What subscription finally gave you "subscription fatigue"?
Learned the term recently and really enjoy it, subscription fatigue is the feeling we all have had now where we are just over how everything is subscription based.
Which one was the last straw or most annoying/frustrating to you?
I bought a new PC in 2021 (because building was hard due to supply shortages) and it came with GamePass Ultimate. When I combined my existing Xbox Gold subscription, it gave me something like 1.5 years worth of GamePass Ultimate, which was really great! Once that subscription expired, I had saved up for a year worth of another subscription up front, but noticed they only offered month-to-month at that point. I realized I wasn’t playing GamePass games enough to warrant the subscription (might have been different if I could install on my Steam Deck, not through a Windows install or streaming).
Once that GamePass subscription came up, and then Netflix started cracking down on password sharing that I was sharing with my sister in the next city over, it made me question a lot of recurring subscription. For streaming TV shows/movies, I think going forward we’ll have one service subscribed to but bouncing around to catch up on shows that my wife and I may want to watch. For GamePass, I’ll probably resubscribe once Starfield comes out.
Your idea for resubcribing to gamepass is an idea everyone should use for every subscription. Only pay for a subscription if there’s something on it that you want and stop paying for it when there’s nothing on it that you want.
Just watching all these new subscription services for everything gave me the fatigue and started my self-hosting and actually-owning-things journey, even just paying for Netflix (when I still did) was too much for me, it didn’t have everything I wanted, if it did it would remove it after a year or so, and every couple years the price would hike.
HBO Max and Spotify were the only streaming services I paid for. I had HBO Max since the first few months of it’s launch but when they raised the already high fee I cancelled it. Shortly after they changed it to Max, definitely don’t regret it. HBO Max used to feel special but that specialness died.
To be honest, sporify is the only one I actually use. But I get a fuck ton of use out of it. I used to be able to use Netflix without paying for it. Bit it just didn’t really work for me
Ignoring anything I subscribe online for and can’t cancel example (Just cancelled my cable internet was more painful than ID like)?
Any service that tries to auto deliver me another product in a monthly and won’t let me order one without the auto replenish. (Example: Meal services and the like you tubers like to promote, but I’ve been seeing many things attempt this lately)
Same but “when there was only netflix, and Hulu got caught being cool so they had to go legit and became a subscription service instead of a pirate streaming site.”
Held out on streaming until kissanime/kisscartoon started bugging me for my adblocker, then switched to downloads.
This Google 1 shit. I love my Pixel phone, but they give shit for memory options so that you are forced to pay for the experience of Gmail and saving media. Pisses me off that I can’t just save it to my phone.
When I couldn’t just purchase a season of a tv show (Drag Race). You should just be able to buy a show or movie if you want to watch it.
The most recent season was exclusively on Paramount +. I guess they had exclusive right because it wasn’t available anywhere else. It was 3.99/month with a discount so I figured I’d keep it as long as the season aired. I was fucking amazed that there could be twenty fucking commercials in an hour show. If I wanted to skip backward or forward I had to watch three more ads first. Two weeks before the season finale they raised the price to 5.99 so I cancelled it. I didn’t need to watch it that badly. Their other content was shit, all nineties MTV and made for tv movies. When I signed up they advertised Yellowjackets so I was going to watch that. But no, that’s another subscription to Showtime.
It was the cheapest subscription I’ve had but the most aggravating experience, because it’s not about the money. It’s about feeling like I’m getting fucked over with every goddamn thing I buy lately.
I really want to watch Mike judge’s tales from the tour bus but it is only on cinemax. I would have no problem just buying the seasons but you can’t, the only way is to ad cinemax to my already paid sub of Hulu. Fuck that
Sublime Text 4 going subscription based instead of major release based. I downgraded back to ST3 and am keeping my lifetime license on that one. The alternative is a 3 year usage license which is trash for the price you need to pay
this is correct, you get access to every update in that window, instead of everything in that major release. It is better than it could be but, it’s rediculous to purchase a software that doesn’t even give you the full release of it. It also doesn’t alert you before upgrading/updating to a release outside your license window and relies on you figuring out how to downgrade after if you let it auto update.
