Big thanks to Ridge for sending me this wallet and supporting the channel! Here’s the site if you want to check them out! > ridge.com/WHITESEA

For hobbyists like me, who go through on and off creative periods (due to other interests) the subscription model is a no-go zone. I like owning my stuff and using it as and when it suits me.

Simply put, I hate subscription models and avoid them.

The biggest problem with software subscriptions is recall! What if you wanted to open an old project, just a couple of years old? If you don't have a copy of all your plugins from back then, zero recall! Wasn't that the big advantage of mixing in the box, recall? I would much rather own my software, or at least have the option to upgrade when the new version is actually better!

Software as a service is a scam if there's no service. Compare to the car, the car owner takes care of maintenance, cleaning, papers, etc. so you pay extra for that. Some software developers just send you the program to install but do nothing more, they just charge more for the same thing.

Someone said, "own the means of production". I'd say they had a point.

What I hate most about the Subscription model, and frankly, I don't subscribe to it ;), is they've got you for life. The more you use it the more addicted you are to it-like it or not. For instance, what happens when you tire of paying the monthly fee? That's right, when you pull up an old project to (maybe) tweak it, well, you guess it, you're going to have to re-subscribe again. See what I mean? You're hooked. Best not to go there in the first place.

You're absolutely right, at the moment it's absolutely unfair that people pay (a lot) of money during months or years... The only Subscription model for audio I personally would ever use is the "Rent-to-Own" system. Have a nice weekend :-)

I have cancelled all my subscription software and plug ins. It was hard at first but not so much now.

Subscriptions are evil, they can discourage competition, like a loyalty card you are paying for.

What I've seen with subscription, there is a lot of stuff that you most likely won't use. Also having lots of tools can stop you from actually learning to use them. I think rent-to-own model is way better than subscription.

Subscription is like rent. The landlord still owns the place you live no matter how long you paid for it.

"You will own nothing, and you will be happy". -WEF

As well as everything you said, I don't ever want my continuing use of the tools of my trade to be in someone else's hands - for instance if the company goes out of business or stops offering subscriptions for tools I'm dependant on.

"You will own nothing, and you'll be happy". This is what people have been voting for, for the last 3 decades.

It makes you wonder if whatever subscription-model software they have to integrate with their plugins tends to make updating to new OS versions more difficult. It's shocking how fast indie developers easily adapt to MacOS changes. Thanks for this!

In 20 years from now I want people to say "Oh do you remember Pro Tools?" and people look blankly at you

I really love how you use your platform to force companies to better their product. Much respect and keep up the good work 👍

I'd also like to add that subscriptions tend to stack up. I recently went over all the services I was paying monthly or yearly fees for and was, to be frank, shocked at how much money I was spending yearly on subscriptions to services alone, some of which I wasn't even using that much (and I was buying software on top of that). I've sinced cut back drastically on subscription services.

The day a company announces that they are moving to a subscription model is the day I start researching alternatives.

as consumers, we have the power to say NO, just use it, its called BOYCOTT

The Apple Silicon transition has shown me which developers care and have future proof code. And thus, those are the devs I will support in the future.

The more I do this the more I just use the stock plugins anyway. No one that listens to the music cares.

I personally will only be purchasing one time payment software.

Another important topic. No easy answer for sure. My humble opinion is that for certain corporate cultures the subscription model feeds into their laziness or lack of real customer focus. For others like KiloHearts they have a modest and affordable subscription model and they are constantly adding new features or other content so that’s a keeper. I’m not a pro, so all this is costing me, but I do it gladly because I love making music. However, I’ve started pruning my menu of plugins to cut subs when the vendor is lazy and I can replace it. I can see that a pro may not be able to do this because they want to load the projects of clients (assuming not fully bounced) so it make sense to have them all. Another great topic worthy of industry debate to improve things.

I just avoid subscription models, they give me too much anxiety 😂 when a brand switches to this model I just find alternative software. In example I did that with Premiere Pro, switching to DaVinci Resolve, that (according to your video) is also unexpectedly more updated.

Once upon a time I subscribed to magazines, but each month they sent me a new magazine...

