Splice rent to own Serum plan, what do you think?

[musikmachine]

but you can continue the plan later, and your 5 installments still be there. And 5 installments are $50, not $100.

Yeah, but what if it takes some time, and you need to render a track with the plug, and you can't
use it in the meantime.

Than you will need to pay 10 bucks installment for that month, if you don't have 10 bucks, why are you even making music, go get a job instead.

Have you met KVR?

[Zexila]

Hahahahahah

[Guenon]

I don't like it, or perhaps I don't understand it. I mean, "hire purchase"? Isn't this kind of payment aimed at things like a car or a house, or at least (musically speaking) a grand piano, a 10,000$ Stratocaster and such? Why should one pay in installments a 200$ piece of software?! What is the point?

In purchases like that, it's a loan with interest slapped on. This is basically a subscription, where you get the added benefit of actually receiving a full license if you subscribe for long enough. Why wouldn't that be neat? It's always nice to have more options.

[BMoore]

So lets say you have paid 5 installments ($100) and can pay no more.

You aint got the money anymore, and you aint got the plug either

but you can continue the plan later, and your 5 installments still be there. And 5 installments are $50, not $100.

Yeah, but what if it takes some time, and you need to render a track with the plug, and you can't
use it in the meantime.

I thought I saw stated in the market place that installements are $20 per month, but you are right it is 10 bucks per month. But nevertheless the argument is the same, what happens after 10 installments and having paid $100, if a user runs into money problems...

What's next: Rent-a-plug ?

You're really not that bright, are you.
And holy moaning

[Numanoid]

You're really not that bright, are you.

If I was, I would buy the plug straight up wouldn't I

And holy moaning

Yup, just like you moaning about others moaning, that is KVR y'know

[Guenon]

But what happens when the plug goes from v1 to v2, which often happens ?

I guess the important question is, what happens if you're, say, half way paying for v1 and then a major version upgrade happens. Might be a good idea to email Duda and ask about his plan on this.

[Numanoid]

Got to admit that with this plan even Kanye West could afford it

[mhog]

I don't like it, or perhaps I don't understand it. I mean, "hire purchase"? Isn't this kind of payment aimed at things like a car or a house, or at least (musically speaking) a grand piano, a 10,000$ Stratocaster and such? Why should one pay in installments a 200$ piece of software?! What is the point?

In purchases like that, it's a loan with interest slapped on. This is basically a subscription, where you get the added benefit of actually receiving a full license if you subscribe for long enough. Why wouldn't that be neat? It's always nice to have more options.

I understand it is a subscription, but I don't understand the reason, since 189$ is not prohibitive. Unless I missed something and it works like this: "ok, you are out of funds now but you need Serum? Pay what you want starting from 10$, the rest you can pay whenever you have money, just remember you have to reach 189$ within one year, otherwise you lose your license." Does it work like this? If yes, I think it's nice. But as far as I can see, one has to remember to pay 10$ a month for Serum, price fixed? As if it was a telephone bill or smth?

[musikmachine]

^That's what i was gonna say.

As for why to buy it? Well i don't have $189 free right now, Serum has a lot of hype and, can you guess? GAS!!!!!!!

Actually it's kinda clever cause it will attract new buyers who otherwise wouldn't buy it because of above mentioned GAS (i wasn't planning to buy any more plugins for a good while) and it certainly puts other plugins i'd be considering out of the equation.

Three days to demo, check the ins and outs and decide, can't really get fairer than that.

[Guenon]

I don't understand the reason, since 189$ is not prohibitive.

It's not exactly in the impulse buy territory, either. And Serum is one of the top EDM synths right now, if not the top one. Lots of young hobbyists would like to have it. People still in school, and so on.

[mhog]

Wait, you mean I could give them 20$ today, 100$ next month and the rest 70$ within one year whenever I want, with no interests or extra charges till I reach the full price? In this case, it would be really nice.

