How Everything Became A Subscription.

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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.
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#finance #howmoneyworks
Edited By: Andrew Gonzales
Music Courtesy of: Epidemic Sound
Select Footage Courtesy of: Getty Images
For sponsorship inquiries, please contact [e-mail]
All materials in these videos are for educational purposes only and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. This video does not provide investment or financial advice of any kind.

[@HowMoneyWorks]

Go to buyraycon.com/hmw to get 15% off your Raycon purchase!

[@orionh5535]

Can I rent my raycons with a subscription?

[@HowMoneyWorks]

@@orionh5535 LOL

[@MarsM13]

Y'know, ninety-nine percent of what makes a farm work is just plants and animals doing their thing. That's not to say that the farmer doesn't work hard, however. That one percent is composed of things like weeding, plowing, repairing fences, hard stuff. But ultimately, everything the farmer does is not about helping the plants and animals. It's all about funneling the things those plants and animals do naturally towards his own profit. You don't reward the cow fairly for her milk. You fence her in, give her the minimum required to keep her milk flowing healthily, and then take as much as you can from her. Ditto for the chickens. You don't reward the chickens fairly, you fence them in, feed them the cheapest food you can and still keep the eggs popping out, and take everything you can from them. Getting rich is all about farming human beings for money. These billionaires often really do work quite hard, but all their work is geared towards farming human beings as profitably as possible. They're not interested in fair trades. You don't get rich trading fairly. You get rich by using information asymmetry to apply agricultural tactics to human capital stock. Short version: the rich having been farming human beings ever since feudalism times, and they have just become more efficient at it over time.

[@altitudesfs9656]

Hey.Let me make your thumbnails. You've got the potential to be dominant in this niche.

[@hamsterama]

@@MarsM13 You sound like someone who enjoys inhaling your own farts. Maybe you should consider starting a fart farm. You can gather some guys, fence them in, give them the minimum to keep their farts blowing out healthily, and take as much as you can for them. Ditto for women, who have daintier farts. Don't reward the women fairly, you can fence them in, feed them the cheapest beans and microwavable burritos you can and still keep the farts popping out, and take everything you can from them. Bottle up and sell those organic, GMO-free farts, and you'll be a feudalistic billionaire in no time.

[@InvestorCenter]

When tech bros get into real estate, tenants no longer pay “rent” instead it’s “housing as a service”

[@Samurai31631]

Totally what I was thinking. Renting is a subscription. Don’t own it and pay a monthly fee.

[@Samurai31631]

@@rob3rt4a Not really. If no one stays in the Air bnb then there is no money coming in.

[@phoenix5054]

Rent is the first "housing subscription" model. It's always been there.

[@joaquinalfonso9589]

The same way tech bros are not oligarchs, they are entrepeneurs.

[@lukemorgan6166]

You're verified. Cringe

[@farmersonly7002]

"Could a company ban you from your house?" Bro, rent already exists and it is a nightmare

[@snex000]

There's nothing wrong with rent as a concept. The problem is that government "affordable housing" programs have made housing unaffordable for people who would prefer it. This in turn leads to higher demand for rent, which enables a market imbalance in favor of landlords.

[@alfred8936]

@@snex000 What's made housing unaffordable for everyone is probably the wealthy using the real estate market as a hedge against inflation by buying out swathes of real estate and then flipping them to rent for profit. Seems like an issue with rent as a concept to me

[@snex000]

@@alfred8936 LAF. Yeah it had nothing to do with the government forcing banks to maker unprofitable loans or anything. No, the rich people just all "decided" to one day start doing something that would make them poorer. You people are hilarious. Your explanation for EVERYTHING is "greedy rich people," as if greedy people haven't existed throughout all of history. You have no REAL explanation for specific events. You just eat up stupid propaganda in order to justify your anger at people doing better than you are.

[@OmDesk]

@@snex000 yeah and who pays the government the most ? Who influence them the most ?

[@snex000]

@@OmDesk Nobody "pays" them. They steal what they want.

[@jasonlib1996]

I avoid subscriptions as much as possible. I would disagree that they are what people want, otherwise, they wouldn't need to be pushed and marketed so heavily. They're what businesses want because they create a larger continual revenue stream which shareholders love. Take Microsoft office, for example, until recently you could still pay a one-time fee. However it was so difficult to get to it, and on every page was trying to push you to use 365 subscriptions instead. There is no tangible benefit to Office being a subscription. other than minor changes and bug fixes, Word for example hasn't changed much since 2006 except for a few stylistic changes, the fundamentals of a text editor haven't changed. But yet MS pushes it extremely hard as a subscription. Why? because they make far more money, just 2 years of a subscription will cost you more than the upfront cost would have, and I can guarantee you have been using MS Office for more than 2 years. now when you have a product that doesn't really change much, I could still be using the 2006 MS word and it would still do 95% of the things the newest version can, only difference is 16 years of cost. This is the goal , making you pay more, via the long term than you would have been willing to pay upfront.

[@nabilfreeman]

Time to learn how to sail the seven seas... 🏴‍☠

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

Wait they removed the option to purchase the license?

[@edwardvermillion8807]

* 95% of what the newest version does, and 100% of what i need.

[@electrogeek77]

It looks like consumers "want" them because it's what's being forced upon us, and we can only buy what's available.

[@AnataBakka]

it was weird when "How money works" said he expects you to have a lot of subscriptions and that the average person pays 300 bucks per month, like wtf. my only subscription is for my rent and internet provider lol

[@joshnabours9102]

always remember: If they cant cancel the subscription you can cancel the card it draws from in at least 4 different ways. You can use a cancelable virtual credit card, you can report the card as lost (because it got "lost" in the trash after you cut it up) and have them issue a card with a different number, you can have the bank cancel the card entirely, or you can have the bank put a stop payment on the card for that specific business.

[@Troy_Built]

I had a bank tell me they couldn't stop a monthly withdrawal. They suddenly figured out how when I told I could by closing the account.

[@brianmccain8818]

The other issue is that since it was an existing subscription, your bank may continue to allow the withdrawals. The explanation is that they are helping you in not having to contact all the places you have set up for automatic payments

[@skinnytimmy1]

I had to do this after trying to cancel Amazon prime. Said it was canceled on my account but I was still getting charged.

[@HrHaakon]

@@brianmccain8818 Wait, that isn't automated in the US?

[@lowdl]

@@skinnytimmy1 Had Amazon prime do this to me as well.

[@KoRnholio8]

The big problem with content services is that every piece of media can disappear over some copyright licensing disagreement and potentially never be seen again. It can also move to a new service etc. This is not a huge deal for very popular mainstream content, but can be a very real danger for more niche media.

[@matg9844]

Just look at gaming. Without emulation retro gamers would be confined to whatever they can collect. MSdos, arcade, and the lesser known consoles and computers would be lost to the ages. Of course, preservation doesn't stop companies like Nintendo getting heavy handed and nuking entire sites rather than throw down C&D for their property exclusively.

[@lottery248]

@@matg9844 Nintendo's behaviour should be considered copyright violations on the part of users' property (first sale doctrine).

[@Theomite]

It kinda happened to popular. Criterion Collection permanently lost their rights to THE THIRD MAN just months after releasing a Blu-ray of it, after a Uganda court case changed ownership hands of an entire company's worth of holdings, and now BFI does all the releasing for it. But this kind of thing could happen and worse out of the blue.

[@Mysticbladegod]

Subscription services are the reason I elect to buy physical entertainment media to this day. I still purchase DVD/Blu Ray and prefer to purchase physical gaming media. That way I pay once and have it forever.

[@semionzlobin5318]

That's what actually happened to popular Russian streaming services. Due to the sanctions, most of the Western movies vanished from the platform and no one cares that I paid for the full set of Harry Potter movies to watch 'forever'))))

[@electrobob]

I am perfectly happy to pay for a subscription service that gives access to more content than i could ever buy individually. I am however refusing to pay X/10 per month for software which used to cost X and which i could keep for years and years if I wanted to.

[@hannahwhite7227]

This. Or renting where you can use something one or a few times when you actually need it rather than having to buy something for one time use to never use it again.

[@electrogeek77]

Agreed. Plus, it's more economically feasible for me to save a bit at a time until I have the lump sum for some things than it is for me to pay a constant subscription.

