Plex, the free streaming app, laid off approximately 20% of its staff, TechCrunch has learned, which will affect all departments, including the Personal Media teams.
“This is by far the hardest decision we’ve had to make at Plex,” CEO Keith Valory said in a statement. “These are all wonderful people, great colleagues, and good friends. But we believe it is the right thing for the long-term health and stability of Plex.”
The streaming app gives users a single destination to upload and organize content (video, audio and photos) from their own server while also allowing them to stream it via mobile app, smart TV or desktop.
In recent years, however, Plex has invested in free, ad-supported streaming (FAST) and live TV offerings. The FAST market has become saturated as many companies have entered the space. Plus, the overall advertising industry has taken a hit, making it harder for companies to earn enough revenue.
Valory noted in his statement that the company was significantly impacted by the slowdown. “While we adjusted our business plan last year after the shift in equity markets to get us back on a path to profitability without having to cut personnel expenses, the downturn in the ad market in Q2 put significantly more pressure on our business and ultimately it became clear that we would need to take additional measures in order to maintain a confident path to profitability within the next 18 months,” he said.
He added that the company is still expected to see 30% growth this year.
According to a Slack message from Valory, obtained by The Verge, which first reported the layoffs, Valory noted that 37 employees would be impacted.
Additionally, it seems that Plex may have had another round of layoffs earlier this year. Five months ago, a former account executive posted on LinkedIn that they were “affected by company layoffs.”
As of January, the company had 175 employees, and its revenue was in the double-digit millions.
Updated 6/29/23 at 12:10 p.m. ET with a statement from CEO.
Or we could all switch to an Open Source alternative, Jellyfin, and either donate what you’d normally pay Plex or just enjoy it for free. I’ve never used Plex and started with Jellyfin. It’s gotten the job done thus far
It’s the app ecosystem for plex that keeps me there. There’s an app for my LG tv, an app for my in-laws’ Roku etc.
Yes you’re right, Jellyfin isn’t on many platforms but I’m pretty sure they have an app for LG and Roku (Clients here). Although the LG app isn’t the best from what I remember. What I usually do is use an Amazon fire stick with Tailscale for my family and it’s been working well. But also as popularity increases others will be able to contribute more and the apps will become better.
I use the Roku app every day. It’s very good.
Agreed. If Jellyfin has any desire to become the market leader and a legit alternative for home media streaming, an already narrow niche, they need to refine this piece of the end user experience.
And I’m not saying Jellyfin wants to do this. They’ve definitely found their hardcore enthusiast crowd.
Its the only reason I am still using Plex, I don’t know if we will ever get Jellyfin on even half the devices that Plex is on. : (
Yes you’re right, Jellyfin isn’t on many platforms but I’m pretty sure they have an app for LG and Roku (Clients here). Although the LG app isn’t the best from what I remember. What I usually do is use an Amazon fire stick with Tailscale for my family and it’s been working well. But also as popularity increases others will be able to contribute more and the apps will become better.
If jellyfin could record and playback OTA TV on my Apple TV I’d switch tomorrow, but it seems the team is either unable to or unwilling to work on that feature which is core to how my household uses Plex. The only maybe solution is Infuse which is paid and closed source so is no better really than using Plex in that regard.
Like most things in the world, your use case is not the only use case and as such a solution that checks all the boxes for you will not check all the boxes for everyone.
I’ve never paid plex but just seals the deal. They obviously can’t be trusted to handle the money I give them properly. I wish Jellyfin was a litte more fullybaked though. The app for appletv is really bad
Edit:
Due to some maximally pedantic comments from @SaltySalamander@lemmy.fmhy.ml , I should clear something up. I’ve never paid plex. I can’t trust them to handle the money I give them hypothetically. This doesn’t mean that i’ve both not given them money and given them money. This means that in the case in which I did give them money, I wouldn’t trust them to handle it properly, given the rounds of layoffs happening there
You should try out Infuse. It’s $10/year and I’ve been loving it. Better than any other app I’ve tried and at under $1 a month worth it for me.
