I don't understand the upgrade prices

[mladi]

MeldaProductions is on my "do not buy" list after reading this thread. I removed the plugins I wanted from my wish list.

Don't benefit from selling through resellers if you cannot accept the downsides of it. You can't have it both ways. Pick one or the other.

DMG Audio doesn't sell through resellers. You can take their example.

Best you can do mate!

[timo.heil]

Upgrade pricing is indeed strange. I bought the "MTotalBundle" a couple of years ago for 50% off for 349 EUR. So full price way back then was something like 700 EUR. With changed product policy it then got turned into the MTotalFXBundle which is now being offered for € 1.699. So that was a really good deal I guess and I'm glad about that

Then I was thinking about upgrading to MCompleteBundle. New price is 1.899 EUR. One could think that the upgrade path is the price difference of 200 EUR. But it isn't.

My upgrade offer for MCompleteBundle is: € 1.612 EUR !!!

So that means I originally paid 349 EUR + 1.612 EUR that is 1961 EUR in total. If I buy MCompleteBundle as New it is 1.899 EUR. So upgrading is actually more expensive than buying the thing directly. Strange I would say. I contacted support but they would only pray the upgrade pricing algorhithm...which I already know because I can read.

[mladi]

That are the usual Melda upgrade prices for their loyal customers don't think you are something special.

I can get the MEssentialsFXBundle with 1 (in words: "one") additional plugin for only 232€.

The MEssentialsFXBundle with 10 plugins included (from which i already have 9) cost new 249€. So i have 9 plugins from this bundle which are worth 17€ and the one i don't have is worth 232€ according to Melda.

No words for that..

[Held]

That's weird. For the MEssentialFXBundle, I bought MSpectralDynamicsLE on sale for 50€ a while ago, got MTurboCompLE from PluginBoutique and paid 55€ during the sale for the bundle.

The calculation for the prize is pretty simple.

Code: Select all

[bundle prize] - ([amount you paid so far] * 0.7)

If you bought from an external vendor, they assume you paid 50% of the normal price so they assume I paid 50€ for MTurboCompLE.

So in my case for MEssentialsFXBundle for 125€ during the sale, that's

Code: Select all

125 - (50+50)*0.7 = 55

There's something weird going on in your case, mladi. Did you contact support and asked what's up with that?

So that means I originally paid 349 EUR + 1.612 EUR that is 1961 EUR in total. If I buy MCompleteBundle as New it is 1.899 EUR. So upgrading is actually more expensive than buying the thing directly. Strange I would say. I contacted support but they would only pray the upgrade pricing algorhithm...which I already know because I can read.

Can you also read that you need to multiply the amount you paid by 0.7? It's common practice to give people a better deal who buy the whole bundle and pay upfront rather than installments.

It would be a weird business practice if it was cheaper to buy all the plugins one by one instead of the bundle. That would make offering a bundle pretty pointless.

Obviously, I would prefer to not have the penalty for being poor and not being able to afford the MCompleteBundle, but that's life.

[timo.heil]

>>> Can you also read that you need to multiply the amount you paid by 0.7? <<<

Yes. I know the calculation scheme. Nevertheless the difference between TotalFxbundle and CompleteBundle are MDrummer + MPowersynth + MSoundFactory which are in total worth approx 650 EUR if purchased separately. Nevertheless I'm asked to pay 1.612 EUR to upgrade from TotalFXBundle to CompleteBundle.

Don't get me wrong: It's totally up to the vendor to calculate their pricing schemes. In my case it's just that when upgrading I have to compensate:
- 1st the discount I got for the minor bundle
- 2nd the price increase of the product I bought (from 700 EUR of the back then called "TotalBundle" to 1.700 EUR for the now called "TotalFXBundle")
- 3rd plus pay some more Euros on top...

I guess the main culprit in my case is that the "TotalBundle" I purchased a couple of years ago which was "all Melda products except for MDrummer" and thus corresponds to the TotalFXBundle now was raised in price from 700 EUR to approx 1.700 EUR.

So I'm one the one hand lucky that I got a product less money in the past but I have to compensate for the price increase if I want to upgrade now.

Other vendors just charge the price difference for an upgrade, independent of you paid for the minor product, whereas Melda asks you to both compensate (at least partly) for both the discount you got for the minor product + (in my case) the price increase that happened for the product I got. In my case the product price was increased from approx. 700 Euros to 1.700 Euros...(ca. 2.400 percent plus!).