[@aangitano]

Exactly! Netflix and Spotify makes sense bc it would cost me way more to buy the content they house. But Adobe..... They are just trying to ripp us off.

[@thatxboxchannel4772]

@@hannahwhite7227 the only time it economically makes sense to rent is when you foresee yourself living somewhere for less than 4 years, if you take out a mortgage at that time you’re mainly paying interest in the first few years rather than gain equity in your house. Other than that buying a home is 1000000% the way to go

[@Tommyownzz]

Yes I recently bought WinRAR, it is mine forever!

[@GodlessCog]

Pro-tip, attach all subscriptions to a throwaway digital card that you can transfer money in and out of at ease, that way every time the service attempts to charge you would literally have to add money to the card. If you don't use the service any longer, you just won't add the money and either cancel it or it will be suspended on its own.

[@uweschroeder]

Pro tip: check your credit card and bank statement. It's not just subscriptions you need to have an eye on.

[@pileofjunkinc]

There's services that can detect when you're using a gift card and do ask you to use an actual credit card. So might become harder to do in the future.~

[@youzhou3001]

@@pileofjunkinc Open a new checking account, attach card to said new checking account

[@Ammut6]

Or you know....just pay attention to your bank statements 🤷

[@rhs5683]

Here in Germany we've a law, that your landlord cant remove you from his property for financial reasons, until you own him more than 2 months of rent. If you live in some soulless biulding block, its the best way to get stuff accually repaired. You just need to wire one euro in the second month and you "responsible" has to deal with the complains from his supervisior and finally does anything. [Yea, I live in this useless country and would enjoy to half my income, if I acctually pay taxes.]

[@Salimaleikum]

The most annoying type of subscriptions is the phone apps specifically the ones that charge a yearly fee after a trial period. I recently found out that I purchased a yearly subscription for a mushroom recognition app, but I can only use it during a couple of month in late summer because there are no mushrooms during other seasons!

[@jonjoejon3593]

WTF

[@subutaynoyan5372]

Yeah, I mean I like Jazz Radio, but noticed I hardly listen to it anymore. Wanted to cancel the yearly subscription a couple of days ago. Apparently, it renewed at 1st of January.

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

Oh. Yeah that's scumbaggery when it's not upfront, and honestly kinda even when it is. You should have to confirm big purchases like that.

[@tooeasyy5287]

You can check your subscriptions in apple settings and see everything you're currently subscribed to from your apple account.

[@freeradical_v]

Had i known this, I would’ve never purchased my iPhone. No app is free. On android i could just downright get whatever i wanted just by googling it and installing it myself.

[@hansihintersoos7581]

Remember the words: "You will own nothing but you will be happy." Ownership and property is the key to freedom. Don't let them take it away from you.

[@Gigi-zr6hp]

Doesn't stop gamers from sunscribing to xbox gamepass or people to hulu/netflix/disney + / twitch prime lmao

[@Moses_VII]

@@Gigi-zr6hp People who desire too much entertainment lose freedom. I bought MS Office, no subscription. I only watch few movies, so DVDs or digitally-purchased movies are good for me.

[@moazim1993]

Or, hear me out, buy stocks in the subscriptions companies.

[@Oliver-bn7jt]

@@Moses_VII Good

[@lovisericachii4503]

Amen

[@LarsHaendler]

Everybody has to do the maths for themselves. We completely moved back to DVD / Bluray because it is cheaper for us in the long run. You also have items you can actually sell if you need to. Same goes for music. As a 40+ I found my music style and have no issues making mp3 from my occasional CD buy or get direct mp3 downloads from artists I like. Books, DVDs and audio books are (almost) free at my local library. Having a simple analog timer for my coffee maker and living room lamp is also much cheaper than any smart home subscription.

[@DrSamIAm]

Agreed. We've started buying DVDs as well. I bet they will stop selling DVDs in a couple of years though

[@Lonovavir]

I almost exclusively buy physical media. It's getting harder to find though, which is annoying.

[@aangitano]

@@DrSamIAm that is my fear. I feel like they don't want us to have the media except to stream on their platforms. I guess piracy will rise again

[@jensenraylight8011]

but not for everyone though, because things move quickly, the best thing about subscription is, it allow you to save time by paying for less, you can find a way to earn more money, and have more purchasing power when you pay $20 for a subscription service, vs $500 for DVDs each month

[@TheRealE.B.]

We've started buying Blu-Rays for things when we can. I buy music digitally, but I still buy it rather than use one of those horrendous music streaming services. I tried buying movies and TV shows digitally but have found it to be a pain in the a**.

[@adhdhobbyist1494]

I disagree with your photoshop example, most of the time I don't need any of the new features and just wouldn't upgrade so I would have saved money compared to the expensive subscription model. I liked the fact you could choose not to upgrade and still have a functional product that is still suitable for business use. Now they got rid of that option so they can continually extract money from you whether you use the new features or not.

[@ECAPS.]

Removing 3D objects in Photoshop was painful.

[@yamadiyoo9658]

Its the same with Autodesk you save a ton when you buy it upfront cause you keep it for a long time before you consider any "new features." Now they would have been great if they offered both so you can get the maximum value but now it's just them getting the maximum profit.

[@andreaslind6338]

Ha! The irony is that Krita and GIMP are free and sometimes even work better

[@midnightfuture]

What you are saying is that the older, now commodity features of Photoshop were sufficient for you, so you should have (and likely did) switch to an alternate offering positioned at commodity level-Pixelmator or Affinity’s products. That’s great! Adobe, Autodesk, and now even Clip Studio Paint are optimizing for the set of customers who see continuing value in feature enhancements, and are willing to pay the amortized ongoing marginal cost for them rather than periodic lump sums.

[@LevitatingCups]

I've still my old paint shop pro 9 from ages ago, it does the work with basic image work just fine. And it was like 50, maybe 70 bucks back in the day, Got never stuff for more intensive, one does not always need the latest things to do everything. (tho it only has that 4gb limit so anything above 4k*4k is gonna get sluggish, but like i said, basic).

[@danycashking]

I don't inherently dislike subscriptions, it has it's advantages, especially with people with limited but regular income. BUT my pet peeve is that they make it the only option, if they always provided both the option to buy outright or to subscribe perpetually and left that decision to the individual consumer i wouldn't be against it, then everyone gets the plan that fits them best. Flexibility is key.

[@lachie5687]

The one thing I don't like is the automated renewal. A lot get you to do a free trial and then automatically renew it without you realising causing you to get trapped in without realising it. In my opinion, after a free trial there legally needs to be a confirmation that you wish to start paying for the services, and one that's not hidden in the Terms and Conditions and whatnot, it needs to be obvious. Other then that, I have no qualms about it, but that might also be because I factor all of them into my budget so it's not a huge deal. I can also see why people may support subscription services needing to disclose what the equivalent annual cost is (although some do, or at least used to) and possibly need confirmation to renew rather then have automated renewal, at least after a certain period like a year or so. I'd support those changes as well since I think it'd help out a lot of people.

[@xv9021]

Its almost like lawmakers should include this in the next set of legislation

[@jensenraylight8011]

in order for subscription to work, it should gives us Thousands of contents/product in the first place, it should feels like "all you can consume" if you only have one product, and you expect me to pay $10 when i could buy the whole thing for $100, you can imagine, that won't work

[@stevencooper4422]

@@xv9021 As if boomer lawmakers understand tech products and subscriptions lol

[@gebys4559]

Sounds like something to petition EU to mandate. Though unless cap was worked out at some fixed, number of months as otherwise they would just in principle offer a product at a one off but a pay off period of a millennium...

[@n3gi_]

"You will own nothing and be happy".

[@Radhaun]

I'm not inherently against subscriptions, but I wish it wasn't so hard to *own* copies of things too. I don't like that a lot of digital media can't be easily (or at least legally) downloaded anymore, it all has to be kept on the product holders servers. Which is fine as long the servers stay up, but if anything happens, all our stuff is gone through no fault of our own. No ability for us to make backup copies. I like subscriptions for trying things out, but if I really like a movie, book, or song, I'd prefer to have an offline copy for myself and I don't mind buying it by itself, but currently even if I buy a digital copy, I won't actually get a digital copy. I'll have access to it only so long as I have access to the server it's hosted on for as long as it's hosted. Also, in all honesty, renting a living space (room, apartment, or house) *is* a subscription and people *do* lose their housing if they don't make their payments. Even mortgages are subscriptions until you pay them off (if you ever do).

