Just One Word: “Subscriptions”

Have you noticed that the world is getting more crowded? No, not with people (although that’s also true), but with STUFF. We’ve discussed this in a few previous posts, notably on The Collyer Brothers, and MyLifeBits.

So here’s a question to make it more personal:

Do we own our stuff, or does our stuff own us?

If you feel like you are working for your stuff, instead of the reverse, I’ll share a simple answer.

• Subscribe To Your Stuff!

Some people like to call it a Business Model; this is from Wikipedia:

The subscription business model is a business model where a customer must pay a subscription price to have access to the product/service. The model was pioneered by magazines and newspapers, but is now used by many businesses and websites. Rather than selling products individually, a subscription sells periodic (monthly or yearly or seasonal) use or access to a product or service, or, in the case of such non-profit organizations as opera companies or symphony orchestras, it sells tickets to the entire run of five to fifteen scheduled performances for an entire season.

They go on to list all the benefits to the consumer.

• They can save money if they use the service a lot.
• They can save time if the product service is accessed often.
• Encourages the vendor to constantly improve the product.

But this misses the most important advantage,

My favorite subscriptions?

1. Kindle eBooks for newspapers, magazines and books.
2. Rhapsody for music; no CD’s and millions of songs.
3. Netflix for movies, both mailed DVD’s and streaming.
4. Podcasts for specific shows when you want, where you want.
5. Audible.com for audible books; read and multitask.

I make a distinction between subscriptions and the using the cloud to eliminate stuff. More on the cloud in a future post.

Remember, “stuff” can be either a noun (bad) or a verb (good).

Be good, Stuff It.