of people happen to have as a mobile device? It’s not the “mobile” that’s the problem. It’s Apple.
It is likely because apple is taking a cut of the profits for the subscription so to make the 13.99 a month they have to sell it at 18.99 on ios they take 30% of all iOS app transactions. So $5.70(rounded up). TH-cam receives 13.30
Mr. Green, I checked on my android, and it was 16.99 with the old and new youtube app. Then, I went to Google Chrome and used desktop view and bought my membership for 13.99. Thank you for the savings. 🙏🏻 This is why I have been subbed!
I have an annual subscription of dropout but when it’s up I’ll switch to signing up online. They deserve every cent and I can’t wait for your comedy special!
I read about the 30% fees in Cory Doctorow/Rebecca Giblin's Chokepoint Capitalism. I'm so tired of the enshitification of the Internet. On the plus side, buying an annual Dropout subscription (through the web of course), was money well spent. Can't wait to see your special!
this is the perfect youtube video: educates on topics that have both individual and societal implications (in this case, monopolies and anti-competitive behavior), transitions seamlessly into an ad for a valuable and relevant service or product, and informs the audience of a new product from their favorite creator (looking forward to the comedy special!) while simultaneously being entertaining and engaging.
@@ddutton0 that's so sweet! I named her after the Hellenic goddess of hearth, home, and sanctuary. Traditionally, it was non-negotiable, whether you followed any other deities or not, to have all offerings go to her first, and for her to be established as a household deity. Older sister of Zeus - she is a Titan, and not an Olympian. (: (I'm Hellenic pagan among other things) - I named her Hestia bc the goddess is already queen of the house, so it's only fitting the other queen of the house (my cat) shares her name 😊
APPLE HAS ENOUGH MONEY!!! I had an iPhone for yeeears and purchased dozens and dozens of albums through iTunes. I freaking loved iTunes. But, I switched to Android in 2019 (for reasons) and there is an Apple Music app, but I have to have a subscription to listen to my music that I already own. $10.99/month for the individual plan, or $16.99/month for the family plan. So, I'm back to 2006 using one phone for calls and text, and an old iPhone to listen to my music. It's bananas.
A quick search shows that there are multiple ways to do this for free. There are third party apps, or you can just copy the songs to your Android, or use TH-cam Music if you want them in a cloud. Why did you choose the most cumbersome option?
@@Jehty_because doing it through iTunes/ Apple Music shouldn’t be the most cumbersome option. It should be the easiest option but Apple intentionally makes the customers’ lives hell for profit…
@@garbomode29You know Dropout is good when the paying customers happily shill for the service. I've never seen any other subscription where users actively promote it.
This is why, in Europe, we have ”industry gatekeeper” regulation to try and prevent these companies from choking up competition. Google and Apple LITERALLY GET TO DECIDE who gets to make a profitable business on the internet. They can erase your profit margin on a whim. They shouldn’t.
Hank please do more content like this I absolutely love this content and subject matter and how animated it gets you can't wait to see your comedy special
I'm from Hungary and TH-cam Premium costs 1790 Ft ($4.98 US) per month per person, with no discounts. The Family plan costs 2690 Ft ($7.49 US) per month for 5 people.
I always avoid recurring or fixed payment things. Except for essentials like shelter, communication, electricity, etc.. if a company asks you for a subscription or fixed recurring payments just avoid them.
Since I'm a non-american and (mostly) non-apple user, I just assume it's not as big of a problem for me in particular, but although I think I avoid most recurring payments too, there are some subscription products that seem fine (but maybe that's because the ones I do occasionally try are the types that can be easily cancelled and/or have a single-payment option 🤔)
Absolutely LOVE the edit where you start with your (phone?) camera pointing at the screen. Incredibly helpful in transitioning my attention as compared to a jump cut, literally moving from one image to the other. It's a small thing but it's a great thing.
@@dominicparker6124 potato potato. gardening in an apartment is hard due to an added inconvenience that never used to be there. doesnt make grocery stores any less "paying for convenience"
11:55 its a symbiotic parasitic relationship, both Apple and Alphabet charge each other back and forth and as a bonus it helps them both avoid paying taxes in the US.
hey i have the "my mum had 8.000 unread emails and that caused problems so i get paranoid about having even one notification in mine because what if i miss an important one" anxiety masking of adhd!
Hank just accidentally explained why phone OSes are so bad. It's because they're designed for the corporation's profit instead of the user's benefit. Instead of using a normal operating system like a computer, especially an open-source one like Debian which has a great set of free peer-reviewed packages made by the community... the phone OSes use app stores. And the app stores give the corp a big cut of every sale. Phone OSes are designed to charge you more for functionality which is the same or worse, so a big corporate middle-man can get richer.
Realistically almost nobody cares about or directly benefits from those open source Debian packages. It’s great they exist, but people use phones because they’re useful, any open sourcing is secondary. The reality is that running an app store and providing the infrastructure for the storefront, payments and updates costs money, let alone the cost of developing and maintaining an entire operating system that all of the apps run on.
If the phones would have to be bootloader unlocked and rooted when you bought them (and allow you to uninstall all non essential apps) I'd be more okay with that.
@@JamEngulfer You used at least a dozen pieces of open-source software to post that comment. Smartphones exist because of open-source. It is the basis of most modern computing, and directly benefits almost everyone.
@@ToyKeeper Don’t worry, I’m fully aware and I know the value of open source components in infrastructure and all the low level bits that makes things work. But that doesn’t hold true when it comes to the things average people will use. Arguably the open source alternatives to a lot of popular software aren’t as good as the paid version and the median user doesn’t care whether something is open source or not, they care about how good it is.
@@JamEngulfer It's not just infrastructure. User-visible apps depend on open-source too, like virtually every web browser and web site, plus apps for almost any task imaginable. I haven't had to use proprietary software since the 1990s, and I don't miss it at all. Because it does what I need, without user-hostile proprietary un-features like ads, spyware, DRM, subscription fees, and vendor lock-in. And it frequently has more advanced features that aren't available in proprietary alternatives. The world has been gradually migrating to open-source... because in general, whenever there is an open-source solution available, proprietary solutions become obsolete.
I have a similar issue with my small business. If people buy stuff on my website, they get a better price than if they do it on Amazon or Etsy, because those marketplaces take a cut. The problem is driving traffic where you want it to go, because everyone is already at those other places and they won't hang around long enough to go somewhere else. The whole game is just, "Where are all the eyeballs looking?"
30% is insane. If apple and google want a monopoly on app stores we need to regulate them. Same with steam and its 30% cut. That's to much for access to a digital storefront.
Steam, Nintendo, PS and XBox make sense... They are building the platforms to make sure your games run well. With phones we already pay monthly fees to carriers and pay thousands for our phones... It's triple dipping to also harass businesses. They abuse laws meant to protect small businesses, to kill small businesses.
These apps are using API’s, hardware and software optimizations, and online services all being created and funded by Apple and Google. That stuff is not free, and costs an incredible amount for them to create and maintain. It’s not fair that app developers, many of which are massively profitable companies, get to use all of the work that Apple and Google do for free. They also have many programs to take a lower cut for smaller developers.
