This was inspired by an article covering PKM Beth’s recent paid app subscriptions, which you can read here.
I’ll preface this article by saying that I don’t pay for many apps and services, but the ones I do pay for I think are worth the return on investment for their purchase.
From audio services to AI, these subscriptions are pretty wide-ranging, so you might find something here that you’ve never heard of before.
Let’s get started…
Obsidian
I didn’t feel like I could start with any other app…
This is the cornerstone of my note-taking in all formats, supporting me through starting this Medium account and simultaneously passing my first year of university.
A couple of months ago I purchased the Catalyst Licence for Obsidian because I wanted to support an app that does almost everything for me. This would help me with my Shiny Object Syndrome, because of the greater investment into building one customised system in one app that would truly help me get more creating done.
At a one-time payment of $25, I get access to Insider Builds, giving me features to the app early. You also get a Discord status/badge or something, but my main reason for purchasing was simply because the app is free, without ads or data tracking, and this is the only way that the team are funded. Insider Builds are nice too, but not essential.
Funny how these things work — this was the first article that reached quite a large audience for me, so putting money into the apps I love has led to income generated for myself.
OpenAI
I have a subscription to OpenAI’s API, which allows me to query their AI models from the apps that I use every day, like Obsidian and Readwise Reader.
This subscription is usage-based, where you get charged monthly for the number and complexity of the queries you put to certain AI models. This is very cheap so long as you don’t use the most powerful models. I’ve been using GPT-3.5_turbo since the beginning of my subscription, and I don’t think that I’ve paid more than $5 throughout all the months that have followed.
In terms of return on investment, this is a massive upside. I’ve used AI to save hours in making flashcards for my degree, as well as some use outlining and explaining complex topics in revision.
As well as this, I’ve been able to talk a lot about AI and its uses in Obsidian and other apps on Medium. Because AI’s a trending topic in the world at the moment, this brought a lot of engagement to my work, leading to me beginning to build a following on the platform.
Spotify
I enjoy listening to music.
Perhaps too much, sometimes it’s to the point of distraction from my work.
Despite this, I’m a student, and Spotify’s premium plan for students is very reasonably priced. For £6 (British pricing for one moment sorry), you get unlimited access and downloads for all the songs you could ever want, any time you want.
It’s quite a high return on investment because music can help you control your mood — it’s a nice thing to help you relax or fire you up. You’re in control at the party too if you have Spotify Premium and a speaker.
I’ve also bought an app called Stats.fm, for a very small one-time payment. Prodding Spotify a little, so that they send you the raw data for your account, you can have complete and up-to-date statistics for your listening history. It’s not important, but it’s kind of nice to have Spotify Wrapped every day of the year if you so wish.
Endel
Another audio service that I ended up purchasing was Endel.
This is a white noise/focus music service that plays music related to the state of mind you want to reach. There are options for focus sounds, relaxation sounds and sleep sounds, with different categories of sound in each of these three options.
I use Endel occasionally when I write or study because it drowns out distracting noise from the surroundings. I live above a furniture shop, so sometimes there are power tools in action (right now for example 😅) that I have to drown out in order to maintain my sanity.
Midjourney
This is another AI service and the most expensive recurring subscription in this list.
The role of Midjourney is to generate AI images for use across all of my content, from the newsletter to the thumbnails of Medium articles.
It’s nice to have an image that’s related to what’s being talked about, but sometimes you can’t find this with Unsplash or any other free stock image service. With Midjourney, you put a worded prompt into an engine, and the AI generates an image based on your prompt.
Like this, you can create inventive and entertaining images for use in all your work. You can specify the colours and style of the generated image too, which is good for staying in theme within a brand. Check out my newsletter Fundamentalised for an example. All the images in the articles there are AI-generated to be themed similarly…
Medium
Finally, the app that we’re on right now.
I started paying for Medium in April because I thought that the investment to read others’ writing for just $5 a month was not too heavy to pay at all.
In a similar way to investing in the Catalyst Licence for Obsidian, what went around has come around — by investing in other writers, I’ve become monetised on this platform, and now make back the money I spend on the membership in my affiliated readers’ subscriptions alone.
The income from the Partner Program also easily covers the cost of all the other subscriptions in this list too!