Introducing Komplete Now

Can anyone give an example of where a music software application that was formerly a perpetual license has gone subscription-only? The only case I have ever heard of is Adobe, and that doesn't count. I must be missing something, because every time a developer announces a subscription option, a sizable number of people complain about it.

 

As Matt stated earlier:
The application is exactly the same but the selection of kits is different.

 

But they will add stuff monthly as far as I know. And first 3 month are free.


Uwe

 

That's right, we curate the kits for Battery differently for Komplete Now using content from different sources.

 

You admitting it or not, the world is moving towards this direction. I never talked about music softwares only. Developers know that a good part of the customers don’t agree with subscription models, and they are introducing them slowly into software’s world to make people used to it. Presonus has a subscription. Pro tools has a subscription (they even published a whole article stating that people that doesn’t like subscriptions are wrong, in which the paragraph “If I Stop Paying I Lose Access To My Software” is merely 3 lines…in which they also say “well in most cases that's true”). Now even Native Instruments has a subscription. Clearly the subscription model is a good thing for software houses: it gives them monthly revenues, letting them know which program is profitable, where to put their efforts and what eventually to abandon. All good things for the producer side, not so much for the customer side. Yes…maybe one program was not so successful. But maybe I LOVE it. So I prefer to pay for it and even if the software house decides to abandon it because it stopped generating revenues I can CONTINUE USING IT. I don’t want to pay for one year a subscription (ending paying the same amount I would have payed for owning the program) to then hear “you know what? We decided that you can’t use it anymore”. Or I don’t want to pay for one year a subscription, love the program how it is, not being interested at all to the new features they add in it (maybe just very small features…just to say “hey…look…we have new things…continue paying”…and yes…it can happen…why should they put A LOT of efforts in inventing something really useful and new if in any case you have to continue paying to use even the “basic” functions of the program?) and having to constantly pay anyway for something you would already own from a long time and won’t disappear for one of the two sides monolateral decision to abandon it.
In any case…if you are happy with the subscription models, I’m just happy for you. And yes…it also has some advantages (you can try the softwares (but probably the demos will disappear (“you wanna try it? Well…pay for just one month”)), you can use a program for the months you need it and then stop paying for it (but probably you will already have payed for almost the full price to own it) and so on…). But since they said they are listening to feedbacks, I wanted to give mine. And since Native Instruments (despite my HUGE love for them) sometimes decide their customers are important…but in the end not so important…(see many cases…the last one being me spending a good amount of money to buy a couple of fantastic Kontrol D2 just to see them abandoned (or even worst…deprecated) after just one year), I wanted to give it LOUD and CLEAR.
And…just as last thing…try to pay for 2 years for something like Splice…and then, if you can’t afford it anymore, try to be happy with them telling you “ok…do you remember all the loops you spent hours and hours to search them and catalogate them in your favorites? Forget about them. And even if you come back paying us more money…forget them in any case”.

 

Thanks for getting back to me. I checked, and both Presonus and Avid still allow you to buy a perpetual license for their products. The subscriptions are merely another way to pay. As I said, until a music software developer actually removes the option to buy a perpetual license for their software, the risk is theoretical. Even then, you will still be able to use the version you paid for; you just won't receive any more updates. As you say, you can continue using it if you are happy with it the way it is.

The real risk is that software developers can't make enough money from upgrades, and go out of business, in which case you may actually lose access to the software you've paid for, especially if Apple and Microsoft upgrade their OS in a way that makes older software not run. This has happened multiple times in the past, so I would be more worried about that than a theoretical risk. Subscriptions, by keeping developers healthy and able to maintain their software, benefit everybody. The CEO of Reason Studios, in a recent blog post, said, "I’ll wait right here while you perpetual owners thank your Reason+ subscriber friends, who made it possible for us to have a business model which allows us to continuously release improvements." See https://www.reasonstudios.com/blog/2021-review.

