KVR Audio

sprnva · Post by **sprnva** » Sat Mar 06, 2021 12:54 pm

Thinking about this, I can't see Steinberg scrapping e-licenser altogether. It's served them well all these years after all.

Maybe they're going to take a leaf from iLok's book and offer cloud activations as an option. Or make it so all their products can be activated to soft e-licencer. Throw in digital licence transfers so there's no need to ship a dongle and they've caught up.

Daimonicon · Post by **Daimonicon** » Sat Mar 06, 2021 1:33 pm

My cubase dongle looks like it will fall apart at any moment in time. But it has looked like that for the last 10 years and probably will still work in 10 years from now. It's been with me since I started with cubase sl 1, 19 years ago.

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Sat Mar 06, 2021 1:39 pm

I had tape wrapped around all my eLicenser dongles so far... cheapest plastic I've ever seen on a USB stick. And, I had several which cost under 10 €.

If you think about the potentially thousands of € worth software on those things... good thing they get rid of them.

MrBauer · Post by **MrBauer** » Sat Mar 06, 2021 1:51 pm

Yeah because the licenses are lost if the dongle is broken

(not true of course) Don't know how it's even possible to break one. Mines are working 24/7 for > 10 years on multiple machines without a single failure over even something close to being broken... Good thing is the dongle as hardware can easily be insured and then it's not even a problem in case of the studio burning down. Unlike my experiences with pure software solutions...

noiseboyuk · Post by **noiseboyuk** » Sat Mar 06, 2021 2:14 pm

sprnva wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 12:54 pm Thinking about this, I can't see Steinberg scrapping e-licenser altogether. It's served them well all these years after all.

Maybe they're going to take a leaf from iLok's book and offer cloud activations as an option. Or make it so all their products can be activated to soft e-licencer. Throw in digital licence transfers so there's no need to ship a dongle and they've caught up.

I strongly doubt it, from the company statements. It looks like eLicenser is done. The two biggest developers using it - Steinberg and VSL - both announced on the same day they were discontinuing with the dongle completely. reFX and Venegance have both already jumped ship, leaving practically no-one.

That raises the issue that never mind C/R, dongled products aren't future-proof either. If Steinberg drop support completely in 10 years for newer OSes, and someone like reFX is not supporting their older products either, you could be stuffed.

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Sat Mar 06, 2021 2:17 pm

MrBauer wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 1:51 pm Yeah because the licenses are lost if the dongle is broken (not true of course)

It definitely saves you a lot of trouble to deal with support, and retrieving your licenses. Especially considering how "quick" their support ist (usually 3 to 4 weeks for them to reply to my support requests).

alonl6 · Post by **alonl6** » Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:18 pm

Don't know.. I mean it's Steinberg, and I won't be surprised if it will only be available for new purchase only.
Anyway.. I don't mind something like the ILoke manager

Cancel Culture Club · Post by **Cancel Culture Club** » Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:27 pm

Some people may see these moves to subscription based business models as innovative, while others see it as a desperate attempt to retain their market share...

I believe audio software companies are starting to realize that pretty much all imaginable devices have already been created. Sure you can have variations of variations, but I think most people can survive without updating their DAW every year or so.

Most people can live without some features, functions and bug fixes too. I think companies are having a harder time developing things that people actually need that they haven't already got, or a variation of it. So now they're bundling things like exclusive video access, forums and other membership type offerings. I think they've realized that 3rd party developers can fill in the gaps for their lack of DAW development in certain areas.

But, one thing is for sure, it will lead to less perpetual sales and more extended demos as people have no brand loyalty or financial investment in software rental companies. Most people stick with a brand or company because they're committed and have some sort of equity incentive.

It's going to be interesting now that people can just jump around from subscription to subscription and company to company, from month to month...

Maybe it will end up just being another option for people, or it may end up killing off some of the weaker offerings due to supply and demand and unsustainable prices in an already crowded industry.

We're already seeing free DAWs, and I believe Behringer is working on one now.

electricthing · Post by **electricthing** » Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:15 pm

I set all my hopes on a Behringer dongle clone;
THE BONGLE

ozinga · Post by **ozinga** » Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:16 pm

MrBauer wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 1:51 pm Don't know how it's even possible to break one. Mines are working 24/7 for > 10 years on multiple machines without a single failure over even something close to being broken...

My Yellow Tools dongle split in two and stopped working, so it happens. I had sent the dongle but never got a replacement back and then soon after the company totally disappeared.

Edit: Wow, after writing this I got curious and checked what happened to them and saw they got bought by Magix and my YT account got transferred! I logged in and there it was my Independence Library downloads waiting all those years for me to be found

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:22 pm

electricthing wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:15 pm I set all my hopes on a Behringer dongle clone;
THE BONGLE

Let's hope it's not the typical Behringer quality...

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:24 pm

alonl6 wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:18 pm Don't know.. I mean it's Steinberg, and I won't be surprised if it will only be available for new purchase only.

They already said that it will affect "all maintained products". Which means that it even affects old stuff like Halion Symphonic Orchestra, which is still being sold, and even part of Steinberg's Absolute collection.

Cancel Culture Club · Post by **Cancel Culture Club** » Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:41 pm

chk071 wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:22 pm
electricthing wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:15 pm I set all my hopes on a Behringer dongle clone;
THE BONGLE

Let's hope it's not the typical Behringer quality...

To be totally honest, they've been killing it on the hardware clones...

Didn't they also gobble up all the wasted talent that Native Instruments let go?

noiseboyuk · Post by **noiseboyuk** » Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:42 pm

Cancel Culture Club wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:27 pmI believe audio software companies are starting to realize that pretty much all imaginable devices have already been created.

It's kinda off topic but I think you're on to something here. Steinberg have said this issue emphatically isn't a move to subscription, but the overall trend is clear. And I don't think enough people have cottoned on to the fact that they really don't need another new reverb / compressor / thrombigizer. It's a law of diminishing returns at this point, in a very saturated market.

pixel85 · Post by **pixel85** » Sat Mar 06, 2021 5:42 pm

noiseboyuk wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:42 pm
Cancel Culture Club wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:27 pmI believe audio software companies are starting to realize that pretty much all imaginable devices have already been created.
It's kinda off topic but I think you're on to something here. Steinberg have said this issue emphatically isn't a move to subscription, but the overall trend is clear. And I don't think enough people have cottoned on to the fact that they really don't need another new reverb / compressor / thrombigizer. It's a law of diminishing returns at this point, in a very saturated market.

Well, I know two companies (and their customers aka fan base), one has a subscription and the other doesn't. Both have one thing in common: every few weeks they're releasing new EQ or compressor and every single time, the new one is way better than the previous one (it's always a game-changer

). It's not my opinion but it's what their fan base is saying. Every new plugin is sooo good that some folks are buying full license of their every plugin + they pay for subscription anyway because these companies are that great

When you look at this then you quickly realize (if you have a minimum of a few brain cells) that it's not worth to buy anything or subscribe because whatever you're using, no matter how great it is, within a few weeks it will be obsolete and you should redo all your mixes with newly released EQ/compressor until the next one will be released and then you have to repeat the process over and over again

I don't know how many but I feel that a lot of people are ready to subscribe to get a new EQ/compressor every month because they believe that new is always better.
I wouldn't be surprised if some companies would begin to just re-release the same plugin with just a new GUI every month to show that subscription is worth it, because people will hear that it's yet another game-changer anyway

Finally the very good news from Steinberg!!!