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Subscription-Based Services - Which are Worth It?


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We'll start with the definition: "the action of making or agreeing to make an advance payment in order to receive or participate in something."

 

When Waves did their Waves Update program, or when Adobe did their Cloud thing, there was a a massive outcry. But now those models have become commonplace.

 

So the topic isn't whether you like subscription-based stuff or not; that train has already left the station. But I would like to know what you subscribe to that you consider worthwhile. What got me thinking about this was when a friend realized how much she was paying a month for subscriptions, and starting paring them down to the essentials.

 

My most useful subscription is paying the $10 a month for Office 365. Between getting all the Office apps in full version for my desktops and laptop, and "skinny" online versions, as well as office apps on my phone and a TB of Cloud storage, it's well worth it to me. I also like Hulu, because the particular package I have gets HBO and Disney+ (gotta see the Mandalorian, y'know?). But that's enough, I don't need a zillion streaming entertainment services. I barely have time to watch what's available from Hulu.

 

My daughter says Apple news gives you a lot for $10 a month, so I'm thinking of subscribing. On the other hand, I don't use TuneIn.com enough to pay $10 for the privilege of not hearing ads. I grew up with ads on the radio...I can cope.

 

What do YOU subscribe to, and would recommend to others?

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I have a few, but I don't know what will stay and go long term.

 

Apple One, Family Level - This includes several Apple services we were already paying for (Apple Music, Apple TV+, 200 GB shared iCloud Storage) plus Arcade for less than the three separately. We might bump up to the next level for News+, more iCloud storage, and maybe Fitness.

 

CBS All Access + Showtime - This is actually part of the reason we added Apple TV+. We were already doing CBS All Access (mostly for the new Star Trek series, but we're also watching the original Mission: Impossible as well as being able to watch recent episodes of Late Show, 60 Minutes, etc.) but the bundle of the three plus the fact that it made CBS AA commercial-free was too good to pass up. And then I fell in love with Ted Lasso on Apple TV+.

 

FuboTV - we're still a bit old school with watching "live" broadcast TV as well as following some sports, so we kind of needed this.

 

NY Times, Houston Chronicle - I try to stay informed, and want to support fake news real journalism. It has its flaws, but what doesn't?

 

I love Joe Pug's Working Songwriter podcast so much I support his Patreon. I'm not a big enough fan of his style of music that I'm going to spend money on it so I support the podcast directly.

 

Ring - I think I'm paying an annual fee to have more access to the stored recordings, but the model doorbell we have stinks and I'll drop that when I can get a doorbell camera that supports (Apple) HomeKit Secure Video. That's when we'll need to bump up the Apple One level.

 

IIRC, I've managed to avoid subscriptions to software so far. I feel like those prices are often just a bit too high. Like for my wife and I to use 1Password, it's $5/month which is $60/year. That seems like MUCH more than I would have paid to upgrade the app. That's how I judge software subs, how often would I have upgraded and how much would have have cost me? I'm all for supporting these small developers, but it has to make sense and that's an example that does not to me.

 

Oh, and I'm on the upgrade the iPhone every few years program. ;)

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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I don't use TuneIn.com enough to pay $10 for the privilege of not hearing ads. I grew up with ads on the radio...I can cope.

 

Great point. I never thought of putting it that way. On the other hand, those who are under 40 or so may have grown up with an Internet that hadn't yet discovered advertisng ... and then did.

 

What do YOU subscribe to, and would recommend to others?

 

I would subscribe to Sound on Sound magazine, but it costs too much. I would recommend it to anyone actively involved in audio gear and production, though. It has the best reviews of any or the other mags and web sites and well written how to articles. I would have recommended Recording during the period when I wrote for it regularly, but it's become really skimpy lately, and Mix, whose monthly issues used to be about as thick as a small town phone book is just a shadow of its former self, but they still have some decent historical articles. That's something I enjoy reading, but it might be too old school for many readers today.

 

I do subscribe to the Washington Post and donate some money to the public radio Marketplace group, which is really where I get most of my news.