 

Two different points of view, both with their strengths and weakness. It’s ok that you checked, but I clearly talked about what WILL happen (in my opinion) not how it is now.
And…talking about how it is now…there are companies that are around from a long time (do you know from how long we have Cubase, for example?). This just means that if you do good programs and you maintain them well, you don’t need subscriptions to make “enough money”. The problem is in how much “enough” is. In the ancient days, if you did a program, payed all the collaborators and costs and then made 50000 more bucks you would say “wow…I payed the salary for 50 people and earned 50000 bucks!”. Nowadays the fact that a company is making people work and paying their salary is worth less than 0. Success is calculated merely on how much something makes the bosses richer. I know…it is modern economy…people don’t matter…just profit do. The CEO of Reason will surely be happy with this (he is the one touching the big money). The workers of Reason…I’m sure they would be happy even by earning their sweated salary every month, doing a good program that makes a lot of people happy and even making 50000 bucks more than what’s enough to make their company work

 

Btw: APPLE makes OS that don’t allow you to use a program made 2 months ago unless it’s updated for the new OS. On Windows I still use programs I bought 20 years ago. And…coincidence, Apple’s new management (forget about those pioneers that wanted to change the world in their garages…they are gone) is EXACTLY the best example of “modern economy” and what I called before “bosses getting richer”.
But you are right…probably Microsoft will soon reach them, thinking “if they get richer doing this, why shouldn’t we?”.
In the same way software companies will think “if others get richer by NOT selling a product, but only the possibility to use it continuously paying for it with a subscription, why shouldn’t we?”

 

That said…I REALLY HOPE I’m wrong, and subscriptions will forever remain just one further possibility to use a software: you buy it OR you rent it. But…if this was the intention, tell me why only few companies offer a “rent to own” model? You pay your subscription, and once the total amount of the program price is reached, you own it.
Well…I already have the answer to this question: modern economy…

 

To me that just sounds like an excuse to venture into a recent business model that has proven to be successful for other companies, it doesn't mean it can be successful for everyone. Reason survived for 9 or 10 versions before subs came along, literally 2 decades. There seems to be a bit of FOMO from companies in regards to subs, a rush to get on board on something that might be the future.

Reason is really in no position to talk much imo, they lost me (and a ton of their userbase) for being stubborn, "we will never have VST support" they said, refusing to accept that their customers wanted it, refusing to accept it's a standard in the industry you cannot get around it. Instead, they made their own plug-in platform thinking major plugin devs would spend their time working on a completely different platform for marginal profit... big mistake. Only after years and years in that stubborn mindset they accepted reality and gave users VST support... I guess they changed their mind when they saw their userbase decreasing by a lot each year, way too late to fix it imo. Now their CEO might justify Reason's decline for another cause, like not offering subscriptions or go to subs to be able to keep the company profitable since there's not enough people buying updates.

 

I partially agree and you partially touch some of the points I was trying to bring to the table. In my opinion, one of the problems is with companies getting bigger. Once a company reach a good amount of success, usually the founders start to fade away, leaving the control to some supposed “better managers”. Now…probably they are geniuses in business…but this is what it is for them…just a business… They don’t have the same passion or dedication as the founders…or…if they have it, it is for the money and the success…not for the products themselves. This happened lately to our beloved NI too…and I fear we will start to see the signs of this change. If we are not already seeing them

 

One good thing about the whole Komplete Now hype is that Massive X is getting a lot more attention by the marketing guys at NI, right now and in turn hopefully by the new customers and general audience. That synth had a bad start and deserves much more coverage

 

I would like to give my feedback and thoughts on Komplete Now. I haven't been to forums in a really long time, life just caught up with me. I don't know if this has been suggested or not. But this is what I want from Komplete Now:

- My worst fear of living in modern society is inability to own anything everything. One of the reasons why I came back to Native Instruments is because when I started my musical journey my first piece of physical equipment was a soundcard and I got some free synths with them. I went hardware, sold hardware and went back to software. It was amazing to download FM8 that still worked and know that I can use it still even after 10 years.

- Give something back to people who subscribe. The price of subscription is fine to me. But I still have a fear that I will be paying for years and the moment that I stop I lose everything. I know that the plan is to keep updating and adding more content to Komplete Now. But I think that people who pay for a year, for example, should get something in return. Something of value. How about setting up a system where each month you earn points and those points can later be exchanged for a product license. At first I thought that maybe going like other companies that simply break down things into payments is easier. For example after 3 years you end up owning Komplete. This is also possible, but if Komplete is going to be constantly updated then it might not balance out the value. In return perhaps it's easier to offer separate products for people who maintain a subscription. Or better yet, each month you get a certain amount of credits, that way if you skip a month you are not punished and still have your credits. After 12 or 24 months of payments (not consecutive) the credits could be exchanged for a synth. That way, when people are on a budget they can cancel the subscription and still have something they can create on in the meantime. Then they could come back to Komplete Now and earn more credits and use even more synths at the same time.

