Reason Rack Standalone

[tony10000]

I think that Reason Studios are making a huge mistake by not offering the Reason Rack as a standalone product instead of requiring purchase of a monthly subscription.

They are doing a disservice to their developers as well as limiting their own success in the marketplace.

With the coming demise of the VST2 plugin format, the Reason Rack would provide a very competitive platform for plug-in and effect development.

[Blaster]

What do you mean? You can just buy Reason without subscription...

If you mean a cheaper version of it, well...

[Greenstorm33]

Their Money Monkeys did the calculations and the cheaper versions of Reason were cutting into that sweet, sweet subscription revenue. Obviously they had to go. What's that? You should support people developing for your platform? Sorry, they can't hear you over the sound of the three subscribers they gained by cutting the cheaper entry points to the RE ecosystem.

[JonSolo]

Reason Rack has never had a stand-alone version for sale...so Money Monkeys aren't a factor. Cheaper versions of Reason? The yearly subscription is quite inexpensive if you get one of their deals (cheaper than upgrading every year...even in times past).

And as mentioned, you can still purchase Reason 12 outright. It is same price as it has been since version 8 or 9 I am pretty sure...and it occasionally goes on sale.

However, I agree that a standalone Rack version would be an outstanding notion. There are many great RE's that benefit from more powerful DAWs. I bought in years ago and continue to upgrade and outright purchase the additional REs. But many users swear by the subscription.

[Greenstorm33]

Money Monkeys are absolutely a factor in getting rid of Reason Intro, which effectively gave you a $100 entry into the rack ecosystem plus some first party REs to get you started. It also had a cut down version of the DAW but I'm sure many people, myself included, bought it for access to the Rack Plugin. There was even a cheaper route to the rack Plugin in the R11 version of Reason Lite which they offered free with a purchase at Plugin Boutique. You better believe they killed both of those off ( and Reason Suite as well) to push subscriptions.

[tony10000]

Very shortsighted decision on the part of Reason Studios. Their rack is the real goldmine.

[jens]

As others have mentioned, there NEVER was a standalone version of the Rack by itself - so what decision do you mean?

[tony10000]

As others have mentioned, there NEVER was a standalone version of the Rack by itself - so what decision do you mean?

See my original post above:

"I think that Reason Studios are making a huge mistake by not offering the Reason Rack as a standalone product instead of requiring purchase of a monthly subscription."

Reason Intro was essentially the Reason Rack with a scaled-down version of Reason at an affordable price. That brought users into the Reason Rack ecosystem with the ability to pay $$$ for rack instruments (generating income for Reason Studios).

A lot of folks don't want to spend $200+ a year for a subscription, especially if they are using another DAW.

Therefore, offering Reason Rack standalone with a small selection of instruments and effects would be a good money maker for Reason Studios, especially since many of the instruments and effects are not available in VST form.

[Trensharo]

Their Money Monkeys did the calculations and the cheaper versions of Reason were cutting into that sweet, sweet subscription revenue. Obviously they had to go. What's that? You should support people developing for your platform? Sorry, they can't hear you over the sound of the three subscribers they gained by cutting the cheaper entry points to the RE ecosystem.

Reason Intro - especially with the Rack Plug-in being a thing, was just too good and I don't think there was a way for them to work around this; so, they deleted it instead.

If they removed too many devices from it, then it became useless for $99 (given the competition in the lower price segments, these days). If they left it as is, it would have cannibalized both Reason 12 and the Reason+ subscription; since people would have just gotten Intro for the Rack Plug-in and used the included devices - only buying what they needed (and often, only during sales/promotional periods).

There was no way to rectify Reason Intro. Even without Reason+ existing, it was cannibalizing the hell out of Reason Standard and Suite sales.

The gamechanger was not the subscription. It was the Reason Rack Plug-in. Before Reason Rack, Intro made sense since the limitations in the sequencer provided a hard limiter for that product SKU. With the Rack Plug-in, this is not the case. People can just load more instances of the rack, since most were using it a plug-in, anyway.

