Why Everything Became A Subscription

[@slidebean]

Our documentaries are getting longer, and we'd love to hear what you think? Is it too much? Is it more insightful? Also, thanks again to our sponsor for teaching us most of what we know about running a subscription business ► chartmogul.com/slidebean/

[@NationX]

Nope Nope the length is perfect and the info is 👌!

[@emilyanne1311]

Love the longer videos. Great for working, housework and the commute!

[@tilsgee]

As long as it's not over 2 hours, I'm fine

[@tilsgee]

@@emilyanne1311 same.

[@atulpradhan6113]

No problem bro ,keep it up lot of respect for your content

[@JoyIsNiceDK]

Gotta be honest, everything turning into a subscription is fucking dystopian

[@深夜-l9f]

it's capitalism, it existed like for centuries. it took that much time to come to this stage which is insane. if people for once did the right thing it would turn back to being normal instantly. but they don't

[@doofsdoofs]

@@深夜-l9fIt would be just as, if not more dystopian under communism. Don't kid yourself.

[@hopeseekr]

Learn to pirate and become free.

[@Pulapaws]

@@doofsdoofsall can be good or bad it depends on the core morals of the companies and the leadership period. There was a society in South America a tribe that had zero forms of money zero and they was doing good for centuries and it was a huge city. Begin I repeat for centuries until the colonists come and destroy the people completely even when they give them gold as they saw they was crazy about it and they wasn’t at all they just saw it as a shiny rock. So I shows any system can work if the people in it and the people in leadership don’t get overly corrupt. It not true about capitalism only working because even this society have a mixture of socialism in it. What you think SSI and government welfare bailout system for zombie company because they allowed monopolies with little regulation any more. If it wasn’t for the socialist government giving people money to make for unlivable wages and bailing out the companies and markets stock markets this economy was have super cash worst than the Great Depression.

[@Pulapaws]

@@深夜-l9fnot it doesn’t work at all period. You forget all the great huge crashes? This never been a pure capitalist economy and it not even a real market no more. We have socialism mix on it with the government giving assistance for unlivable wages, and government welfare to companies that to big to fail that they allowed to be monopoly. It not working and it never can stand on it own. All systems can work if we can control the moral values of the companies and leadership. In fact there was a city in South America before the colonist come and completely wipe out the people. That had no money system at all. In fact, it shock the Europeans because just about every place they discovered on earth had a form of money system. Yes the people what in for centuries without one. They give the people gold as they just view it as a shiny rock but the European value it like life itself. They hope they would leave them alone as a people, but that was a huge mistake as it lead them to what to destroy them and take their land. We just reading the corrupted European views on money and values pure propaganda and not viewing that all system don’t work with morals isn’t in-line period. They don’t want the worker bees to know this. Even nation that claim they believe the Bible don’t practice the values of the Bible because instead of letting everything crash even 50 or so years the Bible says to have a jubilee where all debts are forgiven to everyone, it a reset be reset that doesn’t cause so much pain to the huge average person that will always be more in number them the super rich. Someone have to be the base to hold up the top. What out the socialist programs even now this would have completely collapsed in a horrible way. So all governments do a little socialism so the people will not all upraise at once like they did in the pass when there was only one system and they leaders was living very comfortably and disconnected to the point they say like them eat cake.

[@vsnkqfo8]

I can't be the only one seeing the irony of a subscription ad in a video about how subscriptions are making people spend more money.

[@Mr.Coffee576]

Subscriptions are habit forming. You use a subscription service for a year, you are more likely to renew it for next year because the habit has been formed by then.

[@finalcutgod]

it's the lindy effect in action

[@hiphopheaven]

Especially with auto renewal.

[@lowwastehighmelanin]

Good point. It can be useful for people with lack of access to services. For example my kid lives in an extremely rural area. She gets Stitch Fix to make sure her clothes fit her properly

[@turtleanton6539]

Yes

[@cttommy73]

I personally avoid as many subscription as possible and frankly, like 99% of subscription are just pure luxury and only a small fraction is really mandatory. P.S. Also, the reason most company move to subscription is because it A, makes a lot of money for them and B, which is the most important, is the mantra(theirs) of "You will own nothing and you will be happy about it."

[@marikothecheetah9342]

Exactly. Which for me, as a person who could buy physical copies of films and watch them whenever, not paying a further dime for it is pretty forked up. But, if that floats a boat of younger generations - fine. Let them have fun of not owning anything. :)

[@ZergRadio]

I was always taught about what is a luxury item and what is not. When I go to the store to purchase food, I always will see how much the product costs per kilogram or litres. In that way you can measure what is really expensive and a luxury item. Now most probably do not shop like that. I often see people at that chocolate/candy department. Those are very luxury goods. Some of the good chocolates that I like are like 1500 SEK/143 Dollars per kilo. Compare that to cold smoked salmon at 420 SEK/40 dollars per kilogram. (2,20 LB) Keep control of your finances people.

[@marikothecheetah9342]

@@ZergRadio I do that and I do keep my finances under control.. Hence no subscriptions for me.

[@mt000mp]

@@ZergRadio `wants` has become `needs` nowadays.

[@meatballhead15]

I feel like a luddite because I always buy hard copies of books and almost always buy hard copies of media like music and films that I like enough I want to own. The idea of paying the same amount or more to 'rent' something instead of own it, or to lose access to something 'in the cloud' if I forget a password, lose access to an email, or if they simply merge companies, change their policies, etc... I like owning my things!

