By Beauty Damned

Cheapskates

I cannot deal with stupid people. But even worse than that, I can't deal with CHEAP, stupid people. I am not a rich person. I work for a living. But no one could ever accuse me of being cheap. It's just not in my character. I have friends who don't like to tip waitstaff because they feel they've already paid enough for their food or drinks & that they shouldn't have to pay a tip too. Friends who take out the calculator during a lunchdate. These people aren't broke. They're not even remotely poor. They're just fucking cheap.

This girl at my work just came up to me and asked me if I'm still using Launchcast. I said yes. I love it. Listen to it almost every day.

She said she has recently been trying to play hers and it tells her she has exceeded her free usage for the month. I said "that's weird, if that started happening to me, I would just start ordering the premium service for $2.99 per month or $36.00 per year or whatever it is." (Super cheap considering the value of the service in my mind). She sneared and said "you would PAY for it? Why not just bring cds to work and listen to them?" I said "and what, DJ all day? No way. First of all, a lot of the music I get to hear on launchcast isn't even in my music collection and it would cost roughly $12-$15 PER CD if I was to buy ones that I get to hear on my station. Second, it's an awesome service that I love and $36 per year is NOTHING. A pittance for the joy that it brings into my life. Especially considering that for the premium service, there are no commercials and you have endless additional control over what plays on your station and when. You can't beat that with a stick. Especially for $36.

She continued to snear. She said "Right! Pay $36 per year and then what if I leave this job and then I've paid just so someone else can use it???" (This is where the stupidity comes in) I said "what on earth do you mean? It's YOUR service? You take it with you wherever you go. If you leave your job, your account still exists and how is someone going to use it on your computer after you leave? You have to login. It's yours. No one else can just take over your launchcast without your password!" She said "Well it's saved in my cookies!"

OKAY. First of all it's saved in your favorites. Delete all your favorites when you leave this job, and you don't have to worry about it. If you are really so paranoid that someone is going to search your hard drive for temporary internet files and highjack your launchcast station after you leave, you need to seek psychological help.

Then she tells me some things should just be free and that it's not fair to have to pay for it. I don't know where this fucking sense of entitlement comes from in Americans. She says "well the radio is free." And I say "yes and when you listen to the radio you have to hear all the music they play over and over that you don't want to hear and you have to listen to endless blocks of commercials. Not so with launch. Not only do you get to customize your genres and specific music preferences, but you also do not have to listen to commercials. Even with the free launch service, they play a commercial maybe once or twice per hour and it never runs over one minute."

She continues to insist that it should be free. Which it IS! I listen to my free launchcast station all the time. I've been using this service for more than a year and have never paid a single cent. I have derived endless hours of bliss, contentment, delight, surprise, elation, exuberance, glee, hilarity, jubilation and general entertainment from my launchcast service. I'm not about to give it up. Even if, HEAVEN FORBID!, I have to pay a few bucks a year.

Posted by Maria at April 9, 2004 12:45 PM