Ask Slashdot: Your Favorite Subscription Services?

An anonymous reader writes: What are some subscriptions services that you are paying for and love to pay? Please include music/movie services, news outlets, software, and courses.

Comments

amazon prime

[maliqua]

Amazon prime is like 'fast china' you can buy something for $4 you pay $4 and $4 only then it shows up at your door

Re:amazon prime

[__aaclcg7560]

Or you can Amazon Prime, qualify for free shipping, wait eight days, and pick up from an Amazon Locker.

Re:amazon prime

[__aaclcg7560]

Skip, skip, skip... Why do I keep skipping words? *sigh*

Re:amazon prime

[pr0fessor]

Sadly I have to agree I can get just about anything on amazon prime w/ free shipping then watch prime video... Since I live in the boonies I order a lot of stuff from amazon that I just can't buy locally. The last thing I got from amazon was an ignition coil for a riding mower, I could have driven 60 miles and picked one up but that's a waste of time and gas.

Re:amazon prime

[PopeRatzo]

Besides Prime Video, and the free shipping, Amazon Prime includes a lot of ebooks too.

Re:amazon prime

[Anonymous Coward]

no, that's a separate deal, and another $10/month.

Re:amazon prime

[David_Hart]

Amazon prime is like 'fast china' you can buy something for $4 you pay $4 and $4 only then it shows up at your door

I agree Amazon Prime.

The other one for me, being a Canadian and a hockey fan, is NHL TV (Game Center Live).

I get all of the NHL games, except for local blackouts. It lets me follow the Oilers even though I am on the East coast through game replays and recaps.

Re:amazon prime

[PopeRatzo]

no, that's a separate deal, and another $10/month.

I'm talking about the Kindle lending library. I get a bunch of books I can read for free in the Kindle app on my tablet.

Re:amazon prime

[Anonymous Coward]

You're probably typing them, it's just that they don't all escape your event horizon, tubby.

Re:amazon prime

[Anonymous Coward]

Amazon prime is like 'fast china' you can buy something for $4 you pay $4 and $4 only then it shows up at your door

But for 5 dollar it take long time.

Re:amazon prime

[FatdogHaiku]

You can also get a free book each month from a selection of new upcoming books.
https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/kindlefirst/
Once in a while I also get a book from the local library sent to my Kindle... but that's a two week and it's over deal.

Re:amazon prime

[Anonymous Coward]

Unmedicated ADHD. Get diagnosed.

Re:amazon prime

[AmiMoJo]

Maybe it's just the UK version, but I find Amazon Prime isn't really worth it. Often the stuff you want is not available with Prime, or it is but costs more than the version without so you are effectively paying for fast shipping on it anyway.

If the range was better or Prime was about 1/4th the price it might be worth it.

Re:amazon prime

[Jason Levine]

Plus, you get a ton of "free" music. Yes, you don't "own" it (if you ever stop paying for Prime, you lose the music), but you can listen to the music (even downloading it locally) without paying anything extra.

There are a lot of other perks, but we use the free shipping and music ones the most.

Re:amazon prime

[Albanach]

Often the stuff you want is not available with Prime, or it is but costs more than the version without so you are effectively paying for fast shipping on it anyway.

I view the extra cost as paying for Amazon's return policy. I know that anything that doesn't work can be returned quickly and without issue. I suppose for small $4 things it might be worth self insuring and taking the lower price, but generally I appreciate the convenience of both knowing when something will arrive and that if it's broken I'm not going to lose time dealing with it.

Re:amazon prime

[AmiMoJo]

In the UK we have that kind of return policy baked into law. Anything bought over the internet can be returned for any reason in the first 14 days after you get it. If it is faulty or not as described then the vendor (Amazon) pays return postage, otherwise if you just don't like it you pay.

Re:amazon prime

[squiggleslash]

When I lived in the UK, delivery was normally overnight. (That said, mail order companies used to take liberties with the "May take 28 days for delivery" disclaimer, but that's another story. The actual time taken from some guy handing it over to the Post Office and it arriving at my door was rarely more than a day, at most two.)

Now, I know the Post Office (or whatever it's called today) has gone downhill since I left, but I suspect the logistics of a country barely 600 miles long haven't changed so that it's dramatically worse (hold off replying, I'm about to define "dramatically"). But in the US, it is worse. Ship something across the country using conventional parcel services can take a week or two, whether it's the US Postal Service, or a private operator like UPS. (THAT is what I mean by dramatically worse.)

That's why Prime initially became popular over here. It's a relatively small subscription that ensures you get what you ordered in a timely manner without you having to worry about extortionate two-day-delivery feeds, which are frequently more expensive than whatever it is you're ordering.

These days Prime also provides other benefits, such as a pretty large Netflix style online streaming library, and a fairly substantial, though not Rhapsody sized, music library. But the postal thing is what sold it initially - and for the life of me I doubt that was ever going to be a selling point in the UK, even if the post has gotten worse.

Spotify. Second, tho I hate it - Netflix

[mimino]

Spotify. Second, tho I hate it - Netflix.

Re:Spotify. Second, tho I hate it - Netflix

[PopeRatzo]

Yeah, Spotify is definitely worth it for me, even though I mostly listen to back catalog stuff going back to the 1940s. Jazz, R&B, etc.

I also got a free subscription for a few months of Google Play Music when I bought a Pixel. It includes Youtube Red which means no commercials on videos ever. I've kept that now for about 4 months past the free period. It has virtually the same catalog as Spotify, but the radio stations and recommendations aren't nearly as good. I consume a LOT of music

Re:Spotify. Second, tho I hate it - Netflix

[Anonymous Coward]

I did pay for spotify once until I found out that you can use ublock origin to stop the ads on play.spotify.com

Re:Spotify. Second, tho I hate it - Netflix

[KozmoStevnNaut]

Enjoy your gimped sound quality and the lack of features like a queue, I guess.

Piratebay

[aglider]

Of course!

Re:Piratebay

[Anonymous Coward]

My UseNet and NZB Indexer Subscriptions save me from all the HBO piracy threats, and costs a fraction of what a CableTV subscription costs..

Re:Piratebay

[Anonymous Coward]

Arrrrrrr!

Does the Internet connection subscription count?

[mimino]

Or maybe mobile phone is first, then Internet at home.

PSPlus

[SuperKendall]

I don't even ever use the free games with PSPlus, I just find it invaluable for the fact it can store all your save game files on Sony servers, in case for some reason you need to wipe your PS4 you don't lose potentially a lot of invested time...

Yes you can also back it up manually, for free. But come on, who does that regularly? Automated backups are the only way to be sure.

Re:PSPlus

[DontBeAMoran]

Automated backups are the only way to be sure.

Nuke your backups from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Re:PSPlus

[AvitarX]

Before the PS4, PS+ had some great games.

I got both XCOM and Bioshock infinite when they were still in the $40 price point.

After the PS4 came out, and they made it more mandatory, they stopped giving away good high budget games.

Re:PSPlus

[tlhIngan]

After the PS4 came out, and they made it more mandatory, they stopped giving away good high budget games.

They didn't make it mandatory. Only mandatory if you wanted to play online.

And they stopped giving good games because they didn't have to. They are "winning" the console war this generation, so why do anything different? PS4 outsels Xbones by 2:1, so why give away good stuff if people are going to buy your stuff regardless?

(It's why Microsoft is actually trying to compete - why they added backwards compatibility, fixing hardware mistakes, and giving in general good games for free.)

Sony's lying on their ass because they can - PS4's selling. Microsoft's adding features and trying to make their system better because they have to. It's the market at work - the runner up has to work harder.

Re:PSPlus

[AvitarX]

I saw it more of a "everybody with internet is going to buy this anyway, so let's make it not as good".