Maybe I’ll give it a try. Happen to know if it supports dual subtitles so I can watch foreign films with my gf who doesn’t speak english?
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It seems like in the last few years the company’s focus has primarily been on adding things to Plex that I do not want as part of Plex. And not adding the audiobook support that I do want.
Look up audiobookshelf if you’re willing to mess with docker a bit and forward a port or two. It’s open source and does a, wonderful job.
There was a webtools addon that could add this. I think it’s still out there but I forget the name. I know plugins were disabled, but this did still and does still work for me.
I have tried the plugins, they just don’t work as well as smart audiobook player.
I have a huge audiobook library, I was fully prepared to do all the processes to move and organize my mess of a library to get it working with Plex. I’m sure you’ve seen the GitHub guide floating around.
But when it came time to sit down and configure my server for audiobooks, ebooks, tv, movies, and music, I found that audiobookshelf just did a way better job with less of a headache. My current stack is Beet.io with audible support to move my already downloaded library into a better folder and naming structure. Once I get those all finished I won’t have to use this step. This gets stuff about ~80% of the way there except when the source is really messed up.
From there I have Readarr looking at the Beets destination folder and managing downloads. This is pretty good for getting most of the rest of the info with some clean up and is similar to setting up other Arrs. Then audiobookshelf for final tweaks and browsing/downloading.
It’s quite a pain to ingest an initial large library but for new downloads it’s been pretty seamless. Way easier and more consistent than having to do most of this anyway plus fight with Plex. I do still want them to add support, though.
The audiobookshelf app is pretty good for browsing and downloading but I think the player is way worse than Smart Audiobook Player. But what I do is just use the audiobookshelf app to download the books to Smart’s library folder and then use the best player app for listening.
Thanks! I’ll check out audiobookshelf.
Look up audiobookshelf if you’re willing to mess with docker a bit and forward a port or two. It’s open source and does a wonderful job.
I used Plex for years, and it is the superior product (if you pay) compared to Open Source alternatives. However, after seeing Plex’s recent incentive pivots and looking for investors I jumped shipped to Jellyfin. The thermometor of enshittification is indicating that Plex is on its way out.
Folks who haven’t looked at alternatives yet, do so now.
Literally the only two things keeping me from jumping ship are the multi-user support and Plexamp.
Jellyfin has support for mutliple users
I’m a lifetime Plex pass subscriber and I’ve also used Kodi and Emby… as far as I can remember at the moment I’ve never really looked into Jellyfin tho… Does it support OTA DVR with a tuner card like Plex?
That’s my must have at this point.
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The last time I was having problems with Plex and authentication I installed emby alongside it
Emby was a hell of a lot more responsive, Plex seemed to be more compatible with, well everything.
I use live TV and DVR so I think I might miss that on jellyfin
Jellyfin does support live tv and recording
Well they also spent the past 10 years building 80% stuff we never wanted
Unfettered Capitalism breeds emshitification.
Why build and keep a great product when shareholders will always push for more growth and higher revenue. Even if that means laying off your best devs and pissing off users.
Shit. I’d have moved to Jellyfin already if they had an Apple TV client. If they go under I might have to get a 2nd set top box just to run JF.
They have “Swiftfin” but it’s had two updates in two years and it’s close to useless
I’ve been using Swiftfin on my Apple TV with zero problems. Its a lot more simple than Plex.
Good tip.
they have an app on apple tv thats been working well with unraid and a jellyfin docker
Wow, it’s almost like those free channels the put all over my Plex that nobody wants was was a bad investment. Still love Plex as a service but I find it hard to see any value in FAST.
Try Jellyfin. Much better
I use Apple TV, something about needing a third party proprietary app makes it seem cobbled together compared to Plex, especially with that app being freemium. Maybe someday they will have a dedicated app. Last time I looked (probably a year ago) they didn’t have a system for ratings to make a kids account, has that been added?
