Dear Reality goes out of business...

[martinjuenke]

Just received this:

We would like to share important information regarding your purchased Dear Reality plugin.

Since we started more than 10 years ago and joined the Sennheiser Group in 2019, immersive audio has become an essential part of the professional audio industry. To better leverage future potentials, we are consolidating all immersive audio initiatives within the Sennheiser Group. As part of this process, Dear Reality will no longer continue as an independent company, and the brand will be phased out by the end of 2025.

What does this mean for you?

You’ll be able to use your product without any restrictions in the future by installing the new license manager-free version using the links at the bottom of this email.
Dear Reality products will no longer be further developed, and current licenses will be deactivated on July 31, 2025.

There will be a transition period from March 25, 2025, to July 31, 2025. During this period, the license manager will remain active, and you will be able to download the license manager-free version of your product. This ensures that you can seamlessly switch to the latest version.

[Nspace]

Yes, Awful.
"Dear Reality products will no longer be further developed"
So, it looks like they will use these technologies, apply them to new products under a new brand and try to resell those to us again!

As a client, one does not only buy in existing features, but also in a perspective for those tools to be used in new Operating Systems, and even - by way of paid updates - to gain adaptation and related coming functionalities, more so for a allegedly pioneering and innovative company as Dear Reality presented themselves.

In the case a Sennheiser related company is going to further utilize and develop on the technologies these plugins embody, and in case they choose to follow a justice and retribution based policy for Dear Reality clients, they should offer fair upgrade paths to those of us holding a license either at Dear Reality site or/(and) at Plugin-Alliance (I own both).

However as we are now, I have been denied access to my personal account at Dear Reality website and there is not a single mention to us DR license holders, except that there is a few months lapse where we (the same as any other non licensed person) may download all their until yesterday paid portfolio and use it for free (without any further development in the future).

///Thus, we are in a situation where the actual Sennheiser management has decreed that either no further sound tools (like existing DR ones) are going to be developed by Sennheiser group... or more likely that we, the present license holders, would have to start from scratch, zero, and pay again in case new Sennheiser immersive plugin developments are coming.
Awful news, at both cases.

[Held]

The upside is that they are making the plugins available without copy protection, so whoever bought them will be able to keep using them for a long time (at least on Windows).

You can download them after subscribing to the newsletter here: https://www.sennheiser.com/en-de/immersive/dear-reality

[audiojunkie]

Just received this:

We would like to share important information regarding your purchased Dear Reality plugin.

Since we started more than 10 years ago and joined the Sennheiser Group in 2019, immersive audio has become an essential part of the professional audio industry. To better leverage future potentials, we are consolidating all immersive audio initiatives within the Sennheiser Group. As part of this process, Dear Reality will no longer continue as an independent company, and the brand will be phased out by the end of 2025.

What does this mean for you?

You’ll be able to use your product without any restrictions in the future by installing the new license manager-free version using the links at the bottom of this email.
Dear Reality products will no longer be further developed, and current licenses will be deactivated on July 31, 2025.

There will be a transition period from March 25, 2025, to July 31, 2025. During this period, the license manager will remain active, and you will be able to download the license manager-free version of your product. This ensures that you can seamlessly switch to the latest version.

This is very admirable--what they are doing. Providing a new license manger-free version to their existing users before phasing things out is exactly what every single developer that uses copy protection should be doing for their customers, every time, without exception. I highly applaud the way Dear Reality is going about this!! It's unfortunate that they are ending, but if there has to be an end, there is no better way than to do what they are doing. This should be an example to every company that uses copy protection, and not just the music industry. Users of Dear Reality products should rejoice!

[audiojunkie]

The upside is that they are making the plugins available without copy protection, so whoever bought them will be able to keep using them for a long time (at least on Windows).

You can download them after subscribing to the newsletter here: https://www.sennheiser.com/en-de/immersive/dear-reality

I agree! EVERY COMPANY should do this.

[plexuss]

Is there any info for PA customers who own Dear Reality products?

[jamcat]

I signed up for the newsletter and the page showed a confirmation that said "Thank you ! Please check your email to track your selected request."

But still no email in either my inbox or my junk. Anyone else having this problem?

[agharta]

I signed up for the newsletter and the page showed a confirmation that said "Thank you ! Please check your email to track your selected request."

But still no email in either my inbox or my junk. Anyone else having this problem?

Many people.

[lotus2035]

Yep, me too.

[ChanceB]

I got an email from Dear Reality after filling out the form with the installers for the plugins I had in my account fallowed by an Email from AMBEO with download links to all the installers of their other plugins. Check for emails from AMBEO

[jamcat]

Maybe the guy who sends out the emails went home for the night.

[MrJubbly]

How does this work? They're not making these plugins free for everybody, right? Only for existing customers, by making offline installer versions available to them? (presumably in combination with serial numbers issued at the point of sale?)

I'm not an existing Dear Reality customer. Does this now mean that unless you were already a previous customer, you can no longer purchase/use their plugins?

[jules99]

Someone over at Reddit posted a direct download link to Sennheiser's server, in case these emails are not comeing through:

https://old.reddit.com/r/AudioProductio ... b/mjs4wcv/

[Dr.Gunjah]

How does this work? They're not making these plugins free for everybody, right? Only for existing customers, by making offline installer versions available to them? (presumably in combination with serial numbers issued at the point of sale?)

I'm not an existing Dear Reality customer. Does this now mean that unless you were already a previous customer, you can no longer purchase/use their plugins?

It certainly looks like they are free for all now since you get the installer by subscribing to a newsletter and the plugins themself seem to be free of copy protection according to the site.

[quietzone]

How does this work? They're not making these plugins free for everybody, right? Only for existing customers, by making offline installer versions available to them? (presumably in combination with serial numbers issued at the point of sale?)

I'm not an existing Dear Reality customer. Does this now mean that unless you were already a previous customer, you can no longer purchase/use their plugins?

They're making it free for everyone who signs up for the newsletter at
https://www.sennheiser.com/en-gb/immersive/dear-reality
regardless of if you were a previous customer or not.

After signing up to the newsletter, I got a verification email to be clicked and half an hour later or so, a new email about AMBEO had the download links to the plugins.