I still don't mind it, the discounts on smaller games are worth it, and some free games.

But I miss getting a high end game I really wanted every few months.

Re:PSPlus

[SuperKendall]

Sadly I came to PSPlus after that point, so I really hadn't seen any games I cared about much... I'll probably try some of them at some point. But like you say, it would have been nice to get a few high end games for a month or so at times...

Then again, I didn't even redeem the free code for "The Last Of Us" I got with my PS4. I was a little sad about that later (it expired about a year later I think, after I thought I should maybe go fetch it).

Re:PSPlus

[AvitarX]

They weren't for a month at a time.

I still play xcom, I'll have it as long as ps3 is supported, and I keep paying the subscription.

Linux Weekly News

[Anonymous Coward]

LWN is an invaluable resource for keeping track of Linux kernel development.

https://lwn.net/

Re:Linux Weekly News

[Yenya]

This.

I can't believe that on the "News for nerds" site, the above comment is hiden somewhere with score 0. Yes, LWN is about the only subscription which is not only worth paying for, but where you can literally see that the money is spent on a good thing, on an effort of tracking the changes, documenting things, etc.

Re:Linux Weekly News

[tureba]

Yes! LWN is certainly the best news source relating to OSS, even going way beyond the kernel. My only regret is that I didn't subscribe to it earlier (I've been a subscriber only for the past two years or so).

Re:Linux Weekly News

[Anonymous Coward]

LWN is an invaluable resource for keeping track of Linux kernel development.

https://lwn.net/

Absolutely. IMO the best Linux (kernel and userspace) news site on the web.

No

[Anonymous Coward]

Just no.

Re:Does the Internet connection subscription count

[gnick]

Internet and phone I'd class as utilities. VPN I'd call a subscription.

BangBros

[Anonymous Coward]

BangBros

none.

[rogoshen1]

I don't particularly 'love' giving money to anyone. The particularly shitty thing with these subscription based streaming services is that you're just renting content. You never 'own' any of it; and at the end you have fuck-all to show for your expense.

Tis the same approach used to keep people poor forever -- (this is of course a minor case, but illustrative.) And sadly the direction our society seems to be heading on a few fronts.
Don't buy a house, just rent.
Don't buy a car, lease it.
Software as a service
Interest only loans etc.

From a cost/benefit perspective; spotify and netflix are 'worth it', but that's about it. (For now; they love playing hanky with what content is available, not to mention arbitrary geoblocking bullshit.)

Re:none.

[gnick]

From a cost/benefit perspective; spotify and netflix are 'worth it', but that's about it. (For now; they love playing hanky with what content is available, not to mention arbitrary geoblocking bullshit.)

My VPN subscription is "worth it" too. Also, that's a way to get around "arbitrary geoblocking bullshit."

Re:none.

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

The particularly shitty thing with these subscription based streaming services is that you're just renting content. You never 'own' any of it; and at the end you have fuck-all to show for your expense.

I don't have a problem with that in itself, as long as the deal is clear. I used to rent tapes or discs from bricks and mortar rental stores too, and I paid a lot less for something I was only interested in watching once that way than I would have if I'd had to buy everything as a permanent copy. That experience and hopefully enjoyment is what I had to show for my expense afterwards.

Where I think things get hazy is when something walks like a purchase and quacks like a purchase (and is priced like a purchase) but in fact is just some general licence-to-use thing when you read the small print that no-one reads. This is a particular evil with software, in my experience.

I'm also a bit concerned that in time we might move to rental being the only way to get access content even if you'd prefer to have a permanent copy and be willing to pay a fair price for it. However, so far, I see little evidence that this is likely to happen any time soon; there's a big enough market for buy-to-own that the content producers even run big money ad campaigns about it, while simultaneously also releasing it through other channels. Again, software is a notable exception, but the pros and cons of SaaS models also seem to be reliably opening gaps in the market for providers willing to supply their software on a more traditional, permanent basis, so I think the jury's still out on this one too.

Re:none.

[Junta]

Yes, you can't 'buy' an ebook or movie for the most part. Plenty of vendors line up to make you feel like you are, but if that vendor goes away, so too do your purchases.

Music was lucky, at the time digital distribution of that went popular and precedents got set, DRM was not viable yet. They *tried* and it was terrible and consequently I can get digital copies of music legitimately without DRM.

Books and movies though... There isn't much of a way to legitimately acquire those without DRM...

Re:None.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is literally the opposite of what paying for a service provides.

It allows the service to NOT use ad revenue on you.

Re:none.

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

I have a house full of movies and books acquired without DRM, many of them this year.

If we're talking about e-books specifically, then yes, I agree that is more of a problem. But in that case, I suspect it's a problem that could be solved simply through transparency and market forces.

I am increasingly of the view that tech industries should be subject to the same heavy regulatory rules on marketing and "packaging" as the tobacco industry. Sure, you can "sell" someone an e-book that you have the ability to delete remotely under dubious conditions, but only if half the total screen space on every web page in the sales process is given over to a large print, black-and-white message saying "YOU WILL NOT OWN THIS BOOK. It may be removed from your device at any time, without notice or refund."

Re:none.

[bws111]

Why does it matter if 'at the end' you have nothing to show for it? Have you never eaten a meal that provided flavor or nutrition above mere sustenance? Have you never attended a concert or gone to a movie? Have you never taken a vacation? All of those things leave you with 'nothing at the end to show for your expense'.

A more sane approach would be 'how much value do you get from owning vs renting'? For me, and I suspect a lot of other people, the value of an entertainment dollar comes from how much enjoyment you get from it. I can spend $10/month on a subscription movie service and watch a different movie every weekend. Or, I can spend the $10 buying a copy of a movie, watching it one weekend and spending the other three weekends diving into my collection of movies like Scrooge McDuck saying 'look how much I own!'. I would get much more enjoyment, thus value, out of the first.

As another poster said, people used to rent movies from brick-and-mortar stores. That business started dying off when the price to own a movie came down low enough. But the reason owning was seen as preferable wasn't so much 'look at all the stuff I own' as it was simple convenience. If you wanted to rent a movie you had to go to the store, hope they had a movie you wanted to see, go home and watch it, then return it to the store. By purchasing it you could watch it when you wanted, even if it was only once, and not have to deal with that hassle. That was worth money. When Netflix came out with DVD rentals that provided convenience at an even lower price than owning. Then when streaming came out it was even easier and cheaper to watch movies.

Re: none.

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't own anything. If the government decides they want your house because it sits on land you can never own, they'll take it. If the government decides your car is unsafe, they take it.

You don't "own" anything.

Re:None.

[Rick Schumann]

I'd say your naivete was adorable if it wasn't so pathetic.

Does ANYBODY actually believe that there is ANY 'service' out there that doesn't collect all the data they can on you, regardless of how much you're paying them? Show of hands, please? Anyone? Bueller?

Do yourself a favor, AC: WAKE THE HELL UP ALREADY.

Re: none.

[Anonymous Coward]

Owning something doesn't mean it can never be taken away. I don't think there's even a word for that in English. Soulbound, maybe?

If the community gets together and decides it's too dangerous / harmful / impeding for you to have something anymore, oh well, sucks to be you, but I'm sure you'll live.

Re:none.

[unrtst]

Books and movies though... There isn't much of a way to legitimately acquire those without DRM...

I have a house full of movies and books acquired without DRM, many of them this year.

