On that note, perhaps banks should be the middlemen between companies seeking recurring revenue and people seeking one-off purchases? Have the company charge $X, the bank turns that into $X/24 + interest - this already exists, but it's too tied into the credit system. Perhaps there's a space for innovation there, to make a product specialized for mediating between subscriptions and one-off purchases.

That's all of finance, translating from one to the other. At the consumer level, Klarna seems to offer to go from lump sum to subscription. Or just using a credit card, really.