Do YOU spend on subscriptions every month???
The Hatch Restore alarm clock, which retails for $169, can light up your bedroom in every hue, soothe you to sleep with audio meditation sessions, and keep you in a REM cycle with a full catalogue of white noise options. To utilize these features, though, you need to pay an additional $4.99 per month, in perpetuity.
Welcome to the age of subscription captivity, where an increasing share of the things you pay for actually own you.
<snip>
Subscription-based business models are great for businesses because they amount to consistent revenue streams. They’re often bad for consumers for the same reason: You have to pay companies, consistently. We’re effectively being $5 per month-ed (or more) to death, and it’s only going to get worse. Industry research suggests the average customer spent $219 per month on subscriptions in 2023. In 2024, the global subscription market was an estimated $492 billion. By 2033, that figure is expected to triple.
Full article, HERE from Mother Jones and additional from CBS HERE.
Grumble… I went through my subscriptions last night and I’m spending almost $150 a month between Amazon, Adobe, Weather.com, and Apple… dammit…
But my vehicle is old enough that nothing on it requires a subscrip…crap…forgot about Sirius, make that $168 a month… Well, that one I’ll keep.
My magazines are all based on life memberships, so at least that’s not a monthly and I dropped all the normal mags I used to get.
But I wonder about how many people are paying for all the apps on their phones? I only have the weather app on mine that has a subscription. Apparently most of the games DO have subscription hooks in them, along with a lot of the ‘shopping’ apps that require subscriptions.
Subscriptions is also one of the reasons I didn’t buy into a lot of the ‘writing’ programs, because I do well enough with MS Word.
What say you folks?
Some of my magazine subscriptions are stopping for me, without my approval. Sadly Guns Magazine and American Handgunner have both stopped printing magazines, effective with the last issue.
I understand why, due to the way that so many people get their information from other places today like the internet, etc. But I was subscribed until May of next year for both, and they didn’t mention if I will get any of my money back. I need to get busy and write to them and ask them if they are just keeping my unfulfilled portion or if they will be sending me a refund.
Living out in the sticks we had satellite tv (Dish) for years , till we realized , the cost was not worth it , same old shit. We use pay as you go hotspots for Amazon Prime , with britbox and acorn as extras (lots of big cell towers have gone up out here in the last five years cell signals are quite good), trash pickup is getting very high every year , I’m still using my mil spec flip phone , wife has a smart phone and is glued to it more than I would like , but that is her . Vehicles are old , but run good and are paid for , so there is insurance and plates . Would like to get some magazines for reading on the throne , but don’t have any subscriptions. I guess we have recurring costs , but not really subscriptions .
Me and my wife are retired but we tied our phones to our youngest son, who lives in GA while we live in SC near our oldest son and his family. The plan is limited data for us but not our son and we pay less. We use less data on our phones away from home each month.
For weather and traffic I use a free app from a local TV station. I also have WAZE and Google MAPS for driving.
I have Verizon for data in my house on my Smart TV. I had Paramount+ but after I watched everything I ended it. I then tried Apple for a week, but did not like it and got HBO Max. We mostly watch the food, HGTV, and some movies. I added the Pluto and Tubi APPs as they are free for TV. I also watch You Tube for various things.
I will likely end HBO after the second season of THE PITT and find something else to watch. With these subscriptions it is easier yo watch them for a while to get all the new and then leave to another and do the same and bounce around.
I have Sirius/XM (and Sirius sucks, XM by itself was so much more sane…) due to piggybacking on $HOUSEMATE’s subscription. $HOUSEMATE also springs for Amazon Prime. The only actual subscription I have is for a radio-related newsletter for something Rather Obscure nowadays. I need to renew it.
Generally, all the digital “services” that want me to pay them forever? They don’t get paid all. If they fail, MESSAGE SENT. Make a product or die.
Let’s say someone has a subscription appliance… when that one fails, will the maker supply a new one? No? Then why pay them? I am amused by the of those jokers getting an subscription-based artificial heart… as if they had heart to start with. “Oh, by the way, we’re increasing rates 2,000%. You can pay us or drop dead. Your choice. Have a nice day.”
Your money … but I cannot fathom paying that Sirius.
OTOH, my wife spends that kind of money on her hair appointments.
We have Amazon Prime and if it was up to me I would cancel.
I’m letting my last magazine subscription lapse. I don’t have any web-based subscriptions. YouTube and Tubi are free to watch, as long as you can put up with the ads (or have a good ad-blocker). Weather Underground gives some of the most accurate forecasts and includes radar and satellite views updated every 5 minutes. I listen to FM radio or CDs in the car. I’m perfectly willing to keep using Office 2007 or Libre Office. I can wait a week for free deliveries from Amazon.
I do not have a single subscription….,not a damn one!
Oh,I plan to keep it that way!
Net service,library wifi puck,guess property tax could be considered a subscription…..,sigh.
People have enough subscriptions for an ap to be created that finds subscriptions, helps remove those forgotten about, and eliminates them. I’m guessing there’s a subscription required to get rid of subscriptions, which is ironic.
Me? I have Amazon Prime. It’s worth the money to avoid the cost of extra gasoline. I do pay for satellite television, but not for satellite wi-fi. Wi-fi is from a cell modem, which is the cheapest, since I don’t need more than 50 gigabytes each month, and the only other option than satellite. There is cable, but cable is flakey due to old equipment and squirrels.