[@mikey3672]

I am sick and tired of this never ending profit minded companies as well as my never ending consumption of services and goods. I am going to learn how to live modestly. That is the least I could do for this earth. To not over consume.

[@drob8220]

When talking about inflation things like almost mandatory subscriptions and costs of non essential services are never taken into account. Thank you for finally bringing light to something like this. Compare cost of living today vs 40 years ago, its not simply rent and food, its everything like this also

[@efivip93]

Fan of thunderf00t? 😋

[@CrashTestZombie-mx3nj]

Exactly why I practice setting an intention & a calendar alarm for unSubbing. To me Netflix just has 2 shows - and I dip set as soon as I'm done. Stranger Things has cost me $40.

[@Blackwing2345635]

@potsmoker54 ISP

[@Sasha-zw9ss]

@@CrashTestZombie-mx3nj You should've just pirated them like any sane person.

[@itwsntme]

This is why I'm still rocking office 2011. The last one I bought. I'm allergic to subscriptions and don't pay for anything "as a service" unless is actually a service

[@knoahbody69]

We are not people we are revenue streams. We are the battery that powers the matrix.

[@ezy.doesit]

my rule for software is, if they turn into subscription i will crack it! simple as that, i did it with adobe photoshop and premiere. i simply want to buy and own it!

[@shivadarling18]

Imagine saying, "I want to give you money" and the companies think that's not enough.

[@KayLa-sq7cv]

Help I want adobe

[@MrSociofobs]

With content subscriptions, you're only paying for temporary access to the content, not the content itself. That means that there's ultimately no point to libraries and playlists anymore, because anything can be swapped, modified or taken off of the service at any time. When you have a physical copy of something, no decision that isn't yours will mess with what you have paid for. With a subscription, you have no control over the content whatsoever. Same with software as well, good luck for an example getting access to an older version of a program for whatever reason. You're forced to use what the "service provider" is offering, and for as long as they're offering it. Screw this business model.

[@rayakoth]

I get that in the old model, people don't pay for shitty upgrades if the older one is better. But now with subscriptions, people are forced to put up with shitty upgrades or change their vendor, losing years of progress.

[@NO-FILTER-EXPERT]

Simple dont make shitty upgrades (aka dont make shitty products). Its because of lazyness. end of reason. they want money for no reason without putting in work to earn it. These same lazy companies still charge $7000 upfront to buy the device and still lock down the software features on the device behind a licensing/subscription fee paywall.....ultimately making your freshly bought $7000 device uses and you spent a arm and leg on nothing in return. This seriously needs to be against the law for false advertisment, anti ownership, anti customer and because just being scummy evil. Nothing is ever good with subsciption/licensing based models. Its literally against the customer, the customer will end up spending MORE than what they wouldve spent on if it was a simple ONE TIME PAYMENT and just anti customer asf. sooo F the subscription based stuff. I gotta spend 10,000 on a product and still cant use it because everything is soft locked behind a pay wall??? F that model. Bring back the SANE days of business and customer relationships aka GREAT PRODUCT MADE WITH LOVE and ONE TIME PAYMENTS and if you couldnt outright one time buy it....than a (rent to own) would be a valueable subsitution.

[@CrashTestZombie-mx3nj]

"Nothing you can do about it" 😆😂🤣💀👻 While watching i cancelled: - Netflix - Bumble - Hello Fresh and that's $100/m saved right there.. It was actually easier to sign up for a class action lawsuit against Amazon than find out where they buried their unSub. Love this channel and it's host mr.slidebean, who's name I'll know as soon as the editor gives him a pseudo-persistent title card.

[@slidebean]

It’s Caya ✌🏽 - Caya

[@CrashTestZombie-mx3nj]

@@slidebean Caya you are SUCH a compelling and down to earth host! I immediately appreciated your authenticity and the subject matter you select and the way you disect made for an easy decision to subscribe on my end. Keep it up!!!

[@slidebean]

@@CrashTestZombie-mx3nj thanks for this CTZ. 🫶🏼 - Caya

[@wwatse]

In my country Ghana 🇬🇭 we even go as far as making fan of people who pay for subscriptions for movies because it's ridiculously expensive in our currency plus there is practically no cost to just pirating the movie in fact piracy is kinda the convinient

[@ricky00x]

Very nice video. But I noticed that you didn't even talk about all the "support your creator subscriptions" like Patreon or Twitch subscriptions; I find this a very interesting topic. I think only a very small amount is going to pay individual creators, but this still makes a lot of money for them.

[@SheilferZepeda]

You’re right. Creators like me have to compete with entire corporations to charge above $3 with the right incentive.

[@Space_Writer]

I think in order for a person to get to that point where they are creating enough value-add content that patrons are willing to pay for, they need to produce good content. I'm not saying you need subscription based apps and software to make good content, but most people support two kinds of creators: those that provide high amounts of information or high production value entertainment.

[@lowwastehighmelanin]

I just cancelled all of those except one. I don't need it.

[@magickpalms4025]

this convinced me to finally sit down and get rid of the subscriptions that have been eating at me from their lack of value... you know, the ones that i was "for sure" going to cancel before getting charged haha

[@Viviko]

Some subscriptions honestly just make no sense. Like, heated car seats which some automakers have been doing. Like, that just makes no sense and is an obvious money grab.

