I still have a job. I survived layoffs... for now. My workload has increased, but all is well, and I'm thankful for that.

Hoping for the best for you. Take care!

No doubt. I agree. I try to stay out of things for that reason, but this was big news for a couple years and is still going on. As a gamer, it was unavoidable. The number of reports coming out of that company is concerning. But I do try to separate art from the artist when I can.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Department_of_Fair_Employment_and_Housing_v._Activision_Blizzard

Basically Activation and Blizzard with their sexual misconduct, harassment, and otherwise. Their CEO defending it. The allegations of toxic work environments, etc. It's just not a company I support, despite the fact that I was a huge fan of their games. There's a lot more information out there, but I don't feel like going through it all. I'll remove my post if you want.

Maybe I'm just being salty? I don't think so though.

Edit: Sorry Chris, if I am out of line or didn't provide enough info in my original post.

Fuck Blizzard

Did they completely blow him off or something? Hard to know what's really going on in a still image. That image does make me feel a little sad though.

I grew up poor(ish), have been close to homelessness in my life more than once. So I'm not stranger to going without. Fortunately for me I can afford price hikes like this without even taking notice. I feel I am privileged. It doesn't make me any less angry though. I don't mind the price hikes on services due to inflation, but those same companies will lay you off and refuse pay raises. Last company I worked for told me I was lucky to get anything at all. But they increased their prices, didn't suffer a single loss, and they still used it as an excuse to fuck their employees, and their customers. At the end of the day they made more because of it, not less. I don't care about pay raises for myself, but the people under me absolutely deserve more.

They'll keep jacking up their prices, because of inflation, but they won't pay their employees to match, nobody will. They'll make more, we'll make less, and we'll pay more for services we use, further increasing their profits.

No doubt. What gets me is something another person pointed out. You can get almost any premium streaming service for around that price that offers a lot more content than a single music streaming service.

They'll probably be the next to jack up their prices though.

I pay a lot for youtube ad free, but at least I get more than just music with that. For a little more than what I'm paying for that you could subscribe to more than a few movie streaming services.

I'm paying $20/month for Disney+/Hulu/ESPN ad free for my entire family. I'm paying about that for youtube family plan.

My yearly wage increase sure as shit isn't coming close to matching inflation, but that won't stop companies from extracting more and more money from me while paying their employees less because "the state of the economy"... And then they make as much or more while we make less, and pay more.

Oof, figures. I guess everybody is going to jump on this train. Like they have the mentality of my HS teachers... It's not that much... Sure 8 other teachers also assigned me "not that much", and now it's very much much. A double positively you're getting fucked.

This price increase sucks though.

Yes it does :\ Lucky for us it doesn't seem to affect the family package. They raised the price on that last year.

Here's hoping they don't raise the price of that plan too.

You probably can, but I'm lazy ;) I like it. Got the family one so everybody in my house can use it. We listen to a LOT of music on youtube music in my house, and a few of the others like watching cooking shows and silly junk on youtube. There's some pretty decent content. You can get by with ad blockers and stuff, but since I use the music app in my car and at work I prefer not to deal with all that.

For most people, there's probably not much reason to pay for it.

Edit: Not happy with the constant price hikes though. It seems like the bump the price by a little every year or two.