2025 Simplicity: Update on Service Subscriptions
Posted on August 11, 2025 by Aywren
Back in 2024, I wrote about cutting costs by choosing which service subscriptions I would keep an let go. I did away with a number of them in hopes that my Amazon Prime account (which I mostly use for shipping) would be able to fill the gaps. Turns out it couldn’t completely.
So, here’s where I’ve ended up as of 2025.
Netflix & Spotify
Amazon Prime’s music and movie offerings just aren’t sufficient to replace other services in the long run. Though I dropped Netflix and Spotify hoping to save money by using Prime instead, I ended up going back to them both.
Prime Video not only began to incorporate ads last year, but just doesn’t carry the kind of content I’m interested in. Some stuff there is good, but much of the movie offerings are older stuff, which is fine, don’t get me wrong. The biggest thing that irks me, however, is how fast content comes and goes on Prime Video.
I like to build a backlog of possible shows and movies to watch later. Then, when I have time and I’m in the mood to watch something, I browse the backlog to pick something. However, Prime rotates stuff off (and then on again later) so quickly that it defeats the purpose of a backlog. I’ll come back to my saved list only to find a chunk of it costs money to watch. And that can change pretty much at any time without much warning.
I don’t like feeling rushed to watch something, which I do if all I’m using is Prime Video. Couple that with the fact that there are several series on Netflix that are getting a new season that I’m interested in and… well… I subscribed to the lowest tier of Netflix again. I absolutely despise the fact that there are ads in this tier, but at the same time, I don’t want to pay full price for the non-ad version as it’s getting way too costly and I still can’t justify the price for as little as I do watch it.
As for Prime Music as it’s bundled with Prime. Well, I have a similar problem.
I like to build large playlists of themed music, then put them on random to listen to for hours. While I can do that in Prime Music, their idea of “randomizing” is not truly random. Instead, I end up listening to the same chunk of a playlist every time I turn it on, which… defeats the purpose of building a large playlist of varied music to randomize.
Once I realized that’s what Prime Music was doing, I went back to Spotify. For a time.
Enter YouTube Premium
While I don’t like everything YouTube does, the truth is, I spend more time on YouTube than any other site on a daily basis. Either I’m putting on something to listen to in the background or I’m looking for something to actively watch.
I don’t think to go to Netflix first. I think to look for a short video on whatever’s happened that day in the gaming world, or in FFXIV, or whatever the topic of my newest interest is. Basically, YouTube serves as news, entertainment, music, and background sound for me almost constantly.
Up until now, I’ve used uBlock Origins to block YouTube ads on my PC browser, and it works exceptionally well. However, if I want to watch YouTube on any other device, the ads creep in there and turn me off from watching on mobile or my Fire Stick TV app.
My brother-in-law had suggested YouTube Premium in the past, and I balked at the cost. However, there is one thing that caught my interest – YouTube Premium includes YouTube Music. And like Spotify, there’s a PC and mobile app for it.
So, I gave the free month a shot. I exported all of my Spotify playlists to YouTube Music (which was a feat), and canceled my Spotify account for the time being. The music app works exactly the way I need it to, supporting large randomized playlists, and many of them.
Not only that, but there’s no limitation on the music I can add to it since it’s pulling from YouTube videos – even music uploaded by random dude YouTube account can be added. Unlike Spotify that has to have rights to stream stuff, the variety of music I can pull from feels a lot wider on YouTube. So, I’ve been happy with that move.
Being able to watch ad-free YouTube on my TV and other devices has been amazing. Especially since I’ve poked around with the YouTube app on my VR headset – there’s some very cool VR experiences in that app!
The biggest positive is that in being a premium member, part of the cost I’m paying for the subscription is shared with the content creators I watch (or so says YouTube).
So instead of being the person who ad blocks everything despite using YouTube 24/7, I’m hopefully giving back to creators that I enjoy through this. I’m absolutely all for that!
PC Game Pass and Nintendo Online
I swore off Game Pass a few years back simply because I didn’t use it enough for the price I was paying even if I still think the cost is worth the library. I just have too many games on Steam and Switch to need yet another library of games to play, even at a decent price.
However, when I bought my new laptop, I got three months of free Game Pass Ultimate. I decide to activate it since it has games such as Expedition 33 and the new Oblivion Remastered, which I do want to play. And what do you know… I’ve hardly touched it, sadly.
Well, those three months sped by quickly, and I went to cancel the subscription and couldn’t. Not without jumping through hoops with support, apparently. And by the time I did that, I’d have been charged for Ultimate again, which I don’t need since I don’t own an Xbox console.
The best I could do was downgrade to the PC Game Pass for cheaper – though I didn’t realize that since I last subscribed to it, they raised the price from $9.99 to $11.99. I might have considered keeping it if it were still $9.99.
Thankfully, the day that PC Game Pass charged me, I was able to go and cancel the plan for a full refund. I was surprised at this because I expected them to say: “Too bad, we already have your money. You have to do with for another month.” So, I went ahead and did that even though there are a number of games on Game Pass I did want to experience.
I did finally cancel my yearly Nintendo Online subscription, as well. While it was pretty cheap, I wasn’t using for anything but cloud saves, and I don’t want to hand Nintendo any more of my money than I absolutely must.
I’d still like to trim off subs in the future. Maybe once I’ve watched the series I want to see on Netflix, I’ll let it go and see if YouTube Premium will fill that gap.