This is roughly how the service would be enjoyable to me if we were met with reality where it needs to be on all products.

 

I like how ableton does it, they do updates once every 2-3 years, while adding a lot of essential and useful features to the next version. Ableton also makes it possible to use the equivalent version for 30 days, in the days of the crown they stretched this period for six months. Therefore, updating for $200-250 once every 2-3 years is a good business model. I don't own a Komplete set, but it seems to work as well, right?
What NI must to implement technically is the opportunity to try all plugins within a 30-day period through Native Access. All libraries must have a demo mode and be available in the NA for download and testing

 

I also like the model when you collect points for payment, thanks to which you can pick up the selected product at the end. I once used the Serum for about 4 months on a Splice subscription, and I got a third or so so that I could pick up this plugin at the end. That is, if I ever return to this splice subscription, I will not start a subscription from zero, but from 5 months, and after a while the plugin will be completely mine. This is a great alternative to subscription, especially in the case of VST tools and libraries.
Paying 2-5 years and not owning it looks like a dubious deal. Look in the direction of other methods, subscription in my opinion is not very suitable for a Komplete set. If NI justifies this method that it is well suited for beginners, then you should leave this money with customers in the account so that, as others wrote above in this conversation, the user could choose any product for the amount he paid for a certain time. If he paid 10 months for access to the Package and left it with NI, give him the opportunity to choose any plugin for this amount.

it в will be a smart hybrid solution between questionable subscription and expensive ownership

 

This is less convenient to software houses than rent to own. With rent to own you just get what you paid for once the total amount is reached.
With your solution, practically you get 10 months of free access to the plug-ins and then you use the money you spent to buy a plug-in (without spending a single cent more than what you would have paid for the same plug-in). Why should they do it?

 

it's pretty easy to understand, it's something like installments like in a bank, but only without %.
The creator of the plugin also does not lose anything, he receives either money for a subscription, or the entire amount, as for a full sale. It is also beneficial to everyone

 

The same reason they are giving away free synths when buying hardware. They can afford to and it encourages support. Getting tangible assets is the primary driving factor behind financial 'support' systems. Subscription is just an umbrella term, what we are getting in actuality is a type of investment that pays for support and development of future products. Since this is software it has no overhead costs besides patches and updates.

Rent-to-own systems give you access to full products. Points systems only refund you partial amounts so there is a bigger profit margin for the company and the users end up owning something in the long run. Perhaps not all software will be eligible for the points system, only after it has been on the market for quite some time.

That's the main reason. Another is you are seeing my suggestion incorrectly mathematically. If you rent-to-own $800 worth software and you break up the payments you get $800 worth of software and only that software. Then you have to rent-to-own the next version, but you might be actually less motivated to do so since the old version will probably be very functional for a while.

Komplete is a combination of many "blocks". So for example you subscribe and you get access to software A, B, C, D, E. After a certain amount of time you have the right to own software A, by that point NI develops software F, G, H. If you want to have access to new software F,G,H you can only do so through subscription, but by that point you own older software such as A or B. So it becomes a sort of "rotating stock" like they do in supermarkets. You can own older blocks and continue to support newer blocks of Komplete. A sort of give and take system. Once the initial development costs of software A have been recuperated the company can proceed with future projects.

 

If you think so…
Companies don’t even do rent to own (e.g. you pay for a product, once you paid the full price THAT product is yours).
Now you want them to do the formula “I pay for a single product, but meanwhile you let me use many other products while I pay for it”.
Yes…good luck

And…btw…yes, companies DO lose money like this, since you use other products for months for free…and then maybe you don’t need them anymore and you don’t buy them

 

It's not a matter of opinion - Plugin Alliance and Roland Cloud both have subscriptions where, if you stick with it for a year, you get to keep some of the plugins. Whether or not this would work for NI, it has been a thing now for multiple years. See https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/pa-mega-bundle-monthly.html and https://rolandcloud.com/play4life.