Why is everything a monthly subscription service? A rant
As it currently stands, I’m signed up for the following subscription services:
Gym: $10/month & $50 annual payment
Squarespace (where this blog lives): $27/month for the blog, $8/month for email services
Patreon: $7/month
Google storage: $11/month
Apple storage: $10/month (getting a new phone soon so hopefully I can cancel this)
Spotify: $13/month (RIP my student discount)
Peacock: $2/month (I got a deal because I was about to cancel, usually $8/month)
Readymag: $19/month
F1: $10/month (probably going to cancel this soon)
Adobe Creative: $22
There could be some I’m missing, but I think this is the majority. I actually don’t even want to really delve into paying for Adobe still, because I don’t use their services. I don’t even have any Adobe softwares downloaded on my computer, because my laptop doesn’t have the storage for it. However, I didn’t realize when I signed up for it that it was a monthly deal for a WHOLE YEAR, instead of just month to month payments. Now, if I try to cancel, I’ll get charged a fee for opting out of the services early. It’s ridiculous and I’ve genuinely lost sleep over it so let me not get into it any further.
Anyways, back to the matter at hand. Everything these days is a subscription service. Any time I want to sign up for a graphic design platform or check out a recipe, I’m almost always prompted to sign up for a monthly subscription cost “For the low cost of $3/month”. If services do offer a one-time, annual payment, you have to pay it upfront and that’s not always the most feasible option. In my opinion, because of the popularity of the subscription service, which has led to consumer reliance on them, companies have been able to get away with providing lower quality services to consumers. They make promises that updates will be coming in the next week or month, or tease you with a feature that you’ve been hoping they’d add. This persuades you as a consumer to continue paying for a service that is partially mediocre in the hopes that it’ll get better as the updates come. The subscription model also increases the opportunity cost for consumers to switch from one service provider to another, or many people forget to cancel subscription services even if they aren’t using them. This has led to developers being less incentivized to produce quality updates to their services. An important note to be made is that a lot of these services aren’t “services”; they’re actually tools that have now been presented as a service. A service implies there’s consistent work happening for a set period of time, therefore justifying the monthly cost as a cover for the upkeep. Digital editing softwares, for example, are really tools. Tools like these don’t need monthly maintenance, at least not anything that I as a consumer would really care about (again, what are these “updates” really doing?). I should only have to pay once I want to update the tool from version A to version B. If I’m perfectly happy with the way version A of my tool is working, why has the service model forced me to pay for monthly “updates” that aren’t integral to my utilization of the tool?
With the monthly subscription model, we’ve been relegated to constant updates that we likely don’t want or notice and cost us exorbitantly more than we ever wanted to pay. However, as mentioned previously, there’s always a “What if” feeling I get whenever I want to cancel a service. It’s kind of like being held hostage and developing Stockholm syndrome for the services I’m already signed up for, even though they’re mistreating me. Dramatic, sure, but when it comes to Adobe specifically, this is exactly how I feel.
I have no idea how to end this rant other than I’m pissed that I have to pay for so many subscriptions. This also doesn’t even include subscriptions that would be truly beneficial, but I refuse to pay for them because ideologically, I can’t stomach it. I’m not sure if the monthly subscription model will ever go out of style, but for my sanity (and my pockets), I’m hoping that better alternatives become available soon.