[@lordprotector3367]

I believe BMW cancelled that when people complained.

[@ninjanerdstudent6937]

It is amazing how people fork over at least $10 per month for "cloud storage." For that same price you can buy 128 gb flash drives for the same price, and as it fills up, buy another. 512 gb SSDs are super cheap now at just $20! I usually just buy a new SSD every 2 years and reinstall my OS. When it fills up with data, just buy another. By 2030, a 1tb SSD may be under $30. It's simple logistics and math.

[@hopeseekr]

I pay for cloud storage so that I don't have to worry about the hard drives dying so much. I do both. Mega for 2 TB for ~$5/month.

[@ianvance1647]

As an Economics teacher that focuses on the history side, these videos are fantastic as teaching tools. Also hit the nostalgia vibes for this middle aged dude. Thanks!

[@404T2K]

This should be the standard for schools.

[@ivecadit]

You will own nothing and be happy.

[@Nathan-nr5lg]

WEF didnt even communicate that message lol

[@ivecadit]

​@@Nathan-nr5lgfair enough, I'll delete the reference to WEF just like they washed all references from their website and marketing material.

[@Penelope416]

@@Nathan-nr5lg United Nations did.

[@brandonbagwell7676]

I'm pretty miserable about it. Its also why I only have one service (Sirius), and won't ever get another. Ever!

[@CosmicHarmony58]

And you cowards will do nothing about it…But peacefully protest..Typical cowardly Conservatives.

[@ChibiKeruchan]

Subscription is renting and is about building a reliance. They are trying to make you rely on them. And also makes you hard to switch coz in order for you to switch. You will be subscribing to both until you are completely decided that you finally want to drop the other one.

[@aangitano]

​@Remain Nameless i agree! When you bought stuff before you had the physical copy to do whatever you want with it. Now you "buy" items you likely are only buying the license and it's limited to using it on the seller's specific platform. That's why I've never purchased a digital item. Either I buy a physical copy and it's actually mine or I stream.

[@mukkaar]

@Remain Nameless I do think there's huge problem with that. If you buy subscription, I do understand that. But if you actually buy music, ebook, or movie for example, it should be usable in any device, player, offline or online. Same with games, I do think you should be able to separate them from the platfrom and play them anywhere or store them in case game is discontinued or platfrom/company quits. I do pay for Spotify at all times, and video streaming services as necessary if there's some insteresting show or something. But I still download movies/shows just so I can have those files. I would be happy to pay for proper copies in legitimate way, but I'm not not going to "buy" stuff if I'm just leasing it for as long service has rights to the piece or that I hav to worry about service going under and losing my purchased products with it.

[@legendp2011]

@@aangitano while it's for games. the service GOG (good old games). does give you a permanent offline install file. essentially once you buy it, you have a permanent copy on a harddrive

[@mukkaar]

Oh, and to add to this a bit. I do know you can get a lot of this stuff on disks, But it's cumbersome and inconvenient. It can also be broken and wear out.

[@seiyachan]

That's how you will be required to subscribe to the heater function inside your car one day.

[@johnsamuel1999]

Many subscriptions have "Hooks" that trap you from leaving, like cloud storage for google or software integration for adobe or convenience with spotify. Subscriptions also create a habit of you using that service, making you more likely to continue using it

[@Destide]

Not one mention of current Free Open source software and Self-hosting alternatives people could use to escape these models.

[@elizabethhamilton1166]

I use Libre Office, an open source suite of office apps.

[@doofsdoofs]

this guy makes money in the world of marketing, listen to the last ten seconds of the video again-he doesn't want you to think of any other option.

[@kraut1982]

Homeownership is also a subscription. People hate banks and mortgages but after you are done paying off your home loan for 30 years, you realize you are now paying property taxes on your home at a higher dollar amount than your 30 year old mortgage😢. If you pay for your router to your ISP, then after few years you will eventually own it and not pay taxes on it. But on the home you always have to pay taxes to government or your home is sold off by tax authorities.

[@NO-FILTER-EXPERT]

Just evilness. simple. greed and etc

[@emeraldwind4897]

Exactly, You own nothing at all, same with physical games and movies, You have a license to play it, not actually own the title.

[@eternaldarkness500]

Microsoft office really only costs $10, after cancelling my subscription I have been using it for almost a year. It tells me that I will lose access on x date, but that date is constantly pushed back.

[@wooddavid8293]

I love the documentary format. I'm not an entrepreneur or part of a start up but Slidebean documentaries really educate me on modern business and aspects of our world/society. Please keep it up!

[@PrincetonTech-h1w]

I feel like the section on Spotify left out some key details. Like he ends by saying it makes sense, but Spotify is approaching market saturation and is not profitable, and artists on Spotify, even ones not attached to a record label that are relatively successful, cannot make any sort of living off the money from Spotify. It seems like a lose-lose for artists and Spotify, and only really a win for record companies. As a user Spotify makes sense, until the moment a song you like is removed from Spotify and you realize that over the years you've paid hundreds of dollars just to not own anything.

