Do you have any idea how many digital subscriptions you’re paying for? Because I don’t. I know that sounds ridiculous, but that’s the problem with subscriptions – they’re so easy to start. One little click, a free trial, enter your credit card details and… then you forget about it.
Meanwhile, every month, $9.99, $14.99 and $22.99 sneak out of your bank account, and you blame the price of groceries for why you’re broke.
Netflix, Neon, Disney+, Spotify, iCloud, Microsoft, apps, fitness things, photo-editing stuff, random software I downloaded because I urgently needed to convert one file from one format into another… What happened to just buying something? Remember that? You paid once. You owned it. The end. Now everything wants to move in with you financially.
The cost of being online
Obviously magazine subscriptions are great value for money (see magshop.co.nz for the best deals!), but running my business PodLab has opened my eyes to a new digital hell. We have Canva, ChatGPT, Claude, Adobe, editing software, music libraries, cloud storage and all sorts of other clever programmes we genuinely need to run the place.
Then comes my favourite part – “per user”. Oh, neat.
Paying more to do more
So not only does the software cost a monthly fee, but also every time you employ another person, it effectively says, “Congratulations on growing your business. That’ll be another $40 a month!” (Adobe, I’m looking at you.)
There are six of us at PodLab. Sometimes I feel like half our business plan is simply earning enough money to keep our software alive.
And none of these programmes does everything. Why can’t I have one magical app that edits video, designs graphics, stores files, creates captions, plays music, does my accounts, answers emails and tells me I’m doing a great job?
Have we finally reached peak subscription?
Instead, I need 14 different subscriptions, multiple passwords I can’t remember and an email every second week saying, “Your monthly plan is increasing.”
I really think we’ve reached peak subscription. At some point, surely, we all have to look at our bank statements and ask, “Do I actually use this or am I just funding a tech tycoon’s lavish lifestyle?”
Because at this rate, I’m expecting my toaster to start charging me $4.99 a month for premium toast!