@@Heyspencerb I'm not sure you understand how much money they are making and how much 30% is. It has nothing to do with API's and development cost and everything to do with money and who has the monopoly control on the market.
Maybe also a vertical integration tax: instead of being able to make their own services cheaper on their own platforms, maybe they should pay an equivalent 30% tax (or a bit lower, to account for some actual costs) to level the playing field. And don't allow one monopolistic company to agree to a lower price with the other monopolistic company that runs the platform.
Funny. I just signed up to the Try Guys channel yesterday and even though it was the same price on my phone and my desktop, I intentionally went to the website on my computer to avoid the Apple cut.
If you subscribe to the New York Times or Wall Street Journal using their websites it is cheaper than on your phone, but if you ever want to cancel you will have to email their retention departments and persuade them that your reason for cancellation is justified, and even then they may just continue to charge you. If you subscribe on your phone, it costs more, but when you want to cancel you just tap the cancel button in settings and you're done.
That’s fair, though NYT racked up my subscription recently, and it looks like they’ve actually added in an option to just directly cancel online (which I know wasn’t there a year ago). Perhaps this is due to new regulations, but I’m not sure. Also, their other option is to cancel with an online chat service. It’s definitely a tedious thing, but they’re also almost always willing to give you a much lower price if you say your reason for canceling is cost. When my cost went up, it went to $20 a month for just news access, which is ridiculous and just not practically affordable for me. That said, it took less than 5 minutes chatting with someone online to lower it to $6 a month for all-access for the next year. Regardless, I’m definitely not arguing that the convenience and lack of canceling hassle isn’t legit for the mobile buying option. Just saying that, at least with NYT, it looks like canceling is getting easier & also there are benefits to talking to the retention team if you actually like the subscription but it’s just too expensive.
I'm fairly sure NYT have changed this. 4 years ago I could only cancel by calling during US business hours (from Australia!!) which would be super illegal in Australia - if you can subscribe online, you need to be able to cancel online. Made the phone call, got my subscription dropped back to $4/month for a year. But these days I can definitely just cancel (or threaten to cancel and get a cheaper deal) online. I've never had the app 🤷♀️
HANK, congrats on getting your show up on Dropout! Such a cool partnership! I AM LOVING YOUR MEDIUM-FORM INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM & CONSUMER PROTECTION CONTENT.
Any chance you know if it's fully accessible? To be clear, (AT THE LEAST) captioned for us Deafies, audio descriptions for Blind folk? I mean.... I doubt Hank would participate in and/or support/advertise an app/company that isn't accessible.... but ... people usually don't talk about how important accessibility is unless they (or someone in their life on a daily basis) needs it, too.
@@Gimpygladiator I haven't checked everything, but the shows I watch do have subtitles. You have to turn them on (button in bottom right corner of player), and there may well be stuff that isn't captioned.
In Australia, credit card transaction fees are capped to not be more than it reasonably costs to process the transaction, which is usually only a few cents. I feel like the same rules should apply here too. It does _not_ cost 30% of a payment to process said payment!
I'm a developer; The apps CANNOT tell you about this because Apple SPECIFICALLY restricts developers from saying anything about this or leading customers directly to another store in their developer agreements. They cannot even mention the existence of other ways to pay outside of the app. This is one of the reasons why they want your email, to get around apple restrictions like that.
exactly! its textbook anti-competive! i came into the comments into to say this. its the same reason that Amazon doesn't let you buy kindle books. they don't want to raise the prices or eat the cost like dropout (likely) does
This is true. The only reason apple is worth as much as it is as a company is through monopolistic, anti-competitive practices.
@@danisanerdwhat do you mean about Amazon not selling kindle books?
@@danisanerd I'm so glad to know this now. I was so annoyed by not being able to buy kindle books on my phone but now . . .
@@VexeThat and dumb consumers falling for the shtick. It's all well and good to blame apple, but at the end of the day money talks. I thinks it's a 70/30 split, with consumers having the larger share of blame.
The irony that YT on my iPhone has been NONSTOP RECOMMENDING THIS VIDEO is not lost on me.
Probably because Google (who owns TH-cam) is more than happy to let someone bring down Apple if it means their customers will spend the money they saved on Google services instead
Loooool
I got it on my desktop
😂😂😂
same!
Oh ho ho, my strange millennial habit of "pay money on the big screen instead of the little screen" has been proven strangely correct!!!
It's not a big screen vs little screen thing though, it's an Apple wanting an extra cut vs everyone else not taking the extra cut thing. You're fine subscribing on Android, it's Apple taking the extra cut. Or Microsoft, or BlackBerry, or Samsung galaxy store or whatever. It's everyone else is equal, but Apple wants their protection payments like an old school mob boss
@@ViridianFlow That's the strange part, it is correct but only if you have an iPhone
@@hugofontes5708 So iPhone is correct and every other way of paying gets a discount?
It’s correct no matter what, Sam Reich, Dropout CEO said that 15% goes to android no matter what, so to support the people you’re subscribed to, pay via laptop
@@orangeants it's correct but either only on iphone or on dropout then? At least about you paying, not them receiving - say, about big shot subscription services
This seriously blew my mind!!! I was paying 18.99 for TH-cam premium!!! Canceled my account and signed up again on desktop and it was $13.99 and also there was an annual option with even further discount. Thank you Hank!!
Hmm annual option? News to me, gonna have to check that later at home, didn't see that last time I checked but I'm in the UK.
I tried this but the website wouldn’t let me. The only way to subscribe was with the free-month promotion which I had already used the first time and it wouldn’t let me reuse. I had to start a whole new account.
Why continue giving the company money after they pull that sneaky bullshit? Just use an ad-blocker like the rest of us and contribute to creators as you see fit.
I'd go for the annual option if it renewed automatically.
@@wrathofainz because the kinds of people that use adblockers are kind of insufferable, and paying 1/5(13.99) dollars a month (family plan) is really, cheaper than dealing with ad blockers that dont always work. If you only calculate the money, instead of the information you may give, and time it takes to manage everything, especially when ad blockers occasionally get wrecked, you save more money on the plan. You also get TH-cam music with it, which means you dont need junk apps like Spotify, iTunes, podcast places, whatever that you might be paying money for, but at least take your information to even more places and use up memory on your phone. You also get other things like cloud storage and stuff, but i forget the details. Point is, at the end of the day...its just simpler, easier, and potentially much cheaper than free ad blockers, and what you do when you have them.
As an app developer - THANK YOU for platforming this. If we tell people this our app can get pulled from the store. We are wayyyy too small to fight the legal battle to negotiate for ourselves.
The app stores are fucked everyone knows
@@JamilaJibril-e8h the average joe definitely does not know.
HUH, the EU should bonk apple and android for that so at least europeans dont get robbed like that
epic tried; i think they still are
@@nigelrobbins5588 Merrick Garland announced that the DOJ is going after them. People like us can't do what the DOJ can! I'd advise voting blue, because the other guy is on the billionaires' side!
I got a John Green ad on this video
Imagine you make a video and you're getting paied by your brother to advertise his video on yours.
Same!
