We live in a subscription world. Subscriptions for music, for gaming, for everything. This has gone too far. Many calculator apps now feature “premium” subscription options.

While subscriptions are fine for some things, they’re absolutely not suitable for other things, unless you like having things taken away from you with no possible recourse. Whatever the case though, subscription services will try to tempt you with various offers and deals. The ‘x month free’ trope is a classic example. Don’t have a subscription to this thing? No problem, friend. You can try it for free and then start paying if you like what you see. What could be more wholesome than that?

”It’s a value add”

A value add is something that adds value or benefit to a product for the end consumer. Many times, companies will try to convince you to choose their service over competitors using a value add. Among other things, the “x months free” deal will be one of the things they use to try to sway you to their service and away from the competitors service.

Some companies will add a few months of some streaming service to their existing products and call it a “bundle” in order to entice customers on pulling the trigger. Get a phone plan and receive 3 months of Spotify Premium for free! What a bargain!

The objective is that you see the free trial period attached to the service, and attribute a higher value to that service than to a competing service because of it, and therefore pick theirs. The fact that that service has a free trial period is supposed to make it seem like a “better deal” than a service without an attached free period, or with a shorter period, regardless of other details or particulars. Only, that isn’t really the case.

“That’s not a value add!”

Getting a free month or three or six of something doesn’t make it better or worth more. The benefit disappears as soon as you exhaust the free trial period. Don’t be fooled. 

Right now, Netflix has a free trial of one month. Watch for an entire month, absolutely free. Disney Plus has a free trial of one week, so you’ll have to start paying after enjoying just a week of content. Does this make Netflix more worthwhile than Disney Plus? It does not. If your phone provider has an offer for a free period of Spotify Premium, does that make it more enticing to sign up to their phone plan? It shouldn’t. What happens after that free period is up? You’re pushed right back onto Spotify Free. Unless you pay for it yourself, that is. You receive no lasting benefit from the free trial, but you’re still tied up with that phone plan even if it isn’t totally right for you.

You might say that the value add comes from the fact that you’ve received something for no extra cost - but the benefit doesn’t carry into the future, so in reality you might as well have not received anything. What good does it do you right now, knowing that you had 3 free months of [insert service here] last year? A value add is supposed to add benefits to a product, but the “value add” these days typically provide no benefit once the trial period is over.

The real value in "value add subscriptions"

There certainly is a value add here, but it isn't for your benefit. Spotify knows that many ‘free trial’ members will become paid members once the trial is up, so it's worth it to them to make a deal with other companies to give their product away for a short time. Subscription customers keep on paying out, so Spotify will easily make their money back on that deal. They'd be stupid not to do it.

Think about why it is that companies offer something for "free" with their product, and who really profits, and whether it actually benefits you in the long run. You'll find that it doesn't actually do much for you at all.