Softube goes subscription

[Harry_HH]

Authorizing=using any Softube plugins requires giving your iLok account user and PASSWORD to the 3rd party Gobbler. This really sucks!

[Kai Enaki]

Subscription models, while they might seem underwhelming to traditionalists, have proven successful for many developers. According to official company financials, Adobe has grown in revenue each year since 2013, when they announced their Creative Cloud subscription service.

I'd say there's a huge difference between a provider like ADOBE and Softube. ADOBE has everything an artist of graphics needs. Softube doesn't have everything an artist of music needs. And that's why ADOBE gets away with a subscription model whereas Softube and other developers don't.

[chk071]

Subscription models, while they might seem underwhelming to traditionalists, have proven successful for many developers. According to official company financials, Adobe has grown in revenue each year since 2013, when they announced their Creative Cloud subscription service.

I'd say there's a huge difference between a provider like ADOBE and Softube. ADOBE has everything an artist of graphics needs. Softube doesn't have everything an artist of music needs. And that's why ADOBE gets away with a subscription model whereas Softube and other developers don't.

Good point.

[djscorb]

Adobe spent the last 25 years eradicating all their competitors to get a monopoly and make a sub system tenable. All these other audio software companies offering sub schemes are dreaming and are up their own arses.

Thank god I don't rely on anything from these types of companies.

I want a variety of tools from a variety of companies. There is no one stop shop for discerning engineers who know what they need and want.
Thankfully, Some of the best and most talented developers are working for themselves (and their customers), and they get my hard earned cash!

Cheers

Scorb

[chk071]

Well well, as soon as you enter the market, you'd want everyone to buy from you, anything else would be quite weird from a business point of view. I agree though, can't see that subscription thing really become a thing for audio plugins, it just seems the wrong concept for this. Unfortunately, more and more companies seem to try, so, one can just hope that customers make a point, and vote with their wallet. Talking about it won't help at all.

[VariKusBrainZ]

Depends which model a Dev adopts, subscribe to own works for me.
Subscribe and lose it all at the end of a period sucks [mod edit] balls.

[Aleatoriac]

I'm going subscription. Anybody wants to use me has to sign up for a year in advance. My terms. Non negotiable.

[djscorb]

Depends which model a Dev adopts, subscribe to own works for me.
Subscribe and lose it all at the end of a period sucks [mod edit] balls.

Absolutely agree with you 100%. Even if paying more than buying it outright, a "rent to own" model benefits all. As long as such a system co exists with the ability to buy perpetual licences and can be on a per product basis rather than a devs entire range, all good in my view.

[Harry_HH]

"Gobbler needs your iLok account password" -policy when trying to authorize the Softube plugins is really unbelievable bad policy, against all the basic privacy fundamentals.

If your choose "no thanks" from below, you have not any possibility to use your paid plugins.

http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah1 ... czu72w.jpg

[do_androids_dream]

"Gobbler needs your iLok account password" -policy when trying to authorize the Softube plugins is really unbelievable bad policy, against all the basic privacy fundamentals.

If your choose "no thanks" from below, you have not any possibility to use your paid plugins.

http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah1 ... czu72w.jpg

Yes, and Gobbler - installed just to use Saturation Knob - wrecked my ilok installation to boot. A few days after installing Saturation Knob it wouldn't load in my DAW. Gobbler says I'm not signed in (after signing in) - I go to open the ilok interface - it won't and it gives me a 'missing component' dialogue. Going back into my DAW, none of my ilok plugins work and I can't get in to the ilok software! Yay.

[Vertion]

As a career software developer and soft synth enthusiast, I will never have interest in subscriptions the way they are now as they always represent a loss in my eyes if you have the option to own for a reasonable price (a fair trade of value). If the both options are available (own or subscribe) and the ownership cost is jacked up high to an unfair value, then the developer's intentions become clearer and it's time to steer clear. However, the one exception is if I pay a subscription for a customized product, that is, that the developer fulfills my feature requests and develops plugins that I specifically direct. This to me is a good trade of value if I am going to pay on a schedule/subscription and ensures a real return of value for my hard-earned money. It would be like a crowdsource group hiring a developer to carry out their specific requests to develop software for them. It will ensure a fair trade of value that gives the developer some continual income and the customer a sense of fair trade of value for the costs. This is the only type of 'subscription' I can ever remotely fathom volunteering for.

[Vertion]

I have a proposed solution to the subscription problem:

Production Alliances
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=479007

[irvin]

Forgot one crucial detail: piracy would quickly kill your initiative.

Your intentions are good, but your enemies are the people you're trying to protect!

[chk071]

Subscribe and lose it all at the end of a period sucks [mod edit] balls.

Just wondering, but... what was that mod edit about? Looks like the "bad" word was kept, and the (poor) animals name was removed.

[fmr]

I tried the Gobbler thing today, and I deinstalled it immediately. First, the installation is almost blind. We don't know where the installers go, and what happen to them after installing. Then it asked me the first time where are the directories, and never again. I made a mistake, and I found no way to correct it. Ever since that, it always installed in the same place.

And it installs a lot of startup items, and keeps running always, in minimized way (what for, I ask?). Much different than Arturia Software Center, Native Access and Cakewalk Command Center, which don't install any startup item, and only run when asked. Besides, all of them have settings that let the user decide where the installers go, where to install things, and the option to keep the installers or not.

Softube and Gobbler are NOT ready for prime time. For now, I got back to the old versions I had.