acceptance of subscription services

[fairlyclose]

Dislike intently. Music for me tends to be a winter hobby, photography a summer hobby. As a result, subscriptions can sit for up to 6 months a year being terrible value for my money.

I've just left Adobe CC for that very reason, and their early release fee means I will never go back and will actively seek out non subscription photo alternatives.

Affinity is what I switched too.

same, Affinity is ok but not as good as Photoshop. But easily good enough
and for video DaVinci Resolve is incredible for free or not, and the pro version is not badly priced either. Way more attractive than Premiere on subscription (or even if Premiere was free)

[itanever]

I don't think most of us hate subscription services per se, but rather the direction where this might lead, i.e. companies going subscription only or trying to shove subscription down our throats by other means, for example by means of prohibitive pricing, making updates exclusive to subscribes etc. What's even worse they might decide to try and push it on existing perpetual license owners effectively trying to make them rent what they already own or "own", depending on how one views the question of ownership of software.

I doubt anyone is against subscriptions when this is offered simply as an alternative to buying perpetual licenses, haven't seen anyone ranting about Kush subscriptions for example. Subscribing might make sense to some, so it's good if there's an option to do it. Hell, if NI had included Kontakt in its subscription plan I would've probably been subscibing to it from time to time when I'm in the mood to mess around with sampled instruments.

But the thing is that in subscription based business models seem to be the flavor du jour, at least in certain sectors. And with the infusion of venture capital into the plugin world, the threat of businesses going or trying to go subscription only is real. Investors don't have our best interests at heart, if they deem forcing subscriptions on us to be good for their ROI, then this what they're gonna do.

Also, all the subscriptions add up quickly, so yeah ... it be restrictive as hell or expensive, if you can afford it.

tl;dr potato, it's definitely potato, some might go even as far as to say fish

[thecontrolcentre]

tl;dr potato, it's definitely potato, some might go even as far as to say fish

Mmmm ... fish n chips

[machine_spirit]

A software subscription is a continuous transaction where you're at the mercy of whatever business you're interacting with (more so than you would be with a perpetual license). Consumer and corporate interests do not always align.

[THE INTRANCER]

I bought Photoshop CS6 which cost £620 in 2013 to avoid having to subscribe. There wasn't any real alternatives at the time that had the features or power, and it was an upgrade from my student version of Photoshop CS2. Affinity Photo seemed to be more buggy and less able to handle big layered projects. I picked up Affinity Designer to replace my ageing Illustrator CS2 program which along with the rest of my student production premium is dead. I really don't use it for anything else than using it for vector graphics to import into Cinema 4D. I guess if I were to create a 3D interface, I'd use Affinity Designer to help with that. I've used Adobe Illustrator to create the rings of Saturn in the past, (hundreds of segments of real Saturn images). If Adobe turn off the Activation servers for Photoshop CS6, I'll be forced into using Affinity Photo instead. It may be more stable from when I last used it though.

I don't subscribe to any software.

[anttimaatteri]

i never liked the aweful conditions and the prices of subs. the only one worth it to date was a pa sub fpr 10bucks with a guaranted "paycheck" after one year worth paying it. with some brain cells still functioning i got more useful plugins during that period via sales/voucher combis than i imagined. so i gave it a second year. for example the new ni offer is the exact opposite of this bundle hahaha...

everything else on the market i know of is either too expensive or wasted money due to ZERO return after xy month of paying.

[concon]

I'd much rather buy synths and sounds outright. I'm still pissed at Adobe for when they went subscription, negating all my purchases of their visual products when they switched. As long as a simple purchase option is available alongside subscription services, then I have no complaint.

[SHall1000]

When all the devs go subscription only a few will survive as very few people will be able to afford multiple subs. I predict the same for the TV subscription services. I’d like to know how many subscribe to Netflix, Disney, Apple and Amazon at the moment.
My fear is that this will be bad for the competition that drives innovation.

[synthgeek]

Voted the "never" option.

[Effectsworks]

I would NEVER subscribe to anything in terms of music production.

[kelvyn]

I can’t see this being a long term successful business concept as long as there are alternatives to companies doing subscription only services. Technology has allowed small boutique companies the ability to develop really great product at extremely competitive prices. It’s short term thinking, thinking that simply because you’ve been a market leader for years that that won’t change.

[vanerio]

I will never subscribe to any company.
This subscription model is based on the idea that everything can be improved to infinity, so customers must pay to infinity.
This leads to voluntary delays in new releases, playing with expectations to maintain permanence, releasing stupid things to make it look like you have more useful things, etc...

It also values quantity over quality. Even in this thread people said that this is ok for services that has "vast catalogues"...Quantity over quality? never! For example: Native Instruments new model. They say it is really cool because every week there will be new plugins...Come on! the market is oversaturated!
So finally, we, customers, end up with nothing at the end of the day.
Not for me. Never.

[wwjd]

I agree 1000% with everyone here. So good to hear people are not fans of subs. I was feeling old for a minute, now I'm better.

Annoynace to me is us paying for BETA programs - Ooooh released so fast before the other guy, untested, let our users find the bugs! Then we'll update to a new version - new features, same unfixed bugs! NOICE!

Seems like adobe succeeds because all the BUSINESSES have no choice, so they pay it.
The little guy is hit much differently. Yes, maybe it balances out to be the same cost, but I would never pay the same cost year after year after year.... unless my freelance income covered it and I could write off much as a business expense.

Music though? I've bought many of the big hitters except for kontact, but will never put my money into a "cloud". Clouds evaporate when things get hot. Maybe those Roland synths are exceptional, still not going to support a subscription.

[Scotty]

If you are just getting started a subscription may make a lot of sense. You are a student who just got out of school and you want to get into media composition. You want to be legit but can't afford the full sample libraries. East West Cloud for $29.00 a month will get you there. You can bounce your tracks, start and stop the sub anytime. I see a big plus in this case. The product library is deep. It would cost you thousands to buy it outright. Most subs don't offer near this level of value so I would shop carefully. In my opinion this particular catalog as a subscription makes a lot of sense. NI's current offering is horrible value.

[iPlogger]

I am no fan of software subscriptions and do not currently own any. I might be a little more inclined if, after canceling, I can still load the plugin for old projects, but without the ability to do ANY type of editing. I had heard of one company doing this (don't recall who).

The company I work for has gone subscription and we will be phasing out the perpetual license at the end of next year. I was rather vocal in my opinions against doing subscriptions and funny enough, was also the one responsible for implementing it. I will admit, I did like the approach we were taking with our subscription model and felt it was super flexible for our customer base. And since our perpetual license requires a USB key, it's been really nice not having to bother with that hassle anymore.