discoDSP Synths

[audiojunkie]

So, on this Cloud thing....

We pay one one-time-yearly fee, and for all updates, for all of the DiscoDSP software licenses that we own, we get brought up to the latest version and get all additional updates to it for the course of that year? Then, if we want to get the updates for all of the instruments we own for the next year, we pay another one-time fee? And currently with the summer sale going on, we only have to pay $14.50? If that is true, that doesn't sound bad at all. Can someone at DiscoDSP confirm?

suppose your HD dies, or your PC, or your house burns down etc etc. Shit happens.

You then have to pay 30 bux to redownload something you have already paid for

theres the scam

where is the guarantee that this ADDITIONAL fee will include any updates? (not bug fixes)

You also just don't know what updates he'll release during the year, if any. You could be paying $29 and maybe there won't even be any updates that year. You could of course wait and only buy the Cloud thing when he does release a big update, but then you're paying $29 for a "free" (advertised as "free" on the site) update.

It's just a horrible business model where the customer ends up paying a $29 a year "ranson", on top of the price of initial purchase. Even if some of their products are pretty good, the market is so saturated with plugins that you can easily find a replacement that doesn't have these anti-consumer measures.

Now this is accurate. It’s a business model. Software as a subscription. I agree the wording probably should be changed to not use the word, Free. It’s a paid update, through subscription access. You may not like it, but it’s a valid business model that is gaining popularity. And businesses change their business models all the time, services increase rates, prices go up, etc. It’s called staying in business. You don’t have to like it. As a customer, it is perfectly fair to vote with your wallet and not buy further products. But this is definitely NOT a scam as others have said. It’s a change in business model, and like it or not, it’s not dishonest. You said it yourself—the market is saturated. Buy something else. If the developer finds that this model doesn’t work, he’ll have to change again or go out of business.

[audiojunkie]

So, on this Cloud thing....

We pay one one-time-yearly fee, and for all updates, for all of the DiscoDSP software licenses that we own, we get brought up to the latest version and get all additional updates to it for the course of that year? Then, if we want to get the updates for all of the instruments we own for the next year, we pay another one-time fee? And currently with the summer sale going on, we only have to pay $14.50? If that is true, that doesn't sound bad at all. Can someone at DiscoDSP confirm?

suppose your HD dies, or your PC, or your house burns down etc etc. Shit happens.

You then have to pay 30 bux to redownload something you have already paid for

theres the scam

where is the guarantee that this ADDITIONAL fee will include any updates? (not bug fixes)

that's not even the worst of it. even if a bugfix update comes out after you bought your plugin, you still pay for the "cloud subscription".

Problem is I can’t even access the stuff I paid for, that is unacceptable (plus they keep deleting my posts in their thread on the sale)

When you purchase, you are given an opportunity to download the app for a limited time. I always immediately download and back up everything I buy. I never buy anything that I cannot do that with (ie challenge/response).

As for the deletion of posts....I never liked censorship. But it’s his forum—he’s allowed to do what he wants with it. Personally, I always gravitate toward businesses with good customer support. I think there are better ways of dealing with frustrated customers than making them more mad.

[audiojunkie]

Problem is I can’t even access the stuff I paid for

I bought Bliss, yet my license timebombed on me. When I went to get it fixed the website was down for months. I logged in last week and it told me it wanted $29 just to download the latest build.

It has never worked properly for me, so he wants $29 for the privilege of delivering me a version that (hopefully) works - in so doing he's breaking the law (EU Digital Contract Rules). It would seem that every DiscoDSP EU customer for whom the software doesn't work is entitled to a full refund, regardless of when they purchased the software.

Did you contact the developer? I bet he’d make it right. Failed downloads happen.

[audiojunkie]

Look guys, the only thing I’m trying to say is that this change is not a scam. It’s a change in business model. It’s not dishonest.

[ramseysounds]

i can't even use my version 9 waves software anymore.

Off topic, but why not?

[Tj Shredder]

Look guys, the only thing I’m trying to say is that this change is not a scam. It’s a change in business model. It’s not dishonest.

It breaks the original agreement. Even if you declare $29 as a „download fee“ you can‘t just force this on existing customers. There are clearly business models which are scams, there is no contradiction between those two words...
If he would ask for a reasonable download fee, and would declare it before purchase, or at least inform everybody to get their downloads before putting it into place, there would not be such big waves about it...

[mladi]

Look guys, the only thing I’m trying to say is that this change is not a scam. It’s a change in business model. It’s not dishonest.

You don't understand the problem. He advert that for example DiscoveryPro 6.5 and above users get a free update to 6.8. only he fortgot to mention how to ge it. No Mail about update & the subscription model was announced only on social Media. As i logged in to download my free upgrade it came out that i have to pay 29 bucks. So can you explain me what you find right in this behaviour?

