Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 49 minutes ago
Price rises have become a painful fact of life this year, especially for the subscription services many of us have been forced to rely on. In this episode, I reflect on a year of subscription increases from platforms I’ve used for well over a decade, including Libsyn, ConvertKit, and Vimeo.
Using Cory Doctorow’s idea of enshittification as a lens, I explore what happens when loyalty stops being valued and starts being exploited, why features we don’t want keep appearing alongside higher prices, and how difficult it has become to leave once dependency is established.
Have you felt the sting of price hikes this year?
Links
Full Post: the-haven.co/the-cost-of-loyalty
Enshittification (Verso): versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3341-enshittification
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
04:54 Adapting to New Normals
08:21 Black Mirror (Common People)
12:30 Libsyn Price Rise for a Valued Customer
19:22 Are Podcasters A Source of Free Labour? (Enshittification Stage 2)
22:51 ConvertKit and Paying For Features I Don't Want
32:07 Vimeo (Symptoms of a Failing Service?)
45:12 WishList Member
50:36 The Private Sector and the Interest of Customers
52:23 There's No Escape (How Facebook, Adobe, and Canva Make It Hard To Leave)
Price rises have become a painful fact of life this year, especially for the subscription services many of us have been forced to rely on. In this episode, I reflect on a year of subscription increases from platforms I’ve used for well over a decade, including Libsyn, ConvertKit, and Vimeo.
Using Cory Doctorow’s idea of enshittification as a lens, I explore what happens when loyalty stops being valued and starts being exploited, why features we don’t want keep appearing alongside higher prices, and how difficult it has become to leave once dependency is established.
Have you felt the sting of price hikes this year?
Links
Full Post: the-haven.co/the-cost-of-loyalty
Enshittification (Verso): versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3341-enshittification
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
04:54 Adapting to New Normals
08:21 Black Mirror (Common People)
12:30 Libsyn Price Rise for a Valued Customer
19:22 Are Podcasters A Source of Free Labour? (Enshittification Stage 2)
22:51 ConvertKit and Paying For Features I Don't Want
32:07 Vimeo (Symptoms of a Failing Service?)
45:12 WishList Member
50:36 The Private Sector and the Interest of Customers
52:23 There's No Escape (How Facebook, Adobe, and Canva Make It Hard To Leave)