[@epi2045]

You’re so young. 1999 my cable bill was $218/mo. DSL that was 1/10th the speed was $99/mo. My cellphone bill averaged $155/mo for ONE device. Without streaming music, I spent approximately $600/yr on cd’s or approximately $50/mo. As for software, Microsoft Office was $500 which was good for about 3 years before upgrading ($14/mo for one computer) and Adobe Suite was $800 again upgrading every 3 years ($22/mo for one computer). That’s $558/mo or adjusting for inflation $1,007/mo not including utilities. Today I’m spending approximately $700/mo for 5 smartphones, netflix, prime, hbo max, appletv, paramount +, apple music, 2tb of cloud, playstation premium, xbox ultimate, 10X speed internet, office 365 pro, and about 10 other subscriptions. My life is better, more productive, bigger, easier, for less money than 20 years ago.

[@AdjourArcane]

I'm an elder millennial, I can tell you guys know this isn't normal. The fact alot of you guys grew up in this and instinct still tells you it's bad juju is refreshing

[@aaazzi]

The milkman was tracking churn in another way 😅

[@slidebean]

LOL shame on us for missing this pun - Caya

[@dcbaars]

I got rid of most stuff except for internet, Spotify and Netflix. When working most of the time and other time spent at the gym I don’t need much more. In app purchases and all these things it’s insane. Start walking outside meet friends get together. All these subscriptions aren’t needed

[@flaked_mid_hoof]

Dear @slidebean team. You guys truly make amazing content and truly deserve the platinum plaque 😊 Keep up the good work!

[@slidebean]

🙇🏽‍♂️🫶🏽

[@HiddenExp]

It would be great if products consistently and significantly improved over time, but that's not always the case. I would prefer to pay extra for each update, although ideally, I would pay for each feature whether I personally need it or not.

[@kytoober5137]

A great example is Adobe... They were one of the first to do this and their product in general doesn't improve much. There have been a few big changes to certain programs but overall the updates are slower and often come at a cost (Have to update hardware that is only a year old, takes more memory, more volatile/likely to crash, etc)

[@sargonassarg4356]

Subscriptions are why I stopped buying apps on Apple's iOS. Apparently, in 2017 or so, Apple had a secret meeting with big developers and suggested they all should consider making their apps subscription only for reasons outlined in the slidebean video and among the first to go subscription was my first app called TuneIn Radio which I paid $12 for already. From that point on, I helplessly watched as all the others apps I already PAID FOR were suddenly disabled and became subscription only. Apple has actually shaped the platform to favor subscriptions. For one thing, if you were a developer, you had to pay a developer fee every year. I think it's around $150 or so. You also need a Mac to publish an iOS app on the app store. To keep them on the app store year after year, you have to re-publish your app on the latest iOS otherwise those who have updated to the latest iOS won't be able to use your app. Yes, this is a requirement even though your app will now have any new features that actually benefit the user when published to work with latest iOS version. So basically, if you only made one or two apps that are one-off purchases, there was no incentive for you to keep paying the Apple dev fee; especially if sales of your app taper off after the second or third year. The result? Most of those small app developers just stopped update their apps and those apps then became incompatible with later versions of iOS. So if you got a new phone with the latest updates, you can't that app you paid for because the developer didn't update it. What this basically meant was all those cool neat little apps would eventually die if you updated iOS or bought new smartphones/tablets. I have gone through many calendar apps because one by one, the developer would just abandon them after sales peaked. Even my e-mail app wasn't immune. I paid 8 bucks for one of the e-mail apps but then it went subscription for $4.99 per month. Who the fuck pays $4.99 per month for a fucking e-mail app? So now, I just use the apps that come withthe iphone for my calendar and e-mail needs. They are free and won't expire on me because apple updates those. Don't even get me started on the Adobe bullshit.

[@BeingForeverBroken]

Have you considered switching to Android?

[@vicadegboye684]

​@@BeingForeverBroken😂😂😂 Great question!

[@ItsRyanStudios]

Thank you as always for your fantastic and thorough content. Iv been doing my best to fight against this. Got rid of Amazon (if I made it this far in life without that trinket, I probably don't NEED it) Downloaded all of my music locally. Used DVDs ripped to a self hosted cloud for streaming. Open source software to replace any subscription services. And we'll soon have open source self hosted AI assistants that can feasibly replace a chat gpt subscription. The own nothing and be happy agenda is in full force, but with some effort, there are still ways to fight back.

[@GuyMahoney]

Utilities aren't a subscription, you pay for watt you use.

[@Makkara91]

At least here in finland theres the subscription part and the usage based part in the electric bill.

[@GuyMahoney]

@@Makkara91 In the UK we also have standing charges, so a subscription on access to the infrastructure, but I wanted to make a pun.

[@FitR_MusicProductions]

More or less, there’s the service fee portion which stays pretty much constant, mines like $25

[@chesthoIe]

9:36 “You gotta have a product that everybody needs every day. We don’t have it in booze. Except for the lushes, most people only buy a couple of fifths of gin or scotch when they’re having a party. The working man laps up half a dozen bottles of beer on Saturday night, and that’s it for the week." “But with milk! Every family, every day, wants it on the table. The people on Lake Shore Drive want thick cream in their coffee. The big families out back of the yards have to buy a couple of gallons of fresh milk every day for the kids. Do you guys know there’s a bigger markup in fresh milk than there is in alcohol? Honest to God, we’ve been in the wrong racket right along.” - Al Capone

[@potbellyfatguyfromnewyorkcity]

funny because milk consumption has decreased dramatically from the 1990s to mid 2020s (2023). dairy farmers are in trouble...

