Subscriptions Might Actually Make Us More Creative
These days, it feels like we have subscriptions for everything — Netflix, Disney+, Adobe Creative Cloud, so many subscriptions. Most of us view them simply as a monthly moment when our bank account drops a little. But what if I told you that some subscriptions, of a very specific type, might actually help you become more creative?
If you have a subscription to a generative AI service like Runway, Kling, Midjourney, Freepik, or OpenArt, they typically operate on a credit-based system. You receive a set number of credits each month, and every action you take chips away at that total little by little. At the end of the month, any unused credits usually don’t roll over...they expire, as in you lose them.
At first glance, that might sound like a bad deal. But it may actually drive something most adults need much more of: an excuse to play.
Children play all the time. They imagine entire worlds and try new things (many adults might actually call that “experimenting”) as they play. But adults? Adults are busy. They value their time. Questions like “What am I going to get out of this?”, “Is this worth my time?”, "What else should I be doing?", and “How much is this going to cost?” sit at the forefront of many adult decisions.
And that’s exactly why this works. Especially that last question.
When you’re paying $20 for 3,000 credits a month, and you realize your subscription renews in two days while you’re still sitting on 1,500 unused credits, the thought suddenly shifts.
“I’m about to lose half my credits.”
Or more accurately: “I’m about to waste $10.”
Most adults aren’t big fans of wasting money, so let’s lean into that.
Suddenly, you’re faced with a new question:
“How am I going to use all these credits?”
And this is where the fun begins.
With two days left and 1,500 credits to burn, you become much more open to creating something fun or even a little goofy. You’re more willing to try new features and push the tool in ways you normally wouldn’t risk credits on. You’re simply more open to playing with ideas—experimenting, exploring, and seeing what happens.
It becomes the perfect time to finish that creative side project that’s been sitting around for months (or… years), make that hilarious parody video you joked about last week, or create an amazing song for your 10-year anniversary, even if it’s still four months away.
Make something ridiculous.
Test out those new features you were curious about but didn’t want to spend credits on before.
It might fail spectacularly, and that’s okay. Those credits were about to disappear anyway. You lost nothing.
Or… something unexpected might happen. One of those “just playing around” experiments might teach you something new. It might unlock a new workflow. It might even spark a much bigger creative project down the road.
Subscription dates don’t just give us deadlines. Sometimes, they quietly give us permission.
Permission to experiment.
Permission to explore.
Permission to create something that might not go anywhere—and do it anyway.
Permission to play.
And maybe that’s the opportunity we shouldn’t waste.
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