I guess if you were in my case you also wouldnt pay 1.600 EUR to upgrade to a bundle which currently just includes 3 more products worth 650 Euros full price. Of course purchasing the CompleteBundle would mean that you get all future instruments for free but I cannot foresee if and when Melda would add further instruments worth approx. 1.000 Euros. So neither will I purchase them separately now nor pay for the upgrade (which would then still be ca. 1.000 Euros I guess and who knows when additional instruments will be added....)

Anyway: It's not a big problem for me since I got those instruments anyway through Mxxx, except for the non-existing MIDI-Out of MDrummer within Mxxx as far as I understand...which would be really nice to have to use it with other drum libraries.

[Held]

Are you really complaining that you got a bundle for 349 EUR that would now cost you 850 EUR. Try getting a deal like that from Native Instruments for example. They turn off their servers after a few years and make you re-buy everything. Long-term, there's no better deal than Melda.

Other vendors don't give you lifetime upgrades and include all future plugins in the bundle. By buying the complete bundle, you're also buying all future instruments, which there won't be any since all new features will be implemented in MSoundfactory.

So yeah, it doesn't make sense for you to upgrade, but you still got an amazing deal. Just buy MSF now and be happy.

Other vendors make you pay an upgrade fee for a new version every few years, but you'll get everything for free if you buy MSF now.

Give some people an inch and they'll complain they didn't get a mile.

Edit: That sounded a little more aggressive than intended. The bottom line is: Melda's upgrade path is different, but they also offer life time free updates and all new plugins will be added to existing bundles. So it makes sense for them to handle things differently. Some people hate that Melda is different, some love it. With regard to upgrades, I'm pretty neutral. If I keep using Melda and get new free plugins over the next few years, I'll probably change my opinion to "love".

[timo.heil]

I completely get your point and I am actually really grateful to get the lifetime updates of all effects for the amount I paid way back then. And this lifetime thing is definitely a factor you have to consider when comparing Melda's policy to other vendors.

I just wanted to point out that in my case you have a situation where upgrading the bundle you own (though purchased rather cheap) vs. purchasing 3 additional products separately makes no sense at all due to a pricing difference of ca. 1.000 Euros (even assuming I would pay the full price for the instruments

[Held]

Honestly, I would love to be in your situation. I paid more than you and only have a few plugins. Want to trade?

Btw. when did you buy your plugins? Other vendors only include current version in their bundles. So if you own an earlier version, you have to pay first for the version upgrade and then for the bundle upgrade. Is that so much better?

[ScrLk]

The idea that the developer is trying to track how much you spent, then tries to make you pay back the money they missed out on as if you owe them... I'm not comfortable with that mindset. I don't know of any other developer who does that.

[DarkStar]

The idea that the developer is trying to track how much you spent, then tries to make you pay back the money they missed out on as if you owe them... I'm not comfortable with that mindset. I don't know of any other developer who does that.

In my view, MeldaProduction is not trying to make back the money missed out on. Rather, the upgrade discounts are applied to the current price of the bundles.

Now, if I was prepared to wait until the mTotalBundle was available at 50% off, then I would consider waiting until the MCompleteBundle was 50% off too. (Disclaimer: But I am not certain how any upgrade discounts work in those circumstances.) And, as Held mentioned, meanwhile there have been frequent wide-ranging updates and more plug-ins added to the bundles.

[Held]

Other developers simply forget that you already spend money with them and make you pay again every few years.
Bonus points for disabling old versions so you have to buy again, even if you were happy with what you had.

Some people are so used to getting milked for money, they hate everyone who doesn't.

[ScrLk]

Other developers simply forget that you already spend money with them and make you pay again every few years.
Bonus points for disabling old versions so you have to buy again, even if you were happy with what you had.

Some people are so used to getting milked for money, they hate everyone who doesn't. :roll:

Ah come on, Tokyo Dawn let me have their newest €50 plugin for €20 because I already have their other ones, no questions asked on how I obtained them.

[ScrLk]

In my view, MeldaProduction is not trying to make back the money missed out on. Rather, the upgrade discounts are applied to the current price of the bundles.

That's not what they do. They don't base the upgrade price on which plugins you own, but on their estimate of how much money they got from you. If you got it from a reseller, they feel like they missed out on money and therefore will charge you more.

[Held]

Ah come on, Tokyo Dawn let me have their newest €50 plugin for €20 because I already have their other ones, no questions asked on how I obtained them.

Melda would give it to you for free if you had their bundle. No questions asked on how you obtained it.

[ScrLk]

Ah come on, Tokyo Dawn let me have their newest €50 plugin for €20 because I already have their other ones, no questions asked on how I obtained them.

Melda would give it to you for free if you had their bundle. No questions asked on how you obtained it.

Tell that to mladi.