You know you’ve done it. You wanted to watch that new movie for free so you… subscribed to a new service. Nowadays we don’t purchase anything. Think back to the last song or app you paid for. Everything is now just a subscription service. Do you want unlimited music? Subscribe to Spotify. Do you want unlimited movies, tv shows, and the ability to watch what the tv shows that inspires viral internet memes? You at least need a subscription to Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Video, and Disney Plus. 

And how can we resist? The streaming revolution has brought us vast amounts of video and music entertainment at the click of a button. In an era of cloud storage, where we store our data on remote computer servers, we no longer have to worry about losing our information. Although the flipside to this solution is that we as consumers are not sure who has access to our information or if it will be hacked into.

For many of us, giving up control and ownership of these services is the point. But for others, there is a downside to losing some flexibility and freedom. While Spotify may not have all the music we want to listen to, if we cancel our subscription, we lose access to its large catalog of music. With cloud storage services, putting our documents and other files online is simple, but pulling them out can be a pain. This creates sort of a subscription trap. 

How many services are you subscribed to right now? Do you know how much money is being taken out of your account each month for subscriptions or have you lost count? Let’s try a test. Pull out your iPhone if it is not already out. Go to settings and click on your name that has Apple id, iCloud, and iTunes store underneath it. Scroll down and click subscriptions. This is the place on your phone that will tell you if you have any active or expired subscriptions. This place on your phone will save you so much money!

A few tools that might aid you in the quest to live a subscription-free life: 

1. An external hard drive. 

2. A software program for creating computer backups. 

3. An app for backing up your smartphone data. 

It’s really impressive to think about living a completely free type of world without subscription of any kind. On the other side, it’s also really amazing to think about the types of services and entertainment we can have access to by subscribing. It's important to think about what types of subscriptions are worth it for your lifestyle and eliminate the ones that cause more problems than they are worth. Don’t subscribe to something that is temporary and will force you to upgrade or move information/documents later on. Make sure you don't end up feeling trapped in the streaming revolution.