Subscription or subscription model are terms that are increasingly common for all sorts of services and services. The rapid growth of the Internet has led to a fundamental change in how we consume and - most importantly - how we buy digital products of all kinds.

Subscription - what is it? Let's start with a definition. Subscription, in a broad sense, is a form of payment in which customers regularly pay for access to services, content or products for a specified period of time, usually monthly or annually. A subscription model, on the other hand, is a business strategy in which a company offers its products or services by subscription.

A good example is the VOD (Video on Demand) industry, which has boomed in recent years, bringing down not only an entire branch of DVD/Blu-Ray sales, but also badly shaking the foundations of the movie industry. Instead of buying a movie disc, the prevailing model now is to sign up for a subscription to one or more VOD services (for example, Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO MAX, Disney Plus or English Polsat Box Go), which allows access to the entire library of movies and series offered by a given platform. 

Subscription - advantages and disadvantages

The main advantage of the subscription model for both customers and companies is the predictability of revenue. For customers, a fixed monthly fee can be easier to manage than a one-time, high price for a specific product or service. It also allows regular access to updates and new content at no additional cost. For companies, the subscription model provides a stable cash flow, which makes it easier to plan investments, develop products and, most importantly, maintain customer relationships. Other psychological factors also come into play - customers often forget to cancel a service after using its resources, which, combined with a plugged-in payment card, leads to another charge until the payment is manually turned off.

However, such a model comes with many limitations. When we bought a disc with a movie or a given program a few years ago, we became the owner of the medium and could use the product on our own computer in a de facto unlimited way. Today, in most cases, when we cancel our subscription, we lose access to the content. 

Many services that were once free are slowly becoming fee-based or raising prices. If you've built your digital assets on a particular service, and that service drastically raises fees, there's a problem - especially if it's not entertainment, but business services such as specialized enterprise software.

Is there a subscription fee?

Not always. Many manufacturers offer a free trial period (known as a "trial") of a given service, allowing users to familiarize themselves with the functionalities without paying a fee. This is particularly popular with software. A large number of developers encourage free subscriptions to their services, which allows them to expand their community and keep a person with them. This is common with email newsletters - the creator doesn't charge for regular content (e.g. educational material on a particular topic), and in addition often provides cost-effective items from the recipient's point of view, such as discounts on products. The price, however, is staying on the newsletter list, and thus voluntarily staying in the company's business orbit.




Subscription - examples

Below is a list of some examples of services made available in a subscription model by industry. Of course, this is only a list of the most flagship examples, with thousands more services appearing every day.

Music: Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music

Games: Xbox Game Pass, Playstation Plus

VOD: Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO MAX, Amazon Prime.

Books/audiobooks: Legimi, Audioteka

Journalism: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Gazeta Wyborcza, Rzeczpospolita

Software: Adobe Cloud, Notion, Apple Cloud, Microsoft 365

Social Media: X (Twitter) Blue, Discord Nitro, Twitch Turbo, Reddit Premium, LinkedIn Premium.