[@TheJumpingJake]

@radhuan Completely agree! Though the analogy of a mortage being a subscription is a little off; as you can't ask netflix, etc, for a loan to view their content.. A mortage is debt/liability which cannot be canceled without massive loss - a subscription is cancellable with no legal obligation. Its all about contracts.

[@H0mework]

Subscriptions were easier then pirating. Now pirating is easier.

[@Radhaun]

Even with limitations, a physical copy still exists and can be transcribed to newer technology. Yeah, it's not totally legal, but if the company who owned the rights is gone, there's no one to enforce the law prohibiting me from copying my VHS to a DVD or digital format so I can continue to enjoy it. My VHS, DVDs, and CDs don't instantly stop working because the distributor went out of business.

[@Radhaun]

I was thinking more along the lines of like, the subscription exclusive movies and TV shows that I've really enjoyed, or my audiobook library that I'm going to have to start finding off-subscriber copies of so I can have them just in case. I have definitely begun turning some of my SUPER old VHS's of movies never popular enough to be digitized into DVDs, although I'm pretty rubbish at setting up menus and the like.

[@charliedallachie3539]

@@H0meworkstill a pain to deal with viruses and corrupted copies

[@boyscout244]

This is why I only subscribe to services that I actively use and enjoy. Been testing this with virtual cards that expire automatically within a certain time period. If i sign up for a trial membership, I use a virtual card and if I forget about it, nothing happens because the card will terminate and the service can't charge me. If I think it was an actual benefit in my life then I can choose to pay for it. Works great 👍

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

Smart

[@Elmcharfi]

Where can I find these cards

[@boyscout244]

@@Elmcharfi check your current credit card provider. Some of them have the feature as part of their app. I have the X1 credit card which can create virtual cards that expire in 24 hrs or after 1 transaction within the app

[@Septimus_ii]

That's a good idea

[@Septimus_ii]

@@Elmcharfi You can get a Revolut account really easily and one of the features is virtual cards

[@ProjSHiNKiROU]

The "You will stop owning things" is more related to than subscription: (1) how ownership contracts are becoming less pro-consumer and (2) how products are becoming more expensive requiring loans to pay off. When I see a $5/month subscription, I'm conditioned to see the infinity dollars rather than the $5, so I almost never get into new subscriptions.

[@anonimowelwiatko4455]

If people take loans to buy expensive car or new mobile phone they can't afford, it's their problem. I used same mobile for about 6-7 years, bought new lately, not the newest model but the best cost for quality. Ended up with model or two before newest one paying 4x less than for new model. You can be smart about spending your money and actually be able to invest or save enough to sustain yourself for months or years even if you got fired from your job right away.

[@kacktustoo]

Subscriptions are one of those things that works extremely well with certain things, but businesses gotta follow those trends and now there's so many bloody subscription packages that have no reason to be one and now cost way more and are way more inconvenient. I find business software is a big one, used to provide perpetual licences, but there's been a big trend of large companies buying up smaller ones and making their products all subscriptions, really annoying.

[@maxscott3349]

I worked at a machine shop that had a couple of thumbdrives from the early 2000s with perpetual solidworks and machining strategist keys on them. They were perfectly happy with surfcam 2003

[@andrescientos]

This is my issue with Autocad. 2000.00 USD/yr. ...with updates that are barely noticeable. The only way to use it for "free" is becoming a student.

[@KrolKaz]

Yea it's a good way to squeeze smaller businesses for everything thier worth, then buy them up once they go down . It's a good model for the super rich investor types.

[@alexanderfretheim5720]

Well do keep in mind, it's relatively easy to build your own software business. If you get some guys together and build something, you probably can sell it. The one major expense though is attorneys fees: you will want to be working with an IP attorney from nearly day one.

[@jonathan4381]

What I really dislike about subscriptions is that when you cancel you are left with nothing. No music, no movies, no car, no software.

[@briannyob7799]

For some things, a subscription makes sense. The idea is to move physical goods to a subscription model. The reason business does anything is to get more money for them and not to save the consumer money.

[@petitio_principii]

Often those things go together. If business B comes up with an offer of thing X at a higher cost to the consumer than business A, it will have a hard time on the market. Business B model that chargers more from the consumer ultimately requires some costly strategy like "dumping," acquisition, or illegal cartels. Maybe in a way even renting/subscription is kind of like this, if you'd do maths of lifetime ownership price (but not consumer's own private costs) vs price for the time being rent, the price for a short rental time would be maybe ten times higher or more than the cost of purchase for life divided proportionally. But then that's also discounting costs other than the direct monetary costs, like maintenance, space. We often pay more for "less," in absolute terms at least, when "less" is more convenient.

[@r.a.6459]

One thing: they want to attract _investors_ rather than consumers.

[@defilerzerg9152]

“A job is a monthly subscription on you for your employer” (Can't recall where I heard that)

[@therearenoshortcuts9868]

as an employer myself... i'm not sure if i still agree with this another way to look at it is: "the profits you made for the company which you let your employer keep - is the subscription the employee pays to use the employer's platform - so the employee can make themselves useful to the world" (someone can probably make a more concise version) for example: if i know an employee is making me $100,000 a year in revenue, i'd pay the employee 50,000 use $12000 to pay for the employee's office rent $12000 to pay for monthly office expenses of the employee keep $26000 myself personally as my profit for being the owner of the business if the employee did the work to bill the $100,000 but they actually let me keep $26000 who's actually paying who in reality? etc...

[@defilerzerg9152]

@@therearenoshortcuts9868 In human world, it's a cooperation: one works the lathe, one works the papers, and then they share risks and profits as they agreed. For employee the agreement is usually “provide steady service, get steady pay”, which sounds a lot like subscription service. For employer, who takes most of the risks, “pay money, for a chance to get more money” sounds more like gambling. (In the burning hell of sprawling bureaucracies you can get anything called whatever you want)

[@ryugurena3327]

This is true. We must go back to the days when an employee was property or else business owners will never experience happiness

[@defilerzerg9152]

@@ryugurena3327 Are you a bot which is activated by any usage or the word “employer”? I refuse to believe actual humans are capable of that level of non sequitur

[@ryugurena3327]

@@defilerzerg9152 Don't be a baby and get a job

[@jaywerner8415]

"You will own nothing and be happy", that certainly fits the bill for Subscription services. Still, i can't deny the CONVINENCE factor, all of or most of all the stuff you want to watch or play in ONCE PLACE for only a few bucks a month, that is a hard offer to turn down. Plus its usually a MONTHLY Subscription so if you don't like it just Cancel it and your only out of 1 months payment. That being said, I wholeheartedly agree that their are products that SHOULD NOT have a Subscription service. Being Nickle and Dimed is not something anyone wants. While i can understand the IDEA of Cars having a Subscription service, in Principle and Practice its a HORRABLE IDEA! You OWN that car, so you SHOULD have access to everything that comes with it, thats how its always worked. Not to mention ALOT of people are pretty Tech savvy these days and could just "enable" the feature, so whats the point of trying to paywall it? Its more trouble then its probably worth.

[@tomlxyz]

In my opinion subscription are only valid if the provider has a regular cost in providing in whatever you get, like with streaming services. But if it's something that you just get, operate yourself and don't need any monthly service like some software, car, etc then it's just a money grab by the company

[@kgb4150]

@@tomlxyz I think software subscriptions make sense because the company is still expected to update the software and to do that means they have some continuous costs. My favourite type of software subscriptions are the ones that allow you to buy a version + x months of support and then renew the subscription or just not recieve any updates.

[@My_Old_YT_Account]

What no piracy does to a mf

[@kgb4150]

@@My_Old_YT_Account Nice reply, one small issue: it got shadowbanned. KZbin doesn't like it when we endorse the sailing of digital seas, apparently. For the ones who can't see it, the comment says "What no (p-word) does to a (letters "m" + "f")".

