The subscription model - Good for business bad for customers
I was thinking … if you need to pay a monthly fee for everything are you allowed to find ways in overcoming something so unsustainable? I do believe you should have the possibility in doing so …
Now the subscription model is now new. We have had it with the OG technologies like cable or Internet. You were and still are required to pay a monthly fee, in order to obtain a product that you want. Everything was fine until the idea came, why wouldn’t everything be converted to a subscription? Therefore getting more money, on a monthly basis, assuring yourself that you won’t go out of business and allowing investments to be made in, for example, producing content like in the case of movie and series subscription services like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
When these services appeared, we were also OK with the idea of paying them, like in the case of cable or internet. Nevertheless this profitable business model, was not overseen by other companies. In the first case the movie and series producing companies, then it was overtaken by (soon) Everything. We get a subscription for the children app, for the services we from Google Play for what books we want to hear.
Don’t get me wrong, I see some potential here for things which make sense like a learning curriculum that is updated on a regular basis or Applications that are maintained and upgraded years after their initial release. What I don’t understand is why nowadays everything needs to be subscription based. A clear case of question mark are the subscription heating seats in newly produced cars. It is just mind boggling to me that a component which was already installed, with production costs already paid , can be purchased with a subscription. If the initial costs are already covered, it makes no sense to me that a customer which owns the car, does not automatically receive the rights to use that feature. I mean it is a one shot installation, not something that can be improved over time or needs maintenance on a regular basis. What are those seats to provide, more heat?
A second example, more related to double paying customers is Amazon Prime. Now that is a subscription service which I paid since the beginning. I was totally fine with the yearly Prime tax as it included services which I regularly used and for me it was a good money/services trade. Of course that subscription was not enough for Amazon, even though I suspect most of the customers were fine paying for it. A second tax for Video Services was instated. So you pay for a service, and then pay some more all of the sudden because the numbers from Amazon somehow did not match (probably for producing new content). That was for me the final straw and I do believe for many other customers as well.
I don’t know if all these companies read “You will own nothing and be happy“ and wanted to make sure that the timeline of 2030 will be respected, but it is certainly a concerning fact that more and more services are shifting their operational model to a subscription based one. There is an ongoing discussion that this way of doing business with their customers, encourages finding new ways in getting new content. When I look at my monthly costs with all subscriptions required for me and my family members I must say that finding alternatives did cross my mind as well. It is not right not being presented a choice of owning a certain piece of software or music. There is always a chance that the company shuts down and all your content will suddenly no longer be available, even though you have in principle paid for it.
Until that time will come, when all options are on the table in owning content, I reserve my right to keep also other options available and my eyes opened for alternatives.
Until next time, TFG