leedsquietman wrote:gjm, I like you and sympathize with your plight but your post sounds pretty bitter because for whatever retarded reason, you can't get the edu discount (so ABleton suck on that point too, if your job description is accurate).
HOwever, the fact remains that scrapping the upgrade discount seems like a bad decision in these rough economic times. There's already evidence of some people who would have upgraded who haven't and for sure, this will just lead more people to running cracks. They won't settle for Live LE because of integrity issues. because unlike you, most people have no integrity.
It's very sad that I can upgrade Cubase for 30 dollars less and that's TWO generations behind - this would not have been the case with the edu discount. I have bought Live 6, upgraded to L7 Suite download, bought numerous items from the ABleton store, hats, laptop bags, tshirts, etc and beta tested Live 7 and 8. I'm not alone, many others on edu have done this stuff too. Ableton don't owe me a dime, and I can walk away, but Ableton have always (in the past) seemed to care about their customers and core loyal users, so I don't view this as whining. Live Suite is considerably more expensive than Logic, Sonar, Cubase, Protools LE, DP and Samplitude now, because the competitors have slashed prices, while Ableton have increased theirs. It makes no sense - volume sales - ever heard of it !!
Apologies, I did not mean to sound bitter. I'm simply not. Ableton told me 6 or so months ago that I could not qualify for and Edu discount because of the technicality I mentioned. Schools works differently here I guess than other countries, and hence the Edu 'Model' their discounting is based on does not provide a space for me. Thats fine, I'll just find another way to get the job done. I don't think Ableton suck. I think that they simply suffer from the limitations of being impersonal. The local Sibelius rep viewed my website, and after a couple of phone calls was happy to see that I was genuine in my profession and gave me the Edu deal for the full blown version. Saved me $900. No brainer really. So I spent my money. Point is, I have had 6 months to get over the disappointment of Ableton's policies. But in saying that, the Abe's have set rules to run their business, and so... end of story. I chose perhaps an impolite way to say, 'just get over it, and get on with it.' I have.
I agree with you that scrapping a discount pathway for people who were building their musical experience around it is very disappointing. Gutting really. And they WILL seek out the cracks. I got my oldest boy into Acid express, with his two best mates. They are all 14 yrs old. Within 2 weeks the other two had cracks of Acid Pro and DL'd over 2 gig of samples.
I'd be amazed if Ableton have simply picked these numbers out of a hat. More likely they have done market research, and have retained professional help to set pricing based on what they offer the market. They are not a charity, nor primarily philanthropic. They have retirement funds to contribute to and lifestyles to uphold. Its business. Unfortunately, I, as well as many others will only contribute in a minimal way, or not at all. In fact, with the exchange rate, I could upgrade Logic Express to studio for the same/less than just the basic version of Live 8. Like you say, there is value for money on offer elsewhere.
iMac - 10.10.3 - Live 9 Suite - APC40 - Axiom 61 - TX81z - Firestudio Mobile - Focal Alpha 80's - Godin Session - Home made foot controller
Thank you, Ableton!