[@kgb4150]

Checking if all comments in this thread are visible, please tell me how many comments you can see above this one.

[@neutral139]

I do think, generally, people are not used to *managing* subscriptions and more and more people will get better at it. The only reason most subscriptions are so consistent is because you forget to pause/cancel on the regular. I am sure it'll become more normalized and automated somehow. A big issue with subscriptions is, like with Adobe, when they're structured as a year long thing paid monthly which makes it just "pay over time" and that actually really sucks.

[@uweschroeder]

Ironically people in the US are really bad at managing their money, that's why subscriptions work so well. If someone books something on my credit card - which I don't use much in the first place - I get a notification on the phone and I'll immediately check what that payment was. Most people don't check their bank statements at all. Almost none of my wife's coworkers check their paycheck - my wife finds something wrong in pretty much every single one. She stays over - someone forgot to enter it and you don't get paid. You're cut hours short etc. etc. Something is always wrong and we're talking several thousand dollars a year wrong. Do her colleagues care? no - too much work to write all that down and compare. So they cheat themselves out of thousands of dollars because they're too lazy to check their pay. Guess they all make too much.

[@lVideoWatcherl]

Why necessitate the end consumer to 'manage' even more of their lives in this space? One needs to realize that there is an enormous imbalance baked into the systems of subscription; one where the business holds the position of comfort once the hurdle is taken, not the customer. Businesses, each one, can afford to have staff, sometimes dozens to hundreds of people they _pay for,_ to do nothing but manage accounts all day. Customers _don't_ have all day. Why is it that we accept as a society that basically anybody has to be an accountant in order to keep track of every facet of their spending? And I'm saying that as someone who doesn't have that much issue regarding subscriptions, because I do manage mine by basically avoiding them as good as possible. I don't think our goal should be to change our economy in a way that continuously benefits companies and corporations (and thereby largely wealthy shareholders) before those being preyed upon by such practices. After all, these subscriptions are comparable to microcredits, and the damage those do are undeniable. So while one could demand that people just "manage their own money better", I ask why should they be forced to, with all that entails?

[@uweschroeder]

@@lVideoWatcherl While I'm not a fan or supporter of subscriptions, I do run a business that is based on a subscription model and I do have to say that the amount you can make on people with poor finacial habits is considerable. I have some subscribers who haven't used the site in years yet their subscription is still running. Quite frankly I don't feel bad about that. If you have that much money to spend in an uncontrolled manner it's your own fault. If people had more financial responsibility people wouldn't fall for buy now pay later companies. I'm not surprised people are in debt - they manage their finances like a teenager manages emotions. It's your money therefor it's your responsibility to manage it properly. If you don't notice that someone is charging you monthly because you're to lazy to check your statements it's your own fault. If anyone charged me even a single dollar on any of my accounts I'd know why or not I'd immediately follow up on that. Financial responsibility: something we should teach kids long before they get access to the internet.

[@lVideoWatcherl]

@@uweschroeder The issue with this thinking is that while between businesses, there is actual incentive and effort between multiple people to manage regular payments, the same is not true for ordinary people. I agree that it should fall to the consumer _to a certain degree_ not to overspend; but I also believe in order for this not to get out of hand, any subscription-based model should either be regulated to only work on a timed basis, meaning forcing companies to send reminder emails for renewals, or it should only work on prepaid or company-linked accounts. Yes, you're making bank on financial irresponsibility. But how are you to know that this irresponsibility is definitely the fault of a person? There's people out there that possibly got a subscription of a service, but then got in an accident. Old and aging people that got alzheimers. People that simply don't understand the language too well and entered into such a contract. With respect to your financial gains, I'd rather have these people protected from financial hardship, _as well as those,_ that are more prone to mismanagement, and put the burden of working for their money on you, than have the ease of making business be in your favor. This is neither in line with the core values of capitalism as it was conceived, nor is it beneficial for the economy overall, as these payments and payment models do drive people into poverty, and poverty costs everybody; people out of poverty, however, are beneficial for the economy.

[@uweschroeder]

@@lVideoWatcherl I can see the point about getting into an accident, the other points about aging people and people who don't have the capacity to comprehend what they sign or agree to should not be using the internet or have someone do it for them. Actually, Capitalism was conceived with the exact same mistake that Socialism and Communism was conceived with: human nature. Humans are a greedy bunch. Unregulated (mostly) Capitalism as we have in the US was thought to regulate itself mostly due to the assumption that humans have morals. Bad assumption, most don't. Capitalism itself is based on perpetual exploitation of resources and humans are simply resources. All these arguments for regulation are always concerning a small minority. The vast majority of today's people is simply financially irresponsible, because subscriptions have been around for ages and they were never a big problem except for those who don't care how much they make nor care how much they spend. When I listen to the payroll person at my wife's workplace,the majority of employees doesn't check their paycheck for accuracy - and you're talking lots of mistakes because it's short staffed healthcare with all sorts of staying over, picking up shifts, switching between shifts etc. Pretty much none of my wife's paychecks is correct and the employer offers to check for accuracy before payroll closes to avoid hassles. So some 80+% of the employees miss out on at least $10k a year. That also happens to be the people who have every subscription on the planet and don't know about it, but then they complain about being paid too little. So no, except for a small number of people who get trapped in these things not due to their own fault I have no compassion for people who don't know how much is in their account and who deducts what.

[@Diabolic_]

The BMW example gets thrown out a lot. My thoughts on this are also clear. You own the car, if you manage to get the software installed or some other way the seat heating activated without paying the subscription, you are still in the right. It is your car and you can do whatever you want with it. So that this will turn into another thing BMW will have to constantly care about. They will definitely spend a lot on sueing or hindering people from bypassing their subscription services, but probably less than they would rake in with this new business model...

[@med.mustaphaomari7139]

I think It is easy for BMW to make sure these things don't happen They can for example make the essential features of the car non available offline or need to constantly update , so they detect if someone got it without their permission and they can set a system and TOS that first just turn the feature off and send you a warning next you get a fine or something and then you get blacklisted , and since most people will just buy the subscription they would make enough money to not care enough to sue individuals but to trackdown the people who offer the service , like illegal streaming website , usually the owner is the one that get sued

[@megapet777]

There is probably a hack already out there to unlock the artificially blocked features. Besides heated seats should be basic feature on a premium BMW model, not an optional thing.

[@Knnnkncht]

The only costumer Benefit would be if you bought a used car, when the seller didnt pay for heated seats and you could now activate them

[@alkjhsdfg]

The BMW approach is probably not going to last. Not only do people find it highly offensive, which hurts the brand, but it may run afoul of "right to repair" laws. John Deere has faced this issue with farm equipment, and the courts have sided with the purchasers of the equipment being entitled to use/repair their machines in any way they so choose.

[@Genesis19623]

@@Knnnkncht that´s pretty much the reason for that BMW subscription model. I ordered my i4M50 with heated seats but I could also have ordered it without them. I think it is also not a bad idea to have a chance to test some extras with a one month subscription and not have to pay them fully upfront especially if you´re not sure if you really need them. And like you said, for the used market it´s also a good thing because you don´t need to look for a car with the exact extras you need when there is an option to buy them afterwards

[@KastaRules]

If we keep going this route I am afraid that in the near future there will be NO HOMEOWNERS anymore. There will be only Landlords (the big corporations) and Tenants.

[@maxscott3349]

That is how it was for a very long time

[@BraveAbandon]

History repeats

[@igorthelight]

Depends on the country ;-)

[@My_Old_YT_Account]

I think the "You will own nothing and you will be happy" people forgot that if we own nothing, we have nothing to lose In such a reality I give it 6 months to a year before landlords start having non consensual hot lead injections to the cranium, at least in the US that is

[@uweschroeder]

@@igorthelight Not anymore...

[@Gavanater7]

I miss when I could buy digital products. It's a dying age

[@KTSpeedruns]

Access to a service I can understand. Access to a product should not be a subscription service. If this gets too out of hand, you won't go into a grocery store and buy individual products. Nope, you'll pay a subscription for access, and depending on the tier, you'll be allowed a certain quantity of groceries.