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I subscribe to Tape Op magazine but that is a free subscription.

 

If I still needed the tools, I would subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud. I can easily get everything but batch processing done in Preview. I'll probably pick up an Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 soon, NOS. Gotta make sure the installer is compatible with Catalina - 2018 could not be reinstalled even though the 2014 version did still run fine on Catalina - it was just the installer that is 32 bit - go figure.

 

Can't think of anything else at the moment.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Local newspaper -- it keeps me up on local items of interest, local politics, and so forth. I also get the print edition on Wednesday and Sunday (grocery store ads and Sunday crossword puzzle). :)

Bob "Notes" Norton

Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com

Style and Fake disks for Band-in-a-Box

The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<

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I'm trying to decide who offers my idea of the best bang-for-buck, but its tedious. I have already watched all of Netflix, even the tooth-grinding South Korean science fiction epics. Its hard to find anything that does not include someone getting the GOOMPH! kicked out of them. Yawn. The severe a la carte of competing services is a leading cause of my increased reading and enjoyment of anything ambient, such as Manuel Gottsching's work.

 

I took the cloud leap with a Roland Lifetime Key (surely supported only as long as its profitable for Boss-san) to have a D-50. If unplayed for a week, it opens in demo mode and requires my password to snap back into For-Real mode, but it always does, sooo... I'm okay with that so far, as the A/D conversion seems better than what the hardware possessed and the PG-1000 programmer is built-in. Still, guess who is going to be extra-mindful of creating proper stems when I finish a piece using it.... OH yeah.

 

Gottsching/PLURALIS

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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I'll probably pick up an Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 soon, NOS. Gotta make sure the installer is compatible with Catalina - 2018 could not be reinstalled even though the 2014 version did still run fine on Catalina - it was just the installer that is 32 bit - go figure.

I think there are really good alternatives like Pixelmator Pro and Affinity Photo that keep me from needing anything from Adobe.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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I'll probably pick up an Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 soon, NOS. Gotta make sure the installer is compatible with Catalina - 2018 could not be reinstalled even though the 2014 version did still run fine on Catalina - it was just the installer that is 32 bit - go figure.

I think there are really good alternatives like Pixelmator Pro and Affinity Photo that keep me from needing anything from Adobe.

 

Thanks, I've saved those titles this time and will take the demos for a spin. It's a learning curve thing for me at this point, too many pans in the fire! I started with Photoshop 1.07 in 1992 and I can get Elements to go instantly.

Surfing eBay, I see Elements 2020 has not come down much at all even though the 2021 version available.

 

If either of those programs will do batch processing that is the biggest time saver for my workflow at this point. I'll shoot a variety of items to list for sale using the same lighting and I can run the entire set through Elements once and they are ready for listings.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I'll probably pick up an Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 soon, NOS. Gotta make sure the installer is compatible with Catalina - 2018 could not be reinstalled even though the 2014 version did still run fine on Catalina - it was just the installer that is 32 bit - go figure.

I think there are really good alternatives like Pixelmator Pro and Affinity Photo that keep me from needing anything from Adobe.

 

I've been using GIMP. Not the smoothest interface in the world, but it's free and works.

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I'll probably pick up an Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 soon, NOS. Gotta make sure the installer is compatible with Catalina - 2018 could not be reinstalled even though the 2014 version did still run fine on Catalina - it was just the installer that is 32 bit - go figure.

I think there are really good alternatives like Pixelmator Pro and Affinity Photo that keep me from needing anything from Adobe.

 

I've been using GIMP. Not the smoothest interface in the world, but it's free and works.

 

I've checked Gimp out, quite the learning curve but very capable.

The time I save following a workflow that I already have down is valuable to me. Just a few clicks and a folder with 75 pix will be re-sized, ready to post and sell stuff.

 

But i will wait at this point. Elements 2020 will go down. The holiday season is typically not a great one for selling used items. After the holidays can be another story.

