Anyone else getting subscription burnout?

I actually think the state of all the other subscription crap is starting to make the TV licence seem better value.

BBC has much better children's shows for my daughter than other sources. It's drama and comedy shows are great. Things like Line of Duty or whatnot.

With Disney+ my shows are being interrupted to make me watch an advert for Disney +.. Which I'm literally watching and paid for.
 
BBC has much better children's shows for my daughter than other sources.
This! It's easy to point a finger at the BBC for all sorts that we won't get into here, but they have kids TV down.

With Disney+ my shows are being interrupted to make me watch an advert for Disney +.. Which I'm literally watching and paid for.
LAWD this too. Paramount is the other frequent perpetrator of this crime.
 
Rule #1, there's no such thing as a free lunch.

And yet there are plenty of companies who are able to provide free trials properly, where you don't need to provide any payment information until the trial is over and you are happy to actually go ahead with it.

If your product is good enough it will sell itself, rather than be reliant on trapping people through small print, obfuscated charges, and convoluted cancellation processes.
 
Spotify is the only one we're definitely getting value from; use it 6-7 hours a day, always finding new bands to listen to, plus audio books, I dread to think what it would have cost me to actually buy everything I listen to!

Looks like Spotify may be the next thing to join the list of cancellations.

My partner put on a song, and then as Spotify does, it started playing similar stuff after. Much to my dismay an AI generated track came on (immediately obvious, generic and bland, obviously AI generated album art, and just generally sounded "wrong"). I'm now shocked to find that there's no way to block all AI generated content...

Any suggestions on an alternative service? Needs to work on Android + Android Auto, plus easily streamed to home speakers.

Edit: seems like Deezer is the only one with an active anti-AI stance?
 
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And yet there are plenty of companies who are able to provide free trials properly, where you don't need to provide any payment information until the trial is over and you are happy to actually go ahead with it.

If your product is good enough it will sell itself, rather than be reliant on trapping people through small print, obfuscated charges, and convoluted cancellation processes.

Its just free money. Some people will forget to cancel and you get money for nothing. The people who do that will massively outweigh those that say "I won't try it for free if I have to put in CC details". The test of a good company subscription wise for me is either allowing you to cancel easily and at least giving you a proper refund of a partial month or in the best cases they just accept that you forgot to cancel and they refund you the full month even if its been a few days.
 
Its just free money. Some people will forget to cancel and you get money for nothing.

Exactly. It's predatory.

It also rings alarm bells for me, clearly the product isn't good enough to pay for if you're having to rely on tricking people into doing so!
 
I once signed up to a free trial with an app in the wellness space, can't actually remember what it was called now.

Anyhow, the usual enter you credit card details for your free - trial, you won't be billed anything at this stage and you are free to cancel anytime etc.

I entered my details, hit submit and was instantly billed £50.

I kicked up a right stink on social media and Trust Pilot and actually got a very swift response telling me that they had updated their business model but hadn't updated the Ts and Cs on their website and they would refund my money immediately but please could I kindly remove that stinging review I left them on Trust Pilot :cry:

I don't sign up to any "free" trials that involve entering your credit card details anymore.
 
Just been stung by the old insurance auto-renew.

Damn, I know I always turn off auto-renew when I sign up - there must have been one final click that I missed :mad:

Frikkin renewal email also wound up in my junk email so 3 months has elapsed & they're going to charge me a whopping admin fee leaving me not much of the £121 premium to reclaim.
 
Mine would be higher but I've "lucked" out as a pixel user (free things with my pixel purchase)

Gemini (I would normally pay) - Free for a year
Google Drive 1TB - Free
Youtube premium - (split a family plan with a few friends) so it's only about £3
Amazon Prime (only really for the delivery, I don't use prime video)
Discord Nitro
 
ICloud+
Netflix
Disney+
Amazon Prime
MyFitnessPal
Strava
PSPlus essential
Gym
Spotify
YouTube Premium
The Times
Puxton Park for the kids
TV Licence
NowTV Sports
Virgin TV basic package that includes megabit broadband
Both boys have football clubs, swimming lessons, gymnastics membership..
Deezer for my other half's music.

Probably totals £230 a month-ish.
Changed a bit now:

ICloud+
Disney+
Amazon Prime
MyFitnessPal
Strava
PSPlus essential
Gym
YouTube Premium
The Times
Puxton Park for the kids
TV Licence
NowTV Sports
900mb broadband
Both boys have football clubs, swimming lessons, gymnastics membership, tennis lessons..
Deezer for my other half's music.

