"You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave." - Hotel California. The Eagles provide a good soundtrack when thinking about the excessive number of subscriptions I have. Subscription services are a fact of life, and it doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere.
After listening to the latest episode of Mac Power Users #459: My Life is a Subscription - Relay FM, I felt inclined to reflect on my journey with subscriptions. It's become exceedingly easy to put a thumb on the home button or smile at that FaceTime sensor to fork over hard earned cash to the latest shiny thing from Silicon Valley. Gone are the days of buying a Microsoft Office license for several hundred dollars in one shot - instead it's a monthly access fee. At least with the monthly fee, we're continuously getting improvements. (Note: can you knock it off with the ribbons, Microsoft? I'm still recovering from the change in 2007...)
First brushes with subscriptions
It didn't involve a magazine or jam-of-the-month club; instead, I’m talking about Netflix. In 2004 it was easy to justify joining Netflix, but for different reasons than today. The old brick and mortar rental houses like Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, and Mr. Movies were all regular haunts for me. I didn't think much about user experience at this point in life, but I could have clearly articulated all the problems with the traditional movie rental process. You had to either know what you're getting before you arrived, or spend a bunch of time wandering up and down the aisles to find the perfect movie that fit your mood at that moment. There was no option to see a movie trailer or read a critics review. If you didn't return the VHS (dating myself) or DVD in time, you could rely on exorbitant late fees. You had to wait in line. Avoid buying movie theater candy (try saying no to Twizzlers, it's tough.)
Netflix solved all these problems back then by learning what kinds of movies I liked and making suggestions, delivering my movies by mail, never charging late fees, not forcing me to wait in line, and not pushing candy. A continuous stream of new discs heading to my house was no problem.
The benefits were obvious, but I still struggled to pop the credit card number and agree to a fee every month. I must have had a foreboding sense of a line that was about to be crossed with subscriptions that could never be undone.
Test of Time
With subscription services, the provider must deliver constant value. The buyer is continuously making a purchase decision. It's a relationship, and like any successful long-term relationship, both parties need to be invested for it to work out.
Netflix was one of the first subscription services I signed up for, and I continue to use today - albeit only for their streamable content. Netflix is a great case study in pivoting by moving from DVD delivery to on-demand content via any device.
It's easy to talk about the benefits and justify the expense of their subscription. With so many people cutting the cord (myself included), the small fee for access to 100 millions+ hours of content is well worthwhile.
But what about the massive number and cost of services that more and more people are signing up for?
There are more paid subscription apps and services available than ever before. Given the obstacles - how is this possible?
Subscriptions are attractive for several reasons, for both users and developers.
No to low upfront cost
Remember shelling out hundreds for Adobe Anything or Microsoft Office? Those days are gone, and I'm thankful for it.
Ability to try without a long-term commitment
I've certainly had my fair share of shiny thing syndrome, and for those that are subscription based it's nice to be able to only pay for what you use as opposed to being stuck with something that isn't as useful as originally hoped. Gone are the days of a cellophane wrapped software box that can't be returned once the seal is broken.
Continuous support/development
With developers getting paid continuously there's no need to sandbag new features to build value for the new product release.
Forces Innovation
Users demand new and enhanced features. Time saving shortcuts, integrations, more value.
Current Status
That brings us to this point - what apps and services do I use?
Besides what I've already mentioned, here are a few that I see tons of value in:
Evernote: my digital filing cabinet and external brain. Web clippings, receipts, thoughts, eyeglasses prescription, insurance, dog immunization records, and on and on. The subscription also enables OCR for scanned documents - making a paperless life easy.
LastPass: no more losing track of those pesky passwords, or trying to come up with a password 8-20 characters long with the requirement of a special character except $&^# or *, a number 1-9 but not 6, and some caps and something else. Better yet, no two passwords are the same.
Grammarly: If only this tool existed when I was in school... Think spell check x 1 million combined with your toughest English professor. Grammarly has got my back and keeps me looking professional in my writing. Check this out; even the free tier is pretty good.
iCloud: That fancy new iPhone takes some beautiful pictures, but what happens if you lose it or it gets run over? Free iCloud only comes with 5GB of data, that's like 23.5 seconds of 4k video. $2.99/month for 200GB of storage at the time of this writing, that’s been plenty for several members of my family and me.
Drafts 5: This is where text happens on iOS. And my Apple Watch. A blank canvas greets you every time you open it, and powerful integrations enable some nifty workflows.
DayOne: Digital Journal, some legitimate Captain Picard stuff here. Captain's log, stardate, etc. It's pretty neat to have a record of thoughts, accomplishments, gratitude. Journaling by paper never caught on with me, but this seems to have done the trick.
Wrapping up
This topic will likely make a return here shortly. I want to explore the criteria of what makes a successful subscription offering. What are some of your favorite subscriptions? What’s been irritating for you?
Thanks for reading!
-Josh