[@rfmckean]

I do not want ads with a subscription. The reason why I do not use Apple News+ is because it includes ads. I would be willing to pay C$ 12.99 if there were no ads. I would never degrade my Netflix or Spotify subscriptions if I had to watch ads. Ads are a deal breaker for me. Isn't a niche comparative advantage for Netflix it's non Hollywood content? I like its French language shows as a means to practise French.

[@lukehanson7554]

Sponsored ad is shamelessly saying "if you can't beat em, join em." Perfect.✨

[@DerDudelino]

Honestly speaking: That's why I love Paypal, which allows me to unsubscribe and block financial access for companies with a single click. The danger of paying for a ton of subscriptions without noticing is way too high these days.

[@ereviewsyt]

"You can just hook up to AWS, and rent their server space." is such an oversimplification. Most companies charge a subscription fee not to make money but to simply offset their cloud infrastructure costs. I felt the video spent way too much time on the consumer side when the real reason is the business side of this 'new' business model. PS - I work for a Canadian company that makes sustainable in-home building technology. We've achieved whole-home automation as a standard at $0. Yes, no added cost to anyone in the new home building pipeline. But cloud services is out of our control and hence the subscription. Happy to provide more information 😊

[@H0mework]

Thanks for the free content subscription! 😛 I remember when Netflix said their competition was sleep. It was actually KZbin ;)

[@thestrategyguy2662]

“These boomers were onto something” 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 shit made me laugh out loud

[@reignandbongao9497]

I will never accept this paradigm shift. Not having ownership over a thing you have paid for and having subscription for food, car features, software sounds so dystopian coming from a developing country.

[@BosqueVillage]

By going off grid, you can escape the subscription fees of utilities. For the past 20 years the only monthly bill I have is satellite internet. I started in the software industry in 1985. I detest subscription based software.

[@mxm23adregalusandmore62]

Same. Good to hear you went off grid, king.

[@nikyabodigital]

There's subscription everywhere but KZbin Premium is still the most worth it subscription out there.

[@eegernades]

KZbin revanced is even more worth it. It's free.

[@prorok21]

.......

[@frankanderson5012]

Why? Because they removed the adds that they put there in the first place and then increased the number of so that you would become so annoyed that you want to buy premium to get away from them?

[@nikyabodigital]

@@frankanderson5012 pretty much we have no choice ..... there exist an app that gives access to all of premium feature called youtube vanced and they literally remove it.

[@DeyvsonMoutinhoCaliman]

I have two subscriptions, KZbin and Amazon Prime.

[@vhateverlie]

You're missing the part that now you can't just buy a software and have it forever. If you don't need or even want new updates you're stuck. Like CAD software. I'd buy it once but they want Thousands per year. I don't care about the newest update, I'm just not willing to pay yearly for the damn thing.

[@Cruxis_Angel]

🏴‍☠️ 🚢

[@Knightmare919]

If buying isn't owning then piracy isn't theft!

[@johnsamuel1999]

As a genz I like subscriptions, but only if they provide good value for a resonable price. We had subscriptions for newspapers, milk delivery, electricity, magazines till now. So its not a new concept. I also like having the option to cancel a service if I dont like it and paying a small fee every month instead of a huge lump sump payment

[@CosmicHarmony58]

Ikr, all the conspiracy theorists acting likes it’s new and doesn’t help us 🤣…It helps me afford all the expensive things, but for the convenience of it..I’ll do a subscription, why not. They scratch my back, I scratch theirs

[@kinuthiamatata6040]

This one will likely do well👏🖖 Love the relative comparison btn prime and church goers....this is good content 👌, always loved the company forensics series

[@ProjSHiNKiROU]

The biggest Internet pitchforks come from IntelliJ and Clip Studio Paint adopting subscription models (actually both allow you to reject upgrades and use an older version and stop paying)

[@killchasey]

This channel just gets better. Great work guys.

[@Ponk_80]

We can not explain why it feels wrong, but we all have a gut feeling that this feels like you are being scammed. And it doesn't make it easy when everyone tell's you that you are the one who is wrong, and you should just follow the masses and don't be so greedy as a customer, even though you somehow know that it's the company's that are the greedy ones. I prefer owning what I payed for, and it's not my job pamper the people who want to sell me stuff, especially since they don't pay me to do it, but expect me to pay.

[@rustyhowe3907]

Especially when customer service is so shockingly bad. I agree with you about preferring to own a product, I refuse to rent a service just to access my own documents for example. Plus I don't have the money to throw at these things, people around me can't/won't understand but I don't have debt and they're always struggling for cash.

[@jamesfriesen191]

This Gen Xer is doing everything he can to avoid subscriptions - despite the points you make in their favor, I'd rather own my media than just constantly hand over $9.99/month for the rest of my life for movies or software. I have one TV/movie streaming service and refuse to sign up for Spotify or food services like Hello Fresh, and I still use older software I have the discs for, instead of paying a monthly subscription.

[@NO-FILTER-EXPERT]

its because of lazyness. end of reason. they want money for no reason without putting in work to earn it. These same lazy companies still charge $7000 upfront to buy the device and still lock down the software features on the device behind a licensing/subscription fee paywall.....ultimately making your freshly bought $7000 device uses and you spent a arm and leg on nothing in return. This seriously needs to be against the law for false advertisment, anti ownership, anti customer and because just being scummy evil. Nothing is ever good with subsciption/licensing based models. Its literally against the customer, the customer will end up spending MORE than what they wouldve spent on if it was a simple ONE TIME PAYMENT and just anti customer asf. sooo F the subscription based stuff. I gotta spend 10,000 on a product and still cant use it because everything is soft locked behind a pay wall??? F that model. Bring back the SANE days of business and customer relationships aka GREAT PRODUCT MADE WITH LOVE and ONE TIME PAYMENTS and if you couldnt outright one time buy it....than a (rent to own) would be a valueable subsitution.

