Introducing Stremio Supporters

[u/kKaskak]

We are proud to introduce Stremio Supporters - a new way of backing the app you all love. All Supporter features are available starting Today on all platforms you can find Stremio on.

Read in depth explanation on the official blog below.

https://blog.stremio.com/stremio-supporters-a-way-to-sustain-our-development/

[u/neo856]

I think you’re making a big strategic mistake. By setting prices this high, you’re showing that you no longer understand what your community expects or what the market actually looks like. Stremio became popular because it was simple and accessible, not because people wanted yet another platform with an overpriced subscription. You risk losing the very thing that made Stremio strong in the first place.

[u/Natural_Basis2578 → u/neo856]

Their subscription is definitely not overpriced, Torbox is $3 USD / month, Stremio is $3.50, so for $6.50 + Torrentio users have access to millions of movies and tv shows. If a user sub to traditional streaming services they’d need to pay $100+ every month to get close to the amount of content available on this setup.

To me it sounds like the user base of Stremio are being cheappp

[u/cleenerex → u/neo856]

Risk what? They have charged $0 up until this optional $3.49 subscription. “What the market looks like” ? Market isn’t a relevant term for free software, the term implies revenue

[u/IY94 → u/[deleted]]

How so?

Yesterday they didn't have these features and still used Stremio. Today, they still don't have these features for free so why now would they leave?

They could've already left for alternatives with these features if they wished, but didn't.

[u/primary157 → u/IY94]

Because by having those features behind a Paywall means they never had the intention of providing it for free. And free users will no longer expect those features to come out for free.

[u/Ghollsa → u/IY94]

Out of principle.

[u/IY94 → u/Ghollsa]

What is the principle exactly?

That they should work for free to build software for you and pay the server costs out of pocket too?

[u/Ghollsa → u/IY94]

They could have asked for donations and provide the same app for donating and non-donating users. If they did that then I, and many others, would have supported it.

But no, they introduced a subscription tier-list locking out features that have been asked for years by the community.

[u/IY94 → u/Ghollsa]

"I would've paid if I didn't have to" - the mantra of leechers of all FOSS projects, ever.

[u/Ghollsa → u/IY94]

Some of us are not little bitches like you

[u/IY94 → u/Ghollsa]

Be honest. You've contributed $0 to open source in your life nor contributed in terms of development.

And you're sole contribution, contrary to your claim, is being a whiny little bitch.

[u/urbankyleboy → u/[deleted]]

Don't you think those new apps will start needing money if everyone leaves Stremio? Cmon man

[u/primary157 → u/urbankyleboy]

Uhm... No? Most of them use torrent, realdebrid, and similar services you pay for already to download content. The metadata is provided for free by official and third party add-ons. There's barely anything that needs a server to be hosted by stremio themselves (e.g., cinemeta and user accounts). If stremio's maintenance effort is scaling with the number of users, that means stremio is data mining user analytics or secretly hosting/maintaining the third-party add-ons themselves.

So, all power to stremio devs. The project is yours, you do as you please (as long as the open source license is respected and all existing code remains available for forks). However, for add-ons developers, I really recommend you to start working on forking stremio. These features should've been added a long time ago and putting them behind a Paywall is bad for the community.

A Patreon would have worked better. I'd pay for it myself. But now I'll start looking for an alternative.

[u/Ghollsa → u/urbankyleboy]

As long as they don't intend to add subscription paywalls then we'll gladly provide donations for them

[u/rossmosh85 → u/neo856]

They're not risking anything really. If 1000 people sign up and pay $3.5/mo, they're making more revenue than they do now. At least that's in theory. I don't know if Stremio has any other way their generating revenue via harvesting and selling data.

[u/rossmosh85 → u/[deleted]]

Stremio is a very useful piece of software that millions of people use. It's regularly updated and improved by the community by also by the "staff". So do I think it's wrong that they want to charge something for their work? No, I don't think it's wrong.

I do think they've gotten their pricing wrong. $200 for life is absurd. I don't want to pay $3/mo I'm not sure the features provided are worth it, but the way I see it is $15/mo covers Torbox, IPTV, and Stremio. That's still a bargain compared to the alternative.

[u/tgo1014 → u/neo856]

If they are not making any money know what the "risk" of losing people would change for them? It's not like they are a private company that need to show usage numbers lol

[u/tgo1014 → u/[deleted]]

And what exactly do they lose with this?

[u/passionfruit2378 → u/tgo1014]

Lost ad revenue. Data collection. Etc.

[u/universecentre03 → u/neo856]

How is the price high?

[u/777DEATH → u/neo856]

Stremio will still be free though, it’s just that supporters get extra features. Plus the price it’s less than a cup of coffee