Thanks for this video. But there is one important point about subscription models from the user POV. OK, the user doesn't "own" the software in both model. But the user owns the data he or she created. In the classic model, the user always has access to the data he or she created. But with the subscription model, the data become useless if the subscription ended. Or the software manufacturer stops the software and it can't be subscribed anymore.

These companies probably thought that the m1 would be a failure and just waited to see if it worked before even starting the transition. They know they market and that people are gonna wait because of some stuff like the RX-8 that there is not something at that level for example

Fab filter had their stuff already running on the iPad since years so the change to the M1 seems more easy.

I hate subscription services and I stay away from it as far as possible. Very good example can be found in Gaming industry. Everything moves towards "live services" where you pay for a product and the products is not finished and you get the "will fix it later" but it never get fixed cause the developer,publisher moves to another "live service" to sell another product. We will have to pay a subscription to get access to a product that can be deactivated at any point for any reason and we will have to pay the "initial fee" every time a new update will come out on top of a subscription. And by update I mean "a new product" that is an updated version of the old one, cause they will be able to sell it again.

I think very important things are addressed here in this post. Also my guess is that in subscription the producer of plugins relies more on the contract terms of his customers than in the further development of his software. Myself, I only own purchase software, as they are indeed better maintenance and, with a little patience, I also get them heavily discounted. Many thanks for the perfectly thought-out and extremely informative video! 👍

Dude, love the channel. I can't tell you how valuable your insight is, especially for us producers/engineers.

I avoid subscription models if at all possible because, for the most part, the terms and agreements (contracts) are far too biased toward the company offering the service versus the consumer of the service.

The Great Reset: You will own nothing and you will be happy. I don't like where things are going

I have one single thing to say here to round things up... If a certain professional studio in California can have a working studio setup on a 2009 Mac without the latest hardware/software, and it works, why jump on the latest hardware when it could potentially cause issues?

Not buying iZotope products anymore if they won’t update their existing products to natively supporting the M1 chip

Yeah, I've always tried to stay away from subscription software. I also use Windows because their backwards-compatibility with software is second to none and it still allows you to build/hack/upgrade your own system to tune it how you like. I get if you're a big studio you have to use certain tools for compatibility, and if you like Apple's OS then by all means, but I think anyone who is dispensing advice to beginners or hobbyists has a responsibility to not feed into the idea that, to be more 'professional', you need to be using these ubiquitous tools. Too many engineers like to gatekeep their own community with these products and help companies get into positions where they can hold users hostage. I'm certainly not saying you do that, but in my internet travels I see a whole lot of it. I guess what my rambling point is, I do feel for you with the software compatibility issues you're having, but this also makes for a great learning experience for new engineers. There's a concept in programming called loose-coupling. It basically means you should try to design your software in a way that allows for maximum flexibility, by not assuming your dependencies will be available, or the same, in the future. I think that kind of applies here as well. If at all possible 'plan' to be able to change your tools.

Interesting. This came up in March 2023, the day after the Waves Audio fiasco and the backtracking but utter destruction of themselves by not supporting their customers/community

I think the subscription model sucks. I have thought this from the beginning. A better alternative would be Plugins to offer a Finance option, so you will own it eventually. Still giving people enough access to great products. I don't know how possible that it but makes more sense to me.

I dare to oppose that we're necessarily bound to get the subscription model whether we like it or not, and it is preventable if we don't want it to become a general norm. It's all about how many people will subscribe to it or not...it's simple as that. I'd personally rather pay once for a well deigned software instead getting 'handcufeed' into something that is buggy and may never ever be 'not buggy' while getting legally robbed out of my money. Everyone who supports that kind of model, is ignorant to his own demise.

Cars as a service has been around for decades: it's called leasing :)

I would love to hear a conversation about this topic between you and a software developer, with a channel your size it shouldn't be too hard to find someone.

There’s a reason why it’s now more commonly called “Slow Tools”

Analog Obsessions M1 Native, doing great work

And now in March 2023 Waves has dumped on us big time!!!