[@gray4935]

Great video! The only problem I have is the promotion of the music streaming model. While it’s great for the company and record label, the music producers and artists (especially those who either produce an album every couple of years or smaller artists) are subject to a model that underpays them for their work. This even has a negative affect on artists who used to benefit from the older model forcing them to now pump out more and more content to feed into the algorithm all while being paid less.

[@nickwolf2943]

completely agree. to be fair, within the new system there are more opportunities to earn revenue from our music, and the old system still massively disadvantaged independent artists, was not a utopia by any stretch. Regardless the streaming pay model is completely inequitable and broken. Its a bit sad to hear him praise it when even the biggest executives in the industry are now writing open letters to warn us of how bad and unsustainable the system is. i trust that he is well intentioned and doesn't know much about how broken the music industry is :)

[@eugenia4928]

😅 okie😊😊

[@RBzee112]

Artists have always been screwed by the record labels. There was (maybe) a brief window in the early 2000s where artists began receiving a decent cut of the revenue.

[@MyDreamLife]

I spend $0.00 on subscriptions 😎 Anyone else in this category?

[@frednitney5831]

SaaS is just a tax on stupid people. You're not alone in not paying for subscriptions, you're just outnumbered. ;-(

[@sargonassarg4356]

Not possible. There is something you subscribe to; you just haven't checked thoroughly enough.

[@MathPiHanan]

@@sargonassarg4356I also wonder if paying bills is similar to subscriptions since it happens monthly for a service 🤔😅

[@MathPiHanan]

How⁉️

[@keffen]

Even things that you would have been able to conventionally own now have become subscriptions. Game companies figured out how to tie everything including offline content to IOT so they can make the game a brick & force you to buy the new one once they shut servers down. We'll never be able to go back & play our old games from the PS5 era because "sOrRy, tHe sErVerS fOr tHiS tiTLe aRe oFfLiNe."

[@gymonstarfunkle136]

I'm noticing a trend of two things that seem disconnected but seem to incline toward less market interaction and more institutionalisation of services. The first is the success of the subscription model, while the second is the trend for monopoly companies like Walmart to make a point of establishing anti-market business practices. Walmart's success is reliant on the predictability of its formula and its supplier system, which has little interaction with the free market. Subscription models might not be the same, but are also based on this idea of predictable revenue streams the company can then use to plan out its future growth. In all sectors of the economy it seems like the move is away from dynamic competiton and towards predictable institutions of one or two brands, who provide convenience at the cost of alternatives. Once people are reliant on subscriptions (like Netflix) and institutionalised services (like Walmart) for everything, you have to ask why we don't just use government and taxation to achieve the same thing.

[@evanortiz8561]

with bmw, they made a lot of money off their subscription fee. so other car companies are going to be following suite.

[@thebasketballhistorian3291]

22:52 Side note, usually movie ticket sales would be indicative of later video revenue success; the box office hits usually did well with video sales and rentals. Of course, there were a few exceptions.

[@WifeMamaArtist]

I refuse to subscribe if I’m not getting a continuous service (e.g. online newspapers, films, etc.). There are so many BAD subscription models (such as mobile games), where you’re effectively spending $40 (a year) for something they should be selling for more than $4!!

[@Bustermachine]

I'm actually not sure if game streaming makes sense long term, either. It's much closer to movies than it is to music. There's highly variable production costs and they don't always correlate to success/failure. And quite honestly, it can take a lot more hours than a movie to finish a game. Not to mention, even when I'm not 'watching' netflix, I might leave it on as white noise while I do chores around the house. So I have a reason to keep it even when I'm no 'using' it. But I can't really puttery around the house doing chores and play games at the same time.

[@olive8604]

Interesting perspective, but you didn’t really dig into the downsides of subscriptions enough. For example, you didn’t talk about how you often don’t even have the *option* to outright buy something that you want to keep forever, thereby changing certain costs from being fixed expenses to indefinite subscriptions where you pay many times over for the product for eternity (while the subscription price rises every year). You didn’t talk about software subscriptions for things which aren’t even a service and don’t require ongoing support or even an internet connection, like many apps these days. You didn’t talk about what these companies are actually doing with all this extra money they’re making. Are they using it to develop better products, pay their employees more, make contributions to their communities, or offset their carbon emissions? Or are they just pocketing it for their owners and shareholders? You didn’t talk much about how paying for something as a subscription versus paying for it outright affects our mental perception of the value of the things we buy and of the people who make them. I guess it’s cool that I learned some new corporate lingo, but I feel like you didn’t address the meat of the issue at all. You mostly only looked at it from the business perspective of revenue earned, as if that is all that matters, and then used that as the main support for your thesis which seems to be “subscriptions are good, actually.” It’s not a really convincing argument for anyone who doesn’t own a business. No effort was put into offering alternatives or reforms. Just a weak, “well it’s good for business so it’s here to stay, get used to it.” I guess I can’t expect a video essay funded by a business that itself offers a subscription service to have anything hard hitting to say on said subscription services.

