I Bought My First Subscription Service in 2022
Notes on a Parceled Out Life
It is September 4, 2022, and you are reading a new me. You have been, actually, for it was just the other side of this past summer when I stepped into adulthood.
I now have a Spotify premium account.
I’ve had no Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc. Still don’t. But music? Let’s just say I was feeling suave enough to actually take this step.
The difference is night and day of how much better things are. After all, advertising very much targets the lowest common denominator of us. Most of those shitty ads are built around stereotypes or are just filler.
Seriously, there is an ad on Spotify with the sole purpose to thank the listener for choosing Spotify. They have the actual audacity to interrupt my jams, to rupture the mood off of “Girl” by The Internet, “Sodade” by Cesária Evora, or the adagietto from Mahler’s 5th Symphony to tell me in the tone of “look at us two cool kids out here” saying: “Hey, thanks for listening. This is Spotify. That thing there you are listening to right now? Thanks for doing it. We, Spotify, appreciate it. Also, here’s another thoroughly generic ad that assumes you’re here for “the vibes.”
Listen to me, you already-initiated, wallet-heavy people with subscriptions before now: it is rough out there. I couldn’t do it anymore.
I’m glad I made the move. It feels awesome. The only thing that I really need to happen next is that a friendship or romantic relationship could somehow revolve around this budgetary expenditure because it also feels like a trap.
It seems that the only way to afford normal life right now, is to sign up for small, regular payment plans such that you cannot afford anything in full. Thinking of the flash-fire popularity of firms like Klarna, I’m worried if we’re actually just further locking ourselves into an unmanageable, unsustainable lifestyle by shaving off our spending power sliver by sliver just for something that is minimally nice to have.
More soon,
Trevor