Software, music, film, storage and even cars now arrive as monthly .
For companies the appeal is obvious: predictable instead of one-off sales.
Investors value a subscription business at a far higher multiple.
Customers accepted the model while each service was cheap.
Households now hold eight or nine and struggle to name them all.
Research suggests a large share of that spending is for services nobody uses.
The business model quietly depends on that .
is therefore designed to be slightly harder than signing up.
in several markets now require a cancel button as simple as the join button.
Some firms have moved back towards a paid licence with optional updates.
Others several services to hide the individual price.
For the household the defence is dull but effective.
An annual review of the bank takes twenty minutes and usually pays for a holiday.