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

[SLiC]

Bitwig can't really be accused of being greedy, they are barely making a profit. The actions are more likely out of need than greed.

[] Peter:H []

"Hey we're looking to do bigger things here, we've come up with some goodies that you might want to help us get there", and release the products. Sure there would be backlash, especially in this case with the subscription covering everything before this announcement, but at least there's a sense of respect there, and that matters.

I wrote somewhere on page 91 a list of points which shows how I would have executed the change. especially with the experience of their first hickup... if you repeat a mistake a second time, this makes you what?
Anyway, one of the points was especially there to honor the (year long) loyality of customer which bought plan after plan to support bitwig grow. The idea is (phrased from BW perspective):

"We Bitwig respect our customers. We love our community that has supported us so many years and let us grow together. Especially for you we created the add-on loyality program. That means that for every upgrade plan you bought before <date> you can get any (future) add-on for a dramatically reduced price."

That way they would have shown respect (!) to loyal (!) customers as a company that mostly lives from the "we are a cozy community" thing.

You could even further this and provide users that started with BW 1 a very special promo. Without those customers, that bought into the idea of BW, the great BW would long have been gone.

[SLiC]

I am expecting a 'discount code' for all plan holders- ideally one that's 79USD! That would save them having to make refunds to the people that bought it (they can use it on an upgrade plan or something in the future). Simple and clean to implement.

The real issue is how they plan to move forward with an 'update plan' and 'add ins', personally I think one of them has to go...

[_leras]

My guess is they might be one of those companies that think they're so great that they actually confuse things that are in their own best interests with what's good for their customers. I'd expect intentionally slimy behavior to be better thought out than this.

It's hard to develop such technical and complicated software.

It's hard to run a small business.

It's a lot to expect that a group of developers are going to have a perfect business approach and never make a mistake.

But hey, jump straight to calling them slimy if it makes you feel superior.

[ThereatGrumbleMorn]

I am expecting a 'discount code' for all plan holders- ideally one that's 79USD! That would save them having to make refunds to the people that bought it (they can use it on an upgrade plan or something in the future). Simple and clean to implement.

The real issue is how they plan to move forward with an 'update plan' and 'add ins', personally I think one of them has to go...

... also a clear way forward would be good. Like in the future, what is going to be included and what will not be included? Also lessons learned in terms of communication would be helpful. How is Bitwig intending to implement improvements on this front?

[_leras]

How are content creators supposed to focus on what we do for a living when we are constantly looking over our shoulder for some corporate vampire always lurking in the shadows waiting to dig into our pockets every chance they get. The pro audio consumer has had ENOUGH. These greedy companies haven't just robbed us financially; they've robbed us of the joy of making music.

So now Bitwig are Corporate Vampires...? Okay....

We have near monopoly oil, environment destroying big agriculture, polluting chemical factories, child labour clothing, privacy invading big tech... and you choose Bitwig to be in that category??!!

Did you forget to take your meds?

[_leras]

I think he is doing Bitwig a disservice by continuing to inflame users frustrations.

Clearly people have managed this all by themselves - just looking for more targets of their warped frenzy.

[Lazarus451]

I hate that this Bigwig thing is making us splitting hairs.

[_leras]

Agreed with the rest of your post for sure, but this part, not at all. Bitwig is pretty much known for weird plug ins and future thinking DAW concepts. I mean besides some nice keyboard shortcuts, plug in sandboxing and uninterrupted audio engine, it's strong point isn't stock plug ins, or micro MIDI editing, orchestral or large templates, film scoring, rock band recording etc. Absolutely no one is buying Bitwig to record Country Music, it's a modular experimental playground, more so than even Live. It's "stock" Sampler does granular nicely even.

Yes, there will always be a few people that want more traditional DAW features, but only because they don't want to use another DAW for those features , just Bitwig.

Sure it can do the experimental stuff - but all of those things like modulators can also be used in less esoteric ways.

For me Bitwig it is ALL about the workflow that keeps me more in zone. It's best for creating and I also find it very smooth for arranging and mixing, with the super powerful and easy grouping and routing.

Sound, midi and cv integration works really well.

The strong point of any DAW is not the plug ins - hence the huge plug in market. After the 4.x updates though, Bitwig is right up there. The new delay+ and convolution reverbs are really good. The instruments are also really great imo.

[Held]

So now Bitwig are Corporate Vampires...? Okay....

We have near monopoly oil, environment destroying big agriculture, polluting chemical factories, child labour clothing, privacy invading big tech... and you choose Bitwig to be in that category??!!

Did you forget to take your meds?

So what Bitwig is doing is okay because others are worse? That's not how it works.

You should compare Bitwig to companies who are doing better to hold them accountable instead of making excuses.

