zebra academic pricing

[Funkasizer]

I was referring to full blown professors (they sure exist outside of Germany as well) with an income that's in the upper half of the economic divide who are leeching for discounts (which in effect are on the expense of people with a way lesser income). In that way, yes, I have prejudices. I have no respect for such attitude.

Amen to that. I know a few professors working at some music universities and their (private!) bookshelves are STUFFED with each and every audio software package ever released. And no, they didn't ask for an academic pricing. They asked to get things for free. Which, apparently, they did. And it's really not as if they would need all these things for their teaching duties.

- Sascha

Well, doesn't this simply indicate that these music professors also work at home? As for the fact that they get stuff for free, this is quite normal. My colleagues and I often get inspection copies of books, multimedia, software, sometimes even without asking for it. Depending on the publisher's policy, one may either keep the copies or have to return them after a reasonable amount of time. I teach classes of 250 students, and have to decide what teaching materials the students have to buy for my courses. Therefore publishers gladly give inspection copies for free. There is nothing wrong or dishonest with that. I also have some of these inspection copies at home on my private bookshelves, because when you are an academic, you almost work day and night (except if you work at Urs' university ).

[Funkasizer]

Some people are so annoying.

I'm sorry for that. Just click the "mute me" button beneath my forum name and you won't have to put up with me anymore.

[Urs]

his personal prejudices regarding a group of professionals

I was referring to full blown professors (they sure exist outside of Germany as well) with an income that's in the upper half of the economic divide who are leeching for discounts (which in effect are on the expense of people with a way lesser income). In that way, yes, I have prejudices. I have no respect for such attitude.
Urs

How often does it happen that a full professor is leeching for a discount? Often enough to make generalizations with a negative undertone about academics?

IMHO there was no negative undertone towards academics in general, but only towards those who *are* privileged. You can swap the word "academics" with "people", but as it's mainly about academic discounts here, it was only on topic to rant in that direction. I'm sorry that you feel offended. My apologies if this didn't come across well. I suppose online forums simply are that way.

I have no intention to keep this topic up any longer. I do what I should have done long before, I'll lock it. If that makes me an asshole, then so be it. I have other things to deal with.

[Urs]

Okay. Calmed down a bit. Unlocked it.

Have a look:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Besoldungsordnung_C

No-one with that type of income needs to ask for discounts. Granting a discount so someone with such a comfortable income would be a slap in the face of those people who had to save months to be able to afford a license. I had the case where the reason given for a discount was "because it is common practice" - so yes, there are cases where I get really, really angry.

Urs

[taoyoyo]

I have to say that from my perspective I support Urs' choice of a dinosaur upgrade completely.

I am a self-taught musician/producer and graphic designer, never really was in a financial position to go to school for either. (I don't believe one necessarily needs to go to school to learn how to do these things as well as anyone else). It sometimes seemed a little harsh that 'proper students' always got the price breaks. I do not begrudge them the discounts, just wished there was some way for everyone who wanted to learn could benefit.

I think the dinosaur upgrade is a really good way of leveling that playing ground.

[MitchK1989]

the only problem with the dinosaur crossgrade is that people who own hardware synths and are buying software synths are usually in the process of transitioning from hardware to software, and during that period you tend to have extra gear money from hardware sales anyway... Whereas most of the truly poor musicians who are trying to save up for zebra would not own any hardware synths because they could never afford them.

[Urs]

the only problem with the dinosaur crossgrade is that people who own hardware synths and are buying software synths are usually in the process of transitioning from hardware to software, and during that period you tend to have extra gear money from hardware sales anyway... Whereas most of the truly poor musicians who are trying to save up for zebra would not own any hardware synths because they could never afford them.

That's why I have crossgraded a minimoog-shaped cake. I'm a bit embarrassed though because I can't find the picture

Urs

[lazerkind]

Come on now people. Go out and buy a kazoo for 50c and put a picture of "replaced by Zebra" next to it. It is not like you have to own some old moog modular to get a dinosaur cross grade.
Go out find something old and dusty and think creative instead of nagging. (I'd like to see a nuclear plant replaced by Zebra but that's me )
(And that kazoo idea is now already done so think of something else)
//L
And I have done my years at the university as well. I managed on 600E/month including rent, food and books + saving up for a 800E soundcard(although it took a while...)

[tylenol]

Well I seem to have missed the boat on this surprisingly heated discussion (sorry for contributing to the heating) but:

You must mean people with degrees, as opposed to people without them? Because this just really isn't true of actual academics, who have to go through 5-7 years of poverty-level income after undergraduate before they can get a job that typically starts off paying significantly less than what their peers who didn't go to grad school started off with (5-7 years ago).

Sorry, but thats just silly. There is not a degree holder I know, and I know alot, that out of college would take a job with the pay equal to a fast food workers wage, unless it was for 6 month to 1 year internship. You said 5-7 poverty wages! Making a point is fine. Lying to make a point is not, and that is just not true.

I think you drastically misunderstood me -- by an academic, I mean someone in an academic career path. By 5-7 years poverty wages, I mean graduate school; my point was exactly what you say, that people who do _not_ go into an academic career but have a degree don't have to do this, and so have a much higher lifetime income potential on a career track with similar pay scales, simply because they start 5-7 years earlier. At least in the US, "academic" doesn't refer to anyone with a degree (maybe this is where the confusion came in).

In any case, I am an assistant professor now and I don't seriously think anyone at my pay needs or should legitimately ask for an academic discount. But as a graduate student, there's no way in hell I could have afforded some of the things I bought without an academic discount, and I think it is perfectly legitimate for graduate students to at least wonder about academic discounts. (I don't put zebra2 on this list, incidentally, and I did manage to buy it as a graduate student; I did buy it at the pre-release price IIRC.) In some fields graduate students earn _less_ per year than a full time fast food worker (see data here), with basically no guarantee of actually being able to find a faculty position.

[mcnoone]

Well I seem to have missed the boat on this surprisingly heated discussion (sorry for contributing to the heating) but:

Yes, It was explained to me before. Here's the thing.
1: Zebra's a $200 dollar product. The other products are all cheaper than that. If someone can afford a computer to run the software, than they can afford $200. This company is not the same as Adobe, with Pshop being $700, and a large company to handle such licence and things.
2. The dino-crossgrade discount is enouph.$50 discount
3. U-he is a very small, almost one person company. Student discounts would take time and energy away from doing other, more important things with that time. Updates, fixes, etc.
4. You could try another way would be to create a good bank of 128 presets, and a donate button, with the donation for the purpose of buying Zebra, and if the sounds are good, you might get alot of donations.