I'm 99.999% sure he was referring to ebooks, not physical books, so I doubt your house is full of them, let alone sans DRM :-P

Movies... what movies do you have without DRM? I'm pretty sure you're referring to physical copies. If they're home movies, that's obviously not what we're talking about.
If they're on VHS/Betamax/etc, really? I'd just be surprised.
If they're blu-ray, they almost certainly have DRM.
If they're DVD's, they almost certainly have DRM, though it's incredibly weak and broken now. I suspect this is what you were referring to, so it's quite a gray area, and I think it'd technically fail the, "legitimately acquire those without DRM" prereq.
Or maybe they're bootlegs? But that certainly fails the legitimately acquire test.

Back to the books, I really really really wish the DRM would go away there. IMO, all they really need is a good digital watermark. Digitally sign each copy with a unique sig, and who cares if people copy it to their PC or other devices or friends devices. If normal folks start sharing a bit too much, you'll probably know who it was (same way they can tell on mp3s, since they often tag the files now), and can do something about it if you like. The DRM that is there is only a PITA for legitimate users, and that's all it can ever be since it's gotta display clear and readable text to the user at some point, so even a crappy OCR program could get a perfect copy of the text (assuming they couldn't just strip the encryption/DRM).
For books as a service (ex. Amazon Kindle Unlimited; library/overdrive; etc), I don't mind the DRM. It serves the purpose for rentals/lending.

Re:none.

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

OK, if you mean any copy protection system at all then yes, in principle the movies I have on disc are typically protected by something.

But the context was whether you could buy a permanent copy of something. Those discs are mine, by law, and so is the copy of each work that is stored on them. They don't have any DRM in the sense of requiring some sort of connection to a remote authority to say it's OK before I can play them, and there is no possibility that they ever will. If the movie studio or the shop where I bought the movie goes bust, too bad, but I still have my disc.

Obviously there is still the issue that I can't easily back up the discs, which is not ideal, but I don't think this is at all the same situation as something like an online streaming service or an e-book that can be "revoked" remotely. There was also some talk of having players for newer formats able to store some list of known infringing discs and refuse to play them, but to my knowledge this has never made any practical difference, probably because it's easy to see ways that anyone actually using such a function could get into legal trouble over it.

Re:none.

[AmiMoJo]

I don't mind renting media because I rarely watch stuff more than once. It's not worth paying extra to own it, and then storing it somewhere indefinitely, because chances are after the first viewing I'll never go back to it.

Re:none.

[Jason Levine]

Back to the books, I really really really wish the DRM would go away there.

When I was publishing my book on Amazon, they gave me the option of enabling or disabling DRM. I thought it over and I'll admit to considering enabling DRM to "prevent people from pirating my book." Then, I realized that 1) my book is likely going to have a tiny audience (it's not like I'm a big name author or something) and my "lost sales" (much as I hate that term) from piracy would be minimal to nonexistent and 2) I generally don't like DRM to begin with so why would I use it when offering a product.

So I published my book without DRM. Yes, it's in Kindle format and you need to pay Amazon for it (who then pays me), but there shouldn't be any additional DRM added.

(All this wasn't intended as a sales pitch for my book, but if anyone wanted to support an author who chose the non-DRM route, I wouldn't be opposed to them buying my book. ;-) )

Re: none.

[Albanach]

You don't own anything. If the government decides they want your house because it sits on land you can never own, they'll take it. If the government decides your car is unsafe, they take it.

THis comment appears scattered throughout this topic. Are you proposing something different? A return to the state of nature, where anyone else with a bigger club, or faster legs could take your stuff?

The only way to own something is if there's a community that respects your ownership. That requires some form of government which requires some sort of funding. The alternative, as Hobbes tells us, is nasty, brutish and short.

Re:none.

[Anonymous Coward]

You cant equate a $10 movie rental/viewing againts a $300,000 500sqft apartment (current cost in my country, without factoring forex)

Banks wont allow you to leverage 1$ into a 10$ movie ticket for reason.

Example; mine: i purchased a $225k property in 2013 at the equivalent of silicon Valley. Put down 25k, and pay $1200 a month now for bank loan repayment and all the other shit. Tenant pays me $1400 a month. In december 2017 they have had use of it and 'nothing to show'. Id have a 350k property to show. If i sell it i keep 100k before taxes after my initial 25k.

Renting movies or going to watch one really cant compare.

Magazines - NY'er

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been getting the New Yorker (not to be confused with New York) for about 15 years and it's among the best money I've spent. The long-form journalism is unbeatable- you get great detail about a wide variety of subjects. I'm a fan of the print issue so you can have it around anytime and anywhere (plus the long articles are hard to read on devices).

It's also fun to pair it with magazines like Harper's and the Atlantic- you start to realize that some subjects will just make the rounds, and if you see it in two of three it'll definitely be on NPR.

MAGA Weekly

[Anonymous Coward]

It's only available in a Russian language version, though

Re:MAGA Weekly

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is that? I don't recall.

Re:Slashdot mod points

[Anonymous Coward]

Please check in at the church closest to you for a free Reparative Therapy session. It really works!

Quite a few

[Anonymous Coward]

I am paying for Pandora for no ads, Netflix (streaming + DVDs), Prime for shipping and TV, and HideMyIP for VPN services. I feel like all of them are an ok value. Then I donate to my local NPR station and subscribe to the Washington Post, because someone needs to keep actual journalists employed.

I would like to keep it to two...

[Applehu Akbar]

For me it's Amazon Prime and Netflix DVD (so I can get everything, unlike Netflix Streaming).

Netflix

[Ijaaz]

Replaced cable for me..

ACM Digital Library

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

The Digital Library is an add-on to a normal ACM Membership that gives access to journals and publications going back decades, as well as access to a selection of modern textbooks and technical books.

It doubles the cost of the annual ACM membership, but I can think of a few times where a few hours spent reading old journals has saved me a week of hacking around because someone had previously proved a solution to a problem I was trying to solve.

Re: ACM Digital Library

[Anonymous Coward]

When I got into VFX I purchased a membership and instantly regretted it.

The organization and searchability of the site is horrible.

Glad you enjoy it though.

Netflix

[DontBeAMoran]

Netflix is the only thing worth its price. And I'm in Canada.

Everything else is just overpriced crap.

Re:Slashdot mod points

[Anonymous Coward]

Grindr is great for hooking up with BeauHD and bottoming him.

Highlights magazine

[tgibson]

Don't know what I'd do without my monthly fix of Goofus and Gallant.

WWE network

[ganjadude]

I like watching old wrestling so for 10 bucks a month the WWE network is perfect. plus all the new PPVs included instead of 50-60 bucks like on the cable systems

My EFF donation.

[Anonymous Coward]

Because reasons.

Captcha: "screwed"

Pornhub

[Anonymous Coward]

Becuase I can

Audible is my jam

[Coldeagle]

Audible is my favorite service, I've been an audible customer for over a dozen years and have over 800 books in my audible library. They're the ones I can't do without.

I also subscribe to Hulu, Netflix, Playstation Vue (cable replacement), HBO Now, and Amazon Prime (also use it for add free music, their free version of music has a pretty wide selection, you don't have to pay extra).

Re:Audible is my jam

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, Audible is my crack too. It's just a very expensive hobby to have. I have the 24 credit a year subscription but I usually re-up in July or August so I figure I'm burning though 36ish or so books per year.

Re:Audible is my jam

[Radical Moderate]

Yeah, Audible, Netflix for me. I got Amazon Prime, but haven't used the media. I'm not much of a consumer I guess.

Re:Audible is my jam

[kfh227]

Amazon Prime for music. OK, I know what I'm about to try out since I already have prime. Knew about movies but not the music thing.

Re:Audible is my jam

[kfh227]

Coldeagle with post of the year!

Re:Audible is my jam

[aldousd666]

Same AF. I love it.

Garbage collection

[phantomfive]

No, really! Thankyou, Recology! Wish you wouldn't come at 5:00AM!!

