UVI go subscription!

[fairlyclose]

I'd be happy to go subscription if I got decent credit for my existing purchases - 50% credit would be fine probably - would have to check if the offer is ever made but I would certainly consider it.
The main issue I can think of is being distracted by so many great products

[nightjar]

I'd be happy to go subscription if I got decent credit for my existing purchases - 50% credit would be fine probably - would have to check if the offer is ever made but I would certainly consider it.
The main issue I can think of is being distracted by so many great products

Yes.. factoring in ownership of content for a lower subscription rate is a good structure for subscription offerings.

[seangm]

I'd be happy to go subscription if I got decent credit for my existing purchases - 50% credit would be fine probably - would have to check if the offer is ever made but I would certainly consider it.
The main issue I can think of is being distracted by so many great products

Yes.. factoring in ownership of content for a lower subscription rate is a good structure for subscription offerings.

Forcing customers to give up their perpetual licenses and move to a subscription is not a good structure or good for business. I know I'd be done with UVI if that happened.

[noiseboyuk]

So many shorts sighted comments here, on and on and on.

On and on and on.

Indeed.

You say short sighted, I say pragmatic and non-hysterical. And I say that as an Adobe Audition, Avid Pro Tools, Avid Pro Tools Ultimate and Antares Auto Tune owner. Who doesn't have a single music-making subscription. People said the sky was falling in a decade ago when Adobe went subscription.

But you keep foaming and ranting. It seems to be the thing that gets you out of bed in the morning.

[nightjar]

I'd be happy to go subscription if I got decent credit for my existing purchases - 50% credit would be fine probably - would have to check if the offer is ever made but I would certainly consider it.
The main issue I can think of is being distracted by so many great products

Yes.. factoring in ownership of content for a lower subscription rate is a good structure for subscription offerings.

Forcing customers to give up their perpetual licenses and move to a subscription is not a good structure or good for business. I know I'd be done with UVI if that happened.

Huh? Who said anything about giving up perpetual licenses? Just suggesting a structure that offers discounted subscription rate for those who own licenses on some of the content. Simple concept.

[aMUSEd]

I always thought UVI Portal was the best download manager tool but the new version is a step backwards imho

Definitely agree with this - Akin to back in the day with the Winamp 2 -> Winamp 3 upgrade. Adding too much fluff slowing down the core functionality (of downloading and updating in the case of the new Portal)

I also hate the fact that it's become a shop front - and yes it's much slower and more erratic, the old one just got the job done.

[SHall1000]

+1

[spnc]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents:

If you compare with Adobe, (I own a Creative Cloud photography FWIW), the subscription is clearly not advantageous as the one year subscription is almost as expensive as the perpetual version of Lightroom was.

In case of UVI, you get the full catalog and new addition almost every month.
If Falcon renting was 24$ per month, you would be in adobe case and yes that would be damn expensive.

Still, I get that this is still pricey for a lot of people, not for what you get where IMHO this is great value, but in terms of monthly budget.
We still support perpetual and plan on keeping it because it make sense for a lot of people.
Subscription is just another way to consume. Don't like it, just don't use it, but it pleases a lot of other people.

And if all other company are doing it, we had to do it. Not because we wanted to, but because if everybody is doing it and if you don't, it's going to be complicated business wise. Check DVD sales when Netflix, Disney+ and VOD are there, don't think it's going great.

In terms of maintenance, bug fixes and maintenance, update have always been free at UVI. No update plan whatsoever.
And this is not gonna change.

I usually don't complain but I'm gonna waste 24h of my time because of this.

I just went to pay my monthly fee and nothing happens, it hasn't loaded any license on any on my iLok accounts or local/cloud iLok.

That's because your UVI website interface is too simple and (1) can't indicate which iLok account/email/name it's pointing to/loading the license onto (unlike Eventide for instance) and (2) it only gives the billing history but that's very confusing, it doesn't seem to give an actual snapshot of the current license, and (3) you haven't designed the UVI Portal v2 to be able to receive real-time and practical info (such as the actual iLok account being synced) so we don't know which iLok account it should be linked to, not useful at all.

Anyway I paid and I'm left with nothing. I've contacted support but that means I'm gonna waste at least half a day if not a day, before they come back to me, so I thought I should put it here because if every month the same joke happens I'll have to find a solution to UVI's unreliable system.





Thanks in advance.

[Examigan]

I know this probably won't help the part with the iLok authorization, but did you try logging in on the UVI site and going here?
https://www.uvi.net/my-products

I am just curious if it makes any difference, instead of going through the Portal app.

[spnc]

I know this probably won't help the part with the iLok authorization, but did you try logging in on the UVI set and going here?
https://www.uvi.net/my-products

I am just curious if it makes any difference, instead of going through the Portal app.

