In a world where everything is becoming a subscription service and we're slowly losing ownership of everything we buy - we're now even seeing subscription-based vocal synths becoming normalised, I wouldn't be surprised if that's where YAMAHA went next - is it worth paying for premium services?

In short, yes, if the service is worth it to you.

That's why I paid for a year's subscription to Bear Blog, because to me, right now, that's worth it. I'm someone who notoriously avoids subscription services; I don't have Netflix or Disney+, I stopped paying for Google One and began keeping all my vocal synth archives locally again, I even stopped using Whyp when it began pushing its subscription plan. And that's actually why I'm subscribing to Bear Blog for a year - if I manage to stick with blogging, make it something I use and use regularly, I will buy the lifetime payment so I can keep this blog forever.

I have plans for this blog, I'm slowly implementing them. Switching from Strawpage for my Cytalai stuff, transferring my portfolio, and eventually transferring all of Satella's stuff here too. Hell, maybe I'll take a leaf out of a personal hero's book and host my own videos too, avoiding YouTube's constant requests for my ID altogether and making my content truly mine. After all, I've distanced myself from the main vocal synthesis community for years in favour of keeping to myself, hosting everything in my own corner of the internet is just the next logical step.

So, if those plans succeed and I have the focus for it, I'm considering this year to be a trial run.

This post was last edited 3 days, 6 hours ago.