Magazines still count?

[Anonymous Coward]

Heavy Metal Magazine.

I spend 5x the effort of paying for subscriptions

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

I probably spend about 5x the effort of paying for subscriptions finding ways around them. The intellectual reward is worth the extra time - it's like a real-world puzzle. With the glut of entertainment available today, the thrill of unlocking a [game]/[show] /[book] seems to make it worth consuming.

Private Eye

[coastwalker]

In the UK Private Eye is not just entertaining but it holds to account our masters.

Re:Private Eye

[Anonymous Coward]

I entirely concur on this. I have subscribed to the *Eye* for over a quarter of a century.

Electric company

[cetan]

The electric company subscription service provides the voltage and amperage I need (all the time) when I need it (right now.) Without it, life would be very difficsy8907^#!Z NO CARRIER

Re:Electric company

[Anonymous Coward]

Personally I like my water subscription. It's awesome. I get this amazing purified liquid necessary for life simply by twisting a knob. Seriously, not even delivered to my door, but literally at a twist of a knob!

Dish Network

[jimminy_cricket]

I've been a Dish Network customer for years now. It continues to have the best UI of all the satellite/cable services that I've encountered. The SlingBox feature is super nice.

LWN is a close second.

For 20+ years...

[__aaclcg7560]

The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Re:For 20+ years...

[MSTCrow5429]

I'm the WSJ. I'd get the NYT, but it's not required for a job or any interests, so not shelling all that cash for it.

Re:For 20+ years...

[PCM2]

I agree with the NYT. I'm only a recent subscriber, but I find it covers my interests pretty well. If I want breaking news, I can get that with some of the best reporting in the country (and it will even buzz my phone to alert me, probably more often than I'd like). On other days, if I just want to read about travel destinations or check out movie reviews or read about books, I can do that, too. It's kind of like what they say about cameras: the only "good" camera is the one you actually leave the house with. Likewise, subscribing to a publication doesn't do you much good if actually reading it starts to feel like a chore.

For example, I used to subscribe to The Economist, but inevitably I found its style fatiguing. Its coverage is thorough, but there were just too many weeks where I found myself not reading anything, because it felt like too much of an investment when there were so many other things (like books) I could be reading. Even the audio edition (included with your subscription), which initially I marveled at, started to feel too pedantic and lifeless to really enjoy listening to. A shame, but I might still try it again if a really good bargain price came along.

My List

[Anonymous Coward]

Netflix
Adobe Photographer Plan (Photoshop/Lightroom)
500px
Spotify (on and off)
Amazon Prime
Kindle Freetime Unlimited (for kids)
Audible (have listened to many books on 45 min commute)
Lastpass
AmericanGreetings.com

Re:My List

[Anonymous Coward]

Forgot Backblaze

Don't forget content creators

[kav2k]

GitHub for private repos.
Adobe CC photography bundle (PS + LR).
Dropbox for convenient cloud storage.
Spotify for my music needs (and if I do buy music, I tend to only do so through Bandcamp).
The Old Reader to help me drown in the hundreds of feeds I follow.

One VPS provider for random small needs + domain fees.
One VPN provider for peace of mind in some situations.

And many donations to content creators. Mostly with Patreon. I'd consider that subscriptions.

I wish YouTube Red as available in my country; I would pay it just for the ad-free experience where I know content creators are still compensated.

Re: Don't forget content creators

[Anonymous Coward]

The only things I "love" to pay for I pay for with Patreon. Pretty much everything else I pay for I wouldn't mind getting for free.

Re: Don't forget content creators

[kav2k]

I do not like paywalls online and find them ineffective (there are alternative sources for most things).

I do, however, appreciate when the content is essentially free for everyone but is supported by voluntary donations. Take Dwarf Fortress as an example.

I understand it doesn't work out for everyone, but when it does, it's the best situation.

Re:Don't forget content creators

[Anonymous Coward]

> paying for git

hahahahahahahahahahahaha

Re:Don't forget content creators

[kav2k]

Not quite. Paying for GitHub's value-added services like the interface, issue tracking, etc.

Yes, functionally one can replicate it with other services. I'm happy with GitHub's offer though.

Re:Don't forget content creators

[AmiMoJo]

Spideroak for secure cloud backup, fully encrypted on the client side.

GitLab and BitBucket both offer private repos for free. GitLab has better organizational features than GitHub, which just shows you all your 100+ repos in a big list, private and public and work org related mixed together. People have been requesting some basic organizing tools for years with no response.

A friend who listens to music all day wrote a PHP app that creates playlists from YouTube videos. They play in the background with only the audio on. Basically Spottify but free.

I use iVPN. Not the cheapest by a long shot, but reliable and fast and plenty of servers around the world.

Pandora One

[Anonymous Coward]

Price is now $3.99, but Mr. Money Mustache likes Pandora One: $3 Per Month: The Largest Possible Music Budget

I second Pandora

[opentunings]

It's constantly changing tunes while I'm exercising. Lots of variety, and surprises every now and then.

GitHub

[darkain]

We're all techies here, right? Seriously, GitHub. The $7/mo or whatever it is has served me a hell of a lot better than my previous setup using a free GitLab deployment locally.

Re:GitHub

[Luthair]

Or you could just use BitBucket for free.

Re:GitHub

[ArchieBunker]

Speak for yourself, I deal with hardware.

Re:GitHub

[halfnerd]

Or Gitlab, which also has free CI resources (for private projects)

Re:GitHub

[AmiMoJo]

The problem with GitHub is the lack of any way to effectively organize repos. There has been a request to provide some basic tools for over a year: https://github.com/dear-github...

I've got well over 100 repos on my account. Some personal, many related to my work organization... It's a nightmare to work with.

Re:GitHub

[tzanger]

I do too. I have my own gitlab server and my schematics, layouts and simulation data are all in there (along with the firmware).

VPN

[avandesande]

--EOM--

Re:Slashdot mod points

[Anonymous Coward]

Fucking assholes like you are the reason this fucking planet is a fucking hellhole. I hope you kill yourself, you fucking faggot!!!1

You mean posts like this make you happy? I hope you enjoyed it, but IMHO you're a sad person and should seek therapy.

And you wonder Jesus why we never invite you to children birthday parties...

Civilization

[Anonymous Coward]

Police, Fire Dept., Roads, etc. I admit, I can't live without it.

Re:Civilization

[MSTCrow5429]

Muh roads.

Huh?

[aquabat]

Loving a service is one thing, but if you love paying the bill, there's something seriously wrong with you. (No offence).

Re:Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

If a service does not offer me a payment solution, and it has no other visibly sustainable business model, I want to give them money, so that they can continue to exist. It makes perfect sense. I enjoy paying them so that they can continue to exist.

Cmdr_Taco

[Anonymous Coward]

My favorite services would be anything that Cmdr_Taco and Samzenpus are involved with.

Union dues

[ISayWeOnlyToBePolite]

Other than union dues I only pay rent, utilities, insurance, mobile phone and internet. I would pay for my local printed news if i had to, (although I would probably get an electronic edition). Used to pay for cable, but when I realized I hadn't turned on the TV for six months out it went and cable was cancelled.

Next on Slashdot:

[sootman]

* Favorite kind of pet
* Favorite ice cream flavor

Re:Next on Slashdot:

[Ann O'Nymous-Coward]

Budgie ripple!

Re: Next on Slashdot:

[Anonymous Coward]

Favorite kind of pet? Commodore of course.

Amateur Radio License

[infernalC]

It's something like $15 every 10 years, and the license is a barrier to entry that keeps the airwaves a little more civilized.

