I still think Shirky is pretty much spot-on after a couple of decades. Even when it seemed as if "midi-payments" might be getting some traction in music and apps, they've now mostly turned into either subscriptions, ad-supported, or "free to play." And arguably a bunch of midi-subscriptions (e.g. $1/month) is even worse because enough of those and they add up to a real money leak. For subscriptions, I'd much rather have a $5-15/month that is a sufficient line item that I'll spend the time to consider whether I really want this or not.