idea: loyalty prices for longtime purchasers?

[fnord23]

I doubt I'm the first person to think about this, but I wonder if/when software companies like Ableton will get on recognizing when a user has been a longtime customer, and give them breaks on upgrade pricing in relation to how long they have been paying for the product.

For example, I bought my first edition of Ableton Live at V4, I could see upgrading to V5 being about $150 to get the new features developed in the previous year. But subsequent upgrades should start to decrease the cost. This helps keep your user base up-to-date, which in turn likely makes support a bit easier. For example, I know a lot of people who stopped updating Live at V5 and are still waiting for the next big jump in the software before they buy it again. That is 3 versions of the software where Ableton has missed out on getting some money from them to support the work of the previous year.

So here I am having paid upgrade feed all the way to V8, but I would still likely pay the same to upgrade to V9 as one of my friends who hasn't paid Ableton anything since V8. If anything I could see the web shop look at what licenses are in your account, and pro-rate the upgrade price based on that. So after something like 5 or 6 years of keeping pace with the software's development, an upgrade to the latest version would be something like $40, maybe less even. That gives me WAY more incentive to keep up with the current version rather than an annual $150 or more hit.

It would also provoke me to upgrade to larger packages, such as adding Max for Live or going to the suite, as the cross-grade cost could also be pro-rated to how long you have been paying for the Live application.

At a certain point I think the discounts would flatten out, like someone who has used Live since V2 should only be paying $20 for each new version of the software. Keeps their loyalty and keeps them up to date with support, so even if they go insane and decide to use ProTools as their main DAW, they'd likely always keep Live updated in the back of their hard drive just in case they want to go back.

Anyway, just a thought I wanted to throw out there to see what people's feedback would be. I think a lot more people would keep their software "legit" if it were cheaper to keep it "legit", while still supporting development.

Thanks.

[jamief]

i have version 1 liscense so yes

[UKRuss]

Welcome back b0unce!

[kb420]

Is that really b0unce?

[halcyon days]

I doubt I'm the first person to think about this, but I wonder if/when software companies like Ableton will get on recognizing when a user has been a longtime customer, and give them breaks on upgrade pricing in relation to how long they have been paying for the product.

Upgrade pricing is the discount, but it's essentially a three tier pricing system.

* Upgrade rewards a customer of any duration
* Cross-grade converts non-customers to customers
* Street-Price takes advantage of non-customers who've 'got to have it now'.

It's a nice idea but when you consider that the mean time between upgrades is probably a year or more it ends up being pretty cheap given the amount of work that goes into bug fixes and whatnot.

I've been a customer since about 2.x I think, upgrading from Lite.. I think most upgrades cost about $100-200 which I think is fair. That's about the sweet spot for feature refreshes.

I just picked up the Max upgrade for $100 (Live and Max5 owner).. That's less than I'll spend on records this month. Not a bad deal.

[LoopStationZebra]

Is that really b0unce?

The spittle isn't flying yet, so the verdict is still out in my mind.

[Tone Deft]

no mention of stability issues, I doubt it's him.

[toxictobi]

good idea, I bought every update since V2 and stopped at Live6 because of being tired to spend for updates yearly, that should have been free (e.g. L4->L5),
I now plan on updating but even with able10 discount for the for live8 suite update, I think I spend way too much for it in fact more than twice the price of a new live8 suite!
But this will hopefully be the "last update" for me...

[beats me]

I wonder how hard it would be for Ableton to farm thier user information to check for trends on how many people upgrade every version and how many people skip a version or 2. Then they could determine if this might be something worth doing.

[alex.the.forge]

well, it took them a while but NI finally offered an upgrade path for Komplete 2 owners and now I can upgrade to Komplete 6 for $169 which is amazing in my books.... only wish I had $169 spare !

Something like that for the Suite might not be a bad thing

[Slightlydelic]

why would they possably give a bigger discount to people the longer they have been into live, afterall they are the people most likely to part with money for an upgrade whatever the cost, and particularly so if the cost is inline with the historic norm.

[nuxnamon]

ableton is like a drug dealer... they give you good deals at first but when your hooked, your Fu^%$d!

[Machinesworking]

Good idea. Though I love MOTU's upgrade scheme, it's $199, hasn't changed in years, and doesn't matter which version of DP you have. Upgraded from 2.7 to 5 for $199, skipped 6, and when I get through with other expenses, I'll get 7 for $199. It's sort of the anti loyalty, actual use plan. DP6 wasn't that great for some people, but everyone loves DP7, so I skip a rotten one, and don't get punished for doing so, upgrading live 6 to 8 is $249 for instance.

[OvertoneZero]

loyalty is overrated... what have you done for me lately?

[pulsoc]

Do you really think Ableton don't have PAID staff figuring out how to milk as many pennies as possible out of everyone?

Hey why don't you run your idea by Budweiser, I'm sure they'll give you some LOYALTY REWARD POINTS or some such bullshit.