Operator for free...

yearlongyeti · Post by **yearlongyeti** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 12:56 pm

To give operator away undervalues the software. I bought it and love it. In a time when you can download most software pirated and free. You'd think being loyal to paying customers is important. Sales I can handle but making it free is wrong.

cmreal04 · Post by **cmreal04** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 1:13 pm

Man, I just got an email from NI, you want to talk about price cuts and free stuff, look at Kore and the price reductions there. This little business move on Ableton's end is nothing. Not to mention it was like, just a couple month's ago you could have bought komplete 5 for something like $650....

CM

SMonk · Post by **SMonk** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 1:15 pm

yearlongyeti wrote:To give operator away undervalues the software. I bought it and love it. In a time when you can download most software pirated and free. You'd think being loyal to paying customers is important. Sales I can handle but making it free is wrong.

Operator is like, what, 3+ years old by now, and has not really seen any feature updates whatsoever (or has it?). If anything, charging extra for it is wrong.

My guess would be that it, and possibly sampler as well, will be included in the basic version Live 8 when that one eventually comes along.

Pasha · Post by **Pasha** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 1:28 pm

SMonk wrote:
yearlongyeti wrote:To give operator away undervalues the software. I bought it and love it. In a time when you can download most software pirated and free. You'd think being loyal to paying customers is important. Sales I can handle but making it free is wrong.
Operator is like, what, 3+ years old by now, and has not really seen any feature updates whatsoever (or has it?). If anything, charging extra for it is wrong.

My guess would be that it, and possibly sampler as well, will be included in the basic version Live 8 when that one eventually comes along.

Probably. I would say that's what the market's asking. It might also mean that should this happen, they won't get more features and this makes me sad even if I have to admit they've reached a pretty stable level these days.

- Best
- Pasha

rydan · Post by **rydan** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 1:32 pm

Perhaps I should be a bit clearer as well.

First of all, as I said, I personally don't care about operator. Would be nice to have of course, but I can't say I need it, and I definitely haven't wanted it enough to buy it.

Also, even though I realize it might have looked like it, I wasn't really complaining about the pricing. I was more concerned about what this kind of marketing would result in in the longer run. Getting sales now, at the cost of making people angry and thereby loosing sales in the long run isn't always a good idea. I really, really want Ableton to stay in business, and, to me, it doesn't matter if apple, steinberg and avid dumped their prices, I would still want Live, since I think it's a great software, and the support and general company attitude is excellent!

Will I upgrade to Live8? Of course! As soon as it's released! Am I angry about not getting Operator? Nopes. Are there people out there that is? Well, I would say, pretty likely...

mrsakitumi · Post by **mrsakitumi** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 1:37 pm

if we all sat around waiting for the next "best' deal, we'd never get any music done.
holding out however many months for the next discount, deal etc
is wasted time.
you could have missed out on producing some of your best tunes during that wait.
i got my live7 upgrade at the beginning of this year and the stuff i've done on it far outways waiting to only getting it now (with operator bundled).
for those that score with this deal, then good for them.

time waiting=money saved
but on the flipside money saved =time lost

autogen · Post by **autogen** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 2:24 pm

This does sting a bit. I've known I wanted Operator for a while now, I just haven't been able to justify the cost for it as yet. I understand the argument that Ableton are a business, and as such need to offer incentives sometimes, but surely there are better ways to get more sales than effectively sticking two fingers up to existing customers who don't already own Operator.

Why not offer some kind of affiliate scheme to run alongside offers like this? Existing users could earn themselves a free add-on by generating a sale or two for Ableton. I'm sure I'd have earned myself Operator (at least) by now with the amount of people I've introduced to Live. Surely this kind of approach would keep a larger proportion of the user-base happy while generating more sales.

Pasha · Post by **Pasha** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 2:33 pm

mrsakitumi wrote:if we all sat around waiting for the next "best' deal, we'd never get any music done.
holding out however many months for the next discount, deal etc
is wasted time.
you could have missed out on producing some of your best tunes during that wait.
i got my live7 upgrade at the beginning of this year and the stuff i've done on it far outways waiting to only getting it now (with operator bundled).
for those that score with this deal, then good for them.

time waiting=money saved
but on the flipside money saved =time lost

Time is limited as is money, but while we can overcome money limitation we can't do the same with Time.

dphouse84 · Post by **dphouse84** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 4:24 pm

autogen wrote: Why not offer some kind of affiliate scheme to run alongside offers like this? Existing users could earn themselves a free add-on by generating a sale or two for Ableton. I'm sure I'd have earned myself Operator (at least) by now with the amount of people I've introduced to Live. Surely this kind of approach would keep a larger proportion of the user-base happy while generating more sales.

indeed; I bought Live earlier this year and have turned several people to Ableton since and at least 3 have purchased a full version of live.

andydes · Post by **andydes** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 4:47 pm

Fine. We're all getting ripped off. I'll phone trading standards and report Ableton's unethical business practices.

Giving away good deals like that, I don't know how they can get away with it.

I'm a loyal customer, I gave them my hard earned money and all I got was the software I paid for. Surely Ableton owe me something for not downloading cracks. A free t-shirt perhaps?

Laters, dudes.

robleighton22 · Post by **robleighton22** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 5:28 pm

would b nice if ppl upgrding to live 8 from live 7 get operator free like these new customers. unlikely i guess if operator goes through major changes. still wud b a happy comprimise.

jgerry · Post by **jgerry** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 5:39 pm

I don't see what the big deal is. You get the deal you paid for at the time you paid for it.

I was all ready to buy an upgrade from LE for $299. I had been wanting to do this for months. When I finally decided to do it, the price had gone up to $349. Kinda bugged me, but oh well, I waited too long, it was my fault. They were running a deal where I could get Drum Machines along with my upgrade for $39 instead of $79 if I bought it with an upgrade, so I did that, since I wanted to buy Drum Machines anyway. Seemed like a decent deal. I don't feel ripped off.

Would I like to have Operator for free? Yeah, maybe. But I don't have it now, I've never used it, and I can still make music. So who cares.

robleighton22 · Post by **robleighton22** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 5:51 pm

true, im just bored at work and need something to type. hehe

adamf · Post by **adamf** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 7:15 pm

To get the free operator upgrade you must upgrade from the lite version...I just upgraded from the full version of 6 to 7 last month. I would'nt have been able to get it any way.....I just got off the phone with customer support I have an offer to get it for 109.00 bucks.

Mr Man · Post by **Mr Man** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 10:36 pm

I would be happy if there was some kind of discount available on upgrades for returning customers... the more versions you have purchased, the less you have to pay

Operator for free...

well now I don't feel so bad.....