Rent-to-own?

[Cyoon]

I once paid Krishna by Devine Machines on installments..after last one they disappeared probably due to bankruptcy. I wouldn't want that to happen to u-he, so i'd vote no to such experiments.

[spunkmuffin]

Hmm yeah if I wanted to see u-he go extinct, one way would be to try to encourage Urs to embrace some new financial experiment. Then sit back and watch as it doesn't go exactly to plan. Hehehe.

[antic604]

I just noticed iZotope offers Neutron 2 and Ozone 8 as rent-to-own via Splice.com, so maybe it's not as difficult as it seems and they offer a platform to do it in a streamlined way?

https://splice.com/plugins

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

From personal experience, I have been so tempted to buy software via RtO that I would not have considered buying outright I've not bitten the bullet, but clearly a lot of people have.

Were I to own a company with an extensive catalogue of software, I'd definitely give it a trial run with a title that perhaps was not shifting so many copies as it once did, or one that was cheap enough (in total) to make it a no-brainer

[melomood]

How about a nice K-mart lay-away program.You don't get the actual product until it's paid off

[ghettosynth]

Rent to own sounds fantastic to me given a few caveats. Mostly I'd want the user licensing experience to be the same so, e.g., iLok would be fine because I could move the dongle between machines. Now, of course you're going to have one of those generous plans where if I miss a payment I just lose access and that I can pick it up at any time, right? Because that means that I can "buy" the product today, charge that monthly fee on my credit card that I pay off monthly anyway, and then use your software today. However, when I decide to take a three or four month break from whatever it is that I wanted that synth for, then I don't pay to use your software. So, likely, it's going to take me four or maybe five years, or longer, to actually pay it off to own the thing and all the while I get to pay with tomorrow's cheaper dollars to use the product today.

If I get tired of it, as I might, then maybe I don't even finish paying for it because I don't care anymore because new stuff has come out that has my attention. God knows I have plenty of software that I've paid real money for and only used a few times. If I'm honest, I probably have software that I've paid for and never used even once. It would have been great to just pay six or seven bucks for that stuff and then forget about it.

It's like borrowing money at zero interest with no real timeline on payback. I can see why high school kids love this, it's because it's just like borrowing money from mom, and that's a plan that they know how to work and use.

This sounds awesome to me. I really love it when I get to use other people's money to fund my happiness.

[Urs]

Are there any rent-to-own plans which let one "pause" payments for a few months and then one can pick it up again to continue where one left it?

[braj]

How about a nice K-mart lay-away program.You don't get the actual product until it's paid off

[braj]

Are there any rent-to-own plans which let one "pause" payments for a few months and then one can pick it up again to continue where one left it?

Yep:

https://splice.com/features/plugins

[braj]

Since I'm poor, this is attractive to me, but it would have to make business sense to U-he. I prefer a lay-away plan but that seems a hassle for U-he IMO. But it does give you motivation to get it paid off quickly.

[ghettosynth]

Are there any rent-to-own plans which let one "pause" payments for a few months and then one can pick it up again to continue where one left it?

I believe that several of the software vendors work that way. Splice does, so if you don't, you will not hear the end of it from your customers.

https://splice.com/features/plugins

Flexible and convenient
Pause or cancel your plan at any time. Or, if you want the license, you can also payoff the full balance whenever you want.

Let's be clear what we're talking about here though. Normal rent to own stores, at least in the U.S., do not allow you to use their money at no cost. The assertion is that there's no interest, but that's not true AT ALL. Generally the price that you pay is MUCH higher, so, in essence, you are paying to use their money.

There is some truth to that with Splice in that you are paying the full price for the software, but nothing like Rent-to-Own stores for physical goods, at least in the U.S.

I'm just pointing out what the market seems to be naively expecting. And I'm serious, if I could buy software that isn't normally discounted at zero interest with the ability to pause the payments at any time where the user experience with respect to copy protection is the same, why wouldn't I use your money to fuel my happiness? I like that the vendor takes on the risk for my fickle tastes.

[pdxindy]

Let's be clear what we're talking about here though. Normal rent to own stores, at least in the U.S., do not allow you to use their money at no cost.

I assume since there is no interest to the end user, that the plugin developers must be paying it.

[ghettosynth]

Let's be clear what we're talking about here though. Normal rent to own stores, at least in the U.S., do not allow you to use their money at no cost.

I assume since there is no interest to the end user, that the plugin developers must be paying it.

Good point, of course the partnership with Splice is not free of cost to the developer.

[braj]

Let's be clear what we're talking about here though. Normal rent to own stores, at least in the U.S., do not allow you to use their money at no cost.

I assume since there is no interest to the end user, that the plugin developers must be paying it.

Good point, of course the partnership with Splice is not free of cost to the developer.

Neither is the relationship with PluginBoutique, JRRShop, or anyone that takes a cut of the sale.

[ghettosynth]

Let's be clear what we're talking about here though. Normal rent to own stores, at least in the U.S., do not allow you to use their money at no cost.

I assume since there is no interest to the end user, that the plugin developers must be paying it.

Good point, of course the partnership with Splice is not free of cost to the developer.

Neither is the relationship with PluginBoutique, JRRShop, or anyone that takes a cut of the sale.

Well, of course. I'm curious what the arrangement is. I'm sure that nobody's going to talk about that though.