• Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
      135·
      2 months ago

      I pay for my fibre, and my phone. They’re indispensable.

      Oh and a VPN

      I can see why people pay subscriptions for media, but people who pay subscriptions for software or services are a massive problem. If people refused to use a service as soon as it turned to a subscription model, the idea would’ve died out

      Nope, folks are fucking stupid

      • xigoi@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        13·
        2 months ago

        What’s wrong with paying a subscription for a service that requires resources to continuously operate, such as email hosting?

      • solrize@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 months ago

        I don’t think of phones as subscriptions but ok, yeah, they are somewhat needed, so fine, especially if you use it enough.

  • lolola@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    43·
    2 months ago

    A bus pass maybe, that way you can just get on and not have to fumble around paying the fare when you board.

    • return2ozma@lemmy.worldOP
      143·
      2 months ago

      I live in the Los Angeles area and have a car but yes, I have the bus pass on my phone for when I don’t want to drive or just have a short trip in town. It’s great!

      • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        6·
        2 months ago

        Maybe it’s just my area but there’s also like, a 25% chance the reader won’t work and you’ll just get a free ride if you try to pay with your phone rather than cash. It makes hopping on the bus a fun gamble!

  • jws_shadotak@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    271·
    2 months ago

    A reputable VPN, preferably with port forwarding (I use AirVPN, $5/mo and I have no problems with it.)

    A Usenet provider and indexer (Newshosting is reasonable; nzbgeek offers a lifetime subscription)

  • Lyre@lemmy.ca
    25·
    2 months ago

    Paying the subscription for The Great Courses is absolutely insane value if its something you use regularly. Its not a credit system like Audible, its literally unlimited streaming of university level courses for 20$ a month (or like 12$ if you pay annually). The individual courses can cost upwards of 100$ so even if you only take one course every two months you still haven’t lost money.

    It’s infinite learning, i cant shill hard enough.

  • Chozo@fedia.io
    4217·
    2 months ago

    YouTube Premium. I watch a lot of content on YT. I work from home and will generally have something on in the background while I work, so I’m easily consuming 10+ hours of content a day. It’s honestly worth it for me, if for nothing else than to avoid the cat-and-mouse hellscape of adblocking. I’d rather pay $25 each month and have everyone in my family have an ad-free experience on all their devices no matter where they are or what network they’re using, than having to help them troubleshoot browser extensions and DNS settings and PiHoles and all that.

    Edit: Absolutely insane that people are upset that I pay for a service I make use out of, lmao

    • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
      15·
      2 months ago

      It also pays the creators better than ads ever did or ever will.

      Sure you could pay them all individually, but that gets tedius real fast when you like hundreds of channels.

      • Chozo@fedia.io
        5·
        2 months ago

        Yeah, I’ve got a lot of channels I subscribe to. I don’t know the total count right now, but last I checked it was 100+. Some of them are daily/weekly uploaders, but I think a majority of them are much less frequent. If I had the means, I’d rather financially support those creators directly, but that’s just impossible for me right now. So at the very least, I’m making my views more valuable to them.

    • MostlyGibberish@lemm.eeEnglish
      164·
      2 months ago

      It’s funny to me that people have such a problem with YouTube Premium. There are a LOT of reasons to criticize YouTube/Google, but YouTube Premium is about as close as it gets to the platonic ideal of a video subscription service. It completely banishes any ads you’d get without paying, and it provides the creators you watch with more value than someone watching without premium. If showing ads is unacceptable, and paying to not see ads is unacceptable, then what’s the alternative? People have to make a living, and servers don’t run on magic.

      • InfiniteGlitch@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        1·
        1 month ago

        It’s funny to me that people have such a problem with YouTube Premium.

        Just means you don’t see or agree with their point of view.

        YouTube Premium is about as close as it gets to the platonic ideal of a video subscription service. It completely banishes any ads you’d get without paying

        I don’t understand what you mean here (could be because English isn’t my native language). For YouTube premium, you still need to pay. So how does it banishes ads without paying?

        Anyway, you still get in-video sponsors which doesn’t get automatically skipped by YouTube’s “premium”. A lot of people (included myself) find premium expensive for what it is. I, personally, don’t need the whole package for €15-20/monthly. It could’ve been like €5/monthly to remove ads.