[@annoying_something]

Don’t give them ideas lol

[@Grek1574]

Me with a zero subscription: Hell yeah😅 Me who also broke: Oh😮

[@thinkania1889]

It is good start point :)

[@eyesontoast1105]

Its funny, all it takes to make this transactional model acceptable in a universally resistant group ie everyone, is by exchanging the word RENT for the word SUBSCRIPTION. The best con of the 2010's in my opinion.

[@thetimelapseguy8]

The main reason subscriptions are so used is because investors love a predictable, constant stream of money.

[@uart341]

Personally, I would always pick buying over renting because I enjoy having ownership of what I live with. If I own a thing, that makes me independent of the company that made the thing.

[@Ethan13371]

For many, the amount of raw capital currently required for genuinely owning (not having any mandatory recurring fees, including debt like mortgages) homes and the like is pyrrhic to achieve, if possible to achieve at all, unfortunately.

[@AnomalyBelleza]

@@Ethan13371 Great commentary. I’d like to hear more. Why do you say that? Overall non-affordability or another reason?

[@Ethan13371]

@@AnomalyBelleza The big issue is that the median housing cost is rising at a higher speed than median income. And imagine if you have a below-median income; the price would feel much more desperate. Now, if we’re *all* renting then it becomes corporate feudalism (not good) until we can purchase enough land to build our own homes, which is getting similarly expensive. There’s caveats to this; Anything that you rent you don’t own, and owning property without debt is strictly superior, if it can be done. Not to mention that anyone who owes a debt becomes subordinate to the one owed to, at least proportionally to the size of the debt (if the debt is considered instead as work-hours worth of time) On a loan where money or labor isn’t the cost for failure to pay the debt, the one that owes the debt instead doesn’t own the collateral for the loan (e.g. any mortgaged property) I’m not saying people should practically sell themselves into indentured servitude or shouldn’t own the roof over their head, just that many find themselves that desperate, and it’s getting more and more likely that the below-median-income people of new generations will be forced to join them, unless them and their allies decide to co-own more efficient housing or something (which itself is a risky play) The only safe option is to make more money than many do, so you can afford to truly own your home; but the amount by which you need to exceed others seems to increase over time.

[@TheCarnivoreSoprano]

I have zero subscriptions and I intend to leave it that way.

[@LadyMorrigan]

yeah same, other than my rent sadly (and hopefully one day I can stop that as well)

[@Grek1574]

Bro u just broke! Admit it😂

[@Grek1574]

@@LadyMorrigan one day we all will stop renting and move to our own plot of land on cemetery 😅

[@LadyMorrigan]

@@Grek1574 nah its cremation for me lol, dont want to waste valuable land after im dead 😀

[@afrosamurai125]

That’s a weird hill to die on but do you I guess

[@viewer-of-content]

How Money Works: "Could they ban you from your House?" Me: "Lots of people are evicted all the time. And cars are repossessed. Scary isn't it."

[@paxdriver]

Worse than all that, subscription services can just decide to change their services or library on a whim. If you bought the library you'd always have access to the content you bought, but subscription streaming means you may not be able to watch any of your favourite movies / shows years later. The cost of buying them is sunk over years of subscription, but when you cancel it because they have jo content anymore you're left with nothing to show for the decades and money spent streaming it all.

[@gta4everrr]

I made the mistake of treating my first lease as a subscription and assumed that not renewing it was the same thing as cancelling it. Ended up having to pay an extra month's rent in fees. The only other subscriptions I have are Amazon prime, my phone bill, and internet bill.

[@ffwast]

Sounds like one subscription too many.

[@stapleman007]

You are also subscribed to Social Security and Medicare. Or are those Ponzi schemes?

[@ffwast]

@@stapleman007 Yes those are literally ponzi schemes

[@njpme]

Insurance

[@rey_nemaattori]

Insurances, utilities?

[@wooptoo]

You could pay for a license upgrade for most software back in the day, Photoshop included. So if Photoshop 7 was $350 you could pay $100 for the PS 8 upgrade if you wanted. If you wanted is the key here. They did not force you into paying like the subscription model does.

[@AnomalyBelleza]

Exactly!! I miss this.

[@orionh5535]

Subscription model just works better, mainly because people pay and forget. I get charged 2 dollars every month for a service I used once in my web developer career. Ive been meaning to cancel for ages, but always forget, for over 2 years now.

[@aidiogoserra1835]

Insteed of coment this you could just do it? Would be less work

[@DomskiPlays]

@@aidiogoserra1835 naah I'd keep it too

[@orionh5535]

@@aidiogoserra1835 I could! I totally could, nothing stopping me at all, no sir... Ohey look, a dumb meme compilation video! Brb

[@DadsCigaretteRun]

@@orionh5535 you both make excellent points 😂

[@aidiogoserra1835]

@@orionh5535 haha 😅

[@bernadettetreual]

There's also hybrid options, like rent-to-own, which my employer explored since our customers find it hard to put down a large sum for our software package, yet also want to own a license, instead of being dependent on us via a subscription. In the end, subscriptions make total sense in this world where buy-now-pay-later is so prevalent. People seem to not have the funds (or the willpower?) anymore to organize their finances and work towards being able to afford a purchase.

[@TheXxdaknessxX]

What industry are you in?

[@bernadettetreual]

@@TheXxdaknessxX music production software

[@alexanderfretheim5720]

"People seem to not have the funds (or the willpower?) anymore to organize their finances and work towards being able to afford a purchase." I don't agree. This has more to do with monopolies. At some point, we're probably going to have to bust the Big Tech companies in to smaller firms. That and maybe make an example out of some people.

[@Ammut6]

....thats because they're tying all of their budget up within subscription fees. 🤦

[@piyushbaroliya7153]

The rent-to-own model that you write about. Please describe. How different is it from subscriptions?

[@jonathanventigan790]

If they could get away with it, companies would have subscription-based pacemakers, airbags, and smoke alarms. If customers, no citizens, don't push back against absurd subscriptionization of products, this will become the norm for everything. There no need to turn into a subscription a functionality already present in a product that's sold.

[@haydenlee8332]

What people also need to keep in mind is that this phenomenon also explains why “it is more expensive to be poor” If you can just buy the entire thing once, you save money in the long run. However, poorer people cannot do that, that’s why they had to resort to spending more money on buying smaller package or rent . Our economy is showing its true colors and becoming a vicious cycle of ponzi scheme we can’t escape

[@yautl1]

_Late Stage Capitalism, Yay!_

[@alexanderfretheim5720]

Oh we CAN escape it, we just have to be willing to do something about it.

[@rajeev_kumar]

Well said

[@TJ-bu9zk]

What people also need to keep in mind is what "poor" actually is. If you are struggling with rent/food but you have Netflix, a monthly cellphone bill, and use uber eats... you are just someone living beyond your means.

[@theflowers999]

​@@TJ-bu9zk a cellphone is 1000% a modern necessity. and a lot of low-income folks use their smartphones as computers. getting rid of a $10/mo subscription isn't getting anyone out of poverty

[@suprafan246]

It’s the work of the WEF saying “you’ll own nothing and be happy”

[@zukaro]

I actively avoid subscriptions. I don't mind entertainment subscriptions, but even there I avoid them.

[@zornslemon]

Personally, I’m far more reluctant to add to my monthly overhead than I am to make a one time purchase. I feel like monthly payments are from my parents generation, when most people had consistent monthly income; or for white collar salaried employees at the tech companies themselves . Now most people I know have variable monthly income so We can never guarantee that We’ll be able to afford the thing in 6 months.

[@Ammut6]

​@@bill_the_butcherthis. Lmfaooo

[@renanfelipedossantos5913]

@@bill_the_butcher good luck with that in the era of gig economy, freelancing, part-time jobs and contractors.

[@zornslemon]

@@bill_the_butcher many jobs are paid based on productivity, or they pay an hourly rate but you will be laid off or have your hours reduced in slow times. Even salary jobs can be pretty unstable as companies staff up for big projects and then cut staff when the project is finished. Stable, predictable income is very hard to get in this day and age; congrats to you if you’ve achieved it but it’s out of reach for most people. At least congrats to you if you were born after 1980, if not than you’re kind of proving my point.

[@rainacherienne1010]

Same, I never buy subscriptions because it would just keep adding up every month. I’d purchase but there’s mostly no purchase option.

