except for the pedestrian crossing morphing into the lane and the horrible airbrushing of everything, and straightening the tires so it doesn’t look like it’s turning properly

ah yes, LIUCONN, a famous bus maker dthat exists.

personally, I’m wary of totally-not-Russian companies operating from Cyprus.

https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls#mobile-os

blocks all ads device-wide for free. the “base” profile should be good enough for most people. note: while this is provided by Mullvad, a trusted VPN company, the solution above is NOT a VPN.

I don’t even think AI was involved, probably compression + someone increasing contrast before uploading it to their Instagram @funnymemeslol page to make it POP

but it doesn’t POP on the social media feed you have to make it POP

Canadian winter.

remove all the screens and the charging port and I’m sold.

wow (send)

you’re definitely not my coworker (send)

who’s unable to complete (send)

a single sentence (send)

in our group chat (send)

without breaking it into ten to twenty (send)

messages (send)

I used to have an app installed that let me set up rules for notifications, so that whenever a notification with their name in the header would arrive, it would mute the conversation for the next 5 minutes, because otherwise my watch would vibrate for a minute or two straight.

ligns

that’s a fascinating typo.

It might shock you, but content on YouTube gets paid

similar fraction of pennies as in Spotify’s case, and often the people who receive the money aren’t the people behind the content, especially when it comes to older or less popular music, because it’s been uploaded by some random guy 14 years ago.

you are basically saying what? Listen for free, middle finger to authors, and buy merchandise? As opposite to listen legally, authors get something and buy merchandise?

no, my good guy, I say middle finger to Spotify and their warmongering, slop-embracing, Joe-Rogan-loving business, and spend money in a way that skips at least one middle man which hopefully results in the artist getting a bigger cut, and in you actually owning something even when the company you’ve bought from goes down, rather than renting it.

But hey, I’m glad that you speak for authors.

right back atcha!

okay so this next bit might shock you, but there’s already a HUGE amount of music available on Youtube for everyone to search through and listen to with just a few click. and in addition to that, there’s the Soulseek network, countless torrent trackers – both public and private – that let you download entire discographies, as well as Youtube download tools, websites and tools that let you rip music from streaming services. and all of those are free! more than that, they have been around for years! and before that, people would download songs from Limewire or Kazaa or Napster, tape songs from radio, or buy bootleg albums. and somehow, there’s still people buying music and T-shirts from their favourite bands, and paying to attend their concerts. absolutely bonkers.

a few years ago, back when I was still using Spotify, I checked my Wrapped and apparently I was using Spotify more than 99.5% of users in my country, and when it came to my most listened artist, I was in top 0.05% listeners worldwide. doing some back-of-the-napkin math with the data I got online about Spotify’s payouts, it turned out the money the artist got during that year from me amounted to less than just a bit over a dollar.

if you’re really concerned about supporting artists, use the money you’d pay for your music streaming subscription and buy their album or a piece of merch every two months.