I mentioned that one of my goals this year is to unsubscribe from some most of the subscription based services I use.

I thought I would share my thought processes around this activiy so you could evaluate your own situation¹ and be motivated to perhaps save yourself a few bucks in 2025.

Let start with my current lay of the land:

Service	Monthly $	Yearly Total $
AUDIBLE	16.45	197.40
AMAZON PRIME	9.99	119.88
APPLE TV	12.99	155.88
NETFLIX	18.99	227.88
YOUTUBE PREMIUM	22.00	264.00
APPLE MUSIC	12.99	155.88
NORD VPN	—	149.00
1 PASSWORD	—	71.88
		1,340.92

Audible:

I really don’t listen to books². I prefer to read them. I find listening especially egregious if the narrator has an annoying voice. When listening in bed I just fall asleep and find myself listening to the same chapter over and over each night.
Also, Audible is owned by Amazon which is sketchy as bro (see below). This will be my first subscription service on the chopping block. UNSUBSCRIBE.

Amazon Prime:

I am really trying to avoid supporting Amazon due to their dubious environmental impacts and a well documented record of workplace en-shitification (you can read more about their business practices here).
So…UNSUBSCRIBE.

I also use Amazons eBook service and now have hundreds of books on my Kindle.
However…I don’t actually own a single one of them. Instead, I lease them. Amazon can remove them or modify any of them as they see fit. That sucks.

I am thinking of buying the alternative KOBO device that does not lock you in to using Amazon’s sketchy ecosystem for eBooks. Or perhaps I will just stick to rBooks (real books)³.

Apple TV.

Looking back over the last 12 months I watched one series on Apple TV (Slow Horses) and a couple of movies maybe. UNSUBSCRIBE.

NETFLIX.

Again, I really have not watched much over the last 12 months. But there is always the FOMO that a really great series or doco or movie is just about to be released.
PENDING.

I believe that NETFLIX is also experimenting with inserting ads into their streaming services (so that even though you are paying to watch a movie, you will still get ads throughout it). This will probably be served up as a new cheaper optional tier.
Do not be fooled…this is just more example of en-shitification and the moment it rolls out I will….UNSUBSCRIBE.

YouTube Premium

This is a tough one⁴. Wading through the quagmire of mind numbing slop on offer, there is actually some really good educational, instructional, and inspirational content on YouTube. I admit, I actually watch a lot of YouTube, and I cannot stand the ads they invasively crowd throughout the clips. So I am prepared to pay to make them go away⁵….but this is by far the most expensive subscription service on my list.
PENDING.

Apple Music.

Another tough one. Almost every (mainstream) song or piece of music available instantly at the touch of my finger. Incredible. Actually incredible.

Yet, I am pretty certain, musicians all over the world are getting butt-screwed by this business model.
Besides, I am currently working on building my own collection of vinyl records. Music that is a physical product, that I actually own.
PENDING with a goal to UNSUBSCRIBE.

NORD VPN.

This is a virtual private network service that I use to (supposedly) protect myself when using public WiFi (ie when travelling) and to help cloak me from advertising trackers and privacy snoopers.
KEEP.

1 Password.

Password management app on my iPhone and laptop. Don’t even get me started on passwords. But (for now at least), I have to deal with using them. There are some free, open source alternatives available but all my passwords are already on this app and basically I cannot be arsed moving them to another platform. This app works pretty well for me.
KEEP.

–ooOoo–

So that’s were I am right now. Would love to hear some feedback on how much you spend each month on subscription services and what you think about it all….

–ooOoo–

1. Your own opinions and justification on using these services may well differ from mine. ↩︎
2. However, I do love listening to podcasts.They are free and I currently subscribe to 48 of them! ↩︎
3. Vinal records, paper books, notepads and paper, film camera…I feel there is a theme developing here. ↩︎
4. YouTube is owned by GOOGLE which is one of the grandmasters of enshitification. ↩︎
5. Unfortunately I still have to be skipping through the ‘sponsored content’ and product placement in so many of the videos. ↩︎