[@suicune2001]

That heated seats thing blows my mind.

[@bradk8590]

Wish you talked about things like Phillips Signify and Bosch Blue Movement. Subscription services for lightning and home appliances, actually priced pretty competitively to paying upfront for the hardware and being on the hook for repairs and replacements

[@TheMysteryDriver]

Then odds are lots of people don't need repairs or whatever. They wouldn't do it if it wasn't profitable

[@demanhemzelf4431]

@@TheMysteryDriver same could be said about insurance “they wouldnt do it if it wasn’t profitable”. But getting rid of home/car insurance would be dumb

[@electrogeek77]

@@demanhemzelf4431 To be fair, you legally have to buy some types of insurance (not that I'm against insurance).

[@TheMysteryDriver]

@@demanhemzelf4431 you already get uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage because people don't have. No real difference than mandating it to get a plate/registration. Just make it part of the state costs. Homeowners insurance is all about denying people. And you only need it if you have a mortgage (assuming the mortgage backer requires it).

[@demanhemzelf4431]

@@electrogeek77 for some things, yes. But for a lot of things (health insurance in the USA, or other insurance) it’s not mandatory. Yet ppl still buy it

[@Artufex.]

You mention subscriptions to necessary things like housing being bad, but we've had subscription models for housing for a long time: that's what renting is. (I think renting is bad if you want to stay somewhere long-term, but I think you already have a video about renting vs owning a home.)

[@incurableromantic4006]

At least in most places though there are laws regulating rents and giving tenants some protections. And there used to be a *lot* of landlords - now we're looking at the Blackrock's of the world owning every apartment in the city and calling their rent a "subscription". That's a dark world.

[@alexanderfretheim5720]

@@incurableromantic4006 Well what do you expect? If you so overregulate land use that no one can build apartments, eventually they're going to consolidate in to a smaller and smaller number of owners. And this regulation doesn't make our lives better either, it leads to ugly cheaply built five-over-ones in neighborhoods that used to have characters. It's time we admitted that there are entire classes of so-called "experts" in our society that are useless. Just because we have a law doesn't mean we have a good law.

[@Ammut6]

Which video does he speak upon owning vs renting? Would like to watch...

[@ajr993]

The company I work for is switching from hardware sales to a purely subscription based model. So B2B is also switching to subscription as well

[@alexanderfretheim5720]

And that works, as long as a competitor doesn't start offering hardware sales in a credible manner. That competitor may not be a company that existed yesterday.

[@arga400]

"How many subscriptions you have? Probably too many to count" *me with literally zero subscriptions* Yes fellow human I have many subscriptions just like you

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

Baffled how you can have too many to count. I can understand a few though and occasionally trying something new.

[@devononair]

@@ChaoticNeutralMatt oh, people definitely have a lot. Some people have alllll the TV services.

[@maxcy2890]

What Made Netflix Skyrocket in value was the lockdowns. *Everyone* was at home since they either couldn't go to work or simply were working from home. This created demand for an easy to access stream of content to consume and thus Netflix grew massively as a result, it also helped that at the time they had a large catalog of shows and movies as well as a number well made original shows like squid game, arcane and stranger things that took over the internet for a short period of time. Their slow down in new subscribers and now their negative growth comes from the fact that; A) people have gone back to work and no longer have a need for Netflix, B) competitors have appeared and took their content of Netflix for their own service and C) the recent drama over the price and "crackdown on password sharing" has just turned people away from even bothering with have a subscription. With all that said that's my take on Netflix's current situation and honestly I couldn't care less about any company no matter who they are, almost every single one is doing anti consumer shit.

[@turntprophet7960]

Subscriptions for entertainment is fine as long as there’s another way to get it like a disc or one time purchase digital download. Where it starts being a problem is when car manufacturers have subscriptions for heated seats.

[@ramonegues5689]

I would love to see people selling “pirated BMWs” or “cracked Mercedes”

[@Knnnkncht]

Well there are already people removing speed limiters for performance packs

[@dhimmzzzt.b5595]

I guess,this is definition of "You own nothing,you will be happy". These words truer than ever.

[@Ndesire]

I would add a caveat that the reason subscriptions can be a gateway to expensive products is by design. They jack up the price of the product then turn around and say well with a subscription you can absolutely have it all for a fraction of the price. They are effectively driving most of their customers to the subscription model because over time thats way more profitable. They never have to give you a physical product but you get to "rent" the service or product forever. The company then sees record profits, all gains no losses.

[@pillmuncher67]

Fun Fact: Housing rent is a subscription service fee.

[@kingknog9318]

You technically own the property for the period of the lease, unlike subscriptions where you own nothing

[@pillmuncher67]

@@kingknog9318 No, you don't. If it were yours the landlord couldn't complain if you removed walls or changed the windows or replaced the kitchen. Which, alas, he can.

[@pillmuncher67]

@@greenleafyman1028 Another Fun Fact: Taxes don't really pay for anything. Every penny the government takes in it has previously spent, so it's more of a pay back. See, the state is the master of money creation, even if it's delegated to a central bank. Without the state, central bank money is just funny paper. The central bank has an account for the state where it puts the newly created money and the state then auctions off that central bank money for fiduciary money. That's called bonds and that's how government debt accrues. Then the state uses the fiduciary money to pay it's employees, build roads, buy war ships and so on, and in doing so provides income for businesses and people. When the state takes in taxes, what it's really doing is collecting back some of the money it has previously spent (if it would collect all the money it has spent, there wouldn't be any money anymore - it's a math thing). It then uses this money to fill up its account with the central bank and pay for the bonds it has given out. But here's the kick: What happens if the state doesn't fill up its account with the central bank? Well, nothing, because the central bank usually belongs to the state. So, in effect, the state pays back debt that it owes to itself. Yes, I know, the Fed is formally not property of the American government, but the Fed's Chair is appointed by a Senate committee, and, as I pointed out before, without the state the central bank wouldn't exist, either.

[@stevekargbo5539]

​@@greenleafyman1028 if you don't pay one of the alphabet agent come after you

[@someguycalledcerberus9805]

Your life is a subscription and breathing is renewing your subscription.

[@aname4390]

Smart of you to start off the video with John Doyle after the big oof off the Blackrock video where you somehow forgot to mention ESG.

[@mathew5162]

I have 1 monthly subscription (Personal) and 1 yearly subscription (Work). But it is becoming increasingly more difficult I have noticed to keep paying an upfront lifetime fee for some things. I don't class a monthly phone goody bag or general bills like electric, internet and other essentials as a subscription, just niceties like: Spotify, Netflix etc...

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

Yep. It's much easier to find the sub price instead of a lifetime license nowadays.

[@Gg-ij7li]

Jesus loves you all and is coming back soon! Believe in His death and resurrection and repent of your sins and be saved! Remember that He died and rose up again for you to be in heaven with Him! Have an amazing day ❤️❤😊❤❤😊

[@tooeasyy5287]

@@ChaoticNeutralMatt And much cheaper

[@spaghettiisyummy.3623]

@@Gg-ij7li Wrong Comments section.

[@Ammut6]

​@@spaghettiisyummy.3623don't feed trolls

[@traplover6357]

Thank god for some softwares like FL Studio and Final Cut for being a one time purchase (not a license btw)

[@vyp0987]

The video compares subscriptions to a single up front payment but never compares subscriptions to pay for usage model. No one is going to pay a large amount up front to get Netflix for a lifetime but there are plenty of competing streaming platforms where you pay per video instead of monthly. Same for gyms - pretty much every gym does monthly subscriptions instead of paying for each day you use the gym. There some interesting psychology behind that.

[@uweschroeder]

That was exactly my idea when I canceled cable years ago. I wrote down all the shows we were watching and then went on Amazon and checked what buying those shows individually would cost and I came up with about 10% of the cable plan. So I canceled cable and said to my wife let's just buy what we watch for $2.99 an episode. Funny enough, we never really bought much because you just watch these shows to kill time. not for any good reason. We ended up getting a Netflix DVD plan - so we order the movies we want and that's it. We are about to cancel that too though. We just got out of watching TV for the most part. We watch a few YT videos and do other more fun things instead of wasting away in front of a TV. Mostly eliminating the TV has improved our quality of life a lot.

