There was a time when buying something meant it was yours forever. You’d buy a VHS tape, and that movie was yours to watch as many times as you wanted. You’d pick up a CD, and that album stayed in your collection for life. Software came in a box with a license key, and once you installed it, that version was yours to keep.
Fast forward to today, and that sense of ownership has almost completely disappeared. We don’t own our movies, we stream them. We don’t own our music, it lives in the cloud behind a paywall. Even software, once something you could buy outright, is now often locked behind a subscription model. If you stop paying, you lose access.
This shift isn’t just happening in entertainment or tech; it’s happening in education too. More and more EdTech companies are adopting the subscription model, changing how schools, teachers, and students access the tools they rely on. It’s a fundamental shift in how we interact with technology, and while it comes with some benefits, it also raises serious questions about sustainability, accessibility, and long-term costs.
The Video Game Industry: A Case Study in Losing Ownership and Access
One of the clearest examples of this shift is happening in the gaming industry, where companies are actively cracking down on second-hand sales and physical ownership. Some reports are now showing that Nintendo, for instance, is actively looking at implementing measures that prevent pre-owned cartridges from being resold freely(According to them to stop piracy, but it just happens to mean the sedition hand game cartridges market becomes a minefield). Physical Switch games have unique identification codes tied to the original buyer’s account, meaning if you resell your cartridge, or purchase one that happened to also be copied without you knowing, the new owner might not be able to access certain online features, or be blocked all together.
This is part of a larger trend. For years, game companies have been trying to eliminate the second-hand market. With digital downloads and subscription services like Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation Plus, and Nintendo Switch Online, they’ve found a way to bypass the resale issue altogether. Players no longer own their games; they rent them for as long as they subscribe.
For gaming companies, this is a dream come true. It guarantees recurring revenue, ensures their content remains in their ecosystem, and lets them control access. But for players? It means you can sink hundreds of hours into a game, only to lose access the moment you stop paying.
And it’s not just gaming. We’re seeing the same thing happen across industries, including education.
How This Shift Affects Education
In EdTech, the move toward subscription models is accelerating. Where schools once bought perpetual licenses for software, they are now being asked to pay annual or even monthly fees to retain access. On the surface, this might not seem like a bad thing as subscriptions allow for regular updates, ongoing support, and cloud-based features that wouldn’t be possible with one-time purchases. But there’s a deeper issue at play.
Let’s take a simple example: screen recording software. My favourite screen recorder, one that I’ve recommended to countless teachers, recently announced that it’s moving to a subscription model. While it remains one of the best tools out there and is still very affordable, the shift caught my attention. This was a product I used to buy once and own forever. I used to recommend teachers to upgrade only when significant changes were added which used to be about every two-three years. Now, if they want to keep using it, they’ll need to keep paying, year after year.
I am updating my own Camtasia, Audiate, and Snagit to the Pro Subscription so will definitely let you know my thoughts about this new version in the future.
At a school level, this adds up. Many schools rely on EdTech tools that were originally purchased outright: things like interactive whiteboard software, student management systems, and digital learning platforms. But now, as these tools have been transitioning for years to a subscription model, budgets are being stretched further. Schools aren’t just buying tools anymore; they’re renting access to them.
And this raises a key question: what happens if a school can’t afford to renew a subscription? Suddenly, they lose access to the platform they’ve built lessons around, the data they’ve collected, and the workflows they’ve established. Teachers and students are left scrambling to find alternatives.
The Upside: Why Companies Are Doing This
Of course, from a business perspective, subscription models make sense. For software developers, moving to subscriptions provides a steady, predictable revenue stream. This means companies can invest more in research and development, roll out updates more frequently, and maintain ongoing support.
Think about how different software was 10 or 15 years ago. Back then, you’d buy a version of Microsoft Office or Photoshop, and that was it, you were stuck with that version until you bought the next one. If a bug wasn’t fixed, you just had to deal with it. Now, with Microsoft 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud, updates happen regularly. You always have the latest features, security patches, and improvements.
This model also ensures that companies don’t have to rely on big, one-time sales. Instead, they can plan long-term and focus on improving their product. For EdTech companies, this means they can continue developing new tools for teachers and students without worrying about whether the next big release will generate enough revenue.
So yes, in many ways, subscription models lead to better products. But at what cost?
The Privacy Trade-Off: Paying for a Better Experience
There’s another side to this conversation that often gets overlooked; data privacy. One of the biggest benefits of paid subscriptions is that they often come with better privacy protections.
A great example of this is ProtonMail. Unlike free email services like Gmail, which scan your emails for ad targeting, ProtonMail offers end-to-end encryption and doesn’t track users; but you have to pay for the premium hide-my-email aliases features. It’s an email service that prioritises privacy, but you’re even more ‘private’ if you subscribe.
The same can be said for password managers. Free ones often have limitations and/or collect some usage data, while paid options like 1Password or Bitwarden Premium offer full encryption, no ads, and enhanced security.
Then there’s the classic YouTube Premium. I subscribed a while ago, and honestly, I’ve never looked back. No ads, background play, and the ability to download videos, it’s just a much better experience. But beyond that, I know I’m not constantly being tracked for ad targeting. I’m paying for the service, so my data isn’t the product.
This is something I think about a lot when using school-wide systems that handle personal data. There’s an old saying: “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.” It’s especially relevant in education, where free tools often come at the cost of student data being collected, analysed, and sometimes even monetized.
Is This Just the Future?
This is where we are now. We subscribe to entertainment, we subscribe to software, we subscribe to privacy. Even our devices, like printers, are moving to a subscription model, where ink is sent to you automatically, but only if you keep paying.
Is this just the way business works now?
For companies, subscriptions mean stability. For consumers, they mean access to constantly improving products. But they also mean a lifetime of payments. We’ve traded outright ownership for convenience, and in some ways, it’s working. But should privacy be part of that trade?
Should privacy be a premium feature, or should it be a standard right?
It’s clear that the subscription model isn’t going anywhere. But if this is the future, we need to think carefully about where the line should be drawn. Because if everything we use, our software, our data, even our privacy, is only available for as long as we pay for it, then maybe we need to start asking: What do we truly own anymore?