Subscriptions for everything

Remember the good old days when you bought something and it was actually yours? You bought computer programs and you could use it basically forever, or at least until your needs changed. Now, it seems as though some companies that create computer programs think you should pay for using their programs forever. No more buy it once, use it forever. Thanks Adobe.

Adobe was the first I can remember to do this. They basically owned the design business, with their programs used by just about anyone who wanted to edit photos, create ads or newsletters, work with PDF files, or do film/video work. If I remember correctly, the last “Suite” you could buy from Adobe was Creative Suite 6, which if you wanted the whole shebang, it was around $1,800. But you owned the programs. If you bought a new computer, you just had to deactivate it on the old computer and reinstall it on the new one. I still use that Creative Suite to this day, as I refuse to pay monthly for the “new” stuff when these “old” programs still work fine on my computer. Is it the latest and greatest? No, but it does everything I need it to.

Then Microsoft saw what Adobe did and decided that they liked the idea of taking money from people every month for the programs (Microsoft Office) that they knew a boatload of people used daily. You can still (at least I think) buy the complete service for one price (if you can find the Home and/or Student versions) and not pay a monthly fee, but who knows how long that will last.

But wait! There’s more. It’s not just the big software companies that are doing this shady stuff. No No No. Let’s take a look at the auto industry. You buy a new car, spending tens of thousands of dollars because transportation is important in life. Yes, the car is yours (or the bank’s until you pay it off), but lo and behold, if you want to use that fancy key fob to start your vehicle, or to unlock your doors, some car manufacturers have decided that’s a monthly payment, too. Get in an accident and need help? That fancy rearview mirror with the help button is perfect, right? Well, no, because you need to buy a subscription to that for it to work. Self-driving (I’m looking at you Tesla) is a monthly subscription.

If you want to use all these fancy LLM models (AI, not just hopping on to Google and letting their AI answer your questions), those are subscription based as well.

Movies, music, television…. Now all subscription based. For those of you in my age bracket, remember when TV was free over the air? It still is, but it’s getting harder and harder to find anything worthwhile, and in Storm Lake, where I am, the trees and hills make it impossible to get a signal. So I have to pay monthly for any form of entertainment.

You don’t really own anything anymore. Nice big fancy TV? Sure it’s in your house, but if you read the terms of service, you’re basically giving away information about yourself to the manufacturer and there isn’t didley squat you can do about it if you want to USE the TV.

Roku put in wording that allows Roku to end your service for just about any reason. If you don’t agree to their terms, you can’t get their service, and the TV is worthless. So, do you own the TV? Sure. But at the whim of the manufacturer.

How about Sony? They’ve decided that physical media (ie: CD, DVD, Bluray) is no longer necessary. That means any game you buy for your Playstation will HAVE to be software you download. Which is fine, until Sony decides not to support that game anymore. Guess, the game won’t play and your just SOL.

Things like that have already happened. There were movie sites where you could buy a movie, download it and watch it whenever you wanted. But some of them failed, and guess what happened to that movie you purchased. Poof! Gone into the ether and there wasn’t a thing you could do about it.

There was a tech company a few years ago that tried “renting” you a computer. You paid monthly and got the pleasure of using their product, but it wasn’t yours. Miss a payment, oopsie, computer goes back. There was no option to buy the computer if you liked it. You had to send it back and if you wanted to buy one, you could, but not the one you were using.

Subscribe doesn’t mean the same as it did even 25 years ago. Back then a subscription was to a newspaper or a magazine. Now everything seems to come with a subscription, sometimes to actually be able to use the product that you just spent hard earned money on.

Software, movies, TV, music, books, certain vehicle functions. Heck, if you want good deals on the stuff you buy (Amazon, Walmart, etc.), you need a subscription. You can use those sites without one, but then they badger you every time you are on the site to get Amazon Prime, sign up for Walmart+. I’m fed up with all of it. If you can offer cheaper prices when I get a monthly subscription, you can just offer me the same lower prices when I don’t. I’ll pay the shipping because that’s what I’ve done all my life.

But then the corporations and manufacturers wouldn’t make all the money they do now, would they.

Tim Marlow lives in Storm Lake.