A New Pricing Model Appears for Plugins: Rent-to-Own Serum

[Marius]

Courtesy of Splice (awesome service, by the way), you can now get Serum a whole new way:

https://splice.com/plugins/15493-serum- ... er-records



You can still pay $189 the old-fashioned way, or you can pay $9.99 monthly instalments until you hit $189. Then it's yours. You can try it free for 3 days, and you can cancel the plan at any time. Then if you change your mind you can re-start it and pick up where you left off. No strings attached.

This is a big deal. I hope more developers consider this as a customer-friendly halfway point between the simplicity of one-time license costs and the stability of ongoing subscription models. The lower barrier to entry gets you more people, but the finite payments keeps you from losing folks who don't want to rent. Win-win.

[Guy Rowland]

How does it work licensing-wise, Marius? Is this dongle-controlled, or a soft licenser of some kind?

[Marius]

For the rented version I assume it's tied to your Splice account so there's likely a requirement for internet connection so it can phone home, but once you've paid in full you just get a serial number and that's that as far as I understand it. It's a good question though, I might ask them.

[Suganthan]

I think this could be a nice idea especially as I am starting out. I really expect devs to introduce subscription/rent services so that I don't need huge upfront investment.

Also SONAR has this kind of subscription thingy, you can own it after the subscription ends.

[Marius]

Here's the answer to the licensing question:

How does Splice authorize my Serum access each month?

Each time your computer connects to the internet, the Splice desktop app will run an authorization check to confirm your plan is still active. You’ll be granted up to 3 days of offline access before another authorization check is required. Once you’ve paid off the plugin cost, the Splice desktop app will no longer be required and you’ll receive a lifetime license with unrestricted offline access to Serum.

[Guy Rowland]

Thanks Marius, sounds like a fair system. The best thing, as you say, is you can try it in anger with no restrictions for as long as you need, for only 10 bucks a month - in an ideal world, then you can just buy right away less the payments you've already made? I don't like subs generally, but if they get all the boring mechanics of it right, then this is a great system. Shame it could never work on Kontakt libs.

[Marius]

...in an ideal world, then you can just buy right away less the payments you've already made?

That's actually an option—you can pay off the rest of the balance whenever you want.

Frankly I wish something like this existed for Kontakt libraries.

[synergy543]

This concept drives me nuts.

Here's why. Lets say I have 10 apps, and each app has 10 plugins. So I rent my 10 apps, and I rent my 10 plugins for each and now I have 110 revolving monthly charges on my credit card to keep track of and account for. How does this not drive you nuts!

And this is not an extreme example. In my apps folder there 362 items. Lets say only 10% are ones I might value enough to pay rent on. And in my DAW plugin folder there 563 items. Lets say some of these are less important and some are grouped. So lets whittle it down to only 10%. That's still 56 plugins that I'm supposed to rent? And those are only audio plugins (there's PS, AE, MODO, etc.) Holy be-jezus! What are you guys thinking? Are you all millionaires with teams of accountants?

[Guy Rowland]

Gregory - I think you're taking it to extremes there rather. For me, it's the kind of thing I'd only occasionally make use of for the odd product that I was unsure about. And never mind that many / most of my plugins came in bundles...

I wonder if something may change licensing-wise with Kontakt 6, you know. NI have just announced Native Access, a new app that controls and manages all your downloads and products. Initially I couldn't see the point - their License Manager works pretty well as it is. But if there was a new layer embedded that allowed for time-limited activations... mind you, that might suggest the dreaded subscription model as well.

[tack]

Yes, I think the rent-to-own angle makes this entirely acceptable and a very sensible value-add. For those struggling with cash flow, this kind of thing is a great option, and it avoids the soul-selling pitfalls of the subscription model.

It also seems rather generous that the total price is the same whether you pay for it all in one shot or monthly. It's like getting a 0% interest loan.

[kpc]

Actually, to me it seems a bit easier to keep track of. Charge my credit card. at the end of the year, I get a yearly statement with all the charges. And becasue its monthly, it (might) be harder to loose track of stuff. It's just a different way to organize your receipts, at least a n my mind.

And, if you have a credit card dedicated to only this, you could get cash back rewards on your monthly purchases. And it would be fairly easy to check the charges each month.

I don't do it this way (yet), but I can see how it would work. I think more and more developers are going to go this way, especially if NI allows it in Kontakt