I came here to comment the same thing! haha
@@lenorelestrangedon't let the feds know
ME TOO
Canceled my $19/month subscription to TH-cam premium by minute 4 of this video to resubscribe later. Thanks for this video, Hank!
I also texted my boomer parents, which may end up saving even more.
Yup, grateful to Hank for making this video and saving me $!
@@NerdFighterNation Great for you!
did it by minute 2 lmao
Wow … when I signed up it was $9.99/month, and they just raised it to $13.99 sometime in the past year. These higher prices are news to me.
I saved $79 for the year by ending my subscription created through Apple, going directly to TH-cam, and selecting the annual plan there instead! Thanks Hank!!
Now if only your computer and phone didn't require you do be slave to its pricing model.
@@nak3dxsnake yeah I was gonna say that, the way to resolve this permanently is to stop using apple devices because they suck
Imma keep it real with you chief, I am so unbelievably sick of subscription services. There's a new subscription service every other week that I have to pay "just" $5 or "just" $7 every month to have access to *one* piece of media because they can never keep it in the same place for too long and good GRIEF I am so tired
I was expecting a rant about how subscription services suck because you pay 60 bucks per year for one piece of content, and the phone marketplaces make it so psychologically convenient and insignificant to spend that 60 bucks with a tap of the fingerprint sensor and its ruining your wallet.
No, instead I get a rant about how Google and Apple make 18 dollars per year from your one fingerprint tap, and then engage in anticompetitive behaviors by not charging that 18 bucks for their own services, meaning that I can choose between giving Apple 18 dollars or giving Apple 42 dollars!!!!!1!!.
I AM A GIANT SQUID OF ANGER!!!
Same fr its so ridiculous. I pay two subscription services, one for spotify and one for my illustration program on my phone (which is thankfully insanely cheap at only $6.50 annually) but anything else, I refuse to pay for. If its a show or movie, id rather sail the seven seas. Only reason I haven't replaced Spotify yet is bc i listen to a lot of obscure indie bands that are hard to find on other music streaming platforms.
I have a specific card for subscriptions that every few years when it gets stupid, I just cancel it, and the things I actually need I just update my payment details.
This is why people just pirate shiet. That's practically the only thing people used the internet for, once upon a fairytale time
Sounds like the high seas are calling to ya my matey
Part of the problem between Apple and spotify is that Spotify is a direct competitor of Apple Music. The DOJ is actually suing Apple for monopoly behavior
THIS THIS THIS
You don't get to be worth nearly $3 TRILLION (with a T!) dollars by being the "good" guys.
True, but let's not pretend that Google or Spotify are not evil. Just evil in a different way.
@@brianw1620Honestly most of Apple’s competitors are worse than Apple. Apple Music’s service is better for everyone except Spotify
@@brianw1620 Literally, Spotify when it paywalls basic features :/
"To illustrate I think we should open up f*cking sheets" was the best 5 seconds of my day
2:30 time stamp for all those looking to relive the glory lmao
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I like how this is the vibe of Hankschannel now.
as soon as i heard it i came to the comments to find this
Why didn't he use Excel like a normal person?
I need an endlessly growing playlist on this channel filled with practical rabbit holes clarifying what to consider when making personal consumer decisions that our ed system does not prepare us for.... It's exhausting going down these holes by oneself and Hank has the energy😊
And yet he’s sponsored by rocket money which is a scam
30 seconds in and he’s talking at 300 words per second… perfect
i didn't notice because everyone around me talks this fast lol
And I am watching at *2 speed
@@oleksandrbyelyenko435 TH-cam needs a 4x option
@@oleksandrbyelyenko435 lol same
He manages to say "profitable" correctly, while talking so fast that it's just him vibrating his tongue, lmao.
I thought the CEO of dropout was gonna be some corporate suit, but it's literally just Sam
Yup! He became CEO when they were spun off by the ol' corporate overlords
He's been here the whole time.
His dad is Robert Reich the politician. He is a suit, he's just also nice
@@andrewenderfrost8161 I guess he's well connected, but idk I mean suit like they only care about profit and aren't really attached to what they're managing.
Because he's both owner and talent and in support of the SAG-A strike last year, he made a comment like "I'm CEO and talent! Me says me got to go!".
DOJ is currently suing Apple, as well as Google, for anti competitive policies & acting like a monopoly.
They are both just insane monopolies that would have been unheard of before Reagan’s presidency. We really need to stop the “anti-regulation” propaganda we are being fed by large multinational corporations.
As an Apple fan, yay
Seems the DOJ has finally been sufficiently embarrassed by the EU to get off their arses.
Duopoly* but yeah it only takes them 10 years and then another 10 to get a verdict
@@wow-sham1300 these large corporations purposely delay the cases as long as they can to force negotiations; because the DOJ is required by law to provide Congress with estimated budgets for large ongoing cases/investigations. There are also (lobbied) Congressmen who also help delay the cases by purposely underfunding them; like the long-serving Congressman from Alabama does for Lockheed every single time!
Until we can get Citizens United overturned by Congress, money rules the courts.
Travel tip; This same thing with rentals from VRBO and AirBNB a lot of rental companies have their own websites where they rent their rooms/houses for cheaper. Same with hostels, if you go to the website directly it's cheaper. The reason is the same; the big sites take a cut of the cost.
I always do this, especially with hotels I find if there are any problems it's much easier to resolve if you booked with the hotel rather than a 3rd party site.
Mobile Developer here, who just finished implementing our subscription service for Apple. Believe it or not, it is actually against their terms of service to tell users where else they can subscribe. This is why Spotify doesn’t say “Go to our website to subscribe there”. They are legally obligated to not tell the user where to go.
You also aren’t allowed to use third party services like Stripe that has a SIGNIFICANTLY lower tax
Apple is on par with EA for scummiest company
Comparing it with Stripe is just weird. Stripe is a payment solution, not a app platform. So even on the App Store, after paying Apple 30%, they still have to pay the payment provider and network (Think you bank and Visa respectively) a transaction amount for everything you buy. Apple charges you to use their platforms to sell apps and services. Stripe is a way to allow you to collect payments from your customers no matter if you own a shop, or selling a service etc
Love how people talk about these things as if it's not straight up illegal in other western countries - poor Americans 😅
I'd really like to know how this is legal. It flaunts so many ant-competition laws.
The 2021 Epic v Apple court case (which Spotify also supported) means that Apple legally can’t prevent developers from telling customers about alternative payment methods outside their platform, which would let them avoid Apple’s 30% fee. That ruling was on hold while they both appealed to the Supreme Court, but their appeals were denied last year.
Apple threatened to collect a 27% “commission” fee from developers who added links to alternative payment methods, so companies like Spotify are threatening another lawsuit if Apple tries to collect: that’s why we still can’t buy Spotify Premium through the iOS app
This is a nitpick, but Google doesn't own Android (android itself is open-source). Instead, Google owns Google Play Services, through which people get their apps, pay subscriptions, and do most things on Android phones.
Of course this *practically* means Google owns Android, but does mean we could conceive of a better world where we own our phones instead.
😂 lol thanks
I don’t think this is a nitpick because it brings up a HUGE selling point of android phones for me. You don’t actually need to use google play store for 100 percent of the apps of your phone the same way ios has it. There are a lot of app store platforms that are unrelated to veither party and i can still use them !
