Why everything became a subscription - Company Forensics

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Making videos is just our side gig. Slidebean helps founders scale their startups.

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#slidebean #startups #subscriptions #economy

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Subscriptions have become a monthly tax, a monthly cost to live our internet-heavy lives- the cost we pay for music or our TV content.

It wasn’t always like this, and many subscription services have made our lives a lot easier- but the ultimate truth is subscriptions are getting people to spend more, a lot more than they used to.

That number is growing fast. I’m actually below the average. The average American spends $300/mo on subscription services, up from $237 in 2018 it’s not slowing down.

In the US, more households have Amazon Prime subscriptions than those who go to decorate a Christmas tree, or go to church, or have pets.

Subscriptions are a money machine!

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Caya

[slidebean]

Our documentaries are getting longer, and we'd love to hear what you think? Is it too much? Is it more insightful?

[JoyIsNiceDK]

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

[Mr.Coffee]

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.

[vsnkqfo]

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.

[cttommy]

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."

[drob]

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

[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

[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.

[rickyx]

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.

[ezydoesit]

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!

[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.

[Destide]

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

[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.

[mikey]

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.

[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.

[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

[ninjanerdstudent]

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.

[magickpalms]

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

[ianvance]

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!

[johnsamuel]

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