[@infantraj9951]

Still disappointed that Slidebean doesn't have millions of viewes or subscibers for their awesome content.

[@JoaoSilva22222]

I subscribe for a month if i need to use a software and then I immediately cancel it. Saves me tons of money.

[@hallamshire]

I am interested in the swing of the pendulum and seeing people intentionally do things to spite subscription-based services. It will probably only ever be a small niche of people... but what will arise?

[@Makkara91]

Yar har, fiddle de dee Being a pirate is alright to be Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free You are a pirate!

[@doofsdoofs]

Definitely won't be a small niche once the psychological burden of owning nothing becomes too much to bear. Humans can only stray so far from their instincts for so long.

[@henryi9738]

In the future, you'll own nothing, subscribe to everything (rent), and they (the big companies) will be happy. 🤨

[@souuuuuuuuup1]

This format is perfect taking into account that i'm a big fan of your content. So far it's great because it's great content. However, it has to keep consistent quality, If NOT, meaning you cannot keep this consistent quality of content, then 20 minutes max would be nice. I guess haha but great job team!

[@alex_riakhin]

I have my Apple Music for 6 bucks and that's it. Don't understand people that have a lot of subscriptions and pay up to 200 bucks!!!! Carl!!!! per month!! what??!? Who are those people

[@bobpage6597]

Subscription's greatest weakness ironically is its own success. As more and more pressure is put on individual and family budgets, cloth has to be cut. That means subscriptions being dumped as it becomes unaffordable to each circumstance! I could afford all the subscriptions I want with Netflix, Amazon, Apple and so on - but I don't WANT to, and I can live without them! Even Netflix stopped auto emailing me begging me to come back haha!

[@joseafalvel]

Your content is so high-quality !! you're a master !!

[@DembaGUEYE]

11:38 to 11:52 was just WILD 🔥🔥🔥🌪🌪🌪🌪 Loved it 😎

[@slidebean]

😎 ✌🏽 Startup hip hop

[@thestork93]

I love the globe in your background in your videos

[@slidebean]

Behind the Scenes: it's actually my daughter's. We borrowed it from her bedroom because it makes such a great prop. - Caya

[@gregorydesani9311]

I completely get the frustration with so many subscription models that seem to offer little in return. But I recently came across a subscription system that flips the script in a way I didn't expect. It's more about long-term value, and surprisingly, there's an earning potential that's totally different from what you'd expect. It's not for everyone, but for those who 'get it,' it could be a game-changer. Anyone else exploring alternative models?

[@evanthesquirrel]

My only subscriptions are $5 pandora and a few months of WoW classic each year. We also piggy back HBO from a friend. I don't buy from Amazon. No matter the price.

[@CrawshawCompositions]

One thing to consider is that the subscription cost is cheaper than purchasing the product outright. So, just make a one-off monthly subscription, ensure to cancel immediately so you're not automatically charged, use the product, and then you're done! If you need it for longer then resubscribe.

[@LarryMenta1]

I’m officially in love with this channel

[@thegurlwiththeliontattoo]

I love my student discount because the monthly cost of creative cloud went from 107$ a MONTH to just 27$ 😬... Miss when I could just pirate lol

[@doofsdoofs]

you still can...

[@thegurlwiththeliontattoo]

@@doofsdoofs the newer ones? I think the last PS I got from the bay was Cs5

[@akatobi2002]

im literally over it. Im in the architecture field and the start-up costs of even working on the side is insane. Most people are using work programs for side work which goes against your employee agreement. Revit is $2,000 a year, sketchup is $300, Adobe is $30+/month. So a minimum of 5k JUST to start your first independent project lolol. It's insane.

[@yevheniibatiievskyi]

Thanks god my local library is free to use.) Anything else is just dust.

[@good-tn9sr]

I spend around $30 a month on subscriptions as a college student 😢

[@jayplay8140]

Sailing the high seas has never felt so rewarding

[@_orangutan]

I think the Netflix subscription is great. I don't like to own physical stuff in order to cut down on clutter, so purchasing DVDs is a no go. On the other hand, I really need to stop ordering from Amazon. I also don't like paper, so I pay for Notion. If the service cuts down on the physical objects I need to own, the I'll happily pay.

[@PrincetonTech-h1w]

Yeah but the most accessible alternative to Netflix wouldn't be buying dvds, it would be purchasing digital copies of movies. Personally I like Evernote, but I won't pay for it, I can make my own note taking app lol

[@_orangutan]

@@PrincetonTech-h1w I have never once purchased digital movies. I rarely rewatch movies or shows, rarely. LoTR is the exception. But more recently I don't watch entertainment anymore. Mostly content as SlideBean, Y Combinator, etc. Evernote is not the only one on the market though. There's Notion, Obsidian, etc. I can develop one too but then you're just wasting your time. I don't want to spend time developing something I can pay a monthly subscription for. Instead, I can spend time developing my Computer Vision libraries or working on my OS. Convenience is the product, and it frees up your time, especially if you're a startup founder or running a business.

[@potbellyfatguyfromnewyorkcity]

you don't own the service or what is in the service (a video game software for example). the minute you stop paying it vanishes. not worth it.