Swapping out Spotify, Netflix and Virgin TV with the kids' tennis memberships, so probably about the same cost!
 
even stupid apps on phones want to be subscription models these days beyond a joke.
It's because they know loads of people will forget to cancel and its free monies... remember when apps were free for live if you tipped the dev a "coffee aka a few quid token payment"

I'd rather pay per minute porbably be cheaper

like all the plant id apps want a sub, why would I pay a sub for an app I would use maybe 7x a week for a minute at a time?

your literally paying to submit data they want to collect anyway to make their model more accurate... your basically a worker for them and paying for the priviledge but they want £33 a year... seems they charge the full year upfront too what a scam

people need to rebel against the monetisation of things that should be and used to be free.
 
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I re subbed to Netflix, last time I was subbed was around the last season of Stranger Things.
Thinking there must be loads to catch up on now. Watching Legends which is pretty good, maybe a movie or two but wow this service really sucks.

Maybe been spoilt by some of the great shows on HBO Max.

Cancelled Netflix again, it’s all personal taste but I feel ripped off subbing for the month :cry:
 
I re subbed to Netflix, last time I was subbed was around the last season of Stranger Things.
Thinking there must be loads to catch up on now. Watching Legends which is pretty good, maybe a movie or two but wow this service really sucks.

Maybe been spoilt by some of the great shows on HBO Max.

Cancelled Netflix again, it’s all personal taste but I feel ripped off subbing for the month :cry:
Yeah, it's been over two years since I last had it but can't think of much on there that actually makes me want to subscribe, even for a month. Potentially the final series of Stranger Things but I've got the 4K box set on pre-order so can wait, possibly "3 Body Problem" though always a concern that they will cancel that part way through (and seems like an awfully long time since the first series came out and haven't heard anything about a second one yet), beyond that I'm struggling to think of anything I've heard of that I'm interested in watching.
 
I'll be honest here, even as someone that has traditionally shunned subscriptions I've let quite a few creep in.

Amazon Prime I justified to myself based on the music.
Game Pass I justified to myself based on them having good games I wanted to play, but the reality is I don't get enough time to make proper use of it. I could probably have saved money just buying a few AAA games.
Sky TV based on football (and cricket for the Mrs)
Crunchyroll for stuff my son watches.
A VPN because I signed up when I was on holiday overseas and wanted to watch football and have just let it continue.

Then my wife has stuff like Netflix, Spotify and doubtless loads of others I don't know about. We could probably consolidate some of these.
 
I'll be honest here, even as someone that has traditionally shunned subscriptions I've let quite a few creep in.

Amazon Prime I justified to myself based on the music.
Game Pass I justified to myself based on them having good games I wanted to play, but the reality is I don't get enough time to make proper use of it. I could probably have saved money just buying a few AAA games.
Sky TV based on football (and cricket for the Mrs)
Crunchyroll for stuff my son watches.
A VPN because I signed up when I was on holiday overseas and wanted to watch football and have just let it continue.

Then my wife has stuff like Netflix, Spotify and doubtless loads of others I don't know about. We could probably consolidate some of these.
If you're paying for Netflix separately then you get it on Sky, at least the base pack.
 
I try and keep my personal subscriptions to a minimum, and currently have six.

In order by monthly cost, approx £40 in total:
  • YouTube Premium: YouTube is my most-used site on the internet. Huge music fanatic and spend hours daily searching and listening to obscurities. Being able to do so Ad-free is worth the cost. Signed up through a Vodafone offer but I've just noted 12 month product keys that are substantially cheaper.
  • Patreon (Marissa Paternoster): Became a patron to support this artist after the break-up of her band, and to keep in touch with new music.
  • SimplyCook: Initially signed up as a trial. I don't get sufficient value as the other half and child are so fussy, but I currently have 40% off for the next four months and will let it run to the end.
  • Amazon Prime: For an unknown reason I'm on a student subscription - I haven't been a student since 2004 - which makes it worthwhile.
  • FantasyFootballScout: Yearly sub. Signed up at a fixed low cost and I play Fantasy Football competitively; I get value from it.
  • SortItOutSi: Yearly sub. Graphics, data updates etc for Football Manager. Costs pennies.
Contemplating a Qobuz subscription, but I'm not yet sure I'd buy enough music through that site to make it worthwhile.

I haven't included the main household subscription in this (Virgin TV and broadband), as that partly falls under necessity rather than 'nice to have'.
 
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