Cherry Audio going NFR...

[ramseysounds]

Seriously. Up until August it costs $10 transfer fee for a $39 vst. Who in their right mind wont just buy a new version? And if you’re sensible you demo before buying. I don’t buy software to sell it later, especially at such ridiculously low prices. Stuff principles.

[El°HYM]

I might buy Dreamsynth just to never sell it and then annoy Cherry Audio about the importing your own samples feature until EOL.

[theviirus]

Did they just silently alter their ToS or did they email customers about it?

Own four CA products. Not a single email. Luckily I like the CA products I own.

[BBFG#]

I originally found this while looking to see if they were doing anything with CLAP or developing a Linux branch...
Oddly enough, even though a NFR is a shot in their own foot, I'm more interested in them now that they're killing the ridiculous transfer fees.

[ghettosynth]

It's not a surprising move. They definitely see themselves in the "affordable" category. I like voltage modular, but, I mostly use it to play with my own ideas. I'll never sell it and I don't make very many 3rd party module purchases so it's no big deal. I buy a humble bundle every couple of years to get some samples, and bonus, I get some of their synths for, in essence, free. Sometimes I play with them, sometimes I don't.

[Vortifex]

Seriously. Up until August it costs $10 transfer fee for a $39 vst. Who in their right mind wont just buy a new version? And if you’re sensible you demo before buying. I don’t buy software to sell it later, especially at such ridiculously low prices. Stuff principles.

Repeating your previous point about the price doesn't grant it the relevance it was missing before. Also, it's not hard to imagine circumstances where people might want to sell their licences.

[Roman76]

Bye bye Cherry Audio. I just have asked for my account deletion with all my licenses in there. I have no more interest in companies who take any rights of customers over their licenses or try to. My conclusion after the Waves fiasko and Cherry Audio policy change is that I stop buying further software in regularity. My plugin folder is getting smaller these days...

[ghettosynth]

My conclusion after the Waves fiasko and Cherry Audio policy change is that I stop buying further software in regularity. My plugin folder is getting smaller these days...

I feel you. I'm not really mad at Cherry Audio, per se. I don't really care that much. Their plugins came after my "honeymoon phase" with plugins in general. I purchased VM explicitly for what it could do and it does that well. I hope that they stay around so that keeps working, but, VCV Rack fills in some gaps there if they don't. It's more work, but it's there.

Small companies with CR authorization are no longer on my radar. Even big companies with CR are viewed as higher risk anymore. I'm just not buying software as much. Just got two new utility modules for my modular though, so it's not like I'm not spending money, you just can't have much of it if you're selling software.

[zzz00m]

It sounds like Cherry Audio are getting rid of the transfers/transfer fees because the prices are too steep in relative proportion to the budget prices of their plugins.

They probably could lower the transfer fees. But what is their internal cost of handling the transfers? As a small company somebody has to be paid to do the manual administrative work. So it's probably not worth it.

I seriously doubt that they are doing this in order to qualify as a big greedy company like Waves... but I do agree that they should grandfather existing licenses, as making a customer-unfriendly change like this after the sale is likely to hurt their reputation and lose customer trust.

In any case, I have never bought a Cherry Audio synth with expectations that I would re-sell it, so I'm not going to get excited about this. Their prices are low enough to limit risk, especially since you have the opportunity to demo them first.

[thecontrolcentre]

Bye Bye Cherry Audio

[masterhiggins]

As a person that owns a shitload of VM modules I find it pretty annoying. I understand why they’re doing it. Times are getting really tough for everyone, especially devs with teams they need to pay. I’m mostly annoyed with the lack of email notification of this and the fact that they’re only giving us until August to transfer them.

This is why I never complain about iLok.

[Teksonik]

In any case, I have never bought a Cherry Audio synth with expectations that I would re-sell it,

I've never bought any plugin from any developer with the intent of reselling it but sometimes you buy plugin A and then a better plugin B comes along and makes plugin A redundant so you think of selling it on. You get bored with plugin A over time and so on. The ability to resell a plugin if you want or need to is definitely a plus.

But the point remains that the price of CA plugins shouldn't give them a free pass when they change the rules in the middle of the game.

If a developer sells their plugins in the $150-$200 range would the public reaction to going NFR be different? It shouldn't be. Both acts involve changing the agreement they had with customers at the time of purchase. It's the changing of agreements by developers that's the salient point here not what we pay per plugin.

Yes, times are hard for developers especially small ones but then times are hard for some individuals as well. We're all operating under the same economy. If sales are down it's probably because discretionary spending is down due to the effects of global inflation.

None of us individuals are likely to go hungry if we can't sell our CA plugins but time will tell if CA is going to feel financial repercussions for this decision.

We saw what happened after Wave's decision so we'll see what happens with CA. Perhaps they'll grandfather in all plugins sold before the change was made. All sales made after the change can be NFR since buyers know going in the conditions of the sale and can make their decision based on those conditions. A decision that long time customers (who helped CA grow and sustain as a company) did not get to make.

While I did get an e-mail from CA yesterday promoting a sale of their products I did not receive any notification of this change in policy. I had to read about it on an internet forum.

That's poor communication and quite frankly a bad look for Cherry Audio. I'm not a CA hater but this move does not leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling about the company.

[zzz00m]

Perhaps they'll grandfather in all plugins sold before the change was made. All sales made after the change can be NFR since buyers know going in the conditions of the sale and can make their decision based on those conditions. A decision that long time customers (who helped CA grow and sustain as a company) did not get to make.

While I did get an e-mail from CA yesterday promoting a sale of their products I did not receive any notification of this change in policy. I had to read about it on an internet forum.

I agree that all existing customers that bought prior should be accommodated. I'm not going to get tangled up in the fine print of the software licenses, but there's probably something in there that allows them the legal right to change terms as needed. Lawyers are sneaky like that. Still not a good look for Cherry though!

But IMO, the big black eye here is the lack of communication. What the hell Cherry Audio? You left us all to read about this in a forum? What were you thinking?

[ramseysounds]

Seriously. Up until August it costs $10 transfer fee for a $39 vst. Who in their right mind wont just buy a new version? And if you’re sensible you demo before buying. I don’t buy software to sell it later, especially at such ridiculously low prices. Stuff principles.

Repeating your previous point about the price doesn't grant it the relevance it was missing before. Also, it's not hard to imagine circumstances where people might want to sell their licences.

Here he is - mr self entitlement. Do you actually read what you type? I said it again because it’s 100% relevant. Stop whingeing for the sake of it

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

i've got ca2600,memorymode and polymode from cherry audio,but not using them - if somebody have too many synths like me and wanna exchange for something else PM me till transfer is possible.
Cheers )