u-he Sale on Native Instruments [Feb 2019]

[DavidCarlyon]

So does this basically signify the end of "u-he does no sales" ?

I had prepared a very thorough statement for this question, but I ended up with this: “When Native Instruments offers you a tap into their customer base, you’d be out of your mind to turn that down”.

It's a one-off, just like the 2016 Diva sale was one, and the recent Hive sale. We'll do more customer surveys for sure (with coupon codes as rewards) and we'll keep doing intro offers.

Absolutely! Really hope you sell a ton (sure you already have) I for one cant wait to round off my collection.

I think for a lot of people who aren't as into synthesis as some of us, spending over 100 on a synth may well seem out of the question, but this offer will be too much to resist..and at the same time it gives U-He a nice cash injection. The rest of us get to grab the stuff we don't already have. It's gonna be a happy month!!

[omiroad]

I have mixed feelings about this sale as an existing customer, because 1) there was an assumption when buying the plug-ins that sales like these wouldn't occur, and 2) a bundle sale punishes costumers that already have one or more products from the bundle.

A side effect is that the marketplace is already having people sell their duplicate licenses, going for lower prices than usual... If it's important for U-he to make their products seem to have a certain monetary value, then it seems counterproductive.

[Hexfix93]

I bought it from NI's site and still have not received my serial number i want to use it now darn it.

[alexpen]

Pitty, they don't offer FX bundle...

[Biome_Digital]

So does this basically signify the end of "u-he does no sales" ?

“When Native Instruments offers you a tap into their customer base, you’d be out of your mind to turn that down”.

Exactly, good choice imo.

[#rob]

I bought it from NI's site and still have not received my serial number i want to use it now darn it.

I think I already replied to your support request. If that was not you, then please see my post below:

Due to the high demand, our servers initially ran into some unexpected communication issues. I found the problem and pretty certainly fixed it, everything seems to be back to normal now.

If you didn't receive all of your serial number(s) yet, then please head over to the redeem page and try again (for the ones you didn't receive yet).
This time around it should work. Fingers crossed...

[GilJ]

Hi,

Really no plan offering the FX Bundle?
I would really be interested in that (and it seems that I'm not the only one )

Cheers,
GilJ

[Urs]

Really no plan offering the FX Bundle?
I would really be interested in that (and it seems that I'm not the only one )

I don't think anything can be done for now, but maybe let NI know that you'd have preferred that.

[Ploki]

i'm just gonna buy the bundle for the Satin/presswerk/colour copy, which is still cheaper than buying them separately, take twangstrom and diva as an added bonus and sell repro which i already have

[tylenol]

I have to admit that when I first read the NI email about this, I wondered if u-he and NI shared an email processor and there was some kind of terrible mistake, but then I came and checked here. I have a ton of u-he stuff, but this sale *exactly* hits what I don't have, very tempting...

(As a long-standing existing customer, personally I think it's great if you do sales or deals like this from time to time - if they're successful, the net effect is good for everyone who uses u-he stuff. IMO rare+unpredictable sales don't change the perceived value of the products meaningfully, if anything increase demand. Just as long as you don't get into a yearly black-friday mode or whatever .)

[ThomasHelzle]

Well, I do not agree with these sentiments.
It's like being a virgin that is just a tiny bit pregnant every now and then.

If it really would have been a surprise one-off that only happened once, maybe.
It also was a clear deal with the intro prices so far, where you could decide if you would go for it or not, afterwards you just had to pay full price.
Now that there were several sales already, people will assume that there may be more in the future and in a sale like this one people buy things they don't really need and so more licenses will flow into the second hand market.
So I assume that the general u-he plugin resale value has just gone down quite a bit.

And I'm not judging this move. I can see how financial realities make certain decisions necessary or tempting.
I still think that u-he no longer can claim a place on the not-having-sales list.

Which I find sad in a certain part of my heart where I dote on stubborn people who go against the grain of what everybody else does.

But I have no real stake in this, so I wish everybody involved all the best.

Cheers, over and out,

Tom

[lnikj]

Well, I do not agree with these sentiments.
It's like being a virgin that is just a tiny bit pregnant every now and then.

If it really would have been a surprise one-off that only happened once, maybe.
It also was a clear deal with the intro prices so far, where you could decide if you would go for it or not, afterwards you just had to pay full price.
Now that there were several sales already, people will assume that there may be more in the future and in a sale like this one people buy things they don't really need and so more licenses will flow into the second hand market.
So I assume that the general u-he plugin resale value has just gone down quite a bit.

And I'm not judging this move. I can see how financial realities make certain decisions necessary or tempting.
I still think that u-he no longer can claim a place on the not-having-sales list.

Which I find sad in a certain part of my heart where I dote on stubborn people who go against the grain of what everybody else does.

But I have no real stake in this, so I wish everybody involved all the best.

Cheers, over and out,

Tom

I agree with you Tom.

I've been a customer since the very early days and have always thought that my resale values should I need them are safe. Not so any more it would seem. That's OK, I just need to adjust my thinking accordingly. I certainly don't expect U-He to care about people's ability to sell their plugins because there is no financial benefit from them doing so.

Clearly, U-He are now a company that now does do sales, even if they are unpredictable. I don't blame U-He in any way for this. The world moves on, the market becomes more crowded, there are more mouths to feed etc.. Whilst I don't think U-He have promoted "We don't do sales" of late I think that they have enjoyed some benefit from the perception that they don't.

Maybe fewer people will purchase at regular prices if they think their resale value has gone down, but that is possibly outweighed by those who will impulse buy in a sale. I hope that proves to be the correct judgment for securing U-He's financial future and the ability to deliver more great plugins in the future.

Cheers.

[vanluke]

Thank you for the amazing sale u-he! Although I already had repro, satin and CC, the other 3 were just too tempting!

I just have one question, that I felt was not completely answered here:
I believe a lot from us have will have some duplicates that (obviously) would like to sell. So one way would be to sell the NI-Code and the other one to sell the old ones (or the new ones with the fee). I still have to wait in order to sell my other plugins because of the 9month period.

Now, my question is: Is it possible to have duplicated licences in one account? If so, I'd just register all the plugins and sell the (old) duplicates after the 9month period.

[#rob]

Is it possible to have duplicated licences in one account? If so, I'd just register all the plugins and sell the (old) duplicates after the 9month period.

Yes, that is possible. They will only show up as one single serial number in a My Licenses email, but if you have multiple licenses of a product, then you have multiple licenses, full stop.

We will be able to see and handle duplicate licenses here in your database record. You're welcome to transfer any individual license, old or new, just mention explicitly which one/s (old/new) you wish to transfer.

[tony10000]

I really don't believe that folks should look as VSTs as commodities that can be resold when money gets tight. We should look at them as tools that we use to make music. When I bought hardware synths and effects, I did so with the understanding that I could only recover a fraction of their cost when I resold them. Companies like u-he have to do what is best to grow their market share and to keep revenue coming in. They do not always take into consideration the impact of those decisions on the resale market from which they dervive little revenue. While this may truly be a "one off" sale, it remains to be seen what impact it will have on their future pricing strategy. As the market becomes more saturated and mature, there may be fewer buyers willing to pay high prices for VSTs. Developers are going to have to make difficult decisions about their pricing and discount strategies and these may affect prices on the secondary market. Bottom line: Enjoy your virtual instruments and effects but don't think of them as commodities.