YouTube premium raised their prices. I had got it back when Google music was the thing. Then they raised the price. Then they raised the price again. Then they raised the price again. The last price raise gave me the motivation to check out Spotify and newpipe.
I’m still grandfathered in from the Google Play Music days, paying $7.99/mo for YT Music + YT Premium. I will never interrupt that subscription and lose that price, haha.
I’m sorry, I could’ve been more clear. There is an app called InnerTune (F-Droid is an app store on Android that contains only free/open source software) which lets you stream and download all of yt music for free. You can also use the website beatbump.io to stream.
Youtube Premium is also unnecessary when you use the adblocker Ublock Origin on Firefox. On Android, NewPipe is also a great app to watch and download the videos ad-free.
That is possible because Google badly protects its content APIs.
You likely lose that price in December. I got an email telling me so and I believe it applies to all of us grandfathered in. Here’s the relevant part of the email:
As a long-standing and valued member, you are currently paying a lower rate for Premium than the rate available to new subscribers. To show our appreciation for your loyalty, we’re giving you at least three extra months at your current price before the price increase will impact your plan. Your price will not increase before your December billing date. Don’t worry, we’ll be sure to notify you again at least 30 days before the new price is effective.
Had to investigate, and turns out you’re right about the origin. The original grandfather clause was meant to exempt blacks from voting. See en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_clause
I’m not a fan of term banning, however. We still use the number 9 even though Hitler said it a lot.
Yeah but Hitler did not create the number 9. Slight difference. There is also no other term to express the number 9.
Legacied means the exact same thing and does not have the racist origin. There is certainly no ban on using ‘grandfathered in’ but there is no real reason to use it since it does not convey anything that the term legacied already does.
“To continue delivering great service and features, we are increasing the Premium plan price to $13.99/month.
As a long-standing and valued member, you are currently paying a lower rate for Premium than the rate available to new subscribers. To show our appreciation for your loyalty, we're giving you at least three extra months at your current price before the price increase will impact your plan. Your price will not increase before your December billing date. Don’t worry, we’ll be sure to notify you again at least 30 days before the new price is effective.”
There was never a last straw for me, because I never subscribed to any bullshit. I read and understood the dangers of SaaS as a school kid long before the term was cool and long before privacy community and corporate industry popularised it. Unless something really requires realtime work collaboration, like Google Docs/Office 365, or if there are realtime social activities like multiplayer gaming or messaging/chat/videocall, just about everything else does not require an active internet connection, and should be doable locally on a system. This is why devices like iPhone, iPad, Chromebooks and so on are NOT real computers, but merely rented kiosks.
I read and understood the dangers of SaaS as a school kid long before the term was cool and long before privacy community and corporate industry popularised it.
You need to clear your foggy head and get some sleep. Your cheeky comment was BS and your comeback was too lame. Strengthen your game if you want to do these kind of replies.
For me, this beat saber knockoff game called “supernatural” which was advertised as free on the oculus app store. Not a one time purchase. Literal lunacy.
I’ve observed how these streaming services engage in borderline elder abuse. They make it extremely easy to sign up, and then to cancel, they require clicking through five different settings pages with tiny buttons and dark patterns. They obscure what each charge is on billing statements, and they are constantly increasing price, merging with each other, which creates confusion. I’ve had to help elder family and friends get out of subscriptions so many times, and each time, I essentially have to audit what they’re paying for. I think the Feds should mandate that every website has a giant red “Cancel subscription” button in the corner. The FTC is working on something like that, but it is unclear what it will look like in the final version.
I’m subbed to YT premium, Spotify, and Amazon Prime. I primarily use Steam. I pirate via torrents for movies and series. No streaming services interest me. I’ve used a free trial for Netflix way back when and I was disappointed that some content was not available to download for offline viewing. With torrenting I can watch content in a better quality, I don’t have to worry about buffering, I don’t have to worry about discs and menus, etc. All I really want is just the mkv file and that’s it.
I got to the point where I was downloading shows to put on Plex that I already had access to via a streaming service just to avoid using their app. I eventually decided to drop the service too.
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