It's not about the subscription, it's about the lead. Giving things away for "free" is a common marketing strategy to generate leads. A lead is a qualified con

It's not about the subscription, it's about the lead. Giving things away for "free" is a common marketing strategy to generate leads. A lead is a qualified contact of a potential customer. This things could be of a broad range of cheap assets, e.g. ebooks, apps or even games. I have seen a marketer buying the copyright of a ten year old textbook for a cheap price, polishing it, giving it a new shiny cover and a new title containing up to date buzzwords, and then giving it away for a "free" subscription via e-mail, and on top asking the customer kindly to come up for the shipping. I wondered why i couldn't find this book on amazon or somewhere else, but then i understood that it was re-released on the purpose of being exclusive for subscription. The cost for printing a small number of copies (500 copies) is quite low ($1-3 per book). This is a decent price for a qualified lead. This strategy has two benefits. First, you get a qualified lead with contact info and even with a correct address. Second, some countries have laws against e-mail spam, but this laws often have loopholes. In cases that your company has a business relationship with someone, you are allowed to get in contact and advertis your other products via e-mail, on an opt-out basis. Giving "free" assets to a costumer establishes this kind of business relationship. Almost always this "free" assets are of a minor quality, for me not sufficient enough to give away my datas. Freemium isn't free.