Let’s do an experiment: look at your bank and credit card statements and tally up all the subscriptions you pay for every month or every year.
I recently did just that, and I hated what I saw. I knew I was paying for all this… stuff, but once I saw it all at the same time, I realized how much it costs and started thinking about all the other things I could do with that money, like pay bills or buy gas.
I saw subscriptions for services from Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, HBO, Nintendo, Sony, a handful of websites, and more. It made me start looking at what I really used versus what I’m paying for without realizing it.
Android & Chill
One of the web’s longest-running tech columns, Android & Chill is your Saturday discussion of Android, Google, and all things tech.
You might be in the same boat as me. It happens easy enough; you decide you can afford to pay $10 a month for something without straining your budget but all those things add up. I’m shelling out a car payment’s worth of cash every month for things I shouldn’t.
It’s also not going to stop because companies know they can sucker us into paying them hundreds of times instead of just once. They claim it makes things convenient and easy, but that is often a lie. So is the nonsense about having limitless content to enjoy.
For the amount of money I pay Tidal or Sony every month to get a catalog filled with things I’m not interested in, I could have bought what I wanted and still saved money. I’d also own it, sort of: you never really own music of movies or software, thanks to licensing and other bull.
I know I sound like some angry old man telling all the youths to get off my grass. While that may be true (Mrs. Hildenbrand says it’s totally true), it doesn’t change anything. Companies want us to give them money for things, then try to find ways to charge us even more money to use those things. We see new subscription services pop up every month; even Garmin wants in on the dirty action now.
It shows you how little you matter to them; you’re naught but a dairy cow to be milked until you’re dry, then off to the glue factory. I never thought Google, for example, loved me as a person, but the way the company tries to nickel and dime me every month is sickening. It should be illegal somehow.
I’m putting a stop to it. I’ve made a list of who is reaching into my pockets every month and cutting off all the hands doing it. Prime is paid for until July; then it’s done. Media streamers like Netflix and Tidal are gone. I don’t even remember why I started paying for Apple TV, but old man Cook can find someone else to rob.
The list goes on and on, and unless I have a use for it, I’m nixing it. It’s bad enough paying for utilities and insurance, let alone paying for access to the hottest new jazz quartet’s debut album that I’ll never listen to.
That doesn’t mean it’s all bad; I get useful services from some subscriptions. For example, I could set up a firewall and a dedicated storage server, connect it to the internet, and build my own universal storage system. I tried that and hated it, so I just pay Google for it.
Likewise, I prefer skipping ads on YouTube because I hate ads even more than I hate spending money. However, if creators keep putting sponsor segments into every video, my viewing habits are going to change, and I won’t need to skip ads because I’ll stop opening the app altogether.
The only thing this is going to change is what I have access to. No company cares about one person becoming sick of their shit and canceling everything. No company cares if I won’t buy their product because they want me to pay extra every month to fully use it. But they would if enough of us did it.
I’m not going to start some “power to the people” manifesto or anything here. I am going to suggest you look into what you spend every month to rent things you could be buying, decide which ones you really use, and tell everyone else to hit the road.
If enough of us do it, things might even change.