This is good clarification, for example my Kindle has the (dreadful) amazon app store and my samsung phone has the galaxy store and google play.
People are hard at work designing a google-free ecosystem for Android. F-droid is a good start. It's an alternative app repo. You can always install an app via an .apk file. I donno if Apple would allow anything like that.
@@ucantSQ i was going to mention the .apk files! i've only used them like twice, but it's so nice to have the option :)
In the same news: Ticketmaster is being called by the Justice Department to be broken up
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Good lord finally
Wait for real?!
About time.
I live in Australia, and our courts found Ticketmaster to be in breach of resale (aka scalping) laws. I’ll paraphrase but TM’s response was basically: “Whatcha gunna do about it?”
To which the Aus Govt asked: 9:51 “umm plz stop?”
TM: “Left of read”
AuG: “😢 Okay”
I also got a John Green ad opening this video. I had to paused it and showed it to my wife. Was a serious ad,but a funny coincidence. Love both of these magnificent human specimens. Thank you all for your works.
As a Dropout subscriber THANK YOU for this. I will be cancelling my Apple subscription and going direct through them going forward. Same thing with TH-cam….actually the money I save on adjusting my TH-cam subscription will pay for my dropout subscription 🧐
You just saved $60 my friend
@@annabethchase4582or he just got a Dropout subscription. What is Dropout?
👍
"I got more info from the CEO of Dropout"
You mean you casually texted your good friend Samuel Dalton Reich
Dalton 💀
Wow, he just gives out his phone number to people he has on Dropout? He sounds crazy friendly. Where's he from?
@@cinderwolf32 I know, he's super cagey about that.
@@cinderwolf32 I believe his most recent answer was "Unreal"
What a crazy name. Where’s he from?
This is related to why I learned to check if artists/artisans on Etsy have their own website. I realized they are either making you pay more to offset the cost by purchasing on Etsy which takes a cut, or the artist is getting paid less for the same product. I didn’t realize this sort of commission thing happened with subscriptions via what platform though.
Oh wait that's smart. I've been going to their Etsy this whole time instead of their site because it's easier for me to save things and navigate, and I like having everything in one place
It's every platform. Book an hotel? Pay for groceries with a credit card? Somebody's talking cut and bullying the vendors into painful terms.
More and more internet companies are taking ownership of product discovery and using that monopoly to force small vendors to either sign up to terrible terms or be forgotten by everybody who only uses the most popular service to find what they want.
To be fair, Etsy's cut is a flat 20 cent fee for the item plus a 3% payment processing fee for the banks - much smaller than a 30% cut. Unless they're frequently selling individual products for less than a dollar it's likely not a huge deal, but if you like a seller and want to support them, obviously that's something they would appreciate 👍 Some Etsy sellers offer discounts or sales for using their external website as well so it's worth checking out!
Same. I buy off Etsy whenever possible.
This!
Proof Hank knows his audience. This is the best argument I've heard to subscribe to dropout.
My friends asked me a few weeks ago why they had to pay more than I do for YT Premium! I didn’t know why. Thank you Hank!
My man, you can listen to audiobooks through the library for FREE and some libraries will let anyone join even if they don’t live in the district but are in the same state. Free books wooo!
I do use Libby extensively, but it is important to note that most of the time, it is not a comparable service - you do give up quite a bit to have it be free. In my experience, if you want to listen to something, you need to wait weeks or even months depending on the book and catalog (and I have 3 libraries with separate catalogs connected!) and then if you can't finish it in two weeks, which can be challenge, especially if your book is 30-40 hours like the ones I listen too, you have to stop in the middle and start waiting again! I love it, but to many not having to wait is more than worth the money.
Also books you want to listen to might not be in the catalog at all, which I've also experienced.
@@bengardner8639not to mention the audible originals that will never be on Libby. The same book may eventually appear there, but it’ll be years later after the exclusivity deal, and it usually requires the publisher to re-record a new version of the audiobook, and it tends not to be as good as the original.
@@bengardner8639 As someone who works in a library, just wanted to add to this that the waits are so long because libraries get gouged per-use for those audiobooks and a lot of libraries are underfunded so they can only afford to offer a few digital 'copies' for large communities. The more popular books get reeeaally long waits, and we have to be strategic about what we add to the catalog at all. All that to say, keep advocating for libraries! They're awesome, but they could be so much more awesome if they were well funded.
@@bengardner8639 are these public libraries with their own services? And you have to wait for the book as if it were loaned out irl in the old days? Why do they make you wait for digital products? That doesn't seem to make any sense. Is it a competition thing? So that people have a reason to get something like audible?
@@bengardner8639i also use libby and absolutely love it! It is a digital library so my expectations were already aligned with the experience of needing to wait for more popular titles and perhaps having the wait again to finish a book or audiobook. That is why i love he “available now” filter while i wait for the more popular titles to get of hold like the disc world series.
Seems to me that it's quite clear why they don't want people talking about the store fee. 1: it makes them and the platform look bad driving up prices or extorting companies we actually wanna support. 2: it's blatantly anti competetitive and they wanna hide it. 3: more people would use a browser to sign up and they want to keep their cut.
Feels like every day I find yet another reason to hate corporate America and the current trajectory of technology
Why do you all use IPhone's... It makes no sense
Unfettered capitalism doing what it does.
@@jrisner6535…. Cuz I’m stupid and I’d probably find some way to download a virus if I was on an android…
@@jrisner6535Had to have one for work years ago and everything is in the stupid apple ecosystem now
@jrisner6535 At the time the iPhone was the smallest phone available. I would like for the thing to actually fit in my pocket after all. Also my hands really aren’t that large. This trend of phones in general getting larger and larger needs to stop.
Good timing. Patreon announced today that anyone who uses Apple is subjected to paying THIRTY PERCENT MORE for pledges.
You know. Hank is the only person to actually convince me that Rocket Money could actually convenient. I feel like he just explained it more thoroughly than others. I still probably won't use it, but I've been convinced that it really might not be as pointless as I thought it was.
💯
I might give it a go. Hank's not infallible, but I trust him to tell us if he finds out something sketchy. And I could seriously use an app that tracks my subscriptions
I'm glad folks have a tool that will help you save money, let me start with that.
It is *wild* to me that people have subscription services they've forgotten about? I know what my subs are l, and they're well within my financial tolerance and for things I actually use. It seems odd to me that folks don't watch their money, and companies like Rocket Money can be profitable.
I used Rocket Money for a year, but cancelled after they charged me a $35 fee they were not upfront about in their marketing or TOS. They reversed the charge after I requested a refund, but I'd steer clear
i've actually used it cuz i have adhd and forget what i subscribe to thinking oh it's less than 20 bucks it will be fine lol ya but those add up annnyway i used it for a bit to get my money under control and it worked it found all the subscriptions i forgot about and i was able to get rid of a lot of them.
Long time Dropout subscriber and it's absolutely worth it. And now we get Hank's Cancer Comedy Extravaganza?! I'm so glad I signed up via their website all that time ago. WOOOO!!