Re:Amateur Radio License

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, I'll bite - If you were a legitimately licensed Amateur Radio Operator (in the US, anyway) you'd know that the FCC did away with licensing fees a number of years ago. I'll agree that the licensing structure keeps the airwaves 'cleaner' - but the fact that the majority of millennials or gen-x-ers or whatever have the equivalent of a tablet computer on their hip 24/7 makes amateur radio a bit redundant, and I think that's been the major contributor to the cleanliness of the airwaves in the past 10 years or so.

I've been licensed since 1978, and have watched the ebb and flow of the hobby during my time - it's still a great pastime, at least for those of us who just like to BS with our fellow geeks/nerds/techies...

Re:Amateur Radio License

[Strider-]

I've been licensed since 1978, and have watched the ebb and flow of the hobby during my time - it's still a great pastime, at least for those of us who just like to BS with our fellow geeks/nerds/techies...

For some of us, we're in a new golden era of the hobby (and I use that word deliberately). The advent of modern computing hardware and sound cards has led to a lot of really fascinating work done on the margins of what is practical over the air. Things like WSPR that can send data (really slowly, and only with synchronized clocks, which is kinda cheating I guess) at levels that are 27dB below the noise floor is truly impressive. Other things like Olivia and the various other digital modes, is the new realm of amateur experimentation.

Yes, in the modern era, for the most part amateurs aren't building their own radios any more, but there's a new growth in all sorts of unique modes and techniques, and people are experimenting once again. Same thing with some of the SDR work being done... Now that it's possible to directly synthesize and/or digitize things at amateur frequencies, there's a whole new world of experimentation to be done.

Re:Amateur Radio License

[ArchieBunker]

The FCC doesn't really monitor anymore. I listen to the CB channels with a $10 SDR dongle and hear people in the next state with signals stronger than the locals. Some guy in Florida was running a pirate FM station 24/7 for over a month before the FCC showed up. The Puerto Ricans still love their 2KW blasters.

Re:Amateur Radio License

[RadioD00d]

Further to my A/C post above - I didn't mean to demean or diminish the importance and excitement of the SDR / digital / low power experimentation being done. The digital modes have attracted people who normally wouldn't have been involved - when you can show a computer fanatic that he can communicate around the world with 5 watts of power and a laptop (and no internet) it usually gets 'em interested. The only point I was trying to make is that Amateur Radio is a niche hobby - there will always be those who are into experimentation, or ragchewing, or satellites, or moonbounce, or any of the myriad options that a license offers. It's just a harder sell nowadays when a 10 year old kid can pull his smartphone out of his pocket and call Japan with it....

Re:Amateur Radio License

[infernalC]

I take that back. I had to pay $15 to the VE to cover the cost of the exam session... there doesn't seem to be a recurring cost. I've only been licensed for two weeks. KN4DVB. I will take general and extra next month.

TheRebel.media

[Anonymous Coward]

The voice of reason for Canada

NYT + WAPO

[lfp98]

As free online news sites, and Yahoo in particular, have degenerated to the point of uselessness, I now subscribe to digital New York Times and Washington Post, and don't mind paying for them. Somebody has to pay all those reporters and editors, online advertising clearly isn't going to be sufficient. This, I believe (and hope), is the future of news: a few prominent players, each with tens of millions of subscribers paying a fee small enough that it just isn't worth it to cheat with workarounds. Free sites will be increasingly taken over by purveyors of propaganda with an agenda to push and an axe to grind, whether it's Rupert or the Kremlin.

Charities

[Anonymous Coward]

Monthly donations to Red Cross, Oxfam, a few others

Few things

[evendiagram]

Protonmail (and perhaps ProtonVPN when it launches)
Github
Trello
A few Jetbrains IDEs

Patreon

[kwerle]

Wow. I'm first to say that?
https://www.patreon.com/

I get to fund a comic whose work I enjoy. I get to fund at the amount I want. And a comic strip writer gets to earn a living.

I think that's pretty fabulous.

Re:Patreon

[apoc.famine]

I absolutely agree. It's amazing how much value there is for content creators when they can budget based on a set amount of income every month. Special perks for me, and I help fund something that entertains me or that I think makes the world a better place. That's seriously cool.

Re:Patreon

[Verdatum]

Right, Patreon is one of the few things I enjoy paying for in life. I like the ability to help people quit their day-jobs and spend their time working to create something that fascinates me.

Several

[stevez67]

Apple Music
Netflix
Hulu Plus (no commercials tier)
Amazon Prime (video and free shipping)
FilmStruck
Adobe Creative Cloud

Re:Several

[Anonymous Coward]

+1 for Apple Music. It's not perfect and occasionally I get frustrated with it, but $10 for pretty much any/all albums is something I gladly pay.

Go to Yahoo Answers

[Anonymous Coward]

People pay? WTF? Is this 1990?

Re:Go to Yahoo Answers

[Anonymous Coward]

Done.

CR-TV

[s.petry]

Mark Levin is brilliant, Steven Crowder I find hilarious, and really that's all the time I have normally. I have watched some of the other shows and they are good too.

Trump Magazines

[Anonymous Coward]

Trump Magazine, Trump Style, and Trump World. Makes me feel like I'm a part of Trump's world. When it comes to great magazines, Trump knows words. He publishes the best words. Just ask anyone! Get yourself Trump magazines. Your eyes will thank you for it.

None.

[Rick Schumann]

Pretty much anything you pay for online is you paying for the 'privilege' of being surveilled, spyed on, and data-mined.

Re:Does the Internet connection subscription count

[tsa]

That, and I pay for having a domain with email and websites. I like having that.

Feedly

[campuscodi]

Feedly

Everyone rents their house

[Weaselmancer]

Property tax.

You have to pay it every year, and if you don't the government will throw you out of your house and sell it to pay off your tax debt. They can call it a tax all they want, but it's rent. The dynamic is exactly the same. Pay a recurring sum without end or be evicted. Rent.

Everyone in the US is renting their home from the government.

Re:Everyone rents their house

[Junta]

If you rent your house, you are funding the upkeep and property tax for the owner, plus the owner gets profit.

If you 'own' your house, sure you are still paying property tax, but you are not funding the landlord.

For example, when I rented, I spent about 12k/year to use half of one bedroom of a two bedroom townhouse.

Now I pay about 2k/year in taxes for full use of a three bedroom house in the same area (having long paid off the mortgage).

The issue is that so many people view car loans and mortgages as eternal things, and compare rent or lease payment to those loan payments and think 'well it costs the same'. I've seen this to the extreme of someone getting a new car every two years because 'well, it's not like it's any more expensive, the monthly payment is the same, why should I pay the same to drive a two year old card as a brand new car?'

Re:Everyone rents their house

[31415926535897]

You totally missed the point of the GP. This is not about quantity at all. It doesn't matter if the government wants $2 or $2 million. If you don't pay it, they take your property and kick you out just like a landlord would. It's a perfectly appropriate analogy.

Personally, I'm not inherently opposed to property tax, though I would much rather see services paid for a different way if possible. They really NEED to codify a hard cap for property tax percentage. The part about property tax that bothers me is that they are willing to ratchet up the percentage to laughable levels. When I was a child, it would take 100+ years to pay in property taxes what the value of the property was (1%). Now we're at a level of about 30-35 years (~3%). Nobody cared when home values were rising exponentially. But now that prices have stabilized in most places, it seems absurd that the government can take an increasingly large slice of your assets, and they need to precisely because home values aren't going up, yet they need more and more revenue. At some point, owning a property becomes a liability (what if the government taxed at 10%, or 25%?). My math says we're really close to that tipping point (approximately 3.5%), where the value taken by taxes harms the value of the home more than the services they're paying for.

We need to pay for schools and roads and parks and libraries, but paying for those through property taxes makes us serfs of the state. Even though yours is $2k/year, you are still under serfdom, it's just a lighter load.

