How many subscription services do you pay for?

Is Apple a services company these days? It’s certainly possible to make that argument. And being in the Apple ecosystem probably means you pay for at least a couple of different options offered by the company. But with so many other offerings out there, it can be a task simply choosing which ones to keep.

I don’t know about you, but when it comes to some subscriptions out there ones are more of a “default” than others. The services you use on such a regular basis, or you’ve had for so long, that it’s just second nature to see the bill arrive every month. I’ve got two of those on a yearly basis: Netflix and Hulu. Those are my go-to options and, it seems, the services I won’t be giving up on anytime soon.

The same can be said for Apple Music, too. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t listen to music, and while that used to be Spotify, Apple Music has been my default music streaming service of choice for at least a year now. I imagine iCloud fits into there, even if it’s not necessarily as heavily used.

And then from there, there are so many. Right now I’ve got HBO Max, Paramount+, NHL.tv, AMC+ (which gives me access to AMC, Shudder, Sundance Now, and IFC Films Unlimited), ESPN+, Disney+, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and Ulysses. And then I’ve got Tweetbot 6 on a yearly renewal. It’s certainly not a cheap experience, but the good news is that I can say I actually use all of these services enough to warrant the cost.

Actually, I’d probably be second guessing some of these if I actually had to fork over the money for every single one of them. As it stands right now I’ve got ESPN+, Disney+, and Hulu for free thanks to Verizon. I’ve got the same deal in place with Apple Music, too. So that saves me quite a bit, and make signing up for services like Showtime a little easier to deal with.

I’m trying to decide whether or not signing up for Apple One, which bundles a variety of Apple’s services together under one monthly payment. With the Premier option you get Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple TV+, 2TB of iCloud, Apple News+, and apple Fitness+. While I’ve technically got a subscription to Apple News+ right now, that’s a free trial that expires in April. I’m not sure that I’ll renew. And if I don’t, and I’m not sold on Apple Fitness+ being right for me, I don’t think the Apple One subscription is worth it.

Resource: How to get Apple One

Even with all of these services, the scary thing is that it’s probably still cheaper than some of us were paying for standard cable. And that doesn’t include the add-on packages that offered at the time. Even if I paid for all the services I actually use on a regular basis, I’d still be paying less than even the cable alternatives like YouTube TV. I can’t even imagine paying roughly $70 per month for TV anymore — I don’t miss that past at all.

Plus, I can pick and choose what content I want to access. A new show is getting a lot of attention on a streaming service I don’t have right now? Sure, I’ll sign up, binge it, and then drop the service when I’m done. I imagine that’s how my life with HBO Max is going to be, honestly. Probably Paramount+, too.

But how do you feel about all of these streaming services out there nowadays? How many are you paying for? How many do you get for free? And which of these services, no matter how big or small, are you the happiest with?