[Fixed in 4.4] Weird bug: latest "Spectral Suite" update not included in upgrade plan

[JsinOwl]

they're a company. they want to make money. they're not your buddy. people need to realize that. sure, they have a vision of what BitWig should be as a music making platform but the bottom line is still the bottom line. i have no idea how big their user base is. seems like bitwig is widely adopted really no idea how financially stable the company is or what the revenue stream is.. but this does seem like a plan for future cash flow etc. ultimately i think it could harm as much as it helps when it comes to the bottom line since a lot of people give the side eye to this kinda stuff.

blah. whatever. as said in every post i've made i don't plan to update until i absolutely have to so hopefully can stretch my dollars further.

You're absolutely correct. I'd argue this was a poor business decision and will negatively impact their bottom line. The value proposition for Bitwig just got decidedly worse considering one can't expect some of the best new features to be included with the not inexpensive upgrade plan. People will rethink whether to renew, or whether to buy Bitwig in the first place. The money they gain by selling add-ons could be less than the money they lose on new sales and lost subscription renewals. Not to mention the intangible loss of their reputation.

If they needed another revenue stream, they should have come up with something else. Cloud based collaboration tools perhaps. Where it's not a feature, but a service they provide. Anything but this.

[_leras]

As a community we must make them feel the pain of this decision until they course correct. I will not buy this add on.

Are you one of those people who don't put their trolley back at the supermarket.

"I didn't get a free update, so join my mob and cause pain!"

ok....

[_leras]

they're a company. they want to make money. they're not your buddy. people need to realize that. sure, they have a vision of what BitWig should be as a music making platform but the bottom line is still the bottom line.

blah. whatever. as said in every post i've made i don't plan to update until i absolutely have to so hopefully can stretch my dollars further.

These guys are modern day luthiers. The creators of fantastic musical tools, the likes of which were unimaginable 20 years ago.

Literally heroes of the electronic music community because they have taken the risk, invested money and years of their lives to try to create the best artistic tools for musicians that they can conceive.

What have you done?

And you want to just write these talented hardworking people off as an unfriendly heartless company because of one misstep?

Do you have no soul?

[borez]

Instead I just feel like I want to dump this DAW and use Ableton ( I already use both ) exclusively instead. They've just become another Adobe overnight here, the US and THEM mentality i.e. they do something, we get pissed off, they don't ever listen. This will no doubt continue to get worse.

C'mon - you are jumping to a huge conclusion here...

Yhey are no Adobe locking in an entire industry and buying up all the competition. They are just a small company trying to make good music software - and doing a great job if you ask me.

They have always replied to my emails to them. They are almost certainly lovely people active in their music tech community (i.e. supporting CLAP).

Give them a chance ffs.

I'll give them a chance if they honour what I've already paid them for.

[JsinOwl]

As a community we must make them feel the pain of this decision until they course correct. I will not buy this add on.

Are you one of those people who don't put their trolley back at the supermarket.

"I didn't get a free update, so join my mob and cause pain!"

ok....

More like I didn't get the update I paid $169 for and they said they would give me. The use of the word pain was metaphor, and not intended to mean literal pain. You understand metaphor yes? You understand that people are frustrated, and when frustrated may indulge in some hyperbole yes? I would say this is quite normal human behavior that you yourself engage in at times. The point remains, if we want them to honor their agreement: that all updates are included with the upgrade plan, then the best way to do that, is to make that the most financially advantageous option for them. How you ask? By joining my "mob" apparently, and not buying the add-on and not renewing your upgrade plan until they decide to honor the terms under which we all purchased Bitwig and the subsequent subscription.

[Benutzername]

Do you have no soul?

There are a lot of extremely talented people out there with little or no money at all. Either because they live in the wrong part of the world or they are unemployed, sick or whatever. Why don't Bitwig give them free or highly discounted licenses? Do they have no soul?

Being social is not a one way street.

[Teksonik]

"I didn't get a free update, so join my mob and cause pain!"

You're still not understanding the situation. It's not about getting a free update it's about Bitwig arbitrarily breaking their agreement with paying customers.

The way some customers see it, Bitwig promised upgrades for a year, accepted payment and then failed to deliver on that promise.

If you think Bitwig is getting trashed here they are getting shredded on Facebook.

We get it, you're a Bitwig fan and that's fine. Loyalty is good but blind loyalty serves no one.

A boycott in response to Bitwig's action is not a unreasonable reaction in my opinion.

Again if they had simply released the plugins as a separate product and install package unattached to the normal updates which people are already paying for this whole mess could have been avoided.

They simply made a horrible business decision. You can attempt to defend that decision but you'll most likely fail in the court of public opinion.

Emotions are running high now so it's probably best to let things cool down for a few days and see how (if) Bitwig cleans up the mess they have made.......

[_leras]

As a community we must make them feel the pain of this decision until they course correct. I will not buy this add on.

Are you one of those people who don't put their trolley back at the supermarket.

"I didn't get a free update, so join my mob and cause pain!"

ok....