TL;DR: Even without Reason+ becoming a reality, I doubt Reason Intro would have stayed around. Reason Suite likely would have stayed around, but Intro would, have been scrapped regardless. It was too good, and it being a Rack Plug-in deleted much of the limitations of the product SKU.

It was a badly planned product, and if they had removed too much to bring it in line, it would not have looked worth the $99 - especially when the latest version has LESS than the previous version. That alone would have killed it off, as far as mindshare is concerned.

[Trensharo]

As others have mentioned, there NEVER was a standalone version of the Rack by itself - so what decision do you mean?

See my original post above:

"I think that Reason Studios are making a huge mistake by not offering the Reason Rack as a standalone product instead of requiring purchase of a monthly subscription."

Reason Intro was essentially the Reason Rack with a scaled-down version of Reason at an affordable price. That brought users into the Reason Rack ecosystem with the ability to pay $$$ for rack instruments (generating income for Reason Studios).

A lot of folks don't want to spend $200+ a year for a subscription, especially if they are using another DAW.

Therefore, offering Reason Rack standalone with a small selection of instruments and effects would be a good money maker for Reason Studios, especially since many of the instruments and effects are not available in VST form.

That's what Reason Intro was. With Reason, you're basically paying for the rack. The value is not in the sequencer, because the sequencer isn't even that good. It's in the devices and players. So, the way to get Reason Rack as a stand-alone was to get the Reason Rack Lite or [ideally] Reason 11 Intro (which had a phenomenal bundle of content for a "Lite" SKU) and then "a la carte" anything else you'd need.

Even then, it only made sense if you put lots of value on the Reason players. If you put more value in Synths and Sample Libraries, then Komplete 13 was always a better option and could be acquired during many sales.

Reason Studios thinks Reason+ serves the same purpose as Reason Intro, but it doesn't. Using a subscription as a stepping stone to a perpetual product with a high[er, now] price tag does nothing but waste money.

Selling Trials for $1 is disgusting, as well.

[tony10000]

Their Money Monkeys did the calculations and the cheaper versions of Reason were cutting into that sweet, sweet subscription revenue. Obviously they had to go. What's that? You should support people developing for your platform? Sorry, they can't hear you over the sound of the three subscribers they gained by cutting the cheaper entry points to the RE ecosystem.

Reason Intro - especially with the Rack Plug-in being a thing, was just too good and I don't think there was a way for them to work around this; so, they deleted it instead.

If they removed too many devices from it, then it became useless for $99 (given the competition in the lower price segments, these days). If they left it as is, it would have cannibalized both Reason 12 and the Reason+ subscription; since people would have just gotten Intro for the Rack Plug-in and used the included devices - only buying what they needed (and often, only during sales/promotional periods).

There was no way to rectify Reason Intro. Even without Reason+ existing, it was cannibalizing the hell out of Reason Standard and Suite sales.

The gamechanger was not the subscription. It was the Reason Rack Plug-in. Before Reason Rack, Intro made sense since the limitations in the sequencer provided a hard limiter for that product SKU. With the Rack Plug-in, this is not the case. People can just load more instances of the rack, since most were using it a plug-in, anyway.

TL;DR: Even without Reason+ becoming a reality, I doubt Reason Intro would have stayed around. Reason Suite likely would have stayed around, but Intro would, have been scrapped regardless. It was too good, and it being a Rack Plug-in deleted much of the limitations of the product SKU.

It was a badly planned product, and if they had removed too much to bring it in line, it would not have looked worth the $99 - especially when the latest version has LESS than the previous version. That alone would have killed it off, as far as mindshare is concerned.

If they gave away Reason Rack for free, or offered it for a nominal price of say, $10-20 completely bare (and offer bundles of the Reason Standard plugins as an additional purchase), I am sure they would be able to grow their ecosystem via instrument and effect sales. It would also make it a much more viable platform for developers.