The only thing I’m willing to subscribe to (other than patrons for creators I love when I can afford it)!
Dropout is by far the best subscription service. Just finished Fantasy High: Junior Year yesterday and I haven't emotionally recovered.
Agreed!
If you’re on the fence, look up Harland Spinks’ video on Dropout, and why it’s so important to support creators independently from the platforms.
100% it's the only thing I'm subscribed to, totally worth it. Just finished fantasy high
100% this!!! Dropout is awesome comedy for awesome people!
The 30% tax I have known for a while. The apple issue is, when you are in the walled garden you cannot talk about the walls. If you put anything in your app to redirect payments your app will be denied.
With FTC banning non-compete, it looks that much worse that Google and Apple are allowed to get away with banning any language that mentions more competitive pricing online.
that's basically what happened between Epic and Apple, they removed Fortnite because Epic added a payment option that circumventeded Apple's payment processing fee
Common Apple L
The extra 30% sucks, but at least it’s really easy to cancel subscriptions. Just a single click and no chances for the service to trick you into staying on.
@TonysopranoyafinookThey do not tell you to use another method to subscribe.
2:03 "Oh, right. The poison. The poison for Kuzco, the poison chosen especially to kill Kuzco, Kuzco's poison. That poison?"
Underrated comment 😂🤣😂
That poison (app)?
VERY IMPORTANT FOR NON-AMERICANS, some subscriptions are regionally priced, if you subscribe through your phone the subscription is competitively priced for your region but the website remains in dollars. Check for regional pricing! You'll get absolutely fleeced if you have to pay everything in USD!
True! Yt premium in India is sub $2
Unless you are in UK, then you get charged more than US for most things!
Hate to see very useful apps charging a whole monthly wage for a year subscription cause they don’t adapt regionally, i always remember the game dev that charged only 30% of the American price in Brazil and it turned out to be 60% of the income cause we have a super powerful word of mouth and praise for thoughtful companies
Sometimes this geolocks your subscription. TH-cam knows your location, in order to make sure the video being shown is legal in your local area, but if they notice you use a (example) Brazilian YT Premium account in the (Example) U.K. for more than 30 days, they'll cancel your premium account and ban it from subscribing from anywhere other than the UK.
@@DrathiLavenderHum, and people use vpn's to buy the game cheaper?
Hank, Buddy... we gotta talk about the amount you're spending on subscriptions. I'm a poor boy from Kentucky, I nearly went into cardiac arrest.
I'm a poor boy from Kansas w no subscriptions watching this and even I'm getting mad for these customers.
moments like this where i remember this man is a CEO lmao
im also a poor boy from kentucky why is he using audible when libby exists and is free through your local public library
@@chesspiece4257because many of the audio books are not readily available and must be put on hold. Also, the selection of the audio books are much smaller. Plus he makes enough money to be able to afford it easily.
Hank fortunately uses his powers for good but yeah he does live on a different tier than most of us. That's fine in my opinion but it is something to know. Plus his cost of living in Montana is quite low
I think you just made me understand why Amazon doesn't sell ebooks on its app (they have enough power in this segment to say "go to my website and buy this there" and people WILL go instead of buying it somewhere else).
I believe they actually allow you to buy from the app (on Android) if you install the app directly from the Amazon App Store.
They actually lost a bunch of ebook sales from me because I never use Amazon on my laptop. I just assumed the book wasn’t available and didn’t care enough to investigate
They do the same thing with Amazon Prime in Asia. You can't purchase a subscription via Google Pay. It's the only streaming service in the Philippines that you can't pay for with Google Pay
Yes, they used to do so until Google prohibited them.
To be fair, it was in retaliation for Amazon refusing to sell Chromecasts on Amazon, among other things.
It really is that dumb.
Yep. Comixology (the leading app for digital comics) used to allow in app purchases until it was bought by Amazon and it switched to website only purchases immediately
(Comixology was later killed by Amazon so they could force people to use Kindle instead)
its so nice to read that a simple video has already helped so many people $4-5 monthly
I didn't need another reason to hate Apple, and yet you posted this video anyway. Thank you.
@TheOneTrueKit nah, fck em, they're anticompetitive af
🐑
@@TheOneTrueKit- "the price is expensive because Apple decided the price is expensive." is not a redeeming argument.
@@TheOneTrueKit The fact that they prevent devs from talking about it is blatantly deceptive if nothing else. If they want to be excused, they gotta be open and upfront so that ppl can knowingly and willingly make decisions
Deck riding a billion dollar company is crazy.@@TheOneTrueKit
Dropout addressed this in a video once awhile ago where they had a discount code for online subscriptions that left dropout's cut unchanged while giving a discount to subscribers. Which is just classy. Also like they just don't miss with their content. Would recommend.
Is there somewhere I can look for Dropout discount codes? Like a newsletter or something?
@@kashiichan You don't need a discount code, if you go to the website right now there's a 20% off your first year offer right there for the taking. It's the exact same discount amount that GourmetBurrito is referring to that they did a "pay us less" video about a while back. I think they just kept it permanently because they realized it incentivized people to sign up on the website. (I guess Hank missed that because they didn't discount the monthly subs.)
@@kashiichanright now theyre doing 20% off the yearly subscription, which makes it $4 a month in the long run. that's automatically applied when you go on the website i think
I just checked the website and it seems they have 20% of the first year without a code.
Personally, I just bought a single month first before going for a full annual subscription, seemed safe, and I don't regret it.
The stuff you downloaded even stays available after your subscription ends, so with a big enough sd card you could download multiple seasons of d20 and watch them after the test subscription ended.
@@kashiichan yeah they have a newsletter that you can find if you google dropout newsletter. At the very least, you can get 20% off the first year subbing from their website if they dont have any other promo going right now
Not to sound extra parasocial, but every time Hank said "the CEO of Dropout", I kept thinking "we know Sam"
His contact pic with the Zam was a nice touch
I have no idea who that is
@@malachiatkinson7245 but he's been here the whole time!
@@malachiatkinson7245You're missing out
@@malachiatkinson7245try game changer shorts, then you'll feel like you know him😂
This is a good time to remind everyone that you should not give your trust to any corporation. Doesn’t matter if you like using Apple devices or androids or windows, every corporation has problems and every one of them will betray you for money. Stay vigilant
Hank talkin double time to proof he is the real rap god
eminem has nothin on hank
"But this made me think about a thing that I've always wanted to make a video about that I I've never made a video about" goes pretty goddamn hard.
Im watching this on 1.5x speed lmao
Watching at *2, sometimes I wish *4 speed was an option.
0:21
This is so validating to me as a millennial. I have an instinct that certain transactions are for the "big computer" whereas other transactions are okay for the small computer. 😅
I never understood the love people have of Apple. It's expensive for the sake of expensive. You show you spend a lot of money and sometimes get to deal with fun compatibility issues with other products.
Yup.
Iphone users will go into debt before someone calls them broke
The *only* reason people like it (well, people with functioning brains) is the privacy it has, I don’t know the exact details but I know that apple is pretty secure in that respect
The only reason people think it's secure is because, at first, no one really used Apple devices back in the day. So the idea was they were safer simply because it wasn't useful for most to try and do anything to it. Windows and Android were more prevalent, so the work to mess with it went further.
