Propellerhead introduces Subcription

[gas pump]

The comparision is appropriate but you can call it apples and oranges if you want to... I'll make it more concrete and get out of the analogy business. I not sure just how physical a software plugin is... last time I checked I couldn't suck a real moog out of my ethernet cable and was quite content that my plugins were bits of code with no real physical dimension. We could go back and forth on that all day and lose the central point so I won't do that. I'll make my point with concrete examples.


You assume that someone who is interested in subscription has less control over GAS than those that don't... that is just assertion with no basis in fact. It may well be that they can afford say $40 to $100 a month and like the flexible options to cancel and are quite comfortable printing tracks like how it was done in the not so distant past. You know when you would hire a orchestral section for the afternoon but you didn't get to keep them after the session was over. There are laws against that sort of thing.

I can give 3 cost effective subscription services examples in which I participate and get great value for the monthly outlay. That is if I decide it is worth my while to be billed that month.

Example 1: Subscribe to East West Composer Cloud and calculate how many decades it would take you to purchase the software outright at the subscription rate... Yes... decades... Purchasing the software outright hardly makes good business sense.

Example 2: Subscribing to knowledge based content sites makes a lot of sense. (Macpro video... askaudio). Yes, you can buy the courses but once you purchase, they are frozen in time. Subscribing to courseware sites can make a lot of sense if you are in a heavy learning mode and are working across software platforms. The courseware is continuously developed and your subscription gives you access to the latest courses and updates ... (Maschine MK III, Kontakt 5x etc etc). Some downloadable content doesn't age all that well... I have a shelf full of old Macintosh programming manuals, Cubase 4 and 6 books etc. and some purchased courseware on Battery 3 and Guitar Rig 3) ... all "owned", some physical in dimension and most nearly useless other than for historical purposes.

Example 3: If you produce your own music videos and routinely work in Premier, Adobe Photoshop, After Effects (that's me) or web design, game development (that's not me) you can get an affordable monthly subscription to the software and work with the latest versions of all of the Adobe software suite (which costs thousands if purchased outright) and if you were stuck you could watch one of the videos that I mentioned above to come to terms with the latest features (the kind you subscribe to where the content is developed routinely).

Maybe you need to put a few kids through University so you don't have $8000 kicking around but you still want to express your music visually...subscribe for a five months and keep the change (all $7800 or more if you need more than Premier, Adobe Photoshop, Indesign, Audition or After Effects ).

My point is not that all subscription services are worthwhile. Quite the opposite; some are extremely poor in terms of value. But having a closed mind to it on the basis of ownership prejudice may be unwise.

I live these examples and they are well and carefully considered from a business point of view. YMMV. - Scotty

I'm not going to waste my time reading your long winded opinion. If you need that many words to explain why you think renting software is justified, then so be it.

I was simply stating my opinion and you're more then welcome to disagree.

[mrj1nx]

Yeah feels like they are just being creative with what they have. If they started to allow second hand sales or providing plugins that was on par with vsts then maybe REs would make more sense.

[Jace-BeOS]

Simple, you subscribe to Time Magazine and CNN cable so you don't have to own Time Warner corp in order to read the magazine or watch their news.

Wow, that analogy isn't even close.

[Sailor16]

I really don't understand people who object to having more options.

If you don't see any value in a subscription, then don't use it and continue to buy the RE's you wish to own. This move from PH is all about having more choice, more freedom, more user power. As such, it's adding more value to Reason users, not subtracting value.

Regarding the policy of not allowing the re-selling of RE's, what PH at least should allow, IMO, is for a user to sell their entire Reason rig (including RE's). Which means a user is selling the personal Reason license, the personal user account, and all the personal RE's tied to that account.

[incubus]

Much fact in that, but what people REALLY want is workflow updates. I mean, youtube seems flooded with people going "wtf" over the next update.

Here's my view, I know it's worth less than two wooden nickels:

At 8.2 it was a fine auto. Then 8.3 came out that introduced more cpu usage, 8.4 never did (though was announced) and 9 was a bore with ONE workflow improvement. That was a full upgrade price. Then 9.5 hit with vst's, and another full upgrade price. Now 10 with some dumb new stuff (and no workflow improvements that I'm aware of) they want ANOTHER full upgrade price?

We can use anything we want with 9.5 now. I don't understand why anyone would need a sub to the RE stuff with vst support.

Too much greedy hand stuff going on w/o improving the product.

EDIT: In before the "you are spoiled/amazing times/you are not entitled" BS

[JonSolo]

9.5 was a free upgrade if you were on 9 already.

[ATN69]

Just got a mail from Melda Production. Obviously they also started with subscription to own.

[JonSolo]

Just got a mail from Melda Production. Obviously they also started with subscription to own.

And that is really cool! Apparently Output has done the same thing today.

[jsp1979]

Just got a mail from Melda Production. Obviously they also started with subscription to own.

And that is really cool! Apparently Output has done the same thing today.

Output just says you can use PayPal credit to buy their stuff, so no, they haven't started one.

[JonSolo]

You can setup a $20 per month payment at Output via Paypal credit is what I meant to add.

[SJ_Digriz]

You can setup a $20 per month payment at Output via Paypal credit is what I meant to add.

Hmm .. that would be like 3 years to pay for complete bundle. Or is there some outrageous % credit rate on top of the base price.

[SJ_Digriz]

never mind, it's a 6 months interest free thing. It is not a subscription.

[ghettosynth]

You can setup a $20 per month payment at Output via Paypal credit is what I meant to add.

Hmm .. that would be like 3 years to pay for complete bundle. Or is there some outrageous % credit rate on top of the base price.

Typically paypal credit does have a high interest rate. I don't know what output has setup with them, but I find it unlikely that it's zero, or even low, interest.

[SJ_Digriz]

You can setup a $20 per month payment at Output via Paypal credit is what I meant to add.

Hmm .. that would be like 3 years to pay for complete bundle. Or is there some outrageous % credit rate on top of the base price.

Typically paypal credit does have a high interest rate. I don't know what output has setup with them, but I find it unlikely that it's zero, or even low, interest.

I went through the drill just because ...... it's 6 months no interest if balance is paid. Of course if you don't it's 1029810298019246657695-1972347934-92374e54% retroactive to you grandmothers birthday.

[SJ_Digriz]

and back to point, it is not a subscription.