[Burillo]

That’s ludicrous! Suppose you crash your new car on the freeway. The dealer doesn’t owe you a new one. Suppose you scratched your new Blue ray disk and it no longer works. Should a movie theater let you in again for free to watch the same show again, just because you lost the plot? Make a backup like sane people do. I lost a year and a half of family pictures because my old hard drive finally failed and I didn’t make a backup. Should I expect the hard drive manufacturer to replace my out of warranty hard drive or should I sue because I lost my pictures? You were given a period of time to download the application for no additional cost when you bought it. You should have taken responsible measures to protect your purchase. A scam!! What an entitled generation we’ve become! Talk about first-world problems! Sheesh!

the problem with this analogy is that you're not comparing apples to apples. software is not a physical product (at least that's what software industry has told us for years), so it can't be analogous to physical goods. yet, it seems like some software developers prefer to treat their software as physical goods when it suits them (i.e. avoid all responsibility) but take advantage of the fact that it's not physical goods (impose license transfer fees, "cloud subscriptions", etc) when they can suck some more money off their customers.

the example with pictures is laughable. you produced the pictures, not hard drive manufacturer, so it's on you to back them up.

[plexuss]

I bought 3 DiscoDSP synths in 09/10 2018, less than a year ago. I log into my account and can't download and am asked to buy cloud. Figuring this is just a migration mistake I email discoDSP asking to get the downloads activated. Here is the reply.

This is not acceptable. Bait and switch business practices. discoDSP F-, AVOID (you never know what the company is going to do next to make your life harder)

On Jun 19, 2019, at 12:48 PM,<support@discodsp.com> wrote:

Hello, try contacting FastSpring or purchasing our cloud service for 1 year + free updates for all the purchased products within the same time frame.

Best regards,

[AnX]

yep, that's the scam

[rasmusklump]

whatever, i don't own any disco software, but i've thought about bliss a lot. i'm just pointing out the obvious.

In what universe charges waves for the download of an installer of a plugin you own ?

[Karmoon]

I bought 3 DiscoDSP synths in 09/10 2018, less than a year ago. I log into my account and can't download and am asked to buy cloud. Figuring this is just a migration mistake I email discoDSP asking to get the downloads activated. Here is the reply.

This is not acceptable. Bait and switch business practices. discoDSP F-, AVOID (you never know what the company is going to do next to make your life harder)

On Jun 19, 2019, at 12:48 PM,<support@discodsp.com> wrote:

Hello, try contacting FastSpring or purchasing our cloud service for 1 year + free updates for all the purchased products within the same time frame.

Best regards,

Good grief. I would like to see an official comment on this. I mean it's either a yes or a no. I don't like to judge too quickly, but I can't see this is as anything but bad.

[moshimoshi]

It’s a business model. Software as a subscription. I agree the wording probably should be changed to not use the word, Free. It’s a paid update, through subscription access. You may not like it, but it’s a valid business model that is gaining popularity. And businesses change their business models all the time, services increase rates, prices go up, etc. It’s called staying in business. You don’t have to like it. As a customer, it is perfectly fair to vote with your wallet and not buy further products. But this is definitely NOT a scam as others have said. It’s a change in business model, and like it or not, it’s not dishonest. You said it yourself—the market is saturated. Buy something else. If the developer finds that this model doesn’t work, he’ll have to change again or go out of business.

You are wrong, and it blows my mind how anyone could defend this practice. The subscription has been introduced for all customers regardless of whether they knew about it or not, which is a total change to the terms and conditions of the original sale. As someone else mentioned it's like a bait and switch. It's incredibly poor, I don't know how any developer could be so cheap as to not provide downloads for legit customers purchased software. If you are struggling so badly, just create a google drive account (or multiple accounts) and allow people to download their stuff. To me though this looks like the company is f**ked beyond repair, and he's just looking to milk it for all it's worth before it's abandoned. Why else would you throw your entire userbase under the bus? Why anyone would willingly choose to give this guy their money or defend his actions is beyond my comprehension.

[Burillo]

it's not even a subscription. with subscription services, you get all plugins for a monthly/yearly fee. this is a fee on top of what you pay for the plugin itself.

[discoDSP]

I bought 3 DiscoDSP synths in 09/10 2018, less than a year ago. I log into my account and can't download and am asked to buy cloud. Figuring this is just a migration mistake I email discoDSP asking to get the downloads activated. Here is the reply.

Please don't post personal e-mail communications in public. It's a criminal behaviour in Europe and can be prosecuted (like plenty of stuff some particulars are doing here at KVR forum to my business).