I purchased the first (pretty sure) lifetime PlexPass back in 2013. Plex was a revelation for home media streamers. Handbrake went from one of my most used apps to the trash bin. It wasn’t open source but they were friendly enough to us. But I remember a disclaimer when purchasing the pass all those years ago. There was some disclaimer that the Pass would give access to all features, but not if Plex started streaming a show of their own with some reference to GoT which was beyond huge at the time. I knew right then what Plex’s long-term business plans were, and I wasn’t ultimately part of it.
So. Fast-forward to 2025. They have a fairly robust streaming catalog now. Suddenly, remote streaming, which was once the prime feature of Plex, is now a premium feature. A premium feature that has subsequently been made much harder to access with the new interface and even buggier to stream. With a lot of users who aren’t even direct Plex server owners, they have a large userbase. I would guess the majority of Plex users aren’t direct server owners/admins, but friends with a share. If/when our content goes away, the channel is still there with the content they now get paid for.
Now I have no inside knowledge of Plex, but this is a pretty obvious business decision here. We have multiple, nearly simultaneous changes that seek to significantly cut down the number of personal media users for their own ad-supported (or rental) content. So the OG users who helped build their business into what it is are now being pushed to the side. The thing is, there are no shortage of other services doing exactly what Plex is trying to pivot into. I would like to say that, in the end, that was some of the best $75 I’ve ever spent. Plex has been a central part of our home entertainment and I’m sad to see it going the way it is. The music stuff was just starting to get decent (tho Subsonic forks are still better for music imo). Next thing I’m doing after I hit send is bringing up Jellyfin in docker. At the very least it’ll let me shuffle again.
Honestly… what server owner doesn’t have a Plex pass if they share with other people? You need it for hardware transcoding anyway. And if the server owner has a Plex Pass, then none of the users that are streaming remotely need to pay for their own Plex Pass.
While there’s a lot I don’t like about the way things are going, this particular item doesn’t bother me.
Now, the New Experience app and its UI changes, that’s a whole different subject…
If every server owner had a PlexPass that shares with others, they wouldn’t be making the change. It’s all part of the same trajectory the company is heading down. They want to be a streaming competitor. Helping us stream our own content is no longer the company focus.
You can tell by the new store front pictures the very last picture is about your own media. All recent reviews are 1 star absolute garbage. Dalmus what are you guys transcoding pretty much new devices since like 2017 have support for everything. I personally turn off transcoding only have direct play all my server users have devices that support all the formats
None of my plex home users will ever watch plex’s home grown slop. We will switch to jellyfin before that ever happens.
The corporate team needs to get a grip. Good luck at the next board meeting explaining this to Kleiner and Intercap, LMAO
