Cubase 12 leaked on Steinberg's site

[andrew71]

Just received an email about this. I honestly never minded the dongle, but it would be nice to be able to run Cubase on a laptop whilst out and about without worrying about where the dongle is all the time.

[fmr]

Can I sell licenses? If so, how?

Yes, you will still be able to sell your retail licenses using the Steinberg Licensing system. We will provide details of this process in the future.

Note, however, after you have updated an existing license for a Steinberg product to a version that uses the new Steinberg Licensing system, although the license for the previous version will remain in your eLicenser, you cannot resell, transfer or update/upgrade that license.

Not sure I understood the second para well here.

The way I read it, as soon as you update your licenses to the new Steinberg Licensing system, they will become NFR

I feared that to be the case but was hoping it is not. I was expecting that any existing licenses will be easily transferable in future based on the new system, as currently it needs transferring them to USB dongle and shipping it to the buyer.

The worst part is they are saying we cannot update/upgrade it. That's absolutely ridiculous! I am planning to buy Groove Agent 5 soon. If they release GA6 in future, which will be surely after the new system is introduced, what it means in that I can't update my GA5 to GA6. Am I correct?

I think the question is that someone who has eLicenser based licenses could, theoretically, sell the updated license (dongle free) to someone else, and still keep the dongle, which would allow them to still run the software. Which, IMO, makes sense. Nothing prevents you to keep using the dongle in the future, so you could keep updating Groove Agent without updating the license to a dongle free one.

[EnGee]

Can I sell licenses? If so, how?

Yes, you will still be able to sell your retail licenses using the Steinberg Licensing system. We will provide details of this process in the future.

Note, however, after you have updated an existing license for a Steinberg product to a version that uses the new Steinberg Licensing system, although the license for the previous version will remain in your eLicenser, you cannot resell, transfer or update/upgrade that license.

Not sure I understood the second para well here.

When you update to the new system any previous licenses that were eLicenser based become NFR. But you can sell the current license thats based on the Steinberg Licensing system.

If I buy Groove Agent 5 and activate it right now and let's say in future, after the new licensing is introduced and I have to obviously move to it, they release Groove Agent 6.

Can I update from GA5 to GA6? Can GA6 be resold then?

Of course it may be too early to ask this, but since I am planning to buy GA5 soon, I don't want to end up in a situation where I can't update to GA6. Reselling point is not a big deal right now.

Good point!

I think it depends if we can register (say) GA5 with the new system or not. If we can't update or upgrade our licenses then what? The new system only applied on buying new software?! It doesn't make sense!

But if they are sane people, then what they mean is "once you update/upgrade GA5 license to GA6 license in the new system, then you can only sell or update GA6 license and your GA5 license is worthless as you can't separate it from the updated/upgraded version.

Anyway, as companies seem lost the logic in thinking! I suggest you wait and don't buy anything till you see the things are settled and things seem logical!

[fmr]

But if they are sane people, then what they mean is "once you update/upgrade GA5 license to GA6 license in the new system, then you can only sell or update GA6 license and your GA5 license is worthless as you can't separate it from the updated/upgraded version.

And how would they prevent him to use/run Groove Agent, if he still has the dongle? And how would they be sure he would not be selling the GA 6 license (WHICH IS AN UPDATE) without the original license?

People who are not sure if they would want to resell their licenses could keep using the eLicenser

I suggest you wait and don't buy anything till you see the things are settled and things seem logical!

Seems like a good advice, and the best move

[rasmusklump]

I can't wait for the first posts from people that can't continue to work because the 30 days are over and the re-authorisation doesn't work due to server problems.
Meanwhile I continue to work with my dongled Cubase 11.

[midi_transmission]

What would be great: Having the choice to use either eLicenser and or their new system. At the studio I prefere a dongle over any online activation system, outside I prefere not to use a dongle.

[Serhii Kot]

I can't wait for the first posts from people that can't continue to work because the 30 days are over and the re-authorisation doesn't work due to server problems.
Meanwhile I continue to work with my dongled Cubase 11.