Starlink rocks, well worth the money. NFL is an absolute meth-fueled train wreck, loathsome crap that the wife insists on for her team games. Amazon delivery is unpredictable out here in the semi-hinterlands, not worth the money.
So many debit card chip failures or outright compromises recently makes it easier to figure out what wife and I are paying for. When they don’t get their monthly offering of gruel, we decide whether to make more gruel or dump the pot to the pigs.
Subscriptions should be evaluated regularly with one question in mind: “Am I getting good value for my money?” (There’s a whole bunch of sub-category questions that go along with that, which I won’t get into here.)
If you’re not getting good value for your money, terminate that subscription. Don’t be shy about doing so, and don’t feel guilty about it.
All- Thanks for the honesty! I have Sirius for my long distance drives… I remember hunting for ‘anything’ on the radio back in the day… especially in the daytime. At night, WGN, XERB, KGO, and KEEL worked fine!
MS office can be a subscription, lots of software packages have gone to that.
Forex, Adobe. Several of which software packages had alternatives from Affinity, which did sell permanent licenses. Affinity has been bought now, and Affinity 3 is on the subscription system now.
To some extent, professional societies and such are a subscription.
Games? Very much depends on the game. There are a lot of free-to-play ones with microtransactions, and those can be played with simply not doing the microtransactions. There are explicit subscription services.
I have a few but what makes me want to do great physical harm is crap I never asked for showing up on my phone. Somehow I now have Gemini. Never asked for it, and can’t delete it. Same thing with Windows 11.
I do willingly pay for AdBlocker and various AVG apps.
The article is pointing out that appliance manufacturers have seen what the car manufacturers did with subscriptions, and said, “Hey, what about us?” So now you have to research the appliance to insure it’ll work without an internet connection and without “phoning back” your life to the manufacturer’s server. Don’t have a connection, your appliance is “too old”, or the manufacturer goes out of business? Your appliance goes to ‘minimum functionality’ or stops working entirely (I’ve read each of those situations occurring).
I’m not a Luddite but I think the idea of “you purchase your product”, then “It reports on your life back to the manufacturer”, and then “you will pay a subscription to use it” has been a downward progression of product sales to the consumer.
Not only are you paying a subscription to use the product you purchased, but the manufacturer is selling the information the product collects to 3rd parties. So now you are the product being sold.
In contrast, I’m old enough to remember helping my father with Sears appliances. When purchased, you got an appliance manual that told how to install it, and when you had a problem, how to troubleshoot it along with the part numbers needed for replacement. Today’s “right to repair” laws weren’t even in anyone’s mind as it was assumed you would be able to to repair whatever you OWNED.
And that is the change in mindset that has occurred in my lifetime. We have gone from purchasing a product, owning it, able to use it however you want, and dispose of it (resale?) to the current culture where you pay to get the product, and the manufacturer owns the product. The manufacturer then controls how you operate it, if you can repair it, and if you will need a subscription to continue to use it. The manufacturer also reserves the right to collect any and all data from your life for resale to 3rd parties.
I don’t like it.
“I’m not a Luddite but I think the idea of “you purchase your product”, then “It reports on your life back to the manufacturer”, and then “you will pay a subscription to use it” has been a downward progression of product sales to the consumer.”
You are not the consumer, you are the crop being harvested.
Office 365, which I share with 5 other family members: $135 annual.
A Patreon $4 monthly to a ministry podcast which I hear free.
Amazon Prime.
Zoom, $15 a month for when I pre-record an interview. I could probably get by with the free 45 minute limit if I schedule two successive sessions.
No warehouse (Costco, Sam’s, etc).
YoutubeTV for television streaming.
LibreOffice: free
Linux: free
Xfinity for internet, Verizon for phone. That’s it.
I have an annual subscription to Tom Knighton’s substack because I wanna help out Tom.
I assume you meant $16.80 per month for Sirius/XM, which is about what I pay. For no stupid commercials and no month of Christmas songs, it is well worth it to me.
You’re right… fat fingered that one.
Subscription consumerism can only exist if there exists enough stupid gullible consumers. We as a society get the pranging we tolerate and thus deserve.
I’ve found that if you hunt around enough, you can find a fee “thing” where others want payment for most things I need.
I’m okay with AM/FM radio and my CDs that I own and they can’t change or delete. My weather app is free on my T-mobile and desktop PC.
It all started with IBM and other mainframe companies; lease lot by the hardware but the operating system/software was lease. Then, the PC revolution – buy the hardware and software, to tinker away to you hearts content.
The failed web computers were ahead of their time. I guess smart TVs are them now but with antennas.
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Back to leading the software.
“or buy” not “lot by”
Leasing not leading.
All- Thanks, and yes, we’re not customers, we’re product for the 3rd parties… sigh
my pet peeve currently, is any MicroSoft subscription. I swore off Windows a long time ago, but the wifely unit and I moved our Outlook mail folders over to MS Office for Mac – back when you could buy a disc with the software on it. Not long ago they changed to a subscription service because cash flow, I presume. and I hate paying Microsoft ANYTHING. Evil Empire and all that.
I suppose we have a Prime subscription, which is not bad for the money. Mosey over to The View from Lady Lake, Joe has a post about getting some good stuff on Prime video if you have a subscription – so much that I may be able to drop the TV service from my monthly cable & internet.
Apple Music. kids (sheesh)
that’s it, I think.