Introducing Komplete Now

I’ve been using NI software for way over ten years. There’s a Reaktor 2.3 package on my shelves. Which I bought second hand. From there on, I used every great opportunity to sidegrade and upgrade and use sales and vouchers and gifts to get to the KU13 and Maschine and (almost) full set of Expansions I have today. If a Komplete subscription would have been available 20 years ago, I’d most probably have gone for it — and also most probably would have spent more money with NI over the years without ever worrying about it.

If you ask me what a subscription offering should look like, I’d say: Slate Digital All Access plan. That’s the type of subscription that makes sense for beginners but also for advanced amateurs or even professionals. Get everything included, every new plugin the moment it is released and get eternal updates. And it takes more than ten years of subscription to spend the same amount of money as buying everything when it’s released. That’s an interesting offer I couldn’t resist.

 

I like the idea of that model, sure i own komplete and stuff. But let's say your are a new user, then this option is really cool, 3 month free to see if it fits your stile and all that. You can cancel and buy full in if you like. I see it really as option for new users not for us who own a komplete bundle already. And options are always good, if they don't take away something else and this is not the case here


Uwe

 

I own Komplete 13 Ultimate CE. But when the upgrade to version 14 comes out, I would be interested in subscribing to a "Komplete Now Ultimate 14 CE" that would give me access to all new products that emerge between version cycles.

I hate having to wait for version release cycles to get the interim products... and I hate breaking down and buying a few of them because I can't wait.

 

I also hope that the smaller subset of Komplete products in the "Now" subscription allows for resizable GUI to be introduced in those particular modules. This would appeal to the new users coming aboard and would give a nice treat to the permanent license holders to have a growing set of scalable products. The Play Series are a perfect place to start this transition.

 

This would probably cost around 40 bugs a month? A bit less maybe cause of 500bugs /12 month - X bugs!? But I'm always for options, as far said, if they don't tak away another option.


Uwe

 

I would hope that owners of a perpetual license would get a reduced subscription price vs someone who doesn't.
Version upgrading of Komplete Ultimate CE is like $400 every two year? So perhaps the subscription would be a similar price for those with a KUCE13 license... $400/24 = around $17/month.

I'd rather pay this $17/month for 2 years and get all the new content when it emerges.

 

What exactly happens when you unsubscribe, though?
My guess is, you have some kind of read-only versions of plugins used in projects or something?

 

They will most likely stop working completely or run in demo mode, so you will need to bounce everyting to audio before cancelling your subscription.

 

Wellllllll...I will stick with buying stuff, then, I guess

 

Just like Reefius said, you get a demo mode. I think the idea though is to have some sort of freeze-mode where the sound you had loaded doesn't go back to the innit patch at least. It's true that subscriptions does require a bit more project management if you want out.

 

You would think so but it's far from being that easy

 

I'm confused can you elaborate pls? Why would the plug revert to an innit preset? Don't NI demos just shut off after X amount of minutes when in Demo mode?
Freeze mode as in rendering the Instrument to Audio as a DAW's function, or are you talking about some kind of freeze function inside the plugins themselves?

 

Yeah I know, it's the same when someone just bought something at full price and the next day it goes on sale

 

Many plugins have host recall disabled when in demo mode, so no settings are being restored after reloading a project.

 

The plug-in would revert to demo mode and that custom patch you created/selected wouldn't load.
Inside the plug-in themselves so you can still hear your last sound.

 

Not to be negative, it is still early days. I fail to see a bright future for this package. At this price point it is way to limited in scope, and not competitive. At present you can get a Roland Cloud Pro subscription at this price point, although with the annoyance of a monthly net based validation. I think a better package would be built around the bundles Select/Kontakt/Ultimate/CE. With options for add ons like Machine and Traktor.

Although I'm crossing myself when I hear the word subscription and on-line authentication, I will still go for the Roland Cloud Ultimate plan this year. Main reason is to explore the eco-system, and at the end of the period I will have some plugs/packages available for off-line use. The end result will probably be that I will be hooked to the subscription for life. I doubt I will be able to acquire all the virtual Roland synths I desire even if I make it to 120.

 

Curious to hear how much you'd think a monthly should be worth for each tier ?
Imo pricing gets tricky with Komplete especially when you get to Ultimate/CE territories.

 

Why would it get tricky? Take for example Roland Cloud, if one would actually buy everything that's included, it would cost a small fortune (at least the price of 20 year subscription). So why can't NI do the same with Komplete Ultimate/CE?
The whole point of a subscription model is to bring stuff to people they could never afford to buy all at once. The stuff in NI's current offer can be purchased (when on sale) at the price of a 2 year subscription.

 

As a KUCE12 owner, I definitively wouldn't mind paying 20 bucks a month for a while to test drive the things available in K13; at the same time wouldn't be a bit odd for a brand new user to the ecosystem to try a subscription for something that requires almost a terabyte of disk space? That would mean the price of a new hard drive has to be accounted for before the user is even able to try it; this means some extra pre-commitment.

As of right now, the target audience seems to be in line with the whole 'democratizing music making' that's been slowly creeping into our lives, this means newbies... It's hard for me to look at Komplete as something that suits a newbie just getting started with computer music production. Does the average newbie really want a bunch of advanced synths and instruments? From my experience, newbies go for things like Splice, not pro production tools. I guess maybe for someone who is.. idk a keyboard or something player it could be tempting.

 

Talking about Splice, why not include sounds.com into the current offer? That would make it at least a bit interesting.