Subscribe to Everything

Once upon a time, you could only subscribe to magazines, newspapers, comic books, and seed catalogs. In the 1980s and 1990s, the model was expanded to cassette tapes, then CDs, and eventually other media like cable television, books and, after Netflix came along, movies. Now it's starting to seem like subscription is going to end up being the way that everyone pays for everything.

Like these pants? Get a new pair every week for just $199.99/year. Here in Utah, there are car wash chains that want you to pay for car washes via a monthly or annual subscription. In the not-too-distant future, there will probably be some enterprising grocery chain that offers shoppers the opportunity buy a subscription that lets them take home X amount of groceries for Y dollars per month.

Subscription isn't ideally suited to every consumer product. In some cases, there really is a natural, logical fit, and in others, well, not so much To succeed with a model based on paid subscriptions for one-use products, you need a lot of subscribers. Some vendors, eager to build up a self-sustaining subscriber base, wildly overpromise and hope no one will mind (or notice) when they underdeliver.

That seems to be what's happening right now with MoviePass. Over a short window spanning late 2017 and early 2018, the "see movies at your local theater" subscription service was even offering annual plans for just $7.50/month. Subscribers had the option to see an unlimited number of new movies every month. Now recent reporting reveals that services have been dramatically curtailed.

One place that subscription really does work is in the software world. Product vendors are tasked with continually securing, delivering, refining and upgrading their products. Users often need access to the product over an extended period, but may not want to use or own it indefinitely. Voila! A subscription is the ideal solution for both. Use what you need, for as long as you need it. Then walk away.

That's why the top-flight courseware here at TestOut Continuing Education is available via subscription. TestOut CE doesn't have to reimburse a movie theater for the cost of every ticket used by our subscribers. Beause we own the theater and the movies, so to speak, we can concentrate on improving and maintaining the product without worrying about money owed to a third-party. 

While your subscription is active, you have 'round-the-clock access to all training, study, and certification materials. Use what you need, whenever is most convenient for you. Once you've finished what you're working on, go do whatever is next for you. We want you to have the flexibility to unsubscribe and move on — at least until the next time that you need to study and train for a certification exam.