Re:Everyone rents their house

[dugancent]

Can't speak for other states, but Indiana has a property tax cap set as amendment in the state constitution. It passed around 2010 or so.

"Property tax rates in Indiana are capped a maximum of 1% of value for residential, 2% of value for rental and farmland, and 3% of value for all other types (the actual rates may be higher, but the maximum paid after deductions is capped through a "circuit breaker" tax credit)."

Re:Everyone rents their house

[by (1706743)]

They can call it a tax all they want, but it's rent. The dynamic is exactly the same.

No, it's not -- there are things in common, but it is not "exactly the same."

If I rent a house, take a sledgehammer to the wall and call my landlord, there will be consequences. If I own a house and do the same, the relevant tax authority likely won't care.

The money from rent goes to the owner. If the owner wants to invest it, spend it on blackjack, or light it on fire, that's really none of your concern. Tax money goes to the state, and it *is* your concern -- and the concern of every citizen -- what it gets spent on. If enough people aren't happy with how it's spent, then something will change (slowly, perhaps, but budgets do change depending on who's in office).

Re:Everyone rents their house

[CanadianMacFan]

Cities have to provide more services now and some services to a higher quality than what they did decades ago. Higher level governments have downloaded services onto cities in order to balance their budgets but didn't provide enough funding for it, if any at all.

The cost to provide water is more expensive over time as treatment is more complex to make it safe to drink. It wasn't that long ago that it was considered fine to dump raw sewage into any large lake, river, or ocean. Now the municipality has to pay to treat the sewage to usually at least a quality good enough to bath in (in Ontario). Waste handling costs more to pickup and dispose now. Dump sites are much more advanced to stop leaks. Recycling programs didn't 50 years ago. Many more things have become more advanced and expensive.

Re:Everyone rents their house

[AmiMoJo]

Maybe it's different in the US, but in most places if you owe $2k in tax and you have more than $2k in other assets, the court order to pay generally goes have less important things than the roof over your head first.

Anyway, it's not rent on the property, it's payment for services to and around that property. If you don't want to pay it, buy property somewhere that doesn't get those services. Unfortunately the only places like that are countries like Somalia, war-torn and lawless, but since you don't want to pay for an army or law enforcement that should be fine.

And if you don't pay for your services, the usual legal means to extract payment are available. Framing it as rent is just libertarian nonsense.

Re:Everyone rents their house

[halltk1983]

If you take a sledgehammer to the walls and the local government decides it's no longer up to code, they will condemn it and tear it down. You'll still own the land it once sat on, but they'll probably hand you a bill for the tear down and if you can't pay it up front, you won't have the land either.

Re:Everyone rents their house

[kanwisch]

And having lived 10 years in IN, my experience is that the quality of schools shows it. A top-level private education turned out to be roughly equivalent to public schools in IA. The roads outside Indy were atrocious, too, and it was the first state in which I observed paved roads being rolled back to gravel.

You do get what you pay for, IMHO.

Re:Everyone rents their house

[Weaselmancer]

You appear to be the only one to get my point, thank you.

From my desk where I pay my bills, this looks to me exactly like rent. I have to pay it or I will be evicted from my home. I don't care if there is a landlord or not that profits or not, or the functional differences with what happens to my money after I pay it, or my rights to bash out my walls with a hammer, or the benefits of public taxation, or any other detail upstream.

I have to pay a recurring sum or be thrown out of my home. That is the exact same dynamic as paying rent.

Which means that nobody actually owns property in the United States. You just think you do, but you actually do not. Paying off the bank means you go from two entities that have a claim on your property down to one, that's all. It is never zero.

Personally I'd like to see that number be zero. I'd like to actually own my home. If the taxes society needed came directly out of my paycheck instead of having a perpetual lien on my property I'd like that much better. It feels a little more "land of the free" to me.

Re:Everyone rents their house

[Anonymous Coward]

In my state the government never "kicks you out of your house" for not paying property taxes.
They do put a lien on the house for it, though.
At the time the house is ready to sell, the lien will need to be satisfied or the sale cannot proceed.
If you die, the state may at that point take the house in payment of the lien.

Re:Everyone rents their house

[by (1706743)]

But that's just saying "illegal things are illegal," it's not really a statement about property tax.

Furthermore, the government does not, AFAIK, just bust into your home and inspect it. I'm pretty sure you could wire your home with clothes hangers at 10kV and no one would find out, so long as you don't burn down your house.

Re:Everyone rents their house

[Anonymous Coward]

And the other poster's point is that the land lord passes his property taxes on to you in addition to the amount that goes towards his profit.

Also, rent goes up every year, but inflation means your fixed rate mortgage actually costs less every year, and you get a mortgage deduction.

Owning a home makes me feel like I'm cheating. The rental system is predatory and exploitative. If I wanted to, I could get a second home and rent it out. After a while of that I'd be in a position to get a third home and rent it out. Pretty soon, all the property in pottersville is owned and no one can get ahead.

Sure, there are problems landlords have to deal with, usually revolving around shitty tenants. But it's easy to see why tenants think it's ok to be shitty to landlords.

Costco membership

[WaffleMonster]

Can't stand much in the way of local grocery stores.. everything they sell is so tiny I sometimes wonder if their customers are 1ft high miniature people.

Packaging to actual product surface area is outright ridiculous.

Humble Bundle anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Monthly games at a discount and donate to charity? What is not win about that?

Re:Humble Bundle anyone?

[OrangeTide]

The lack of a tax write off is not a win.

I send $50 to an animal shelter every month. And I'm not burdened with feeling like I have to try out a bunch of games that I won't like.

Re:Humble Bundle anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

I will admit that I disagree with some of the charities they donate to, but otherwise it's a pretty great in terms of game selection. I got XCOM 2 for just over $10 when it was still selling for $30 during Steam sales, and every month there's at least one or two titles worth more than the sub cost.

Marvel Unlimited

[ottdmk]

My favourite subscription has got to be Marvel Unlimited. Well worth the price per year. I also like my subscriptions to Netflix and Roll20. The only other subscription I have is to The Mary Sue, but that's more to help keep the site going than for any particular benefit I get from subscribing.

Newspaper, and Journals

[MSTCrow5429]

Because:

1) A tendency to be of higher quality, and less hyper-partisan and out-of-touch;

2) A strong tendency for more serious consideration of issues and ideas; and

3) Reading a screen sucks and good luck remembering what you have in your records with a short glance.

KEXP KUOW NPR BBC CBC

[WillAffleckUW]

oh, wait, those are all free.

Suckers!

Re:KEXP KUOW NPR BBC CBC

[Anonymous Coward]

One word: taxes.

Re:KEXP KUOW NPR BBC CBC

[WillAffleckUW]

One word: grow up.

Rich people don't pay taxes.

Nothing

[HalAtWork]

I personally don't subscribe to anything unless you count electricity

Re:Nothing

[OrangeTide]

Why wouldn't we count electricity? or cable TV? or internet? or telephone service?

I'm not really sure where you are deciding to draw the line on what a subscription is or is not.

JetBrains and Safari

[Average]

Two things that make me more productive... and sadly my workplace is too nickel-and-dime to actually buy for me.

The JetBrains IDE all-access pass. I didn't like IDEs until JetBrains. Eclipse... still not friends with. All the extendable code editors (Sublime, Atom, whatever)... meh. IDEA, RubyMine, PyCharm, PHPStorm? F. Ing. Brilliant. When I see people stumbling through without code completion and good breakpoint debuggers (and that's very common in scripting-language web development to this day)... it's like I'm on cheat mode.