[@livesey62]

The electric company I use charges me a subscription, but for some reason every month the price changes

[@jamesdeininger3759]

Thanks for making this video. I’ll send this to my friends next time I try explaining it to them lol

[@louistech112]

Not only that imagine spending all that and have nothing to show for it . Example like music. You spend 10$ a month for Apple Music, after 10 months you’ve spent 100$. If you cancel it you’ve spent 100$ yet you have no music to show for your 100$ purchase, whereas you can get 10 albums for that much . You can say that I’ve consumed the Apple Music and had access to an infinite catalogue to music.

[@rayoflight62]

I have a growing collection of hundreds of DVD that I still have to watch. When I'll finish, I guess in two or three lifetimes, I'll think of an online streaming service...

[@NottyGurlStyle]

I have to say it but back in my day (lol) tv was free, the news was free, regular channels was free. I have a problem paying a subscription to watch a channel I know I use to sit down to watch as a kid, as teen for free…I never thought there would be a time that would change…never and I refuse. I got rid of cable, when I got Hulu and Netflix…but on Hulu if I wanted to watch a show the next day that would be on a regular channel now they want a premium sub…f that! 99 percent of the time I watch what I like from my favorite KZbinrs…All my favorite shows ended so I don’t feel the need to get a subscription to watch crap. Then the only reason I keep Netflix and Hulu is to watch Korean dramas and wrestling and my family watch what they want. But I don’t pay for anything else…it’s just way too much now…

[@NO-FILTER-EXPERT]

You like others need to explore the internet more. There's plenty of websites that show all movies and tv shows for free. literally everything NEW and OLD. these companies want your money for no reason without putting in work for it. IF they gonna be anti customer to US than WE'LL be anti investor to them.

[@shadowpapito]

Thanks a lot ... Just took inventory and about to cut off a whole bunch of services and kill my cable bill by like 75%!

[@rickybhattacharya6]

Some people would ask, "When had such services been for us? When have we owned a car anyway? We can't and couldn't fix our cars or gadgets ourselves. If we do so, we will lose our warranty or may breach our contract with the company whose products we are buying. We had and have to go to authorised repair shops to repair our cars and gadgets so that we can get extra benefits and also help extend warranty. It's great they are conveying us that these services can never be owned. Thankfully, such services are now subscription based. There's no ownership, and had never been".

[@iunnor]

My only problem is when the greed is evidently clear that the subscription is not being updated or just minimally maintained and im purely just paying for the access because the company says so.

[@ritesh146]

I only pay for KZbin premium for my music listening and 1.99 for iCloud storage. That’s about it.

[@Fleischkopf]

the reason why spotify works is that you have accsess to virtually all music on the planet. thats VERY different to the 1000sts videostreamingservice with felt 2 movies on it

[@gildedpeahen876]

And things that used to be features are now subscriptions. GPS, heated seats on your car for one. The really abusive and misleading clothing subscriptions like fabletics and savageXfenty

[@tuams]

This was a new take on something familiar. Thank you for the wonderful story telling!

[@TravisNewton1]

Facebook still owns their own servers. Actually, they build and own their own data centers. Facebook prefers this as it keeps costs fixed and they can build hardware to their specifications. Actually their hardware is all open source. Anyone can download the plans and build their own versions.

[@ovrxpsd]

you didn't mention subscriptions for physical products as well. i am ashamed to admit that i am subscribed to an iRobot subscription where i am renting a Roomba for $29 a month, and when i decide to stop paying, i will need to return the robot and all that money was wasted and i could have just bought the robot outright. the thing that interested me was that they automatically send replacement parts to my house, as it knows itself when they are needed, so i figured it would save me money having to buy replacement parts myself. i actually use the heck out of it, so it's not too bad. lol

[@potbellyfatguyfromnewyorkcity]

I stopped buying software since they became subscription based. lots of good enough free replacements like google docs, photo pea, and much more. this is the reason (I live in New York City) I won't buy a car. the auto insurance is yet another scam of a subscription.

[@thealiusjones]

Wow thank you for posting this... this really opens my eyes to the problems with Netflix in Israel

[@justinreid2947]

And this is why I only use subscriptions when I need them and seek alternatives like open source software whenever possible. It really is ironic that one of the whole points of capitalism is supposedly property rights, but now everything is mostly just rented. The whole point of streaming and the digital era was to make things *NOT* be Cable TV, but now *EVERYTHING* has become Cable TV. Because simply buying something isn't enough for these companies now, you have to commit to a monthly bill where you basically own nothing. Hell even Netflix has an ad supported tier now. And I can guarantee you the monetization will keep getting slowly worse over time like frogs in slowly warming water until the system starts boiling over and something breaks. I can't take most media/movies/TV shows seriously anymore because the vast majority of it is just cognitive dissonance and condescending bullsh*t that solely exists to make excuses for this obvious scam. And honestly I just don't have the time to keep up with all of that anymore. Life should never be locked behind paywalls, recurring fees, or exclusionist nonsense that attempts to psychologically manipulate you into hating yourself just so these companies can trick you into spending money on things you don't need. The only subscriptions I have these days are those that combine multiple services that justify their value or those that come as an additional freebie. Otherwise if I don't need it for, let's say work, then I just don't bother. I'm *BEYOND* over one-sided narcissistic bullsh*t like this that tries to coerce and shame me into thinking that there's nothing better. It's simply a matter of boundaries at this point.

[@NO-FILTER-EXPERT]

if you start seeing products with no physical buttons/physical components.....than you know what comes next.....your ownership