How do you feel about subscription based plugins?

[Ah_Dziz]

I have far too many plugins to go to subscription based stuff. There are a few things that I might need very infrequently that I would use on a subscription, but I have no interest in subscriptions for plugins or sounds.

[enroe]

----------------- Time for a recap of this thread -------------------

Subscriptions to software and music plugins are a bit of a shoddy
and windy way of doing business.

With low monthly prices (the monthly subscription price),
the customer is tempted to purchase software or a plug-in.
It doesn't cost that much - for a start.

This is a typical lure used by magazine and insurance sellers.
But there are several problems:

1. It is completely unclear whether the customer benefits from
software updates at all. Whether such updates make sense at all.
The subscription model actually only works with constant updates.
Just as there is a completely new issue of the magazine every
week or every month with a magazine subscription.

2. With a lot of software or many plugins, the monthly subscription
costs can increase so much that they are as high as a whole rent.
This is often not considered at the beginning of a subscription
scenario and quickly puts the studio owner in financial distress.

3. If you have a lot of software or many plugins, it is important to
keep additional records of the various subscriptions and their
mostly different activation scenarios. If you forget to activate it - or
worse, a payment - the whole studio could be paralyzed.

4. The long-term solidity of the projects in the studio is no longer
guaranteed: after many years, projects that are linked to plugins
with subscription activation, but whose subscription no longer runs
for whatever reason, can simply no longer be loaded. The projects
can then no longer be edited - they are lost.

This is a "no-go" in commercial studios - nobody can actually work
that way.

This problem exists both with subscription models and with interval-
type online activation models: They are not suitable for long-term
use. The newcomer will often have this experience years later,
when it is too late.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

All of these 4 arguments show that such subscription models for
software and plugins are having an unsound, windy moment. The
fact that Adobe still relies on this model is mainly due to the very
special nature of their customers in the graphic design sector.

In music and studio operations, where there is no such thing as a
fast pace that requires monthly updates, a subscription model is
therefore completely out of place.

[fmr]

I wouldn't touch subs because you could be like fmr, paying for years for stuff and then end up with...nothing? Or does Roland allow you to keep them?

Those that have life license, I can keep for life, of course. And since I reached a count where I basically have ALL those I need and use, I can comfortably let the rest go. If they added other things to the package, like a JD-800 that's been long mentioned, ar a V-Synth that was also mentioned, or a Jupiter-6, and showed they were in the mood to keep adding, I would change my mind.

But in a scenario where what they add are loops, sound libraries and stuff for Zenology, there is nothing left for me to justify keeping paying.

And Plugin Alliance offers me a voucher every year in the value of the subscription, that can be used to buy permanent licenses, if I want. These are the good practices that could encourage a subscription model.

[Ploki]

-triggered-

[germanpool]

I wouldn't touch subs because you could be like fmr, paying for years for stuff and then end up with...nothing? Or does Roland allow you to keep them?

Those that have life license, I can keep for life, of course. And since I reached a count where I basically have ALL those I need and use, I can comfortably let the rest go. If they added other things to the package, like a JD-800 that's been long mentioned, ar a V-Synth that was also mentioned, or a Jupiter-6, and showed they were in the mood to keep adding, I would change my mind.

But in a scenario where what they add are loops, sound libraries and stuff for Zenology, there is nothing left for me to justify keeping paying.

And Plugin Alliance offers me a voucher every year in the value of the subscription, that can be used to buy permanent licenses, if I want. These are the good practices that could encourage a subscription model.

Ah well that's good, permanent licenses are an appropriate addition IMO, yes, good practices.