Okay my bad I was going to delete the message as it's working now - I deactivated the older license in iLok, and reactivated again. I think the issue was that, I paused the subscription for one month, so I had to do this to update the new starting/end date in iLok... but again, this is not very straightforward, as usual with iLok, quite counter-intuitive and waste of time.

Also my points below regarding UVI website/v3 improvements remain valid, hopefully in the future.

In the meantime UVI updated to 2.0.2 as we speak, perhaps some increased stability (but it's fine with me since 2.0.1). Anyway, a change log on UVI Portal would be useful, in the future as well...

[SHall1000]

Anyway, a change log on UVI Portal would be useful, in the future as well...

+1
Something Arturia does well.

[DCrown]

Well, I recently sold my Falcon license and generally have given up on UVI really going forward with innovation.
They could have gotten a much larger part of the Kontakt market IMO, but slow loading times and overall complacent development didn't really help.
The last interesting 3rd party developer using Falcon/Workstation now went with their own engine too (Virharmonic).

Many low hanging fruit like Midi Out (their LUA scripting is very well done and they have great sequencers etc. in Falcon), serious surround support, core support for MPE and a ton of other stuff just didn't happen since 2015 when it came out.

So once again it looks like subscription is a kind of retirement plan for fat old companies that no longer have the edge but sit on a huge portfolio instead.
And I find I'm just not interested.

CS6 was my last Adobe collection.
Now I do Kompletely without them.

Cheers,

Tom

Well, I agree UVI could have improved things, but NI is even worse especially regarding innovations and quality imo.
I am not the only one who has not upgraded NI Komplete for many years and rarely use it, because NI's new products are simply boring.
UVI is superior regarding FX imo and I like their VSTi soundwise more.
So like always it's just a subjective point of view.
I am fine with subscriptions, because possessions and ownership generally can become a burden, no possession is kind of freedom.

[ThomasHelzle]

I'm not too keen on anything NI either, but Kontakt at least has the basics down, warts and all.
The latest developments at NI are very very low on my interest-sheet as well - I just don't care for all those preset packs or their KompletKustomerKontrol ideas etc.
I only mentioned them, because Kontakt is a kind of Photoshop with massive 3rd party support - IMO the only contender for a semi-monopoly in the audio realm.
It could have been interesting when Falcon came out, to make some inroads on that.
But that is over anyway, more and more sample providers knit their own now so we see massive fragmentation, which is somehow better than a monopoly but wastes a lot of time and energy.
We'll see how that goes.

Well, describing subscriptions as a "kind of freedom because you don't own anything" is a new way of seeing the world for me.
For me it's "selling my soul to the company store".
Freedom would be, if you aren't paying anything and just live without the stuff - and can.
Subscription is more like serfdom, where to do anything, you have to pay the gatekeepers and as soon as you do not pay, you basically lose access to everything you did, other than maybe a mixdown.
And while it can create a continuous income for developers in the best case, it also tends to make them complacent, since people pay anyway and you do no longer have to convince them with cool innovations to buy the next update. That is what makes it so interesting for old and fat companies, drowning in their own old code basis.
Before subscription I maybe updated my Adobe products every 2-3 versions. That was relatively cost-effective and worked fine for me. I could sell and buy secondhand too.
Now with subscription I would have to pay constantly, about 3 times what I used to pay before, and stopping to pay would mean I couldn't even access all those files anymore. No, thanks.
Thankfully there are halfways decent alternatives that do it for me.

As long as things are going well, that serfdom may even work without the serf noticing much of it, but when times go rough, one will quickly find oneself without the means to produce and make a living.

But yeah, I don't see this too critical in the Audio world, since there are just too many great free or permanently licensed products out there. So other than Kontakt, there isn't any product I would have problems to replace, and even that I could live without.

For me personally it's more the principle of subscription I find very very questionable in many regards.

But hey, whatever floats anybody's boat

Cheers,

Tom

[Samiver]

I have a few uvi products but subscription is not for me if it involves "don't pay and we take it away". That said there are benefits for the company and some customers if they prefer a sub option. I think there is some merit about having concerns for the future though as although companies are still selling perpetual licences I have already seen significant % price increase on one making subs more attractive (especially as subs have had significant intro deals). I do wonder if we will see more devices/fx put into subs and sold separately which historically may have been included in a daw upgrade price. All hyperthetical but likely if subs are a preference for companies. I think there are still enough people who prefer perpetual for this to still have a future but do wonder if we will see the worth of upgrades drop if new developments get ring fenced to subs and sold separately to perpetuals.

Overall I think it is fair to have some concerns from a customer perspective even if we do not see how things pan out for a while.

[h0g0f0g0]

Is there any benefit for non-subscribers like product discounts or free products? Or UVI is pushing more towards their subscription? I am considering Vintage Vault and Toy Suite, which is like 2 years of subs in total..