[flori89]

The DAW itself isn't really the topic here. It's the communication strategy of the company behind the product, and that is pretty awful right now. Even if we put aside that there is a possible case for fraud here, but what the radio silence since then is starting to do serious damage.

Venus Theory was now forced to cut ties with them, that has to hurt because he is a very prominent influencer for this DAW. I follow a lot of people on the YT audio world, the amount of people using Bitwig is already limited as it is.

As soon as they saw this unfold, they should have reacted with damage control. Every day they stay silent they burn bridges that will be hard to rebuild. This should be a minor mistake, easily corrected: "We are really sorry, this was a mistake, everyone who has the subscription will get the new features for free, but in future this is what we will do ...".

They are now banking on people to just forget this, but this is a pretty big gamble.

[tempsperdu]

It's hard to develop such technical and complicated software.

It's hard to run a small business.

It's a lot to expect that a group of developers are going to have a perfect business approach and never make a mistake.

But hey, jump straight to calling them slimy if it makes you feel superior.

It's apparently even harder to conduct your business in a seemly manner
Yes, everyone makes mistakes, but this has been one of the worst backlashes in software history, so you'd think they'd want to calm it down as quickly as possible.
Your initial actions would be transparent and not appear underhand.
Instead, all their actions (or inactions) have just inflamed the situation.

[] Peter:H []

Agreed with the rest of your post for sure, but this part, not at all. Bitwig is pretty much known for weird plug ins and future thinking DAW concepts. I mean besides some nice keyboard shortcuts, plug in sandboxing and uninterrupted audio engine, it's strong point isn't stock plug ins, or micro MIDI editing, orchestral or large templates, film scoring, rock band recording etc. Absolutely no one is buying Bitwig to record Country Music, it's a modular experimental playground, more so than even Live. It's "stock" Sampler does granular nicely even.

Yes, there will always be a few people that want more traditional DAW features, but only because they don't want to use another DAW for those features , just Bitwig.

Sure it can do the experimental stuff - but all of those things like modulators can also be used in less esoteric ways.

For me Bitwig it is ALL about the workflow that keeps me more in zone. It's best for creating and I also find it very smooth for arranging and mixing, with the super powerful and easy grouping and routing.

Sound, midi and cv integration works really well.

The strong point of any DAW is not the plug ins - hence the huge plug in market. After the 4.x updates though, Bitwig is right up there. The new delay+ and convolution reverbs are really good. The instruments are also really great imo.

Hm, no, Cubases Pros built in plugs (frequency eq, tape, raizor etc.pp.) and synths (retrolog, halion, the granular synth, etc.pp) are really tremendously good and Cubase Routing for instance panable stereo sends... chord track, audio to chord track ... anyway... i'm a nerd and loved those modulators ... still after using bitwig my music did not get better ... my fault ... but to believe bitwig which is really missing a lot of commodity features will make the cut ... this is where the "we are a cozy community" and the "we see the potential and help bw to develop it" thing comes into play which helped bw... now?

[shaboogen]

The DAW itself isn't really the topic here. It's the communication strategy of the company behind the product, and that is pretty awful right now. Even if we put aside that there is a possible case for fraud here, but what the radio silence since then is starting to do serious damage.

Venus Theory was now forced to cut ties with them, that has to hurt because he is a very prominent influencer for this DAW. I follow a lot of people on the YT audio world, the amount of people using Bitwig is already limited as it is.

As soon as they saw this unfold, they should have reacted with damage control. Every day they stay silent they burn bridges that will be hard to rebuild. This should be a minor mistake, easily corrected: "We are really sorry, this was a mistake, everyone who has the subscription will get the new features for free, but in future this is what we will do ...".

They are now banking on people to just forget this, but this is a pretty big gamble.

In the case that your assumption about them banking on people to forget this is right (and honestly, we don't have the data available right now to make that assumption), if history is anything to go by, they're absolutely right.

The freak out may not have been as large, but people lost their minds when they launched their pricing plan in the first place. Bitwig didn't change strategies with it, they didn't even communicate better, they just released a bunch of updates over time and people either forgot or made peace with it. I would not be surprised one iota if the reason they haven't said anything yet is because somebody said "why would we publicly say anything about it? we didn't do that last time"

[SLiC]

Communication strategy definitely needs work, but things are not always as obvious as they may seem from the outside. This may have been a necessary plan to raise revenue, it may have been 'sold' as a plan to private capital providers or even banks...'turning off' a forecast additional revenue stream may not be that easy, it may not be belligerence or ignorance, it may be internal and 'external' agreement which isn't necessarily immediate.

I am not making excuses for them, it's a cock up whatever way you look at it, but there may be mitigation and complexities that we are not aware of...once you have VC or even an overdraft you are not completely in control of what your business does...see Reason Studios or Ni as a prime example...you have to sell the promise of future revenue growth to your investors just to keep going!