Kleiner Perkins invested heavily in them and are likely pulling the strings.
I’m reminded of the tv series Silicon Valley.
Pied Piper has been screwed with so many times both by the investors, and by the original team going with, or fighting against, the investors, they never seem to keep their original ideas going at each turn.
Pied Piper is still up in the air as to what happens next.
Many fans are disheartened about the original heroes, hoping for the best, but, expecting the worst.
Again, sounds familiar.
Mike Judge is a world-trend matching show creative genius.
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I posted this elsewhere but found it interesting and seemed to fit with the contents of this post. According to the link Plex revenue is estimated at over $630,000.
I’m not sure if that’s right, it’s only about 12,000 yearly subscribers (not including previous year lifetime subs) and their twitter following alone is +70k. Depends on their conversion rate to plex pass I guess…
edit: After seeing those numbers, it makes sense that they’re trying to bring in additional revenue. Any decline in subs is going to be dangerous for them. For instance, a 2% decrease in subs (those who use plugins) means losing $12,000 a year. (that’s just an example, I don’t think everyone who used plugins is going to ditch plex).
Then a portion of that $630,000 is also lifetime subs, money they won’t get again next year.
Really, unless they start offering other products/partnering with other companies I don’t think plex is all that financially viable (as a large scale enterprise).
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@adamstewiegreen - That is interesting to know. Thanks for the find.
However, I sort of feel like they took the wrong strategy and are turning a solid product worth paying for into a product that is less appealing.
Plex is starting to have the early feel of those apps that get feature bloat and then replaced by an upstart who provides a more focused solution. Plex needs to focus on the idea of the personal media library and how to make that more usable. If it doesn’t fall into that bucket then it’s probably unnecessary clutter.
I would much rather have the existing shortcomings fixed like a way to manage multiple cuts of a movie or TV series extra content, than having web based content like news feeds and podcasts which generally have better apps already in place. How about getting the TV grid guide on all that apps instead of just the Apple TV?
They do. They keep telling us they do.
Every latest greatest feature like web shows, news, podcasts, Tidal and so on… is well, just a figment of your imagination.
Kick ass in Emby.
[quote="JamminR, post:147, topic:313019, full:true"]
I'm reminded of the tv series Silicon Valley.
Pied Piper has been screwed with so many times both by the investors, and by the original team going with, or fighting against, the investors, they never seem to keep their original ideas going at each turn.
Pied Piper is still up in the air as to what happens next.
[/quote]
The Pied Piper analogy was being discussed in my house last night regarding the Plex/Roku debacle thats been unfolding:-)I wouldn’t call Emby an upstart but you did just describe them to an extent and they have already fixed those short coming in their latest beta about to go public. They have been on a roll with things like this as well as more complex things like Closed Captioning that works globally. Things that Plex’s streaming brain still has issues with even after deep analysis are taken care of properly in Emby without the need for deep analysis or the CPU power and network bandwidth it sucks up having to read the whole file.
Emby isn’t afraid to rip things apart and rewrite the code to fix issues or add features properly and hasn’t resorted to “band-aid” code that works in one release then gets broke in the next release as we often see here.
Emby just did this in fact with the current beta to improve performance. They gutted many sections of code and especially database related and rewrote many things over again for performance, speed and to strengthen the foundation for future builds and features. They also redid many API end-points as well to combine data in a single call vs multiple calls which makes it easier for plugins as well as base code.
After finding an estimate of their yearly revenue I wondered how they got an investment for $10 million based on their revenue when the whole company isn’t worth that. I’ve come to the conclusion that they likely used “sunken cost” arguments (i.e. lifetime/yearly members won’t leave easily) to insist they have a captive audience to push content to. So they sold equity for their subscriber base.
In other words, the investors aren’t screwing with the original concept, this direction has been plex’s goal for a long time and it’s the direction they sold the investors on.
I posted this article almost 2 years ago: Fast Company profile
it’s been a long time coming.
I remember that article. I remember thinking what a bad idea/path they are about to go down.
“The next step for Plex is to begin to serve up content directly, starting with aggregated news from WatchUp. By adding a news section to Plex, Valory says the company will be responding to another longstanding user request.”
Must have been “users” who worked for Plex because there wasn’t any long requested things of this nature in the forums that users requested in any kind of numbers worth noting.
