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Why do paid subscription models not work? Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal seem to work. Switched to Tidal recently, love the reach incl. ECM label! (If there w

Why do paid subscription models not work? Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal seem to work. Switched to Tidal recently, love the reach incl. ECM label! (If there would be something comparable for newspapers I'd pay too, as is, I ublockorigin (or abstain))

harel 7y ago
They do work, I pay Netflix, Spotify and Prime. But there is a limit. I can't pay every single publisher. Micropayments didn't seem to have taken off, and when I hit paywalls these days I turn away - I don't want a subscription in order to consume one article. I now dread the day where content will be so distributed across publishers and subscriptions, we'd be back at the start in a cable-company style world. I'm not saying ads are good, and no ads are great. I'm saying there has to be a balance. And publishers are best to realise this as well since the more they push, the more people will push back. Maybe (just a passing thought as I'm typing), the ad pricing model should change? Maybe if ads were more expensive and more selective it would offset the revenue by quantity into revenue by quality ad-wise...
- chappi42 7y ago
  I can't pay every single publisher either. When I occasionally read articles from about 5 newspapers, I couldn't (well, don't want to) subscribe to all of them. Ads are not my main issue, the trackers and the website-bloat are. If I could trust the intermediary I'd voluntarily supply my interests in order to facilitate better ads (but there would need to be a resonably small scope of where this information goes).
  - harel 7y ago
    Trackers are indeed a big part of the problem. I have a feeling that sometime in the near future we'll see a rise of publisher-aggregators. Pay once, to access many. (that's a glove thrown there, in case anyone missed it)
- cwkoss 7y ago
  Perhaps micropayments haven't taken of because of the ad industry.

harel 7y ago

They do work, I pay Netflix, Spotify and Prime. But there is a limit. I can't pay every single publisher. Micropayments didn't seem to have taken off, and when I hit paywalls these days I turn away - I don't want a subscription in order to consume one article. I now dread the day where content will be so distributed across publishers and subscriptions, we'd be back at the start in a cable-company style world. I'm not saying ads are good, and no ads are great. I'm saying there has to be a balance. And publishers are best to realise this as well since the more they push, the more people will push back. Maybe (just a passing thought as I'm typing), the ad pricing model should change? Maybe if ads were more expensive and more selective it would offset the revenue by quantity into revenue by quality ad-wise...

chappi42 7y ago
I can't pay every single publisher either. When I occasionally read articles from about 5 newspapers, I couldn't (well, don't want to) subscribe to all of them. Ads are not my main issue, the trackers and the website-bloat are. If I could trust the intermediary I'd voluntarily supply my interests in order to facilitate better ads (but there would need to be a resonably small scope of where this information goes).
- harel 7y ago
  Trackers are indeed a big part of the problem. I have a feeling that sometime in the near future we'll see a rise of publisher-aggregators. Pay once, to access many. (that's a glove thrown there, in case anyone missed it)
cwkoss 7y ago
Perhaps micropayments haven't taken of because of the ad industry.