Technolandy

Day 61 (of 2024/25) subscription services… (or how scholastic book club prepared me for Columbia Music House)

Subscription fatigue is real: https://apple.news/AjGHQo_3US8uaO50b4YAmeg

And they’re everywhere… are they ruining our lives: https://apple.news/AimHOdtsDTt-87PqWOwXigw

******

Subscriptions have long been the joke on credit cards – subscriptions to gyms ~ sign up January 1… never be able to cancel them!

They have been the focus of fundraisers: magazine subscriptions were big fund raisers for a few schools I was at ~ and I loved them until I shifted to more reading online… for which I pay a subscription… at least I have access to more magazines than I can get to in any one week…

But subscriptions are more and more prevalent – and what once were to help us avoid commercials, now see tier subscriptions for some or more commercials… ugh/argh!  But I’ve been training for this… whether it was the secret subscriptions called Scholastic Book Club that made me really really really want to order at least a book each month (often more) – and led to some early learnings that the synthesis of books can be very captivating to try a book out – I still remember “Hooples on the Highway” – the synthesis was interesting, but I was more interested in the title as I misread it as ‘Hopeless on the Highway’. At least Scholastic was an ‘opt-in’ model… everyone got a catalogue, not everyone had to buy something… much harder when the book fairs started coming into the library and taking over schools ~ although great for us who did not have a bookstore in our community… 

I was also training thanks to Columbia Record House – 10 records/cassettes/CDs for a penny?!? Amazing. But once the hook was in – you had to buy an album a month… or reply with a ‘no thanks’ to a pre-picked album…. And then the bills would add up. But it was also the first time that friends started realizing by using face names et al, there were ways to scam the subscription – much as ‘free trials’ can be hit up with a regular change of email addresses… 

But when things get valuable… the subscription feels worthwhile. The challenge lately is how much is valuable:

Netflix, Disney+, Crave, Prime, Hulu, etc all have value, but are trying to not make it so easy to ‘click-to-cancel’ (heck, a few of the emails I try to cancel are making it harder to find the ‘unsubscribe’ option that used to be pretty easy to find at the bottom of the text…  and like that joked about gym subscription – how many little subscriptiosn just creep along monthly/yearly – for a game that you used to like in 2023… for a meal box that keeps arriving, though you’re pretty darned sure you’re not paying for it anymore…

I appreciate these articles giving the reminder that it can be hard to keep track of those charges that are being added up – hmmm maybe a school supply subscription could be forthcoming…!?!