[@gigaus0]

You forgot the biggest market that shifted from single purchase to subscription/mortgage model. Phones. Used to be, you bought a phone for the house and had a monthly bill, and that was it. No needing to pay ahead of time to use the phone, you just paid for how much you used it. Same thing with Cellphones. Then Cells needed to have service hours or 'days', then different types of data. Then you needed to have a full on plan for it to even function, along with installment payments for the cells. Today, you need all of that, plus subscriptions for separate data plans, applications, and basic features. and it's illegal to fix them on your own. You want an accurate forecast of where subscription and live service models will go and end up? Look at phones. They did it first.

[@devononair]

You can still buy a cell phone. I bought mine. It was £300 and I pay £7 a month for my connection.

[@gigaus0]

@@devononair In the Americas-- US, Canada, Mexico, ect-- you can't. You have to pay it in installments, and sign a subscription contract to even buy a cheap $10 cell phone off a rack.

[@DoYouWantTaBeFree]

I think it would have been beneficial to have mentioned some of the failed subscription services of the past. Satellite radio comes to mind. I think the automotive subscription services will more likely end up like Satellite radio rather than Spotify.

[@PrograError]

It's just plain stupid... Unless it's software not locked down, there's always bypass if enough people had enough...

[@BlitzkriegOmega]

"You will own nothing, and you will be happy" was a promise, not a threat.

[@alexanderfretheim5720]

I think any form of tyranny has to have some kind of dream associated with it in order to not be immediately tossed out by its victims.

[@BlitzkriegOmega]

@@alexanderfretheim5720 True, and this is why leaderships in most dystopias (both real and fictional) have an extremely well-armed police/military force to curb such dissidence as violently as possible. Not because it's practical, but because the benefits of a terrorized and docile victim are greater than the costs of enforcing that terror.

[@pipbernadotte6707]

Once upon a time my wife and I tallied up how much we were spending on subscriptions. The total came out to about $220 a month on bull$h¡t. We canceled everything that night.

[@r.a.6459]

Tip: only keep subscriptions for things that make money in the long run Things that don't make you money, ditch it, even if it only costs $1 a year. You can only save so much, but there's no limit on how much you can make. The middle class people fell into this trap - spending 8 hours a week shopping for 90%+ discounted stuffs to buy something that doesn't give any returns. The rich don't do that, they made sure the stuffs they buy MAKES money.

[@NJdaniels96]

Even though Adobe gets the most flak for their subscription plan, they're the only software where it actually makes sense. It would take 10 years for the price of their full suite subscription to catch up to what it used to cost to buy. No one who thinks $10/month is too expensive for Photoshop would be lining up to buy a perpetual license for $700 if the option was still available. Every other software company though is atrocious. I shopped for accounting software recently only to find out that no company sells it in a buy once option anymore. Apparently Quickbooks used to be like $350 and that would last three years or so. Now the cheapest subscription price is $25/month, and adding even the most basic features onto it can more than double the price.

[@Ammut6]

...but isnt Photoshop $40 a month? That would mean that within a year you would have already paid for Photoshop itself.

[@NJdaniels96]

@@Ammut6 The Photoshop + Lightroom + 1TB of cloud storage bundle is $20/month. If you're a student, $20/month will get you *every* Adobe program.

[@Cuiro78299]

It's kind of ridiculous to me how digital scanning services, professional ones at least, cost so much. My dad is a lawyer and having his cases digital helps a ton. he pays for online resources that allow him to store and enter this data, but the most popular ones in his industry are broken and glitchy as hell. they cause so much stress and are so expensive.

[@garrettrinquest1605]

I work for a software company that uses a happy medium approach. Upfront purchase with a two week free trial. Then, an incremental payment for maintenance, which includes free updates and access to tech support. That way, old versions can still be used by cutomers, but the company has a consistent stream of revenue.

[@LRosieB]

There’s a reason that my family has kept our old disc of Microsoft Word. Most people don’t need extra features on an already complicated software. Word is fairly complicated, and most people don’t need the updates.

[@DadsCigaretteRun]

What if find interesting in the political world is both the “left and right” both seem to hate the prevalence of subscriptions. Yet we are almost forced to use them

[@seanwilliams7655]

After reading some of the other comments, I wonder if piracy has driven this rise in subscription services. When I think about some of the software that's subscription now, I remember that a lot of them were heavily pirated back in the early to mid 2000s. Maybe they figure if nobody actually owns a copy, nobody can pirate it.

[@My_Old_YT_Account]

Trust me, we still pirate it

[@seanwilliams7655]

@@My_Old_YT_Account lol. I'll take your word for it. I've been out of that scene a long time.

[@PvtAnonymous]

@@seanwilliams7655 in fact, piracy for movies and afaik music has gone up again. And this is most likely because of the too much subscriptions going on right now. People subscribed to Netflix because everything was in one place, now these companies take the L for trying to maximize their profits.

[@alexanderfretheim5720]

Yes and no. It's not quite correct to say "if nobody actually owns a copy, nobody can pirate it" because what does it mean to OWN something? If it means to POSSESS it, than clearly, the subscriber possesses it, and therefore can pirate it. What is true, however, is that piracy did make selling semi-owned software less profitable, and this drove companies to get creative with how to extract more value from users.

[@MugenHeadNinja]

@@PvtAnonymous Exactly this, it's much easier to spend money on a VPN service (many of which are constantly giving sales) that it is to pay for subscription fees in the long term. 3 years for ~$300 and you can P**ate everything you'd want safely + the other bonuses of having a VPN. ~$600 - ~$700 every 6 years vs ~$1000+ every six years for a single subscription (and that's if you only have a single subscription at $15 a month, such as Netflix)

[@SEB1991SEB]

If you buy a physical product (eg. a CD), then there's still value in that product. You can resell it later on if you wish to get some money back, or even just give it to someone you care about. But if you subscribe to a service, then after your subscription ends, you're left with absolutely nothing. So at all times you're reliant on the company to have something of value, which means you lose a lot of your independence.

[@philv2529]

And they have the power to delete or block you

[@ajr993]

Rent/housing has been the biggest subscription payment nobody thinks about since forever

[@devononair]

Everyone should be given a sensible sized house from the state, for free. Shelter is a human right.

[@johanngambolputty5351]

I have one subscription, CuriosityStream/nebula, which I don't really use, but its cheap and they seem wholesome, so I keep it. I also pay for ProtonMail(/VPN/Drive), but that's not on an (automatically) reoccurring basis.

[@ZorroVulpes]

The problem with subscriptions is when your stuff goes away. All my favorite Netflix movies/shows are gone, but all my DVDs and Blu-Rays are still here. I mean the last Blu-Ray I bought was Inglorious Basterds, but still.

[@a.taylor8294]

Online businesses like subscriptions make our cities boring. There are no longer stores to stroll in and out of. It's so ugly to see these empty storefronts and empty restaurants. Thus, we're not interacting with people more.

[@katie7748]

"You will own nothing and you will be happy."

[@user-is1eq9jm2t]

Literally never had any subscriptions in my life outside the gym pass. You can watch any movie or series online in decent quality without paying a cent, renting cars is a fucking nightmare, and for any subscription based programme you can in 90% of cases find a free pirate analog

[@steelyvisionary]

Only way to counter this is to vote with your money. I avoided buying a particular treadmill because they make it very difficult to even turn it on without downloading their app and putting in a credit card for a monthly workout subscription. Went with a cheaper, though arguably lower quality brand that didn’t have any subscription gimmicks

[@shawmutt]

It not always a bad thing. I (and my family) spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars on music as a kid for a limited catalogue. I pay a monthly fee for the entire family, have an essentially limitless catalogue, and don't need to spend money on my teenagers while letting them explore their favorite music.

[@electrogeek77]

Until you're in a situation where you can't afford that subscription anymore, and you lose your music collection. It seems foolish not to purchase your absolute favorites as backups (and to supplement the paltry royalties streaming gives artists).

[@TheXxdaknessxX]

Subscriptions don't make sense in every single thing; music, movies and videogames are good enough. (None of these things are neccessary for living) Cars, MS Office, Pantone Colors, Groceries, Shaving equipment, Coliving and even software for some big enterprices or industries make absolute zero sense.