And I debate it but keep up my subscription to O'Reilly (and partners) Safari Books Online, because I have it locked in from a special at $199/yr. At double that (the normal rate), I'm not sure it'd be worth it, but I use it just enough that having virtually every IT book I need available is worth $0.75 a day to me.

Audible

[microsquishy]

Audible is probably the only reason I can stick with an exercise routine. I can tune out for a while daily and listen to a book. Also a lifesaver on long drives. Not sure I love to pay the bill, but I definitely use the service to the fullest.

Crunchyroll

[smallmj]

Crunchyroll, for the huge library of subtitled Anime.

Re:Crunchyroll

[AmiMoJo]

Crunchyroll is great for the most part. The only issue I have is with the subtitles. For some shows they are fine, for others...

Azumanga Daioh is a great example. A lot of the jokes were re-written for western audiences in the official translation. For example, jokes about struggling to learn English were changed to learning Spanish. An Osakan accent was changed to a southern US one, which seems really weird an inappropriate for the character. Lots of Japanese culture references were changed too.

There was a fan translation that kept all the original jokes and just put in some explanatory cards at the start of episodes where viewers might need some explanation. Much prefer that.

As an aside, some TV shows like The Man in the High Castle have subtitles that don't match what is being spoken in Japanese at all. It's really, really confusing for people who can speak Japanese and English.

Netflix, Google Music, Amazon Prime

[swillden]

I have subscriptions to other things, but I feel like I get really great value out of those three. Music especially... before I tried it I said I'd never do subscription music. After I tried it, I'll never go back to buying individual songs or albums. Ad-free YouTube is a nice side-benefit.

I do feel like my Netflix subscription has decreased in value, though. It's now really only good for the original content (much of which is great). I almost never find any movies I want to watch.

I also need to look into the video/music features of the Amazon Prime subscription. I feel like I get great value just from the free shipping, so those are just bonuses.

Re:Netflix, Google Music, Amazon Prime

[Anonymous Coward]

I use Amazon Prime music, but I've never tried Google Music. Amazon Music has a smartphone app, it's pretty easy to search for an artist and find how many of their CD's are available. It's hit or miss, but I've been surprised a few times by artists I've never heard of who have several CD's available for playing free on Prime, so I can see if I like or dislike specific things. Also the app makes it really easy to download a copy to local storage so if you're preparing for a flight you can grab a few CD's to local storage and listen offline. If you already have Amazon Prime, it's a nice app and easy to try.

Re:Netflix, Google Music, Amazon Prime

[swillden]

I'll check out Amazon's offering, but I'm used to Google Music which *isn't* hit or miss. It just has, to a first approximation, All The Music. There used to be a handful of major exceptions (Beatles, Metallica, etc.), but those gaps have been closed.

IRS

[LordHighExecutioner]

Unfortunately I still don't know how to unsubscribe.

Re:IRS

[OrangeTide]

You can if you renounce your citizenship and leave the country, and you won't get a tax bill after about 2 years. A less complicated way is to stop making money, you won't have to pay, but you technically still have to file for at least one more year. A sure way to leave club IRS is to die.

Re:IRS

[Anonymous Coward]

I actually did that... left country, renounced citizenship, cashed out of 401k and so on. But since I worked in the US for 20 years have "investments" in Social Security and I still have to file.

None of the styff I did matters. To get away from the IRS you have to go to a non-extradition treaty country.

Re:IRS

[shanen]

Good joke, but the ONLY one in such a target-rich environment?

Sadness unleavened by humor.

Re:IRS

[fustakrakich]

There is a procedure

Re:IRS

[OrangeTide]

That sucks. Perhaps fake your own death, that should close our your social security account.

tronclub

[SSCGWLB]

I like:

Tronclub (electronic kits)
Amazon Prime
Netflix
GitHub

Spank Monthly

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a 23euro sub to Spank Monthly

Music & Photography

[OtisSnerd]

Sirius XM radio since December 2005, and Adobe Photoshop / Lightroom since it became available. I couldn't afford Photoshop without the CC subscription. I'd rather put pins in my eyes than use Gimp, and Corel PaintShop Pro has color bugs going back many years. I use Photoshop filters, and other hosts just don't work right with them. I also like Photoshop's healing tool, as I'm scanning and editing images that go back to the 1800s. Sirius XM is one of the few remaining services I can find decent new-age, classical, and folk music that I can listen to while traveling by car, and the no commercials is more than worth it.

Re:Music & Photography

[TomR teh Pirate]

I'll second this. I've been listening to hair metal, classic rock, bluegrass, blues, and new wave. It's a service that works in my car without the need for an internet connection, and there's something very cool about that. I do wish the electronica music was better. I have yet to find a station that plays anything along the lines of John Digweed or Nick Warren mixes from the range of about 1998 - 2005.

US Government is my favorite service

[OrangeTide]

Roads and schools are pretty nice to have.

Re:US Government is my favorite service

[cogeek]

In my state the State and local governments pay for roads and schools. The Federal government extorts the State governments with unreasonably high federal income taxes on its citizens and then gives back a small percentage of that amount so long as the State agrees to whatever conditions the Federal government places on the return of the funds. Just how the founding fathers envisioned our system working!

Re:US Government is my favorite service

[johanw]

The world has changed since the founding fathers. Their ideas might have worked for a low-tech agricultural society with a low population density, not for todays megacities.

Re:US Government is my favorite service

[cogeek]

Not really. The concept of locally elected officials that can be held responsible by the people that elected (and can choose not to re-elect them) is still just as valid to day as it was over two centuries ago.

Crunchyroll++

[OrangeTide]

And for having new episodes available only hours after it has been broadcasted in Japan. For example, it looks like there is a simulcast of a new episode of Boruto tonight at 2:25am PST. I'm not a big enough fan to actually stay up that late for it, but it's nice that to have the option available.

USENET

[Anonymous Coward]

been a subscriber to various NNTP providers since the 90s and with my current one for twelve years. get the right one and the world's your oyster.

The usual!

[antdude]

Power, water, electricity, cable, etc. :P

lwn.net

[davecb]

to be precise

My VPN service

[johanw]

So I can get easily to the Pirate Bay and don't pay for anythging else.

Safari Books Online

[gmiller123456]

Well, the bill isn't something I like, but compared to how much I've learned since subscibing I'm really hlad I did. I subscribed to Pact's much cheaper service before that and liked it so much I "upgraded" to Safari. Before that, I used the Kindle, but math equations are handled so poorly on it, I found it unusable for anything programming related. And I find I read a lot more useful stuff if I can examine the whole book without committing to buy it. And it doesn't bother me if I'm only interested in one or two chapters.

NHL.TV, MLB.TV, and AFL Live Pass

[AF_Cheddar_Head]

Get my sports fix without having to pay the cable or satellite providers.

Flickr

[rush2049]

I am a grandfathered in Flickr Pro subscriber. Best photo backup solution I have ever used. Full resolution raw photos can be stored and retrieved at will.

Cloud9, CC, and Inoreader

[saccade.com]

I have many services leaching off my credit card (NetFlix, YouTube Red, etc) but my favorites are:

• Cloud9: Excellent, full feature Linux/Web development tool you access from a browser, anywhere
• Inoreader: This is the replacement for the departed Google Reader. Excellent
• Adobe Creative Cloud: OK, full disclosure, I get it free through work. But I'd still pay for it anyway if I had to

Do anyone here enjoy paying for software?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, I pay for fibre connection with internet, phone & tv. I also keep a newspaper.

No other subscriptions - why would I want that? A subscription for music - seriously? I occationally buy a CD (and rip it to my phone), but I am 47 so I have most of the music I want already.

Ok, perhaps a music subscription makes sense for younger people who like more of the current stuff. But software? I don't pay for software - unless it is bundled with a camera or other device I buy. Open source rules, I'd be silly to pay extra for lower quality.