It is highly unlikely. Because Steinbrd ID would ping servers every day and after every connection to the server, your countdown will reset. So if you will not use the internet for 5 days, your timer will be 25 days to re-authorization, but if on day 6 you will be connected to the internet, your timer resets itself to 30 days. If I understood the concept correctly.

[noiseboyuk]

Who knows. They may do a Black Friday discount this year, which would include the grace period if they did.

Doubt it. Since buying v11 now gives you v12 for free in 2022 then that's already a discount.

That's how I got Komplete 13 on release at a discount

[chk071]

I can't wait for the first posts from people that can't continue to work because the 30 days are over and the re-authorisation doesn't work due to server problems.

That's a lot of speculation right there.

Funnily, this whole thing arose from 2 occasions where they had several days of eLicenser servers being offline, so noone who bought Cubase or Wavelab could even activate their products.

[vad.martyn]

Interesting, I hope they fix the audio alignment tool finally.

[PAK]

In case anyone missed it, amongst all the other stuff, they have all but confirmed they are going to introduce a subscription model for Cubase..

Q. Does the introduction of Steinberg Licensing mean that Steinberg is introducing subscription pricing?

A. The introduction of Steinberg Licensing does not change anything today about the way we sell our products. However, the new system does open up many new possibilities for the way we offer our products, and we plan to explore these in future.

[chk071]

OMGOMGOMGZOOOMG!!!

Well, that kinda contradicts what they said on their forums earlier, but, whatever. I don't expect them to do subscription anytime soon. Jeez, they just announced their new licensing system, and Cubase 12. I doubt that they had ANY time to evaluate subscription options.

And, frankly, I don't know what people want either. Roland does subscription with their Roland Cloud, and, obviously, so many people buy that that they keep on doing it. Presonus introduced Sphere, and Reason Studios introduced Reason+, and people buy that. If people are buying it, then why does it always sound like in forums that everyone is against subscriptions? Why do forums always seem to be a magnet for the minority peeps? And, why is there always such a need to express your disliking? Just don't buy. WTF.

[noiseboyuk]

In case anyone missed it, amongst all the other stuff, they have all but confirmed they are going to introduce a subscription model for Cubase..

Q. Does the introduction of Steinberg Licensing mean that Steinberg is introducing subscription pricing?

A. The introduction of Steinberg Licensing does not change anything today about the way we sell our products. However, the new system does open up many new possibilities for the way we offer our products, and we plan to explore these in future.

Ah yes, classic good ol'KVR selective quoting to rabble rouse the masses. Allow me to continue the quote:

We know that many of our existing customers are concerned that Steinberg may switch to a subscription pricing model for our products. Please be reassured that whatever options for buying Steinberg software products may be offered in future, we have no plans to withdraw the option to buy and use our existing software products under a perpetual license, just as we always have.

[LeVzi]

I like the look of this new modelling for Cubase, quite happy with the announcement tbh.

Vengeance said that the existing plugins using elicenser will have to find an alternative which I suspect will be codemeter , but they have no clue when that will happen.

[chk071]

In case anyone missed it, amongst all the other stuff, they have all but confirmed they are going to introduce a subscription model for Cubase..

Q. Does the introduction of Steinberg Licensing mean that Steinberg is introducing subscription pricing?

A. The introduction of Steinberg Licensing does not change anything today about the way we sell our products. However, the new system does open up many new possibilities for the way we offer our products, and we plan to explore these in future.

Ah yes, classic good ol'KVR selective quoting to rabble rouse the masses. Allow me to continue the quote:

We know that many of our existing customers are concerned that Steinberg may switch to a subscription pricing model for our products. Please be reassured that whatever options for buying Steinberg software products may be offered in future, we have no plans to withdraw the option to buy and use our existing software products under a perpetual license, just as we always have.

Haha, selective quoting at its best then, as usual.