Once that started becoming a surface level thing normies would say without context, Apple latched on.
Now adays, it's about the same but actually kinda worse. Cause now not only does iOS have a fantastically large and relatively uninformed consumer base to attack, but their systems collect so much useful information about a target that it's just bursting with potential attack vectors and rewards.
The other side is the framing of anticompetitive practices as security benefits.
If I ban you from buying a machete for yard work, I could say it's because their dangerous, and I'm protecting you.
You would rightfully see holes in that argument. The same goes for a large amount of the things Apple does in the name of security.
When Apple first made the iPhone it was the coolest phone out there and for years it was the best phone. Other phones were good but iPhone was great. That's not the case anymore but the superiority complex hasn't gone away.
THANK YOU Hank. I've been paying $29.99 for Premium Family for the past two years because I had subscribed through my iPhone. I had no idea that the original price was $22.99. I paused your video, chatted online to a youtube customer service representative, found out that I can't get any of that money back, but at least I was able to unsubscribed on my iPhone, and will be subscribing directly through TH-cam once this month's subscription ends. Stinking Apple.
Thanks. I was paying $22.99, but wasn’t sure if that was the right amount, and was too lazy to unsubscribe and go to my desktop TH-cam and see.
I didn’t think I’d be unsubscribing from dropout today…but you made me do it. I’m then immediately going to resubscribe through their website so that they make more money.
$40 to clean up phone storage is insane.
Most of those subs are a ripoff, to be honest.
Hank's money is clean but his phone is filthy
especially in this day and age where I feel like phones have more storage than i could ever possibly use!
@@dead-raccoonNot if you take tons of photos and store them locally on your phone. Especially if you are a parent (like Hank), who usually take tons of photos/videos of their children.
This is as much of a bizarre twist as Hank opening up the soap shop last year.
I just read the Financial Times article on enshittification coming for everything. It’s not exactly the same as this, but the lack of enforcement against anti-competitive activities is a big part of it.
Yup.
Laws are only as good as the funding for enforcement (and actual enforcement).
Apple disappointed me when my laptop was stolen (with all my music), and Apple hadn't allowed cloud storage (claiming copyright bs) and wanted me to buy everything over again....
No more 🍎 products for me
We can thank the lobbyists for that. That can get away with it because lobbying is considered protected by the first amendment. The US needs to realize that if a company is considered a person they need to be held legally accountable, fines are not real punishment when the scale of the crime turns a fine intp just another cost of doing business. Especially when the fines are passed on to the customer as increased pricing.
In my country, the biggest ebook seller does exactly this. They sell through 3 channels, the normal web, android, and Apple, and buying through Apple is always the most expensive. But no one’s keeping quiet here. People frequently ask why the price is higher buying through Apple, to the point that it is the norm for writers to write on their profile pages telling people not to buy through Apple. And the ebook store itself lays bare the price structure to everybody selling anything through their site, stating how Apple will take a bigger cut, so it is now common sense to set the price higher for Apple to compensate, then tell your readers to avoid it.
Glad to see Hank getting this info out there to people who aren't immersed enough in tech news to know about these large cuts that the app stores take from subscriptions!
I love these Google sheets video. I know we are getting screwed but I don’t have the energy to figure these out for myself. Appreciate the spreadsheeting Hank.
😂😂😂😂 it's going to be a lot of it in the future 😂😂
Same as Twitch subscriptions!! Definitely don't get a sub (or gift any subs) on the phone
Yeah, subscribing to a Twitch streamer via the website is $5/month, but it’s $6/month via the iOS app. I don’t believe you can use a Twitch Prime sub on the app either.
I kept thinking it was so weird that Twitch subscriptions used to be $5, but now were $6. Now I know why...
@@LuxMage64well I guess I’ll resub on the computer🫠
Or bits! Its crazy more expensive
*On an iPhone. If you have an Android you're paying the normal price, it's only Apple devices that take an extra cut
I’ve been a TH-cam premium family plan subscriber for 4+ years and I switched to iPhone a few years ago. When I updated my payment info through my phone, the amount went from 19.99 per month to 29.99 per month. It took me over a year to notice the difference. But I leaned this same lesson. I don’t subscribe to anything through my iPhone without checking the website directly first.
Its worth noting that the number of people who own personal computers is decreasing significantly. Its such a terrible experience to use internet browsers on mobile phones that there is probably a large demographic of people who not only wouldn't get the subscription online, but probably couldn't.
I wonder if it's possible to do it using the desktop version of the website on your phone? I have an android OS, and I can choose to view the desktop version of a website when I'm in the internet browser, instead of the automatic redirect some site have to the corresponding app. Still inconvenient, but then you don't need a separate device.
You could get free access to a computer at the library.
@@emilywatchesmoviesonly where libraries are free, which is not everywhere in the world - but then again, the majority of people where I live (and where libraries cost a subscription fee) use android anyway...
@@AstridLys Fair and that's unfortunate.
@@AstridLys You have to pay to use the library? I truly didn't realize that was a thing anywhere. I mean, we have private libraries here that I'm sure involve a fee... but I truly thought that most countries had free public libraries.
It's almost like every time corporations get their hands on new technology one of them leads the way on using that technology to exploit people with it as much as possible.
Hank, I like these videos because you're so animated. You can rant, but somehow it's not an angry rant. It's a Hank Green rant.
I get you. It's like watching Kermit the Frog rant about taxes or something, arm flails and all. It's so funny and charming. There's anger but it's not ANGRY.
Not “angry” but “hankry” lol😂
Not sure if someone already commented about this, but I’m pretty sure this is the same reason you can’t purchase kindle books in the Amazon app or Kindle app on an iPhone. I’ve always found that irritating and now I know why it’s that way. Thanks for keeping us educated Hank! 😊
Just commented about this 😄 It's odd, though, because I have android and it behaves the exact same way as you describe. Also, I can't buy books from my kindle paperwhite device anymore, either.
I don't think enough people are talking about your sick transition from the video to your added information while you were editing the video at 10:02 . Incredible work.
Apple assumes their iPhone users are used to paying a premium for nothing in particular. I wonder where they got that idea 🤔
EXACTLY!!
😂😂😂👍👍👍
Basically, YT is passing along the cost of Apple’s in-app purchasing fees. That’s literally the only reason they charge more to apple devices. And guess what a lot of people happen to have as a mobile device?
It’s not the “mobile” that’s the problem. It’s Apple.
It is likely because apple is taking a cut of the profits for the subscription so to make the 13.99 a month they have to sell it at 18.99 on ios they take 30% of all iOS app transactions. So $5.70(rounded up). TH-cam receives 13.30
Apple users are easy marks
The inevitability of Sheets being present is one thing, but the presentation as FUCKIN' SHEEETS is fantastic. Entertaining as always Hank
( time stamp of 2:30 for all those curious)
I didn‘t realize Hank‘s longer videos were this fun. Will gladly listen to this kind of rambles and rants any time 👌
I am subscribed to Dropout TV already, and I was also sad that I didn't get to see your standup show.
So that problem really solved itself.