[Trensharo]

Their Money Monkeys did the calculations and the cheaper versions of Reason were cutting into that sweet, sweet subscription revenue. Obviously they had to go. What's that? You should support people developing for your platform? Sorry, they can't hear you over the sound of the three subscribers they gained by cutting the cheaper entry points to the RE ecosystem.

Reason Intro - especially with the Rack Plug-in being a thing, was just too good and I don't think there was a way for them to work around this; so, they deleted it instead.

If they removed too many devices from it, then it became useless for $99 (given the competition in the lower price segments, these days). If they left it as is, it would have cannibalized both Reason 12 and the Reason+ subscription; since people would have just gotten Intro for the Rack Plug-in and used the included devices - only buying what they needed (and often, only during sales/promotional periods).

There was no way to rectify Reason Intro. Even without Reason+ existing, it was cannibalizing the hell out of Reason Standard and Suite sales.

The gamechanger was not the subscription. It was the Reason Rack Plug-in. Before Reason Rack, Intro made sense since the limitations in the sequencer provided a hard limiter for that product SKU. With the Rack Plug-in, this is not the case. People can just load more instances of the rack, since most were using it a plug-in, anyway.

TL;DR: Even without Reason+ becoming a reality, I doubt Reason Intro would have stayed around. Reason Suite likely would have stayed around, but Intro would, have been scrapped regardless. It was too good, and it being a Rack Plug-in deleted much of the limitations of the product SKU.

It was a badly planned product, and if they had removed too much to bring it in line, it would not have looked worth the $99 - especially when the latest version has LESS than the previous version. That alone would have killed it off, as far as mindshare is concerned.

If they gave away Reason Rack for free, or offered it for a nominal price of say, $10-20 completely bare (and offer bundles of the Reason Standard plugins as an additional purchase), I am sure they would be able to grow their ecosystem via instrument and effect sales. It would also make it a much more viable platform for developers.

They did. It was called the Reason Rack Lite plug-in.

And it was a failure, because no one wants a Reason Rack with barely anything in it, and if you a la carte, you quickly run into economical walls where it just isn't worth it over getting bundles like Komplete, Absolute or Total Studio (occasionally - frequently on sale).

By the time you spend $99 adding to that, you'd still only have 10% of the content that came with Reason 11 Intro. Economically, the Reason Rack Lite plug-in was worthless.

[Greenstorm33]

Lite could be a good value if a.) offered very cheap (which it was), b.) Intro did not exist and c.) there are high quality third party REs being made and decent deals on a la carte first party ones. Like you said it comes with nothing worthwhile so it's basically a way to run stuff from the Reason ecosystem that you purchase separately in your DAW. With good enough REs available the value proposition is no different than buying a single VST. Plus they have the Rig bundles which are a great value, especially on sale, and at least almost in the same ballpark as a bundle like Komplete. Maybe Intro was too good a value and had to go, but I think eliminating Lite was a big middle finger to their RE developers. There is now no cheap way to obtain the Rack plugin and buy third party REs to run in your DAW of choice, and I think it's solely because they want you to have to make the choice between the (entirely first party) subscription and the very expensive option of buying the full Reason package and then adding REs on top of it. Getting a cheap version of the rack and then buying a couple of things from the shop just doesn't make them enough money.

[jens]

As others have mentioned, there NEVER was a standalone version of the Rack by itself - so what decision do you mean?

See my original post above:

"I think that Reason Studios are making a huge mistake by not offering the Reason Rack as a standalone product instead of requiring purchase of a monthly subscription."

Sorry, but it still makes zero sense.

1) there is no "Reason Rack Standalone"

2) the existing version can be both purchased to be yours
your forever and be obtained via subscription

3) since there is no "Reason Rack Standalone" it can neither be purchased outright nor subscribed to

You are mixing up two entirely unrelated things here. I am sure it makes sense in your head somehow, but... you know... that is not really where this thread is located.

[Greenstorm33]

Lite 11 might as well have been Reason Rack Standalone since it came with basically nothing else of value. I just assumed that's what OP was referring to. Seems to be judging from what they're posting.