        Sure one could use advantage of currencies but ain’t worth it when there’s uBlock Origin + SponsorBlock for Firefox, SmartTube for TV, uYou+ for iOS and ReVanced for Android.

        If showing ads is unacceptable, and paying to not see ads is unacceptable, then what’s the alternative?

        It is not that’s “unacceptable”, it is the price and ‘value’ you get out of it.

        People have to make a living, and servers don’t run on magic.

        Google/ YouTube (whatever) as a company are immensely rich. Toning down the price or change their tactics won’t hurt them so much. But of course they won’t, I would not either because eventually there are people who will gladly pay the €15/monthly. So why change?

    • tronx4002@lemmy.world
      82·
      2 months ago

      I had did a premium trial and totally agree. I am always suprised by the people who expect a service as big as youtube to be entirely free.

    • Delphia@lemmy.world
      2·
      1 month ago

      As predatory and invasive as google is, its still a small miracle that theres a free add supported tier.

    • return2ozma@lemmy.worldOP
      44·
      2 months ago

      I subscribe to YouTube Premium because I do watch a lot of YouTube plus you get YouTube Music included. I wanted to switch to Spotify but after years without seeing ads on YouTube, I don’t think I can go back.

  • m4xie@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    20·
    2 months ago

    Having your own domain is pretty cool, even if it’s just a single page with some text and links to social media profiles.

  • Pope-King Joe@lemmy.worldEnglish
    211·
    2 months ago

    Proton Mail. High quality mail service where they don’t mine your emails for data to sell. It’s like 4-5 bucks a month depending on how you pay and it’s been worth every penny.

  • GlenRambo@jlai.luEnglish
    20·
    2 months ago

    Premiumize. I dont fully understand. But they have server farms thst will download your torrent, and then you download the file from them. Its faster and your IP doesn’t see it as a torrent. You also dont have to leave ypir PC on if there’s only one seeder. If somone else has downloaded thst torrent before its already in the farm and you visit download it from them.

    However the main thing is they integrate into Kodi and my new fave Stremio. So you can just stream anything anytime without all the torrent stuff I just mentioned.

  • yessikg@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    19·
    2 months ago

    PBS, specifically the Passport that you can get through your local PBS. You get tons of content and you support public broadcasting

  • SparrowHawk@feddit.itEnglish
    181·
    2 months ago

    Dropout and MeansTV

    Dropout is a mostly improv streaming service, very high quality entertainment and a chemistry between performers only seen between people who love each other, it’s like watching a friend group of very prepared comedians. It’s about 6 bucks a month and password sharing is encourages

    MeansTv is a worker owned streaming service aiming to provide information and entertainment tailored for a class conscious audience, it’s mostly documentaries but they’re really good and i’ve seen many ideas from all the left spectrum, it’s about 10 bucks a month

  • 7EP6vuI@feddit.orgEnglish
    171·
    2 months ago

    public library

    here the subscription fee for one year is about as expensive as a single book.

  • Antithetical@lemmy.deedium.nl
    12·
    2 months ago

    I have two:

    • di.fm for all your electronic genres music needs (with bonus rock, classical and jazz streams).
    • Kagi for a search engine that actually tries to give you proper results.
  • zlatiah@lemmy.world
    11·
    2 months ago
    • A privacy-respecting mail service: I use mailbox.org since it follows email standards, but I think many ppl like Proton mail/Tutanota. Recommend because they are privacy-respecting, and self-hosting email is way too difficult
    • More of a yearly subscription per-se, but a personal domain from any domain registrar. Recommend because why not? There are so many cool things one can do with a domain: custom email, your own blog, professional website for job, …
    • A VPS from Linode (or any reliable provider). Recommend because some things are better done on a VPS… and I want a public-facing IP that is not directly from my bedroom
    • I used to have subscriptions to the local arcade. Recommend because I basically get cardio workout on the DDR machine (and it costs less than a gym. And easier to cancel)
    • beliquititious@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      23·
      1 month ago

      Protonmail is great, it comes with cloud storage, a really good password manager, and a very fast VPN. The linux experience is mid for their apps, but great on MacOS or Windows.