[ere2learn]

I understand it is a subscription, but I don't understand the reason, since 189$ is not prohibitive. Unless I missed something and it works like this: "ok, you are out of funds now but you need Serum? Pay what you want starting from 10$, the rest you can pay whenever you have money, just remember you have to reach 189$ within one year, otherwise you lose your license." Does it work like this? If yes, I think it's nice. But as far as I can see, one has to remember to pay 10$ a month for Serum, price fixed? As if it was a telephone bill or smth?

You pay $9.99 (minimum) for 19 months,stop paying after 10 serum stops working when the month is over,but you can start paying again and you'll start on the 11 month with 9 payments to go,but you can also pay the full amount in 3 months if you like,very flexible

No need to remember to pay its automatic,like Splices main business which is monthly samples for $7.99 or $13.99

[layzer]

but you can continue the plan later, and your 5 installments still be there. And 5 installments are $50, not $100.

Yeah, but what if it takes some time, and you need to render a track with the plug, and you can't
use it in the meantime.

Than you will need to pay 10 bucks installment for that month, if you don't have 10 bucks, why are you even making music, go get a job instead.

[Compyfox]

maybe even a game changer, would be nice if this catches up with more devs, newcomers these days would have really good thing going on fast, get few essential things, make music all the time with them.

Kind of weird, I remember a thread in the market place a year ago or two asking about such a possibility, and then more or less everybody thought such "pay in installments" options would fail or not catch on.

I guess times change.

I think the biggest concern (and grime) with so called "Subscription Models" is where you can't ultimately "Rent-to-Own", and that it's "too taxing on your wallet" on the long run. At least that's the message I remember from all these threads. And look at what we've been swamped with recently. Exactly: subscription models. And people love it, join it in masses!

It started for AVID and I seem to remember that Sonnox also had a rental model - way before it got popular in the last year alone. But the demand was always there "why can't I simply rent the software?". Now it's "sure, why not". But you still don't own it after you paid it off.

I mean, the electronics and household industry does this (with interests of course, and I do have my own share of "experiences" on that end as well), but you can buy something on tick!


This was my biggest complaint toward AXIS Plugins, the developer that re-re-rereleased old Elemental Audio Inspector. I was told "the model will pay off, and there will be 5 plugins a year". However, the company kind of came to grinding halt in 2014. So if I would have joined the "subscription model", I would have paid more than the plugin was initially worth - because otherwise it would have just stopped working - double bummer! The only other company I know that is like "yeah, we add more and more content" as of late, is Slate Digital. And you see steady add-ons each couple of months. At 30bucks/month, it would really take a while to pay everything off.

So... If I join such a route, especially really limited ones (again: example AXIS Plugins), I basically pay until infinity, and can't keep the plugins in return. Or use my "investments so far" and use them as tokens to get the plugin/instrument I like (does Cakewalk turn your subscription into a full version after you "paid up"?)... still cool that I can do it, renting I mean, but a bit of a flawed concept.



Long story short - I fully support the "Rent-to-Own" concept.
SPLICE are not the first company doing this, but definitely the first after a long while. It was about time IMO.

Also... I've been in touch with them via Twitter... they're looking for company suggestions (or companies in general) that might jump on that train. I'd definitely love to see Spectrasonics doing similar, or companies that ask for more than 50-100 quids for their tools in general (looking at you, Waves and Plugin Alliance!). I'd definitely love to see NI's Komplete (Standard) bundle on there, as regular version or even Crossgrade. This could turn into a serious entry drug scenario, and you can still upgrade your NI tools 4 years later at the same old price - win-win situation for everyone.

Basically I'd love to see companies on that system that are popular, but entry level musicians and audio engineers can't afford. If that might reduce grey zone releases (since software got even more affordable!), and you can pay without a credit card, I'm all for it.




Regaring the CP... could be time limited C/R that needs to synchronize at least once a month via a manager or something, to check if you're still paying or not. But I didn't dive into details so far.

[ere2learn]

How does Splice authorize my Serum access each month?

Each time your computer connects to the internet, the Splice desktop app will run an authorization check to confirm your plan is still active. You’ll be granted up to 3 days of offline access before another authorization check is required. Once you’ve paid off the plugin cost, the Splice desktop app will no longer be required and you’ll receive a lifetime license with unrestricted offline access to Serum.