[@jaywerner8415]

@@TheXxdaknessxX I agree.

[@zwerko]

And what happens when your streaming provider's servers have an outage or the company goes belly up? That's right, you wish for the 'limited catalogue' as that is still infinitely better than no catalogue at all.

[@shawmutt]

@@zwerko Yes, Apple, Spotify, Tidal, and whatever else is out there will go belly up any day now.

[@OhAwe]

You could've just said "greed" is the reason why, and been completely accurate.

[@islar7832]

In a way I wish that all car manufacturers sell you the car for cheap with everything locked behind subscriptions, because then you can pay a third party a much smaller sum of money to unlock everything for you 😆

[@robertanna9964]

I'm assuming you've never heard of the digital millennium copyright act.

[@petelee2477]

Or just hack it yourself

[@Iron-Bridge]

There'll be an underground market for hacking through all that. Demand drives business.

[@Maki-00]

I had a hell of a time finding a stand alone version of Microsoft Word when I bought my last computer. I don’t want to pay for a subscription every month. If I buy it, it’s mine.

[@dawidjagodzinski1597]

I Love the bromance How Money Works share with Patrick Boyle! Two super high quality finance channels with real finance background to back it up!

[@karlstrauss2330]

We will own nothing and be happy… 😭

[@isaach.1135]

That and something about pods and bugs.

[@andrewpolito9244]

Exactly what I thought. Great Reset!

[@fullmetaltheorist]

@@andrewpolito9244 **Ryan Trahan poses**

[@ZeromuS_]

I'm curious, how well does this survive recessions. Really wonder what works longer term as a subscription system

[@alexanderfretheim5720]

I'm less wondering about these services surviving recessions, and more wondering about these services surviving changing politics. A lot of these subscriptions really exist because of monopolies, especially the software ones.

[@Metaris]

I only pay for two subscriptions these days: Spotify and a single video streaming service at a time. I rotate the video streaming service whenever I start running out of content I'm interested in. No sense in paying for more than one. The BMW subscription thing was interesting. It hadn't occurred to me it was to streamline production. Makes a lot of sense. It also gives BMW owners an easy workaround: unless it's an annual model, just unsubscribe from spring to fall. It'd be cheaper even than adding a feature package.

[@foobarFR]

Your channel becomes more and more complementary to Patrick Boyle's one. This video is a perfect second part for his one about blitzscaling.

[@eddygci8]

Goated

[@lukemorgan6166]

Both are trash honestly

[@myFortunaCreator]

Nice explanation! Software subscriptions should make perfect sense for customers when the services they are paying for cost the company ongoing costs. Things such as cloud storage, computation infrastructure and licensing are not free and factoring them into a one time payment for all the different types of customers is next to impossible.

[@alexanderfretheim5720]

One model I've thought of is selling the single-player for a video game as a single, upfront purchase price, but then using cloud computing to support a mega-multiplayer that the player pays for and could support awesome processing speeds and huge games. The benefit of this model is I'm getting recurring revenue from my players, but also providing them with a real recurring service in return, which is the ability to support much bigger, greater, more reliable and more awesome multiplayer games than their computer could locally host. I would also offer free substitution in to on-going games (if a player steps off, another player could take over their position) for those who just want to try out the service before they commit to buying a game. You would also be allowed to modify the game, but only under the precondition that you sell your mod in the games marketplace. Regardless of what price you charge, we collect $5 from each download, so there's a financial incentive to produce mods that are of great value. We won't prohibit "Christmas mods", "Barney mods" or the like, a little cheekiness can be fun and adds to the community, but the financial incentive will be to produce something that a player would spend $50 on, because then we only collect 10% of the price instead of 50% of a $10 download. This also helps players find what they're looking for, since the monetary incentive is to produce one mod that is really, really good instead of 100 so-so mods.

[@timop6340]

I don't mind if there is possibility to both purchase or rent through subscription. Too bad that purchasing is not anymore an option for lot of stuff. And some pc software I've purchased cannot be installed anymore (thanks Adobe).

[@timop6340]

I for example drive a car and financial risk is limited to insurance deductible and it is cheaper than what would be possible by purchasing car and paying for service because it is through manufacturers subscription service that must be subsidied notably. Probably as a part of marketing campaign for the subscription service.

[@matthewleitch1]

One good reasons for subscription services is that they can be more resource efficient. The customer buys the end result they want and the expert (the supplier) is free to provide that end result as efficiently as they can, using every engineering idea they can to conserve energy, water, reduce pollution, reduce labour requirements, etc. The customer is relieved of many decisions about purchase and disposal, maintenance, consumables, etc because the supplier, with its computer control systems, etc, does it for them and usually does it a lot better than the customer would have.

[@bradk8590]

I've just transitioned from Spotify to buying music off of iTunes and Bandcamp. It just feels better. I was a premium user for about two years, so I paid roughly $250 during that time. After cancelling I now have nothing besides the normal free service. I could have had 25 albums whose files would be mine forever even if iTunes ceases to exist. I am not anti-subscription, though. They're not some insidious new invention... TV/Movie services are pretty similar to paying for cable, except you get more control over what you are willing to pay for. And I'm willing to pay for things I think are worthwhile, though my total subscriptions are less than $30/mo.

[@alkjhsdfg]

You're in a small minority. People aren't paying for the music on Spotify, they're paying for the convenience of unlimited access and the curation of the playlists. Buying music yourself is more work and doesn't carry the social prestige it did back in the days when everyone bought physical media.

[@abhi8178]

Bruh just download the mp3 from KZbin

[@Knnnkncht]

Wouldve been funny if you had included a subscription ad like for NordVPN

[@QoraxAudio]

Subscription based products mean that when you stop paying, you're left with nothing to show for. Since I have a variable income, I can't just assume I'm able able to pay recurring bills all year long, year after year. For example when it comes to music: I'd rather buy a 4k turntable and 50 bucks/record in times of financial success and not spending anything in times of financial misfortune.

[@TomMcMorrow]

I know exactly how much I pay for subscriptions each month. $3.33 for PlayStation Plus (and make judicious use of the free games) and that's it!

[@nettiefoo383]

That's $3.33 more than me! I hate the subscription model and won't have any.

[@zanerasmussen8889]

This is why I ended up buying Affinity over Adobe.

[@greengoblin2460]

Good video. This is an ongoing problem that people seemed to have overlooked but I don’t think I totally agree with the adobe subscription model. Not every person wants the new features added to the software. Some people are fine with a basic model. I think as a whole these subscriptions are designed to make market research, reliance and consumer spending easier. They don’t provide any advantage to the consumer in the long run.

[@crusaderknight007]

I would like to have the option, though. If I only want one version and stay with it for years, it's not possible. For me, that only confirms that they don't care about their customers.

[@user-id8lw9wn3r]

Bro you’ve inspired me to get into financing and accounting keep up the vids❤

[@aaronmarkham4424]

There is a very easy way to deal with subscriptions that won’t let you cancel the said subscription, cancel the card it’s on, update the card then cancel the card, might be a pain to get a new debit card but screw the companies that won’t let you cancel

[@thelegendarywizard]

Did not expect to see John Doyle in your content, very smart guy

[@Stealth1337]

Let's see. Utilities (phone,power, water etc), health insurance (in 3rd world countries like i.e. USA), Taxes, pension funds, etc. Back in the old days, the serfs had to pay a subscription to be allowed to stay on the land and live off of it. I'd say we re used to it right now , nothings gonna change.

[@bb5242]

at least I can see a GP with no real wait if I'm ill.

[@Stealth1337]

You mean, assuming you re employed , and thus as a surf , useful.

[@richardwillson101]

"How many subscriptions do you have?" - Excluding a phone bill and a Mortgage, I have two. One for Spotify, the other for a membership to a theme park chain and that will reduce to one when my "fixed term" is up. I refuse to purchase anything as a subscription where possible and am very grateful at the moment that it IS still possible for almost everything.

[@dray22222]

The main downside to a subscription being if you do not have internet access you may be locked out of the thing you are paying for. Subscriptions used to be reasonably priced but the mafia that are corporations have seem to taken a run on greed. Old Microsoft word/excel being a prime example or photoshop. The old versions work just as well as the new ones for most consumers.