Watch Ben Affleck (yes, Ben Affleck) predict Spotify and Netflix streaming way back in 2003

He has thoughts.
 By 
Jack Morse
 on 
Watch Ben Affleck (yes, Ben Affleck) predict Spotify and Netflix streaming way back in 2003
It's, like, the future. Credit: Fotos International/getty

Turns out everyone's favorite ahistorical Bean Town boy and resident Sad Man is more than just a pretty face.

That's right, Ben Affleck, the star of such films as Gigli and Pearl Harbor, is so much more as this random (apparently) 2003 interview showing him basically predicting Spotify and Netflix streaming proves.

In the middle of a fast-paced rant about file-sharing, he notes that in the future everyone will have access to music and video on demand for an annual subscription fee.

"I think an annual subscription-based system is one that works," he tells the interviewer. "It will be movies on demand but it will be a tiered structure," he adds.

"The technology's not quite there yet," declared the digital Nostradamus, "but it will be within I'd say five years."

It was in 2007, not quite five years later, that Netflix announced it would begin streaming content to computers. Spotify, meanwhile, launched in 2008 — exactly five years later as Affleck predicted it would.

Who would have thought. Too bad Affleck's foresight didn't extend to other matters.

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Jack Morse

Professionally paranoid. Covering privacy, security, and all things cryptocurrency and blockchain from San Francisco.

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