License model no way !!!

[SpaceTraffic]

Why are people comparing this to Adobe and subscription models? In a subscription model, when you stop paying you lose access to the program and cannot use any version of it until you start paying again.

That is simply not the case here. You buy it, you use it, you can keep using it. With adobe, when you stop paying the subscription, you literally cannot open the software you were previously paying for. That's NOT THE SAME AS THIS, GET IT? The license has to do with access to updates and upgrades. People are freaking out acting like this is the adobe model. It isn't.

Further opinions on what it IS are, of course, valid -- but let's at least get straight what it really is.

.

Blame me for the adobe comparison, I'm the only one who did it. I was wrong I know. But with all monthly or yearly fee services I somewhat tend to feel Adobe over it. I would say that we should see Adobe as a warning example when companies start to become a little too hipster.

Yes, Bitwig is far from Adobe, thank goodness.

[Coockie1176ln]

LOL people normalizing companies charging for maintenance updates that were previously granted for your original/upgrade cost,

[masterhiggins]

Geez. You guys are getting reamed almost as badly as Cubase users for update prices.

[Granum]

I'm just glad I have an FL Studio Producer license. There's a company who knows how to treat it's customers. I love Bitwig's innovations as a DAW but I see no reason to expect that Bitwig will live up to their end of this. Their development so far has happened at a snails pace. Sure, if they actually give multiple major improvements over the course of a year then it might be worth it. But look what we've had so far? I like Bitwig as it is, but I've also had certain version numbers which were totally unusable to me.

2.0 does look cool, I'm not sure if I need it though and I think I'd rather support companies that care more about their customers than their coffers.

[Rappo Clappo]

Hmmm.. I guess I still can update after a while, but hey... that is where this concept fails IMHO; a lot of license holders are now tempted to put their license on hold. I am just waiting until the cat drops from the tree. What were they thinking???

[Coockie1176ln]

Hmmm.. I guess I still can update after a while, but hey... that is where this concept fails IMHO; a lot of license holders are now tempted to put their license on hold. I am just waiting until the cat drops from the tree. What were they thinking???

I asked myself same question when they priotized touch for bitwig. Now i know its not one time misstake.

[Granum]

Hmmm.. I guess I still can update after a while, but hey... that is where this concept fails IMHO; a lot of license holders are now tempted to put their license on hold. I am just waiting until the cat drops from the tree. What were they thinking???

This exactly, with this new model the only way I'd update right away is if they offered a significant discount. I'm not sure they really thought it through. If I update it will be after I see that Bitwig is really adding a ton of new content regularly. If their pace of development is at all like 1.x I will sell my license for whatever I can get for it.

[ezelkow1]

And add me to that list as well. With a single version number and promised features, i.e. You will get a modular system, networked collab in v2.x->V2.999999, then you have a good general idea of what you are buying. Sure you might not get it right away but at least you can be fairly confident that you will get it

Now you have to hope and pray that the devs will meet their own inevitably bad timelines (not a knock on the BW devs, this is just a known in any software development that things can and will run late). Now if they dont make their timelines, you are SOL on your feature if your subscription runs out before they get done. This becomes more like gambling on updates than being an actual customer

[Rappo Clappo]

ezelkow1

It's a gamble indeed. For me it's not about money, it's about reliability.

[lunardigs]

Well, I paid $399, late Aug of 2014 for BW 1. That cost divided by the months (~28) I've held it, till the release of BW 2 equals $14.25/mo, or $171/yr.

With this new model I should ultimately save here, right? Yes, I understand the whole thing is relative. Although, I have been quite happy with Bitwig.

In fact, without Bitwig and their support of Linux, I would not have been able to depart completely from Windows.
... Now, if you want to talk about aggressive licensing and all other manner of chicanery look no further than our beloved commercial operating systems (including mobile)--I'll say no more here.

Btw, I am a very big proponent of open source (free) software. Yet, for all I can tell and have witnessed, the world of music/pro audio demands an ecosystem (cash flow) to thrive--certainly as it concerns the technology side. If Bitwig can turn this new cash flow into great innovations then I'm okay with it.

All I can say it keep up the good work and keep your company from expanding too fast, Bitwig, and you should be able to thrive and remain honest.

[Pprimo]

I have been a user from day one and dropped Ableton ASAP and stuck with this program through it's buggy beta points until now which is performing quite well. It has helped my brother & I get to a pretty big point in our careers of being voted as one of the top 100 best techno Artists on Traxsource of 2016 which was all done on BITWIG !!!!!!! We were also voted on Traxsource the top best 200 Techno tracks of 2016 at # 39 and #40 all done in BITWIG !!!!!!! As well as many other tracks on BeatPort Etc.
The reason why i say all this is because I am not able to drop BITWIG at this point in my career and have to pay for the upgrades gladly. It still seems a bit pricey per year though especially to the average person just as a hoppy. $100.00 per year seems a bit more reasonable. That I think would make people feel a lot better. Seems a bit more doable for a lot more people "BiTWig Team" ?

Just wanted to share this with everyone ...........and hope we all have a good and prosperous 2017

Thanks For Listening

[Rappo Clappo]

Sounds logical, mr. Spock

[Cyclomatic]

This is just ridiculous though, honestly.
With as much time as I've invested into this program, I never would have even considered it to begin with if I knew there was going to be a yearly fee slapped onto it. I can't even begin to describe how stupid of an idea this is.

It is important to note that it is not a yearly fee or subscription!
You buy a full license, and on top of that you get 12 months of free upgrades, even if those are major version number upgrades. After those 12 months, you get to keep you license and you can use it as long as you want and renew your license if we introduce a feature you are interested in.

Cheers,
Dom

I think this is pretty ridiculous, sorry. If you want to include the major version upgrades with the free upgrades, then why not just make it so people can still at least get bugfixes etc. when their annual license expires? Or, better yet, simplify the whole thing and just charge per major version upgrade (which seems to partly be the goal here, given the 12 months of complete free upgrades).

[Munin]

This model would be a lot more acceptable if the update to 2 was free for early adopters and current owners of 1. Then people would not feel like they have to pay for features that should have been there long ago and could get a feel for what to expect in a 12 month cycle and confidently pay up next year. But the past two years of development have set the bar very low and the new version featureset is hardly anything to write home about.

Basically anyone who supported the company from early on got screwed. Despicable.

Oh well, let's hope I can get some 50 Euro for my license still.

[Erwin78]

And add me to that list as well. With a single version number and promised features, i.e. You will get a modular system, networked collab in v2.x->V2.999999, then you have a good general idea of what you are buying. Sure you might not get it right away but at least you can be fairly confident that you will get it

Now you have to hope and pray that the devs will meet their own inevitably bad timelines (not a knock on the BW devs, this is just a known in any software development that things can and will run late). Now if they dont make their timelines, you are SOL on your feature if your subscription runs out before they get done. This becomes more like gambling on updates than being an actual customer

Online collaboration will probably not work if you don't have the same version.
So you will need to update continuously if you switch with producers ...