Mr. Green, I checked on my android, and it was 16.99 with the old and new youtube app.
Then, I went to Google Chrome and used desktop view and bought my membership for 13.99.
Thank you for the savings.
🙏🏻 This is why I have been subbed!
17 on old? Since mine only shows the 13.99
@@goldenoodles6281 You must have a newer phone. IPhone probably? Nasty. 🤣
@@DeMoreAF nah on pixel 8 pro. Idk what iPhone crack you're on
@@goldenoodles6281 A Google phone.. Might as well sell the rest of your soul on Ebay. It's still better than Iphone crack, though.
Google Crack isn't much better bro. 🫠
I have an annual subscription of dropout but when it’s up I’ll switch to signing up online. They deserve every cent and I can’t wait for your comedy special!
I read about the 30% fees in Cory Doctorow/Rebecca Giblin's Chokepoint Capitalism. I'm so tired of the enshitification of the Internet.
On the plus side, buying an annual Dropout subscription (through the web of course), was money well spent. Can't wait to see your special!
I love unhinged Hanksheeting.
HANKSHEETING
+++
ok everyone we've found the term
30% is unhinged, Hank is perfectly hinged. 💢
+
+
this is the perfect youtube video: educates on topics that have both individual and societal implications (in this case, monopolies and anti-competitive behavior), transitions seamlessly into an ad for a valuable and relevant service or product, and informs the audience of a new product from their favorite creator (looking forward to the comedy special!) while simultaneously being entertaining and engaging.
consume entertain consume repeat
The real issue: Apple wants that 30% and might decline your app if you don't offer to sell your stuff through them. Happens regularly and it's a mess.
Android also charges 30% they just make anti-competitive deals with big companies like Spotify and Amazon to essentially collude against Apple.
1:50 simple: Apple takes a bigger cut from the store. So the user pays more.
My cat Hestia started rubbing her cheek up against my phone, i asked if she likes Hank and she shoved her face into my hand, i think that's a yes
What we just got a cat a named her Hestia too! That is awesome! Okay now to see if she likes Hank!
@@ddutton0 that's so sweet! I named her after the Hellenic goddess of hearth, home, and sanctuary. Traditionally, it was non-negotiable, whether you followed any other deities or not, to have all offerings go to her first, and for her to be established as a household deity. Older sister of Zeus - she is a Titan, and not an Olympian. (: (I'm Hellenic pagan among other things) - I named her Hestia bc the goddess is already queen of the house, so it's only fitting the other queen of the house (my cat) shares her name 😊
APPLE HAS ENOUGH MONEY!!! I had an iPhone for yeeears and purchased dozens and dozens of albums through iTunes. I freaking loved iTunes. But, I switched to Android in 2019 (for reasons) and there is an Apple Music app, but I have to have a subscription to listen to my music that I already own. $10.99/month for the individual plan, or $16.99/month for the family plan. So, I'm back to 2006 using one phone for calls and text, and an old iPhone to listen to my music. It's bananas.
That's wild, and should be illegal. You paid for those songs.
Lol in 2006 I was sailing the high seas! 🏴☠️
A quick search shows that there are multiple ways to do this for free.
There are third party apps, or you can just copy the songs to your Android, or use TH-cam Music if you want them in a cloud.
Why did you choose the most cumbersome option?
@@Jehty_because doing it through iTunes/ Apple Music shouldn’t be the most cumbersome option. It should be the easiest option but Apple intentionally makes the customers’ lives hell for profit…
@@greebmcfleeb5554 and people keep lining up to get the next one. I've never understood iphone people.
I cancelled my dropout subscription because I signed up on my phone and then I resubscribed on their website. Definitely the best subscription I have
truly they are the only streaming service that I want to have my money
@@garbomode29You know Dropout is good when the paying customers happily shill for the service. I've never seen any other subscription where users actively promote it.
I laughed and liked just because the sponsored ad was so perfectly fitting, yet almost felt out of left field. Thanks for sharing this info!
12:46 "a picture of my son" with angelic choir sounds and holy light illuminating hank's face
i'm glad this channel's editing budget allows that 😂
Your locations also matters, TH-cam premium only costs me about $7 where I live. (but we don't have family plans as an option)
where do you live? europe?
Yes, generally big companies have localized pricing relative to the cost of living in the country you are in.
Yeah that’s why Hank asked the person where they lived
omg wait where do you live? I also have to find out if you can sign up for something under a different location with a VPN lol
@@cutiepeel you can, in some places. A lot of services force you to use the local currency, and often you can't use foreign credit cards.
Hank I got dropout when you were on D20 and it’s hands down the best money I spend. I haven’t paid for another streaming service in 6 months.
This is why, in Europe, we have ”industry gatekeeper” regulation to try and prevent these companies from choking up competition. Google and Apple LITERALLY GET TO DECIDE who gets to make a profitable business on the internet. They can erase your profit margin on a whim.
They shouldn’t.
Exactly idk why ppl are saying "x phone sucks for this" when both would be willing to beat us dead for some quarters.
Hank please do more content like this I absolutely love this content and subject matter and how animated it gets you can't wait to see your comedy special
I'm from Hungary and TH-cam Premium costs 1790 Ft ($4.98 US) per month per person, with no discounts. The Family plan costs 2690 Ft ($7.49 US) per month for 5 people.
*sets vpn to hungary*
@@Darth_Choomba😂
$5 here in Romania as well.
It's $ 13.99 for one person and I think 19.99 or something
$ for a family of five
Is Sacramento 916 California ⭐
In india it costs $1.54 per month it's insane
I always avoid recurring or fixed payment things. Except for essentials like shelter, communication, electricity, etc.. if a company asks you for a subscription or fixed recurring payments just avoid them.
Bingo
Since I'm a non-american and (mostly) non-apple user, I just assume it's not as big of a problem for me in particular,
but although I think I avoid most recurring payments too,
there are some subscription products that seem fine
(but maybe that's because the ones I do occasionally try are the types that can be easily cancelled and/or have a single-payment option 🤔)
Oh my goodness!!! I didn't know you were sick!!! I'm so happy to hear you are doing well! Best wishes.
Absolutely LOVE the edit where you start with your (phone?) camera pointing at the screen. Incredibly helpful in transitioning my attention as compared to a jump cut, literally moving from one image to the other. It's a small thing but it's a great thing.
shout out Milo probably; I'm guessing but based on the fact that they have done the last few
This is very good to know, I was always curious why my twitch subscriptions cost me $6 instead of the $5 that I thought it would cost.
The most expensive thing you pay for is convenience.
Its usually not convinience. But avoiding the added inconvenience that never used to be there.
@@dominicparker6124 potato potato. gardening in an apartment is hard due to an added inconvenience that never used to be there. doesnt make grocery stores any less "paying for convenience"
Eh, for me it's rent ;)
11:55 its a symbiotic parasitic relationship, both Apple and Alphabet charge each other back and forth and as a bonus it helps them both avoid paying taxes in the US.
7:02 Hank has the “hundreds of unread texts” adhd like my mum lmao
(I have the “NO unread texts but hundreds of unread emails” brain)
I have the "I have no friends so no texts but hundreds of unread emails"
hey i have the "my mum had 8.000 unread emails and that caused problems so i get paranoid about having even one notification in mine because what if i miss an important one" anxiety masking of adhd!