Two months ago I stopped subscription of Adobe CC and I had to pay a fee for the rest of the year but I had to deinstall it immediately. Very ugly…

One thing I like with the subscription model is that for amateurs like me, who don't mix/produce steadily. Between projects we can stop our subscription. Two interesting things with the Plugin Alliance model is that we get vouchers and can purchase plugin licenses, and also those purchased licenses are lifetime.

You forgot rent to own! Best way in my opinion.

I'm only an amateur producer, though I am one who has spent way more of my disposable income than I should have on audio gear / software haha. I never do any subscriptions and I never will. I want to pay once and be done. Simple as that.

I use two subscription services at the moment...Output Arcade and Plugin Alliance’s Mix N Master Bundle. I justify both because both are being regularly updated...Output is constantly putting out new samples and kit lines that are giving me ideas of what direction I want to take my own instrumentation and arrangement as my skills improve...PA is also adding in highly detailed and well engineered plugins. Their subscription bundle allows me to try everything they have on offer as I decide which ones I want to commit to. I do think Splice’s Rent-To-Own model is better overall than subscription, but I can at least see the appeal of subscription as a low risk way to wet one’s feet into a particular company’s product line before going all in.

This is a great video man. Great points being made. Hopefully, updates will happen consistently in the future.

this is very interesting actually more interesting, is that companies like izotope want to make their subscription model appealing by uploading samples and presets every month. they are clearly marketing themselves to young trap producer kids, which idk how to feel about either

And then people complain why there is piracy on plugins.

The big plus to buying, and something many don’t know, is resell. Under EU law you have the right to sell any software you own. And you can’t resell a subscription which is dead money. And I know people will say you don’t own the software, you just have a user license. But if you can buy something and then sell something then you own it. And I can understand why those selling software are doing M1 support before the subscription models. The subscription models already have your money and have no motivation to move on it. But the people selling need constant new customers. If you want to pay for things many times over, without having something to sell at the end of the day and be under supported within that then go for a subscription model. If you don’t like the idea of such things stay clear and punish them by withdrawing your money. You hold the power to shape the market.

very interesting video. another thing I don't like about subscriptions is that it might sound cheaper, but you usually would need more than one subscription, and then, all of a sudden the monthly cost adds up fast.

I hate my Photoshop subscription!! I have 20years of Photoshopped photography, but I don't really do much photo anymore... but I have NO choice but to pay monthly to Adobe so that I can still access all my old photography.... even though I don't actively do much "Photoshopping" these days. I've not used it in months, yet I am paying for it EVERY MONTH.

Huge slap in the face for those of us who paid a lot of money for software ex: Reason studios - went to subscription shortly after I purchased Reason 11. If Steinberg moves to subscription I’m gonna be quite upset after paying for CUBASE 11 pro.. and they wonder why so many use warez. I invested heavily in analog gear before the pandemic and don’t regret it - especially now. As opposed to software, I actually own this gear and can get some money back if I choose to sell it - even years later - plugins are a terrible investment and lose their value almost immediately

I think it is a good rule of thumb to ALWAYS check compatibility before upgrading. Also the feedback you are giving publicly is also useful for these problems, thanks for this video, they deserve the pressure!!

I think one point worth making is that the plugins I own are things that I found myself needing while i was mixing. Each purchase I made in my plugin list was to fill a whole in my workflow. When you get a huge list of options and you have no work flow you will find yourself just slapping plugins on things to see what they sound like. I’ve wasted many of hours in mixing with this and ended up having to strip my mix back down because I had too many things going on that I couldn’t understand my workflow anymore.

Subscriptions might be okay if you're consistently making money off what you're doing as an employee. As a hobbyist, I ignore anything that is subscription based, immediately. Centralization/monopolization is the root of evil and corruption in my opinion. It doesn't allow people to escape garbage very easily. "I can't afford a better subscription until my crappier one runs out. See you in 6 months."

From The Bottom of My Hart thank you for this video !!!

Great video. Very similar topic as I moved away from mac Logic to PC Cubase because I didnt agree with Apple and updates making plugins not work

Spectrasonics are now also fully Universal apple silicon since a week or 2. RME is also an great example of a quality company. They had drivers basically right away, Tal synths are also full apple silicon by now.