YouTube

[dohzer]

YouTube Red. Nuf sed.

OnlyAllSites

[Anonymous Coward]

I like subscribing to something that is entertaining and uplifting, is not run by the big six corporate media empires, is not full of propaganda, is not full of ads, does not sell my data, and does not arbitrarily jack up my subscription fee just because they can. Not too many things meet this standard. OnlyAllSites is one.

Since you asked...

[Karlt1]

I'm a non cable subscriber- not a "cord cutter" since my tv viewing still comes via a cord at home...

1.Hulu
2.Netflix
3.CBS All Access
4.Sling TV
5.Amazon Prime
6. AT&T Gigapower.

For software/computer related stuff
1. BackBlaze
2. Resharper
3. Pluralsight

And because I don't do manual labor....

1. A lawn service.

Re:Since you asked...

[Anonymous Coward]

Lots of channels, lots of time. Are you retired?

Mostly financial stuff

[movdqa]

Wall St Journal (Financial Newspaper) Leavitt Brothers (Technical Trading Site) Medved Trader (Trading Software) Dreamhost (webhost)

Entertainment/IT infrastructure

[duke_cheetah2003]

Hulu. Netflix. Amazon Web Services.

Netflix and google play music

[cafelatte]

Netflix and google play music. I'm in Australia. Netflix is good value for money. Now that they allow you to download for offline viewing on Android, I've been watching more netflix stuff. The top tier netflix subscription allows 4 concurrent users to stream so I'm sharing my login with family members. Google play music is good value also. It allows a family library and I'm sharing the subscription with 5 family members. It's like spotify but also with youtube red. It's not as good as spotify though.

Re:Humble Bundle, Glacier, monitoring

[kubajz]

I always pick my own charity when I buy on Humble Bundle, and I tend to buy basically all of their bundles.

I pay Amazon Glacier fees for them to back up my family photos (encrypted).

I pay for an Internet accountability monitor (not a filter) - keeps me from procrastination, makes it easier for kids to avoid stuff they would later regret.

Newspaper

[manu0601]

I enjoy subscription to a dead-tree edition of a newspaper.

Dollar Shave Club

[n-carro2]

Good razor, flexible options, reasonable price.

PBS

[Anonymous Coward]

PBS membership for their independent news and interesting shows. It's technically not a subscription, as I can hear their programs and see their shows without paying.
But if you pay it every year it becomes like a subscription.

And VPN service, you can't go without that.

The Economist, Safari, Github

[NotesSensei]

Well researched news: The Economist Deep well of knowledge O'Reilly's Safari Make version control well: Github

Re:Does the Internet connection subscription count

[CanadianMacFan]

Free domain hosting: https://freedns.afraid.org/

Free email hosting (can use your domain): https://www.zoho.com/

I'd like to find a place that has free web hosting with your own pages (not WordPress.com or anything like that).

Giving my personal data away...

[just another AC]

Surprised at the number of users on /. that will "never use facebook" because fb harvest their personal data. Yet ask them on a forum...

Why pay all that $ to fb when you can just get it for nothing.

Re:Giving my personal data away...

[Actually, I do RTFA]

I think most people on /. consider hiding behind pseudonymity is the difference. FB doesn't offer that. (Even if the name were pseudonymous, your nodes connections in the graph and other data, deanonymize you really quickly).

Schedules Direct

[Guy Smiley]

So I can record with MythTV and watch at my convenience without commercials.

Good news

[nachtelfjeiu]

I just subscribed to a good, reliable, relatively objective newspaper in my country. Just look at cnn and fox and how contradictory they report on the same news about Trump to see what I mean.

dis one iz fur kittehs

[Anonymous Coward]

Many good suggestions here but one of my fave is watching my cats go nuts over their MeowBox (meowbox.com) every month.

VPS and Eurosport Player

[rklrkl]

The only two current subscriptions I have that are Net-based are a VPS with ChicagoVPS (decently spec'ed CentOS for $30 a year) and Eurosport Player (was on offer for 19.99 pounds - $25 - for a year). I'm impressed with Eurosport Player for that price - you get news videos, catchup videos and live multi-video coverage of major events: it's *way* better than watching Eurosport on TV via an expensively-bundled Sky package. Another thing I like is that you often get the "raw" feed as well as the TV broadcast version - the former has extended coverage, no ads, no Eurosport logo and (usually) no commentary - often a lot better than the TV version! I'm not sure whether I'd pay 60 pounds ($75) a year for it though which is apparently its normal price.

I only have two

[KozmoStevnNaut]

One is Spotify, because their music selection is generally extremely good, they actually listen when you report faults in their catalogue, and because their automatic recommendations are spot-on.

The other is Motortrend On Demand, because Roadkill and the associated shows is the best automotive content out there, bar none.

Re:Does the Internet connection subscription count

[houghi]

I use my domain name with email to seriously filter out a LOT of things, so I would not want to be without it. How I do that? Unlimited aliases.

When I have a company that needs my email, because reasons (like my bank or a company I buy online from) I make the email address as companyname@example.com and othercompanyname@example.com.

This has several advantages
1) I can easily filter it to different mailboxes
2) I will know if it was spam. e.g. if it was send to random@example.com, but it was send from bank.com@example.com, I will know it did not really came from bank.com as they do not have the address random.
3) I will know if they resell the data (or worse, have been hacked) and stop doing business with them. (No more eBay for me)
4) Easy to set up new addresses per company and special reasons. e.g. if I am going to do a longer holiday I could use e.g. trip2017@example.com and do everything related to that trip with that address. That way I can do hotel bookings, restaurant and hotel reservations and what not with that address. It will fall into the correct folder and when I get back, I remove the alias and not worry if they are spamming me, because I forgot to unselected something on a website I do not trust.

So by own domain is well worth its 15EUR or so per year. The web hosting I have is nice, but I could easily do without.

Re:I spend 5x the effort of paying for subscriptio

[Evil Kerek]

I'm sorry are you saying you spend 5x the effort stealing it? It's not interesting...it's pathetic. You know, Googling til you find a cracked copy/cracking tool isn't intellectual in the least - nor is stealing someones intellectual property.

Linode - FTW

[Anonymous Coward]

Have had a subscription / monthly bill at Linode for years. Service keeps getting better, and it actually just got cheaper.

Linode - FTW.

Consumer Reports

[WhiteDragon]

I love that they don't do reviews of free products or have advertising. They go out and buy things, and then test them. I think their reviews are much more trustworthy than random reviews.

What an old person subscribes to...

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is what I, a non-Millennial, subscribe to:
-Amazon Prime (monthly)
-PBS Passport (AppleTV)
-Content creators via Patreon (Twitch streamers and Youtubers)
-Thurrott.com Premium Membership (Microsoft and Technology news & reviews)
-GiantBomb.com Premium Membership (Gaming coverage)

During Game of Thrones season I subscribe to HBO Now for the 2-3 months it takes to watch the show day&date with release.

In the past I have tried the following but found them largely devoid of enough content I care about:
-Netflix DVD/Blu-ray
-Netflix Streaming
-Hulu
-Google Music
-Apple Music
-Amazon Music Unlimited

Re:What an old person subscribes to...

[Anonymous Coward]

I forgot to mention 3 other services I have subscribed to in the past but later dropped:
-Groove Music Pass
-Ubuntu Music
-Youtube Red

Weather Underground

[YoMatt]

$5 / year for no ads... a no brainer!

Re:Slashdot mod points

[Anonymous Coward]

Cry moar. Maybe you can get your mommy and daddy to tell you what a special snowflake you are and how you won't end up as an utter failure like them.