Omg. It took me your comment to even notice I have 100s of unread texts.
Hank just accidentally explained why phone OSes are so bad. It's because they're designed for the corporation's profit instead of the user's benefit. Instead of using a normal operating system like a computer, especially an open-source one like Debian which has a great set of free peer-reviewed packages made by the community... the phone OSes use app stores. And the app stores give the corp a big cut of every sale. Phone OSes are designed to charge you more for functionality which is the same or worse, so a big corporate middle-man can get richer.
Realistically almost nobody cares about or directly benefits from those open source Debian packages. It’s great they exist, but people use phones because they’re useful, any open sourcing is secondary. The reality is that running an app store and providing the infrastructure for the storefront, payments and updates costs money, let alone the cost of developing and maintaining an entire operating system that all of the apps run on.
If the phones would have to be bootloader unlocked and rooted when you bought them (and allow you to uninstall all non essential apps) I'd be more okay with that.
@@JamEngulfer You used at least a dozen pieces of open-source software to post that comment. Smartphones exist because of open-source. It is the basis of most modern computing, and directly benefits almost everyone.
@@ToyKeeper Don’t worry, I’m fully aware and I know the value of open source components in infrastructure and all the low level bits that makes things work. But that doesn’t hold true when it comes to the things average people will use. Arguably the open source alternatives to a lot of popular software aren’t as good as the paid version and the median user doesn’t care whether something is open source or not, they care about how good it is.
@@JamEngulfer It's not just infrastructure. User-visible apps depend on open-source too, like virtually every web browser and web site, plus apps for almost any task imaginable. I haven't had to use proprietary software since the 1990s, and I don't miss it at all. Because it does what I need, without user-hostile proprietary un-features like ads, spyware, DRM, subscription fees, and vendor lock-in. And it frequently has more advanced features that aren't available in proprietary alternatives. The world has been gradually migrating to open-source... because in general, whenever there is an open-source solution available, proprietary solutions become obsolete.
I have a similar issue with my small business. If people buy stuff on my website, they get a better price than if they do it on Amazon or Etsy, because those marketplaces take a cut. The problem is driving traffic where you want it to go, because everyone is already at those other places and they won't hang around long enough to go somewhere else. The whole game is just, "Where are all the eyeballs looking?"
Spotify is the biggest competitor to Apple Music. I imagine it's mutually beneficial for Spotify and Android to work together on that
30% is insane. If apple and google want a monopoly on app stores we need to regulate them. Same with steam and its 30% cut. That's to much for access to a digital storefront.
Steam, Nintendo, PS and XBox make sense... They are building the platforms to make sure your games run well. With phones we already pay monthly fees to carriers and pay thousands for our phones... It's triple dipping to also harass businesses. They abuse laws meant to protect small businesses, to kill small businesses.
If it makes you feel any worse, Amazon take 75% per audiobook sale for indie authors…
These apps are using API’s, hardware and software optimizations, and online services all being created and funded by Apple and Google. That stuff is not free, and costs an incredible amount for them to create and maintain. It’s not fair that app developers, many of which are massively profitable companies, get to use all of the work that Apple and Google do for free. They also have many programs to take a lower cut for smaller developers.
@@Heyspencerb I'm not sure you understand how much money they are making and how much 30% is. It has nothing to do with API's and development cost and everything to do with money and who has the monopoly control on the market.
Maybe also a vertical integration tax: instead of being able to make their own services cheaper on their own platforms, maybe they should pay an equivalent 30% tax (or a bit lower, to account for some actual costs) to level the playing field.
And don't allow one monopolistic company to agree to a lower price with the other monopolistic company that runs the platform.
This is like one of the top 5 best ads I've ever watched. Thanks Hank.
Funny. I just signed up to the Try Guys channel yesterday and even though it was the same price on my phone and my desktop, I intentionally went to the website on my computer to avoid the Apple cut.
The real reason why: Net Neutrality never got implemented/happened.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
If you subscribe to the New York Times or Wall Street Journal using their websites it is cheaper than on your phone, but if you ever want to cancel you will have to email their retention departments and persuade them that your reason for cancellation is justified, and even then they may just continue to charge you. If you subscribe on your phone, it costs more, but when you want to cancel you just tap the cancel button in settings and you're done.
That’s fair, though NYT racked up my subscription recently, and it looks like they’ve actually added in an option to just directly cancel online (which I know wasn’t there a year ago). Perhaps this is due to new regulations, but I’m not sure.
Also, their other option is to cancel with an online chat service. It’s definitely a tedious thing, but they’re also almost always willing to give you a much lower price if you say your reason for canceling is cost. When my cost went up, it went to $20 a month for just news access, which is ridiculous and just not practically affordable for me. That said, it took less than 5 minutes chatting with someone online to lower it to $6 a month for all-access for the next year.
Regardless, I’m definitely not arguing that the convenience and lack of canceling hassle isn’t legit for the mobile buying option. Just saying that, at least with NYT, it looks like canceling is getting easier & also there are benefits to talking to the retention team if you actually like the subscription but it’s just too expensive.
Sounds to me like a class-action waiting to happen, they gotta be changing that.
I'm fairly sure NYT have changed this. 4 years ago I could only cancel by calling during US business hours (from Australia!!) which would be super illegal in Australia - if you can subscribe online, you need to be able to cancel online. Made the phone call, got my subscription dropped back to $4/month for a year.
But these days I can definitely just cancel (or threaten to cancel and get a cheaper deal) online. I've never had the app 🤷♀️
I get my news absolutely free. Never pay for news 😂
HANK, congrats on getting your show up on Dropout! Such a cool partnership! I AM LOVING YOUR MEDIUM-FORM INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM & CONSUMER PROTECTION CONTENT.
I've been a subscriber to Dropout for a little while now, and it's great! I'm glad your comedy special is coming to it, and I look forward to this!
Any chance you know if it's fully accessible? To be clear, (AT THE LEAST) captioned for us Deafies, audio descriptions for Blind folk? I mean.... I doubt Hank would participate in and/or support/advertise an app/company that isn't accessible.... but ... people usually don't talk about how important accessibility is unless they (or someone in their life on a daily basis) needs it, too.
@@Gimpygladiator I haven't checked everything, but the shows I watch do have subtitles. You have to turn them on (button in bottom right corner of player), and there may well be stuff that isn't captioned.
@@Gimpygladiatormost (if not all) of the stuff has closed captions! the cc are usually very good too :)
That is CRAZY. I just unsubscribed to Dropout from the app and will switch to doing it on my computer after it ends!! Thank you for the great info
0:20 busta rhymes out here lol
1:22 HOLY CRAP I CAMEO IN A HANK GREEN VIDEO
Omg youre famous! /genuine
In Australia, credit card transaction fees are capped to not be more than it reasonably costs to process the transaction, which is usually only a few cents. I feel like the same rules should apply here too. It does _not_ cost 30% of a payment to process said payment!
Thanks Hank! I just saved $90/ year. I had no idea I was paying more just for purchasing it on my phone.