More like I didn't get the update I paid $169 for and they said they would give me. The use of the word pain was metaphor, and not intended to mean literal pain. You understand metaphor yes? You understand that people are frustrated, and when frustrated may indulge in some hyperbole yes? I would say this is quite normal human behavior that you yourself engage in at times. The point remains, if we want them to honor their agreement: that all updates are included with the upgrade plan, then the best way to do that, is to make that the most financially advantageous option for them. How you ask? By joining my "mob" apparently, and not buying the add-on and not renewing your upgrade plan until they decide to honor the terms under which we all purchased Bitwig and the subsequent subscription.

You literally are trying to incite the community to cause Bitwig pain.

I think a lot of people here need to take a deep breath and reflect on their attitudes to life.

4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 have been great updates and if you had updates from say 4.2 I'm sure you'd still get 5.0 when it comes out.

Literally the very worst case here is people don't get a spectral plug in for free. Yet, the indignation is worse than if someone had killed their cat.

[Trancit]

Ok,

I try to stay calm and silent... but somehow...

Disclaimer: this is my personal opinion and my individual point of view...
I am not trying to persuade anybody ... just my opinion to think about...

I do absolutely agree with the complaints here and tbh I cannot really understand some people who sound like paid influencers (you know what I mean _leras???) trying to prevent the Bitwigs from more bad than they already got...

I tried to stay calm and think a bit before making my mind up but I 100% agree with Baphometrix and the person quoted in the video... this is a complete shady move...

Bitwig was already under fire as they made the move to this upgrade plan thingie... while this was at least partly understandable with the promises they gave...
But now it turned out it was in my understanding pretence of false facts with the original promise they charged the money from all to silently use this money partly to develop something (chargeable) different instead of investing the resources completely into further Bitwig development as promised and therefore free to use for everybody with an active plan...
That this assumption is most likely true proves the fact that they silently tried to change their definition for the upgrade plan behind the scenes ... this means nothing else as that the complaints are justified in their opinion and this change now happened intentionally to perhaps prevent the worse case in forms of legal claims against them...

Now one could say... (what actually happened here multiple times) ok... this was perhaps a mistake more into the category: miscommunication...

While I find this personally hard to accept it could be true...

Problem is just: If it was intentionally done and they come away with it... people acting like this will not stop there...
This is a process we all should know from the real life where our rights got first cut down just a little bit... then a bit more... a bit more ...until we lose the ability to defend ourselves ...
I think it is only too human to want to see the good first and just living calm and in peace with everybody, but this must not go so far that one loses the ability to fight for one's rights if necessary.

First they charged as normal for Bitwig... then they came up with the annual upgrade plan...already more on the expensive side of things... now it turns out behind the scenes they used this money to develop something different...
I might be wrong... but it might be a pattern...

Even if this could have been just a mistake ... for me the risk is too high that it was intentional and companies do just understand one language...

If they lose a hundred times more money than they can ever earn with the new product they will think twice next time before pulling a stunt like this on their users again.
And if it was intentional and you let them come away with it you have lost forever...

My decision is made... no money from me anymore... I am fed up with being a plaything of the "big guys" ...
I've done this already many times in real life over the last 2 years and I'm not going to put up with it in the software world anymore.

Again... just my thoughts... just in case someone finds this helpful...
If not... just ignore...
I am not interested in any discussion about it as my personal decision is made as I already said...

[_leras]

"I didn't get a free update, so join my mob and cause pain!"

You're still not understanding the situation. It's not about getting a free update it's about Bitwig arbitrarily breaking their agreement with paying customers.

The way some customers see it, Bitwig promised upgrades for a year, accepted payment and then failed to deliver on that promise.

If you think Bitwig is getting trashed here they are getting shredded on Facebook.

We get it, you're a Bitwig fan and that's fine. Loyalty is good but blind loyalty serves no one.

A boycott in response to Bitwig's action is not a unreasonable reaction in my opinion.

Hey - you quoted me out of context - that is not cool. I was clearly being sarcastic, yet you quote just that line.

I do think Bitwig have miscommunicated and/or made a poor decision. I hope they sort it out and have stated so above.

But if they have made a mistake - what do you call this high level of vitriol towards them? It's poor manners, unreasonable, disrespectful and completely uncivil and unnecessary. Frankly the tone from a lot of people here is disappointingly scummy.

Aren't musicians supposed to spiritually elevated?

[Teksonik]

Ok here's the entire quote. It simply makes you look worse and I detect no sarcasm. I was doing you a favor.

Are you one of those people who don't put their trolley back at the supermarket.

"I didn't get a free update, so join my mob and cause pain!"

ok....

Like I said emotions are running high right now. If this is causing you a great deal of distress it would probably be better if you just step away for a while.

People are upset and just venting right now. Let them get it out of their systems. You're really not helping things at all.

[liquidsound]

We are describing a "covert" change of the "Yearly Agreement", a miscommunication?
Wow!

[lokio]

It's more than miscommunication and a poor decision.

It's another significant change to the value proposition, creates uncertainty and is even a potential breach of contract.

[chrisstiles]

they're a company. they want to make money. they're not your buddy. people need to realize that.

We're also not their buddy and they need to realize that people will go elsewhere if they pull stuff like this.

To misquote the representative of another company I've just ditched; "A customer base is not a God given right"

[liquidsound]

And removes the Veil and shows who they are....