Why Substack Is Collapsing: Subscription Model Has Maxed Out

It’s not a bad premise. We are both retired tech workers who are doing alright, and a few low-dollar subs won’t having us in the bread line. But where I might let a sub slide because we might use it occasionally, now you have to earn your keep (buh bye, Netflix!). T-Mobile raised rates again, after promising “we won’t raise your rate”? Hello, US Mobile!

My point being that once some trigger is pulled, folks take a harder look at what they’re paying for. For us, it was retirement and “again, T-Mobile?”, and for others it might be the economy in some form (job loss, inflation, et al.)

There are far too many things requiring subscription these days, clearly many people can't afford it

I regularly rotate my "subscriptions" credit card number. It's much easier to cancel everything this way (then fight through cancellation flows for each one) and then only add back what I truly need and/or care about. It forces me to make the purchase decision all over again. I feel bad for any businesses that count a subscription as ARR/MRR when, at least for me, it's definitely not.