Subscription is just like having a debt. Just like rent a house. The longer you rent, the bigger you'll have to pay, and even you don't realize that you already pay the rent for a price of the house, in the end You'll end up paying a price for a things or even more for something you don't own.

If I bought this ridge wallet I wouldn't need a wallet anymore xD

Interesting observation on a current topic. Good job. I tried a couple of family subscriptions for some utilities for my Macs for a year. Had the thought to double down on a bundled subscription service, but realized a) my spouse would neither explore nor exploit the available options and b) I already had licenses for the items I routinely use and the remainder, well it was less expensive to just BUY the one or two that interest me. So I reversed course. That said I did retain my Apple Family Plan as we all actually use it.

I’m not really a fan of subscription services, but the one time I’ll go for it is if the subscription is cheaper over time compared to the product itself. For example, I’m looking into getting the slate bundle, and with the subscription model it would take over 30 years of payments to equal the cost of buying the plug-ins outright. And while I do plan on working on music production for well longer than the next 30 years, that still just makes the most sense to me.

This is so true, dude!

I agree... The subscription model is a scam. I pretty much use the plugins that I had already purchased. Now I am paying to use those same plugins with the subscription. Yes, it's nice to have a lot of tools but how many hammers do you need? Question: Is anyone making more money for the more plugins you have?

I'm glad you did this video, I've been frustrated by this too. Thankfully in my case most of the plug ins I feel I "need" have been working in Rosetta mode.

1. "Wherever you are" unless there is no internet connection for whatever reason. It's the opposite of a "worry-free experience", 2. Using 2 plug-ins for the price of the whole package, 3. Latest updates are not always the best versions. On some occasions, you may prefer the older version of plug-in. The new version may be buggy on your system to the point of becoming unusable. 4. What happens to your projects when you stop with subscription?

I'm a musician so take what I say with a grain of salt but the Slate everything bundle is actually awesome imo. I'll gladly pay $10 a month for that. The rent to own thing they're doing with trigger is pretty sweet too. Most of the other plug in subscriptions do seem like a rip off though. Waves subscription bundles seem particularly not worth it. 😂

I really prefer Plugin Alliance's yearly subscription model as they give you a voucher of equivalent value that you can use to permanently own license for any of the plugins. Win win. Although, to your point, they too don't have native M1 support...

Thanks for your video, and I really like the "buy" (license) model as opposed to the Equipment/Software" as a service. Since the "license" has a technology evolution (the next version) to it, they are beholden to further sales - but the user isn't tied to it by way of being deep into the service financially, so that one feels they need to wait it out with them. This way, the customer gets served better if feel.

What i find good is what you can do at splice where they have rent to own. There you pay each month an amount you can use the plugin and when you have reached the full amount you own the plugin. You can pause also the payments and also pay the remaining money right away and own the plugin. In the past i have used the subscription of plugin alliance but stopped it because it is like i guess with most people they pay a subscription for a ton of plugins and in the end just use a handful.

music world It has always been about being a slave to...specially for musicians.

From the dev side, I just want to mention that a lot of plugins rely on SIMD instruction sets (like AVX) that do not exist on ARM processors like the M1. In many cases, the lack of these instructions could make it impossible for certain algorithms to be fast enough to process real-time audio. So, it may be that these companies are scrambling to completely redesign their underlying algorithms, which is incredibly hard (this is why companies like Native Instruments employ several Ph.D. mathematicians).

I read the title and knew exactly where you were going. This is a huge problem facing all industries.

i just wish there was "rent to own" where you're able to pay monthly in increments until you own it. Hence splice.

Companies aren't moving to subscriptions to help you. They like subscriptions because it helps them. If the consumer benefits, it's purely coincidental. Companies come up with revenue models to benefit their bottom line first. There is something you can do about software as a service. Don't buy it. The market speaks and companies follow. Software as a service succeeds because you fund it. You stop funding it and companies will respond. There is something you can do but your are completely unwilling to do it. You're not helpless. Just ineffective in getting the market you want.