Well, on Apple TV you have Swiftfin, (which is 1st party) but as I don’t own Apple devices I can’t tell you.
I have swiftfin. I’ve made bug reports etc, they’re like “ok yeah maybe next year.” Literally two updates in 2 years
It’s an open source app made by a non profit group. If you want to get things fixed consider a bounty or donation. Open source developers tend to not have an interest in developing for such a closed ecosystem, especially considering it charges them to distribute their apps.
Yes absolutely agree. But with that said it’s still unusable for the foreseeable future.
Yeah I get that. It’s unfortunate how many tv ecosystems there are to support now.
I only still have a plex server running for audiobook support with the app Prologue. Everything else is happy in Jellyfin and and has been rock solid. Plex went way to corporate and it creeped me out.
Plex DMCA’d my private server a few months ago.
So I cancelled my Plex Pass and moved on to greener pastures.
They seem to be doing everything they can to get rid of their foundational userbase so they can attract… Ad supported free TV watchers?..
What morons are running the show in Silicon Valley?
Wait, what? What were you seeding?
Seriously, I’ve never heard of Plex giving a shit what you share on a private server. So much so that people sell access to their servers. Makes me wonder if our boy here was up to something more illegal than piracy. 💀
There are a ton of Plex servers that sell access to their libraries to make some money back. They’re generally called “Plex Shares” on the internet (and, while I don’t want to point people to Reddit I know that r/plexshares is a thing, for example).
So there are a lot of services that have all of their Plex servers point to one enormous library and then they sell access. It’s basically Netflix, but through Plex.
Plead has definitely been cracking down on this recently. Especially around last Christmas I was seeing servers banned every day. I assume this is what OP was doing, selling access to their server and Plex caught on. I know you mentioned selling access to servers but I’m guessing it depends on scale. Maybe OP Got big enough to be on Plex’s radar. One of the sites I use has thousands of users, 24/7 support, etc. It’s a whole business. I think this is what Plex has been trying to stop
Agreed… Absolutely insane if true
Copy/paste mostly from another reply I made:
I have a huge audiobook library, I was fully prepared to do all the processes to move and organize my mess of a library to get it working with Plex. I’m sure you’ve seen the GitHub guide floating around.
But when it came time to sit down and configure my server for audiobooks, ebooks, tv, movies, and music, I found that audiobookshelf just did a way better job with less of a headache. My current stack is Beet.io with audible support to move my already downloaded library into a better folder and naming structure. Once I get those all finished I won’t have to use this step. This gets stuff about ~80% of the way there except when the source is really messed up.
From there I have Readarr looking at the Beets destination folder and managing downloads. This is pretty good for getting most of the rest of the info with some clean up and is similar to setting up other Arrs. Then audiobookshelf for final tweaks and browsing/downloading.
It’s quite a pain to ingest an initial large library but for new downloads it’s been pretty seamless. Way easier and more consistent than having to do most of this anyway plus fight with Plex.
The audiobookshelf library is really great and can pull audiobook specific information from a lot of sources automatically. You can browse by series or narrator or genre too and if you listen through their app or through the browser it syncs your progress which is nice.
The audiobookshelf app is pretty good for browsing and downloading but I don’t like the player as much as my usual one. But you can just point the download at whatever folder your favorite player uses.
Since you’re already using Plex for audiobooks you can probably skip all these steps straight to audiobookshelf if your folder structure already matches
I’ve tried Audiobookshelf and it just wasnt for me. I hadn’t used Beet with it, but my issue was never really the organization part, more the playback part. I can’t remember exactly what features were lacking in ABS, but I do remember being disappointed in it. To the point where I spun up a dedicated plex server JUST for my audiobooks, and to since then, I’ve been incredibly happy with the UX.