I've got a stash of vintage vacuum tubes that need tested first anyway. Recently found a Hickok tester, after the tubes are sold I can sell it too.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I've been tempted to buy in to the East West Composer Cloud subscription. Just fantastic and galactic-sized bunch of VST instruments. I could create approx. 14 hundred thousand million Sgt. Pepper/Abbey Road sorts of albums will all the material in the East West deal.

 

$199 annual - at least that's the current "sale" price.

 

I already own the East West Quantum Leap Pianos, and the Fab Four sample set. To me, these sampled instruments are beyond category.

 

But I haven't sprung for it yet. Buy the one or two instruments I'm currently interested and own them outright? (the Spaces II reverb and one of the Orchestral sets).

 

Decision pending whatever random forces determine my behavior. Tune in later to see what I do! I'm the last one to know what I might do at any future moment given any possible future context....

 

nat

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Adobe Creative Suite is used every day here. Premiere, PhotoShop, often Lightroom also. Sibelius is on subscription. Nuendo isn't, but might as well be. It is my DAW - I upgrade annually. It isn't a subscription, but my bank wouldn't know it. Spotify is my music research option - and that is pretty much how I use it. Hear about a band or want to study something.

 

I had a subscription to the Slate Digital everything bundle for 3 years, but just let it lapse. I own the few things I use all the time outright. I don't chase old equipment that I never used. I have no particular interest in sounding like 1970 something or doing vintage sounding tracks. I mostly just use the stock plugins (EQ especially) or things that I own from other vendors (Flux compressors). It wasn't expensive ($150/yr), but I just didn't need it.

 

I did a one year subscription to ProTools on their last years black friday deal, but hardly used it. It expires this month and will not renew. Nuendo does everything I need. I'm not opposed to ProTools. But I'll probably go to Merging's Pyramix if I go anywhere on the DAW front.

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I quit hard copy subscriptions which for me were just guitar/keyboard magazines. I'm working hard at consolidating for our move next year and it's difficult for me to throw those out. I had an extensive collection dating back many years and I've mentioned before how I sent them all to a service in CA where they digitized them into PDF files for me.

 

When Quicken announced they were switching to a subscription model I quit using that program and developed an extensive and detailed spreadsheet in Excel to track my finances. I did, however, recently allow CCleaner to install as a subscription program on my PC.

 

With TV we have what might be considered the typical stuff including Netflix but we did drop DirectTV and switched to YoutubeTV for some significant savings.

 

At the very top of my list and highly recommended is a discovery we recently made on Amazon Prime where we subscribed to something called The Great Courses. This is an amazing series of lecture courses covering a vast array of topics. I've been watching lecture series on quantum mechanics, nuclear physics and gravity while together with my wife we've watched lecture series on the black death, geological wonders of the world and learning Spanish. I have a huge list of others I've been watching and others I intend to watch including one on Ableton Live, a program I have but have used very little.

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I had an extensive collection dating back many years and I've mentioned before how I sent them all to a service in CA where they digitized them into PDF files for me.

 

I sure wish I'd know about that before doing my last move, and deciding I just couldn't keep carrying all that paper around with me any more...

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I cancelled all my subscriptions at the beginning of the pandemic, except Apple iCloud, my only essential subscription. I have an offline backup, but it"s worth it to be able to login to any Apple device and immediately start using my important information..

 

For live-streaming on the Mac I highly recommend Ecamm Live (US$20-40/month). Here"s why:

1. It uses the GPU for video encoding on any 2010 Mac or newer. This frees up the CPU for the 'fun' real-time extras. Even my 2013 MacBook Air can run a sophisticated livestream smooth as butter.

2. You can use it with Zoom and it neatly solves Zoom"s audio sync Issue.

3. Multi-cam with iPhones is ridiculously easy.

4. Super user-friendly and fun to use. Install, login and start streaming. (compared to OBS)

 

My GF and I run a small dance studio, so we went all-in with online lessons, competitions, workshops and conferences. Initially we used OBS which is actually really great ... . But Ecamm easily resolved many of the technical problems listed above, so the subscription is worth it. And I really like being able to put up real-time graphics and sounds to summarize, drive home a point or make jokes to keep things lively online.

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