A lot of great companies are making the subscription part only *part* and have you eventually own it. Kilohearts do that. Splice is rent-to-own. However, I use PC and these silicon problems will never affect me lol. Apple users have problems with music software all the time and it really makes me laugh because they always seem to say the Apple ecosystem is better for music. Andrew Huang made a video recently saying just that. But is it really if you're constantly having problems? Silicon issues. Catalina issues or w.e that's called. This sounds far more like an Apple problem than a subscription problem.

I am using Isotope products on my M1 Mac Mini. Maybe I misunderstood? It works great though.

Steinberg products (Cubase/Nuendo) are supported on M1 also. (and Steinberg products have a standard licence, not subscriptions)

You never actually "owned" most of your software, you owned license to use it. There were several big software companies where trying to "sell" your bought and paid for programmes was virtually sic impossible. Had you owned that software and there was a bug in it then, you'd have been able to immediately claim a full refund under EU law. Owning a license to use the software removed that legal protection.

Subscription models work just fine. Switching to bleeding edge technology too early does not. Like it or not, you jumped ship too soon and you cannot expect developers to jump on fixing their software to work on the new/latest tech when they have their workload set for the next N amount of months already. Take it from someone who's owned their own studio and has been recording a mixing music professionally for going on three decades now. All the while watching how the tech has changed dramatically over the years and also lived through the nightmare that was the Power PC to Intel transition as an audio industry professional. Switching to the latest and greatest tech while trying to earn money with audio production is not a recipe for success. You cannot and should not rely on third-parties to update/fix their software for your business to work. All that will do is frustrate you and cost your business time and/or money.

Spectrasonics recently updated their products to AS native. Bitwig 4 will be AS native. My main concern is Native Instruments, I have some fear that it would be more than 2 years for them. I really love my Mac Mini. It gives me a smile when I am thinking about my switch from top PC specs for this little box, and has no big difference in performance for my tasks.

there are 2 reasons I don't like software subscription plans (like slate or izotope has) and i just wanna say first, thank you for this very good video. First ,we can't really make our own decision to buy something when it comes to this type of sub system (I will mention later the reason why I wrote "this type"). let's say you just found a reverb plugin that is going to be probably one of your favourite software/plugin and you want to use it for long term. then when you (or at least for me) buy it, you check its price and think like how much money you will be able to make with the plugin. Or just simply you can compare price or something to other products which do about the same thing. I think this process of purchasing by consumer should be guaranteed as customer's right for the healthy market. Then if you end up with liking the (almost) all plugin from the company and wish to keep supporting the company, you can go for the subscription plan (if the company has one). However, most of the major software manufacturer has only one way( especially ones have only sub plans). It means you can't have a process of decision of buying it or not as I mentioned above. I don't think it's completely fair for us. Now I'd like to describe what I really meant by "this type" and that is subscription plans by companies only for their own products. When it comes to more open platform subscription such as Splice and Spotify, I think that's fair. It's because you can use many plugins form various manufacturer and compare them at the same stage. And finally if you found your favourite plugin brand and support them, you can go to their website and buy or donate, you can make this choice. Second, the software subscription is not really fair for the manufacturer. When this type of subscription gets way more common than this current time, people will be likely to purchase subscribe plans from huge companies which can provide plugins very frequently to you and those could be very expensive high-end if you buy those in one-time payment. Nowadays, there are many "less-known" plugin manufacture run by individual or a very small group, which release very good unique plugins once in a while or they probably don't really have good plugins but sometimes make a great plugin. The reason why they can exist and make this industry more diverse is people actually "buy" their products. However once software subscription becomes industry standard, people will tend to use products from company they subscribe without really try to compare to other plugins because you keep paying to the company and people would be like " Yeah, the $50 reverb from this company is good but I already have waves subscription(Sorry this is just an example). they let me use their all plugins for $9 and all reverb plugins are slightly worse than the $50 one but I pay $9 monthly and they release plugins every week so maybe better one will come soon. so I won't spend stupid $50 for that." People who doesn't have financial problem at all wouldn't be like this but not everybody is like that. And I might be overthinking/reacting and the example could be too exaggerated but similar thing will happen unless we do something about this and we will eventually lose diversity and everybody uses same plugins and sounds same. There are many other thoughts about this but I'll keep it my mind because others have already said and this's been too long and I'm sorry for that. I felt I had to say this. Overall, I think the problem is this subscription gets more common and becomes only way of buying plugins. p.s. nice wallet :)

Subscription models makes these companies rest on their laurels.

