What do you guys think about subscriptions?

[BBFG#]

Won't knowingly buy subscriptions, or anything that uses PACE.
Feel they're a complete rip off and a waste of time and resources.

(I also avoid anything that uses 'spiritual terms' in their name/title. Because if it has to be stated, it's not.)

[GospelMusicians]

What if, say, 4-5 top manufacturers got together like....just throwing this in the air.....Gospel Musicians, and 3-4 of your other top manufacturers that you like....We all brought our plugins together and then agreed to more sounds in the future.

[BBFG#]

What if, say, 4-5 top manufacturers got together like....just throwing this in the air.....Gospel Musicians, and 3-4 of your other top manufacturers that you like....We all brought our plugins together and then agreed to more sounds in the future.

You mean like a "den of vipers"?

I mean, it kind of makes a statement that your products are not strong enough to stand on their own. And this seems to be something that happens to PACE associated software more than others without it. There's a pattern.

[zvenx]

I actually imagine that subscriptions are a better model for the developer, which is why more and more of them are doing it. It allows you to have a constant source of income as opposed to a lump when a new plugin is released.
And I guess for some users it is a good thing.
For me it isn't a model I would like:
1)I like to choose what I buy, having all that a particular developer makes doesn't appeal to me, if I wanted some of the others, I would save and buy them, so all you have developed doesn't necessarily benefit me. I already have bought stuff I rarely use.
2) I like to save and purchase it, and never have to look back. What if a month I am short on cash but have work to do, I would therefore lose access to some of the gear I rely on that are part of a subscription model?
3) The more developers that come on board the pricier my monthly payment becomes.

Not for me.
I see some didn't miss the opportunity to bring ilok/pace/dongles into the conversation....#justAnotherDayAtKvr

rsp

[elxsound]

@Hewitt Huntwork I think all subscriptions are created with an idea of creating revenue. I don't think that's necessarily bad, but basically mileage will vary from user to user.

Here's a bit of my experiences so far (for what it is worth)...

The East West subscription is a very nice sub, minus some essential mic positions. For me the lack of close mics was a deal breaker, and then I just couldn't justify it because of too much overlap with other purchased Kontakt libraries.

The Slate subscription is also a great deal, but for me personally I have too much overlap with other developers, so again just not justifiable.

The Avid Pro Tools model, to me is just absurd. Its a pay to use system that doesn't support perpetual licenses once a subscription has finished, plus renewing a lapsed subscription costs $300. Plus their avid manager tool is a resource hog on Mac. I'm done with Avid and Pro Tools.

Adobe CC, for me has been an amazing resource as it was previously something I could not afford outright and at $600 (annually) combined with feature improvements I have no regrets, now 2-3 years into it.

Sketch Book Pro annual sub is a bit annoying, but honestly it's the same price buying the latest version each year (Retail price was $60+, but often went on sale down to $30).


I can say, I'm not a fan of new presets, especially not daily. Sketch book Pro does Free Brush Mondays, for subscribers. It's a pretty cool feature and often comes with examples, story or history behind its use. That makes for a nice perk.

I think any subscription offering something daily, could lead to setting yourself up failure as its not a good long term goal, but a weekly offering could be useful.

I'm also not a fan of endless new content. I like to be productive and will often retire old tools in favor of new tools when/where relevant, but don't like having too much that I spend more time looking for something as opposed to actually creating something.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

What if, say, 4-5 top manufacturers got together like....just throwing this in the air.....Gospel Musicians, and 3-4 of your other top manufacturers that you like....We all brought our plugins together and then agreed to more sounds in the future.

The first problem I see is that your model seems to be a bit of a lucky dip. The customer would subscribe, sight-unseen, and hope that over the course of the subscription they'd receive enough worthwhile (subjective) material to have made it, erm... worthwhile. it's one thing that people are always complaining about having bought so much they wanted, to realise they didn't need it, without having to pay for things that they aren't even sure they are going to want. Do people really not have enough monthly outgoings?

The more fundamental problem is that you seem to be putting the cart before the horse, i.e You really want a steady monthly income (no one could blame you for that), but you are now trying to work out a way of shoe-horning the customer experience into that model. I don't see the overwhelming positive for the customer in this scenario. The only way I'd imagine it working is if the price was so low that people would risk losing out on a few months due to no love for the offered material.

[Orbit-50]

I think it's a great idea if it's affordable and you get all the plugins. It's gotta be extremely affordable so people don't balk about paying it for the long term. Then it's a win for both sides because the developer will have the steady income, and the user gets to enjoy stuff that they might not have been able to afford buying outright.

[GospelMusicians]

I think it's a great idea if it's affordable and you get all the plugins. It's gotta be extremely affordable so people don't balk about paying it for the long term. Then it's a win for both sides because the developer will have the steady income, and the user gets to enjoy stuff that they might not have been able to afford buying outright.

Exactly the point I'm making.....

[jancivil]

add another NO to the pile.

my life has to be simpler than that. I won't even do DVDs thru Netflix, I want as little to maintain as possible.

[Michael L]

I want as little to maintain as possible.

Totally with Jan on this one. I try to keep my life simple, by buying only the specific tools I need. With a sub, I cannot choose to 'do nothing' because that decision wastes money. If I joined a subscription, it must be a group with whom I feel a strong artistic connection

[Cinebient]

Never, ever!

[JonSolo]

There are several software "bundles" that I subscribe to. I don't love the idea completely, but neither do I enjoy having to pay for updates after purchasing the software. In essence, you don't own the software anyway, so why not go with a subscription? It means instant revenue for the devs, instant software in DAW for a minimal up front fee, and you can cancel at anytime without a huge loss.

But I also do not mind iLok or eLicenser. Heh.

[JJ_Jettflow]

I think the cumulative price of several subscriptions is going to mean software devs are going to have to re-tool their payment structure if they want to attract a larger pool of subscribers.

Say you have $15 for Slate, then you get Softube at $20 then another bundle and $20-$25 you shelling out $60 a month on subscriptions. For a lot of people, that may be the limit (or even too much already) and they may make sacrifices in a lesser used sub. So I think companies will start having to consider $9.99 being the new $19.99 if they want to people to comfortably subscribe to multiple packages on a continuous basis.

Would I consider it? Sure. If has products that I feel I need then yes. But having the ability to suspend them is very important as well. Times are tough all over and getting locked into 12 months would be something that would make me think twice before committing. Slate has lowered his price $10 a month but for a full year commitment...I still have not made a decision on that.

[Orbit-50]

Slate has lowered his price $10 a month but for a full year commitment...I still have not made a decision on that.

That's not to bad. One can spend that on half of a plugin. If they were to drum up sales from people who have not even considered a purchase from them, it's better than $0.00 from those non existent customers. I, like many others, have a lot of overlap in plugins though. The decision has to be made on whether or not, buying into the brand is something that would be desirable at that point. Really tough decision for those that have a lot of plugins already. A no brainer for those who do not.

[Spitfire31]

The thing with subs is: what happens to the stuff you've got on your hard disk, if you decide to terminate the subscription for one reason or other? Will the plugs and sounds stop working through some kind of phone-home verification scheme, like Adobe's CC model?

Or is this sub idea more of a pay-in-instalment scheme, so that the material you get is actually yours to keep, even if you jump the train?

I'm dead against the kinds of schemes that make you lose your paid-for tools, should you stop participating or – not very unlikely with small devs – the devs just cease to exist. Adobe will probably be there for the foreseeable future, but an audio dev?

Murky waters. I would never participate. Online newspapers, yes. Anything to do with my tools – nay.

/Joachim