“All of the stuff we’re talking about is five to seven years’ worth of work, and if we do a great job, we’ll build a big, massive company out of it,” says Valory. “But we realize it’s a huge undertaking, and it’s going to take time.”
“In the long run, this is kind of a bet-the-company kind of move,”
“We are a media player app. That’s kind of what we do, and I think people come to us to get content. So we will have a lot of content, starting with news, and then other content you’ll get through Plex,” Valory says. “Deep linking and giving people the ability to send off to other platforms is part of that, but it’s a spectrum.”
Lots of grand thoughts but have they ever stopped and asked if users really want this type of thing as a bundle with their media server? Are the services they are producing like News, Web Shows, PodCasts, VR, Tidal better then what people already use?
Users choose Plex because it was the best local media server at the time. It allowed users to create their own “Netflix” at home and control the media. If users wanted news they had apps for this that were already quite good like haystack that had/has better content as well. It has apps on most devices. Same with Podcasts as there are really good apps that do nothing but podcasts (audio and video) as well as have many more features. Web Shows, not sure what to say except Youtube has this covered in aces and then a lot more. Tidal is itself problematic and has been having many of its own issues trying to fit into the the Music app business and compete with Amazon, Apple, Google, or the ubiquitous apps such as Pandora and iHeartRadio.
The problem with these service in Plex is they aren’t nearly as feature rich as the competition who does nothing but these services nor have the quality of content that is needed to compete and earn revenue from these types of services.
Having a push lawnmower doesn’t make you a landscape contractor with the ability to compete or earn decent $ from it any more then Plex having News, Podcasts, Web Shows or Music that piggy backs off other services that users already have better access to. These services just aren’t very well thought out in service or deployment (as we’ve been seeing) and just messes up the Plex user experience that users do want.
While I’m sure Plex still loves this idea they are blowing it in more ways then they know and it’s already having a negative effect on their tried and true products.
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Well that certainly explains a lot. They’re so blindly wedded to this idea that they don’t care what existing users think. In the long run, they want Apple and Amazon money are willing to sacrifice their existing userbase and to do it.
I think most of us know they’re going tp fail, and it’s kind of heartbreaking that they’re willing to destroy a unique and once-great product on this fool’s errand in the process.
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Oh god, this last paragraph is hilarious:
There is a deep passion in what we’re doing,” Valory says. “You go look at the Twitter feeds, and go look at our forums, the level of passion and love in our community, it’s just unrivaled. There are not a lot of companies that have this really strong, strong community. That is borne out of the fact that the guys who built this community are members of this community. They built this for themselves and really care about doing it right.”
sadtrombone.wav
I can’t say for sure, but everything in that article screams, “We’re trying to be an attractive target for acquisition”.
I’m getting waaaay into speculation here, but I’ve been wondering if one of the advantages of removing plugins is that Plex could now negotiate with broadcast companies about integrating their on-demand video into Plex, like Tidal is now integrated. I don’t think networks would be all that excited to negotiate with a company that was offering “unofficial” access to their shows via third-party plugins.
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“We are a media player app. That’s kind of what we do, and I think people come to us to get content. So we will have a lot of content, starting with news, and then other content you’ll get through Plex,” Valory says. “Deep linking and giving people the ability to send off to other platforms is part of that, but it’s a spectrum.
Plex also still has the media server to lean on, and Valory stresses that it’s not going away."
^^^
That to me is the lack of understanding on what they are. They get it right they are a media player app but NO ONE comes to THEM for content.
The users provide their own content and other users/ninjas provide a means of getting additional content via channels/plugins.
Even back then they saw themselves as some type of Netflix or other big provider who was going to click it’s heals together a few times and come up with content worth purchasing. News, Podcasts, Web Shows AREN’T this. TIDAL is full of issues and isn’t going to be any type of salvation nor will it be popular as it’s priced way to high and can’t be shared on the server.
Don’t know what they were thinking but a MUSIC ONLY service that costs more per month then Amazon (video, music, 2 day shipping) or Netflix is ridiculous especially when these big boys give you a few users per account. They are selling to the “family” not the individual unlike Tidal/Plex.
“Plex also still has the media server to lean on” is pretty telling of the mentality even back then. Their “bread and butter” product was seen as something to “lean on” to build out their mother ship of content which years later is mediocre/low end content at best.
