How Everything Became A Subscription

Why is everything a subscription?

Subscription services are everywhere effecting personal finance the average person is now spending $273 a month on subscriptions and at the same time less than one third of them could afford a $1,000 expense without going into debt…

This only includes software services like netflix, disney plus, hulu, spotify, adobe, apple music, xbox games pass and others. it does not include other recuring expenses like gym or club memberships.

Service companies are doing this to attract venture capital investment. These investors favour subscription businesses because they provide consistent cash flows and can be scaled rapidly before being sold through a traditional IPO, a SPAC or to a private equity fund.

But these businesses are not always perfect and there are some products that just make more sense to sell through a one time direct sale.

So it’s time to Learn How Money Works to find out how everything became a subscription.

Cyo,

Subscriptions are such a pain, I just keep things simple. If I can buy and own a product I pay for it, if I have to choose between paying for a subscription or getting the product for free, I choose owning the product for free. The only services that I pay for are things that are more services than products, example: VPNs.

Quereller,
Quereller avatar

I am so in favor to actually owning something instead of renting it for years.

EnigmaNL,
EnigmaNL avatar

All part of the enshittification of the world. I hate where we're going.

RotaryKeyboard,

There are some services I pay for using a subscription service. My password manager, because my whole family uses it. Various streaming services, mostly because they have stopped providing physical media and have now created a monopoly on their content. But that's it. I used to pay for PathFinder, a Mac Finder replacement. I would happily upgrade my license on every major release because it was a perpetual license. When they switched to a subscription model, I just stopped.

What I think these companies don't understand is that keeping track of a bunch of subscriptions results in a huge cognitive load. Not only do I have to keep track of which prices are fair relative to many other similar services, I have to keep track of when they renew so I'm not taken by surprise. In most cases, not having to deal with that cognitive load is a better deal for me than the service they're offering.

WhoRoger,
@WhoRoger@lemmy.world avatar

Yea I'm not against any and all subscriptions in principle. When I was taxi driving, having unlimited music on Spotify was totally worth it and a great upgrade over radio. I even had Audible for a while, where you get one book a month to keep (DRM aside, which can be dealt with), so you know exactly what you're getting.

The major problem is how much everyone is pushing subs now for every stupid thing, how markers are fracturing and worst of all, with most services once you subscribe, you take a massive hit and lose everything you've paid for until then - such as with the game passes. So one can only keep sucking up the ever increasing prices, further fragmentation and be at the provider's mercy whether the thing even keeps going at all.

Greenskye,

There was this neat, but totally unnecessary ‘water cooled’ mattress cover thing I stumbled on. It had a series of tubes they ran water through to keep your bed cool at night. Nifty little product. They also had an app and built in sensors for that sleep tracking stuff. Also neat and a nice value add.

Except that the app required a subscription and you could only adjust the temperature through the app. Oh and the subscription was $250/year. Talk about bullshit. You know they’re already selling all the sleep tracking data and then they want you to rent the product forever on top of that??

setsneedtofeed,
@setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world avatar

Only tangentially related, but that’s identical technology in cooling suits designed for use under some kinds of protective wear.

batteryheatedclothing.com/…/whole-body-ice-water-…

DannyBoy, (edited )

@WhoRoger Thanks to Adobe shitheads!!!
Also the only subscription that I can stand is Humble Choice which let me keep the games that they give on my Steam account. So if I cancel I don't loose them.

I keep HBO MAX for the sole reason that it has newly released films. So is cheaper ($8 monthly) that paying for a cinema ticket.

Mac,

keep the games

Steam account

Hmm

Levii,

How long till steam starts charging a sub fee to use the platform. Suddenly all those games you “owned”… not really “yours” anymore… (the illusion of ownership shatters)

WhoRoger,
@WhoRoger@lemmy.world avatar

I remember, years ago, before I was boycotting Steam, I was saving every purchase confirmation.

At some point they changed their wording from "Thank you for your purchase" to "Thank you for your subscription".

I tried to look for it on the web, there was absolutely zero mention of this anywhere. Apparently they changed something in their T&C, and if you don't like it, well you can just not use Steam at all I guess. (Which I don't, but it's quite a hit if you have hundreds of games.)

lol3droflxp,
lol3droflxp avatar

TBH, I'm quite happy with the Affinity alternatives, although I never used Lightroom and I guess that's the hardest to replace for the average user

DannyBoy,

@lol3droflxp @WhoRoger I also use the entire Affinity suite. In case of Lightroom some friends have told me that they love to use DarkTable which is a close substitute.

Morphior,

DarkTable is really good, I encourage anyone to give it a try.

WhoRoger,
@WhoRoger@lemmy.world avatar

Golly I remember when Adobe came up with that shit, everyone was up in arms about it.

If only professionals had enough foresight to reject that, maybe we wouldn't be so deep down in subscription hell.

exohuman,
exohuman avatar

I would gladly rent my car if that covered all vehicle repairs and maintenance and insurance.

EnigmaNL,
EnigmaNL avatar

That's called private lease.

WhoRoger,
@WhoRoger@lemmy.world avatar

Isn't that always an option? Car companies push that kind of leasing like mad.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

It's common for fleet leasing but I haven't encountered widespread push for personal lease. It exists as a service but I don't know if I'd call it "pushed like mad".

Maybe I'm out of the loop though, especially globally. It's probably different from country to country.

WhoRoger,
@WhoRoger@lemmy.world avatar

Well I live in the crappier side of Europe and in the last 10 or so years, this kind of car leasing have been more popular even for individuals. I was under the impressions the trend came from the west, cause I remember learning about it in high school when it wasn't much of a thing here yet.

exohuman,
exohuman avatar

Not that I have seen. I have been offered packages that cover the drive train or something similar, but the maintenance is up to me, the insurance is up to me, and that makes for a hell of a car payment each month.

WhoRoger,
@WhoRoger@lemmy.world avatar

Guess it's not such a global phenomenon as I thought then...

Elgordofordo86,

Volvo actually had this very program for a bit. They don't seem to now which tells you how it went...

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