Steinberg getting real on pricing - finally !

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
leedsquietman
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Steinberg getting real on pricing - finally !

Post by leedsquietman » Wed Feb 11, 2009 4:10 am

At long last Steinberg have seen the light, as their Mac user base (and a number of previous PC users) was draining out to Logic when Apple reduced the price to US $499 years ago, SB continued to sell their product at $899 and insist people would still buy their 'quality product' over 'gimmicky short term price cuts'.

Well 2 years later (and after 8 or 9 months of slowly slashing Cubase 4 from $899 to $599) they are going to offer Cubase 5 (in the USA at least) at parity with Logic, so retailing at US$499. This has produced mixed feelings, as Cubase aficionados don't want to see their product die as people go with Logic (or the previously cheaper Sonar), but then again, to buy a product for nearly a thousand bucks and then 18 months later see that the new shiny model is half the price, is a bone of contention for some people.

In the meantime, British and EUropean users can rejoice in the fact that they continue to get the shaft, with the UK price on Cubase 5 being equivalent to $782 US Dollars. I have to tell you, that one of the benefits of leaving Blighty for Canada was that I could suddenly afford a new computer and a big screen TV and DAW software. Europeans get so gouged on consumer products.
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beats me
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Post by beats me » Wed Feb 11, 2009 4:46 am

This also means that Live (suite) is quickly becoming the most expensive DAW on the market, aside from Pro Tools HD systems.

Machinesworking
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Post by Machinesworking » Wed Feb 11, 2009 4:55 am

Weird how the free market is. four years ago Live was almost $300 cheaper than Logic. Not sure it's fair to count the suite as it's not Ableton's code to bundle with Live the way Logic's plug ins are Apple's code.

Same with Stienberg and Cakewalk, they bought out right or made the plug ins in their suites to begin with. Ableton is doing partnerships for these things.

beats me
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Post by beats me » Wed Feb 11, 2009 5:05 am

I personally don't have a problem with Ableton's prices because a hundred or two a year to be on the bleeding edge of that which is bleeding is a small fee in my opinion.

However to a person who is new to this world of farting around and rarely getting a song completely finished the price may be a little of a turn off.

Let's not forget the added expense of Max4Live. Sure you don't have to buy the suite or M4L, but if all the cool kids are doing it and you see it being used by Daft Punk you are going to feel like a big loser if you don't blindly collect all the tools.

Ah crap, then there's the APC-40.

Fuck it, Live is for rich kids.

jonny72
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Post by jonny72 » Wed Feb 11, 2009 11:08 am

Machinesworking wrote:Weird how the free market is. four years ago Live was almost $300 cheaper than Logic. Not sure it's fair to count the suite as it's not Ableton's code to bundle with Live the way Logic's plug ins are Apple's code.

Same with Stienberg and Cakewalk, they bought out right or made the plug ins in their suites to begin with. Ableton is doing partnerships for these things.
I don't see how it matter where the plugins and other stuff have come from, besides it was Ableton's choice to source them externally rather than develop them itself.

Live is very expensive compared to the competition and the standard package doesn't come with anywhere near enough content. Which means a lot of lost customers.
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loquat
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Post by loquat » Wed Feb 11, 2009 11:33 am

beats me wrote:I personally don't have a problem with Ableton's prices because a hundred or two a year to be on the bleeding edge of that which is bleeding is a small fee in my opinion.


Fuck it, Live is for rich kids.
The inital expense is probably a turn off, but the upgrade prices do seem reasonable. I'm not sure if the people at Live had users like me in mind, but the upgrade has several things that I've been wanting (limiter, multi-band dynamics, and collision.) I'll drop the $259 for the suite upgrade in a heartbeat. I just want it that badly.

brightonalex
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Post by brightonalex » Wed Feb 11, 2009 11:42 am

beats me wrote:I personally don't have a problem with Ableton's prices because a hundred or two a year to be on the bleeding edge of that which is bleeding is a small fee in my opinion.

However to a person who is new to this world of farting around and rarely getting a song completely finished the price may be a little of a turn off.

Let's not forget the added expense of Max4Live. Sure you don't have to buy the suite or M4L, but if all the cool kids are doing it and you see it being used by Daft Punk you are going to feel like a big loser if you don't blindly collect all the tools.

Ah crap, then there's the APC-40.

Fuck it, Live is for rich kids.
They should introduce a Live "Very lite" for free, but with a snappier title. Just the clips and the warping, and a few instruments maybe. There's be no need to get into it via piracy like loads of noobs do, but it would get them hooked, and loyal to the product.

Emissary
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Re: .

Post by Emissary » Wed Feb 11, 2009 11:55 am

brightonalex wrote:
beats me wrote:I personally don't have a problem with Ableton's prices because a hundred or two a year to be on the bleeding edge of that which is bleeding is a small fee in my opinion.

However to a person who is new to this world of farting around and rarely getting a song completely finished the price may be a little of a turn off.

Let's not forget the added expense of Max4Live. Sure you don't have to buy the suite or M4L, but if all the cool kids are doing it and you see it being used by Daft Punk you are going to feel like a big loser if you don't blindly collect all the tools.

Ah crap, then there's the APC-40.

Fuck it, Live is for rich kids.
They should introduce a Live "Very lite" for free, but with a snappier title. Just the clips and the warping, and a few instruments maybe. There's be no need to get into it via piracy like loads of noobs do, but it would get them hooked, and loyal to the product.
Good idea that. Why not give out live 3 for free. Live has come on such a long way now that i dont think it would cost them anything, and as you say would get first time hobbyists more interested and loyal to the brand.

jonny72
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Post by jonny72 » Wed Feb 11, 2009 12:27 pm

I reckon a DJ edition would work well - drop support for midi, instrument racks, plugin support and maybe even the arrangement view. Just keep the bits you need to be able to DJ as a lot of the stuff just isn't needed.
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leedsquietman
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Post by leedsquietman » Wed Feb 11, 2009 1:45 pm

I agree that Ableton will have to think carefully about pricing their add-ons and the basic price of the regular product.

Again, I agree that I don't mind paying a LITTLE more as it is a niche product which goes beyond what a typical linear DAW offers in terms of on the fly composition and arrangement, but then again, it does lack some things which are important to a musician or producer who can only afford to drop money on one product and see Live as that all in one solution, which to be fair, Ableton have been angling the product in that direction pretty much since Live 4 and very actively since Live 7 with all the DAWcentric features.

They still got me though, at least for the time beingl but in this global recession, the Abes, please think about your loyal customers, many of whom are choking under the stress already and consider what the competition is doing.
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Post by Tarekith » Wed Feb 11, 2009 2:40 pm

If Steinberg would just drop the dongle too, I'd be all over this. :)
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Hidden Driveways
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Post by Hidden Driveways » Wed Feb 11, 2009 2:53 pm

Nuendo is still $1799.00 USD. Riddle me this, Batman.

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Post by six_o_clock_crow » Wed Feb 11, 2009 3:03 pm

When Cubase, Logic, Sonar, ProTools etc. have a session view, then I'll listen to feature comparisons.

As it stands, they are all useless to me, so price is irrelevant.
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Post by v00d00ppl » Wed Feb 11, 2009 4:06 pm

so that means that the studet edition of cubase 5 is going to cost $250-300?
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xh9o
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Post by xh9o » Wed Feb 11, 2009 4:42 pm

cubase essential 4 was my first legal sequencer, and it did make a very fair 150€ new.
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