What I'm Currently Paying For

Since people on Micro.blog have been discussing subscriptions, it being the time of the year when then tend to come due for renewal, I thought I’d tot up which ones I have currently. It’s a lot fewer than this time last year, as I re-evaluated what I use and find useful.

The Essentials

• Fastmail — my email provider since 2013, works like a champ, a keeper.
• Backblaze — I backup locally too, but having online backups as well gives me extra peace of mind. Another keeper.
• Bitwarden — I returned to Bitwarden in 2021 after another go with 1Password. I don’t have to pay for this, but I want to make sure they survive.
• Microsoft 365 Personal — a necessary evil, while I train in proofreading and copyediting.

The Nice-To-Haves

• Triode — I used apps like TuneIn Radio and myTuner in the past, but this is hands down the nicest radio app I’ve ever used.
• Second Life — I don’t use all of the perks of the Premium account, but the ones I do use make all the difference. I also pay for the plot of Mainland I acquired last year. Yes, it’s virtual, but that’s also the case for your streaming music, Steam games library, etc. and I have a lot more fun with it than either of those.
• SomaFM — I’ve been a listener since 2002.
• Internet Archive — I’ve lost count of the number of things I’ve been able to track down again thanks to the Wayback Machine.

The Discretionary

• Patreon — I support several artists and groups over there.
• Bandcamp — probably my biggest discretionary spend in 2021. It gladdens my heart that this place exists.
• Discogs — for those music items that I can’t find in digital form. Brexit and steep rises in shipping costs have dented my spending there, alas.

Stuff that fell by the wayside in 2021?

• 1Password (mentioned above)
• Apple Music (the streaming and cloud sync services)
• Inoreader (now using NetNewsWire with local feed store)
• Overcast (not lapsed yet, may reconsider)
• iCloud (decided I can live without the extra capacity.)