I would never pay for something that requires online activation to work.

I just got the update for pro tools like a day or two ago so they supported on the M1

Subscription model for a car is a thing in Russia in premium segment (bmw, Mercedes, Volvo). For a hefty monthly/yearly fee (not really reasonable for a usual worker, but it has it's audience) you get a new car, beefy insurance, gas, maintenance, road assistance, tires (new set every year, change of tires to a season (summer-winter)) and something else. Maintenance, car wash and tire service are "automatic". A real person comes to pickup a car and then returns it.

No subscriptions for this guy! I would rather own than rent, that's just me. Besides, I'm old and from the reel to reel era, most DAWS come with stock plugins that work just fine. Way better than anything we had back in the 70's in your home studio. Marketing beneits the company way more than it does for the consumer. I fall prey to marketing way to often.

Subscriptions are just designed to get used to owning nothing, all part of the great resets plan for our future

Interesting scenario playing out; and good sight on the "one off" purchases NEEDING to update ASAP in order to make that support happen for future purchases. I'd love to see an update to this video in 12 months once those "2-year" claims from the developers come to close to see how many of them kept good on their claims.

Great video topic, and I hope you do More of these about the industry itself, and comparing company's models. Two quick thoughts: 1) Software vs Hardware is such a massive Value difference, which people often forget. Your plug-in folder holds hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars worth of Rack equipment. If you came up Before plug-ins, it is simply incredible what you can carry around in a backpack. 2) To that point, I often wonder if All the Software was 25% more expensive, But the developers worked out all of the BS with things not working, like this M1 switch but really ALL the nonsense. Wouldn't we all be more productive and better off?

I used to defend and be an APPLE fanboy, but Apple products are no longer made for professionals for like a decade now. The lack of updates and support for basic shit is nothing new and has been a recurring deal breaking problem forever now with every OS update, taking months for it to run properly and have a decent third party support from OS to OS. Buy a PC and be done with all this bullshit.

Regarding your main question, "Why can some companies do it, and why can't these other companies do it"... there are actual, fact-based answers to that, and every other question you wrestle with in this ep. I don't say that to negate your feelings or concerns about anything, but rather to suggest that maybe, in the absence of facts, you might be seeing things thru an incomplete or distorted set of filters. In all fairness, I'm doubtless doing the same. The thing is, I wish you had reached out in advance of this video to have a genuinely open-minded, knowledge-seeking conversation about the things you talk about here, rather than ask things rhetorically, to yourself, then answer with a mix of pure speculation filtered thru personal biases, the end result of which simply serves to confirm your initial judgments about subscriptions. It's an approach, and the catchy triggery title likely garner views, but if your goal is to increase clarity and understanding rather than maintain an emotionally clouded and unnecessarily narrow frame of reference, maybe there's a better way? 🤷🏻‍♂️

I have ended up with the Slate subscription. I promised myself only to do the one, because otherwise the costs get out of control. I was a bit non plussed with Slate for a while as some of their core plugins are a bit average, but they have stepped it up, putting out a pretty steady stream of plugins and sample packs. But the point is that multiple subscriptions get out of control very easily. If you are paying multiple plugin companies, your DAW and maybe Video editing, then you are looking at a pretty hefty recurring bill.

Software as a service (SaaS) will continue to have issues such as those described here until market forces or government regulation require the services' accessibility be included in the subscription/service contract. A common example would be ISP/Internet service. Your residential/consumer grade service adverts a speed and you might get like 60-90% of it. An enterprise tier service would not only guarantee you get the exact advertised speed but in addition you'd also be offered some sort of guaranteed uptime; ie, 99.98% of all possible hours. So both the nature of the service (speed) but also the availability/accessibility (uptime) are defined in the contract.