IMHO they are quickly squandering the good will they took years to build an are going after the wrong types of content for their platform to earn monthly revenue.
They should have been building out services similar to HD’s Premium TV (iptv) and partnering with companies similar to Philo, CuriosityStream, Pluto TV, Tubi TV.
Premium TV or Philo type iptv service is a perfect compliment to OTA antenna and Plex DVR especially if you could also integrate Pluto TV into the mix. Add in a service like Tubi TV and you have ready to view archive content as well. These are the types of services that people want right now and could provide monthly profits without taking away from the local media we have all built over the years. With something like Tubi TV anyone could start their own Plex server with thousands of media videos, Imagine being able to integrate Tubi TV content right into your own library (not as a separate service). Same with integrating Philo, Premium TV, Pluto TV right into your Guide/EPG and being able to record/watch content. These are all INSTANT content solutions people would be willing to pay for with the CORRECT implementation. This would be especially attractive to new users and not just existing Plex systems.
The trick IMHO is to take 3rd party content and mix it right into existing content to make the local content look much bigger with full admin control and parental restrictions. There are many other low cost/free services similar to the above that could be a good match to Plex and make for profitable endeavor for both Plex and the 3rd party as well as help make the users system seam well integrated and larger then life. IE instant large system similar to Netflix out of the box and able to be mixed with your own content and recordings.
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Um. You’d be surprised how many people think we are like Netflix and do want content.
But the problem is that you’re not Netflix. And to try to rebrand Plex as a content provider (and not even a top-tier one at that) at this stage is madness. You’re not going to attract new users and you’re going to alienate the ones you have. And that will be the end of a great product. I’m not sure who is driving this bus (investors or management), but I’ve seen this scenario before and you’re about to drive off a cliff.
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The content like I’ve mentioned or the content as currently provided?
Big difference in those types of content and $ abilities as well.
One thing I will say is that in reading the forums and in talking to all the admins I talk to routinely they aren’t asking for the types of content currently being provided.
AND if people are asking for content then removing plugins that provide most of the content people currently want isn’t a smart idea based on that premise alone.
This ^^^ is already happening by many recent decisions.
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I thought we would be mostly using PLEX for my movie library but in a very short time I found that my wife loved channels. You heard the saying - happy wife - happy life. Well she ain’t happy any more. It allowed her the ability to catch up on shows she missed.
I need recommendations on what media server to switch to that has channels capability. thanks
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Who? They certainly aren’t on this forum. Is there another place that Plex communicates with its users? Was there a focus group at a shopping mall or something?
@cayars
I agree with a lot of what you’re saying but my problem with including services like Pluto are the non-stop freaking ads! Wall to wall ads (and all the “reality” tv) is what drove me to cutting the cord and building out my media server. Pluto has too many ads. Too many of the SAME ads and way to frequently. I eventually uninstalled it from all my devices due to the ads.
If Plex ever gets bought out, their only selling point will be the number of installed clients they have to offer. Not so much the people with media servers, streaming their own content where and when they want… but the Plex -CLIENTS- installed on alllllllllllllllllll those Rokus, Apple TVs, Android boxes, phones, etc., etc., etc. As Plex starts to get away from people serving up their own media, they (and investor) are eyeing up all those devices running the client piece. So the clients can be served up ads from THEM and their corporate overlords and force into monthly subscriptions.
To big execs, their tunnel vision will only let them see us as fish in a barrel just waiting to get shot. They think we’re a captive audience that is just waiting for some big fancy media company to bombard us with ads.
What Plex leadership doesn’t understand though is, once I tell all my 30+ friends, that pull media from me, that I’ve switched over to Emby… and if they want to continue accessing my server, they’ll need to use a new client, watch the installed Plex client counts start dropping like a boat anchor into the ocean depths.
My media server is the only reason my friends have the Plex client installed on their devices. After they hear I’ve moved over to Emby, if they want to keep streaming from me, they’ll simply uninstall the Plex client and happily install Emby.
Killing off plugins, forcing horrible interfaces on us, pushing pod casts, web shows… NONE OF US WANT TO SEE THAT! Non-stop Android app problems, perpetually broken Android sync… there are tons of issues that remain unfixed. I’m afraid all this is adding up to the demise of a once great, PERSONAL media streaming product.
But hey, gotta chase those dollar dollar bills yo!
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