I didn’t know that beets supports books. I used that tool like… honestly at least a decade ago to organize a giant music library I had, and it was a great tool. Thanks for sharing!
Also, I just wish Jellyfin supported audiobooks in the same manner that Plex does. Then I’d be back to one media server running.
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As of January, the company had 175 employees, and its revenue was in the double-digit millions.
And yet, it is not enough. Perhaps the lesson is to NOT take that VC money if you want your company to survive.
You’re probably confounding revenue with profit. I’m not sure about Plex in particular, but it’s completely possible to have millions in revenue and actually be in the red
The evil clone of XBMC is finally in its death throes (yes I’m still bitter about that). No worry, Jellyfin is better.
XBMC
Wow that takes me back lol
007 Nightfire softmod crew checking in. Kodi has been making the best htpc for more than a decade now. I love me some jellyfin, but I’ll probably always have a kodi box or two around the house.
Does XBMP ring any bells?
I think Kodi would be more akin to XMBC. What’s the relation with Plex?
Kodi IS XBMC. It’s the same team, XBMC changed their name to Kodi once it became unavoidably awkward that no one was running XBMC on actual Xboxes anymore. Plex started as a fork of XBMC but went down the proprietary route and shunned their FOSS roots.
As a long-time Jellyfin user, I’ve never really understood how Plex makes money providing a handful of additional features over the FOSS alternative.
Plex is available in a lot more app stores than Jellyfin or Emby is. I run a plex server for friends but I use emby for my personal consumption. The reason I continue to use plex is because it’s available on all sorts of smart TV’s and semi-obscure streaming devices that Jellyfin isn’t.
Why use jellyfin when you already have Plex set up?
Why the fuck is Plex even a company? Attention venture capitalists: Get your money grubbing fingers the fuck off decent technologies that should in no way be tied to profit-seeking. We live in a dystopian hellscape.
The problem is that it’s public. A private company could very well exist to sell to its users a good service. It being public means it’s beholden to the investor’s desire for constant growth.
The problem is that it’s public. A private company could very well exist to sell to its users a good service. It being public means it’s beholden to the investor’s desire for constant growth.
Plex is private though?
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30% growth after a 20% layoff huh?
Makes the growth 30% easier when it’s 20% less!
Well, it’s pretty unsurprising considering all companies are doing the same.
I’ve given a chance to Jellyfin but it’s really frustating how it simply refused to play video files without any descriptive error logs. I think it mostly doesn’t work properly on HEVC files (I think Edge is the only browser that properly supports x265) and my Android TV also doesn’t play the damn thing.
Also adding that video files from the same release (which assumed are the same encoder), they either work perfectly or just refuse to work :(
I do not pay for Plex but I considered in the past getting a lifetime sub x)
After having checked out Plex, Jellyfin and Emby I’ve decided the latter was still my favorite. Jellyfin just isn’t there yet, lack of built in image-scrubbers, intro-outro-detection and quality clients just makes it inconvenient for me. Plex’s external authentication makes it a no go for me.
Emby is the only one that’s focused on what it tries to achieve and delivers. Also the support team is super helpful and pushes out fixes in a pretty good time. Not FOSS though
HEVC files work fine in JF. I stream to a smart (android) TV, Shield and windows app. You need to have transcoding enabled though for smart tvs and browsers which isn’t really an option for docker unless you have the grunt on your host.
Docker does work for transcoding but because I’m using Proxmox it’s slightly more complicated since I want my windows VMs to not be a slog and run mediaservers on a iGPU.
Atleast on Plex it can do software transcode and not be bothered by an annoying “cannot play this media on this device”. This was a few months ago and I still run both but Plex serves me fine fot the time being
Valory noted in his statement that the company was significantly impacted by the slowdown.
He added that the company is still expected to see 30% growth this year.
Which is which?
well depends who’s asking. Are you a shareholder, or a common man?
Can’t I be both?
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You better see growth when laying off 20% lol
