Ableton Forum

So what's the idea of giving discounts to students, teachers, schools etc?

Is it to open a potentially large market - to try and get live to become a standard tool music and multi media courses (almost like a set text).

Or are Ableton just being charitable or seeking to enhance their brand image through appearing charitable ?

I know there may, of course, be some truth in both.

If they are being charitable, well I'm pretty poor and I'd love to get Live at the educational rate!

hakey wrote:So what's the idea of giving discounts to students, teachers, schools etc?

Is it to open a potentially large market - to try and get live to become a standard tool music and multi media courses (almost like a set text).

Or are Ableton just being charitable or seeking to enhance their brand image through appearing charitable ?

I know there may, of course, be some truth in both.

If they are being charitable, well I'm pretty poor and I'd love to get Live at the educational rate!

You speak as if Ableton are the only music software company who gives educational discounts. They aren't.

I think companies offer academic discounts because they figure that with the discount they will make an additional $XXX (where X ≠ 0) and that without the discounts they will make an additional $0.

stringtapper wrote:

hakey wrote:So what's the idea of giving discounts to students, teachers, schools etc?

Is it to open a potentially large market - to try and get live to become a standard tool music and multi media courses (almost like a set text).

Or are Ableton just being charitable or seeking to enhance their brand image through appearing charitable ?

I know there may, of course, be some truth in both.

If they are being charitable, well I'm pretty poor and I'd love to get Live at the educational rate!

You speak as if Ableton are the only music software company who gives educational discounts. They aren't.

Sorry if I gave that impression - but yeah, I know that other DAW companies do it too (when I was at uni I remember there was a maths prog we got at discount).


Just trying to work out if there's any blag I can do to get a cheaper upgrade from Lite.

because kids in school are extremely likely to tell the kid next to them in class about the program they just bought?

Because software is frequently updated and they won't always be in school.

rick-slo wrote:Because software is frequently updated and they won't always be in school.

totally.

I wonder, is it possible there is some sort of tax purposes you would offer discounts to people in college?

Being a student in business perhaps I can shed some light on the subject.

Firstly, in todays business world it is important to develop customer loyalty from the get go. So, edu discounts target a huge demographic of students and teachers. By offering discounts, Ableton hopes that they can create life long customers, not one time purchasers. Therefore, there is a potential for many repeat purchases from a customer who could potential be a loyal user until the end of their life.

Students, as many of you likely once were, are or will be, don't have much money. I mean its obvious, but some kids do appear to have a lot these days. However, a typical canadian university degree of 4 years costs around 60,000. Remember, most students are coming right out of high school, and are relying heavily on grants, loans, scholarships and likely their parents.

So ableton could charge the same for everyone, but that would leave out a huge market share. Now, assume ableton does not have the edu discounts yet. They will create sales that will cover all operating expenses, admin exp, salaries, etc and then hopefully churn out a net income in order to survive. The nature of the business is software, and the true cost of software comes from hiring programmers, investing in R&D, and not the actual physical creation of the product, its only a DVD or a download. Those cost virtually nothing. So, Ableton is presented with an opportunity. To create a serial number and a CD or download, really does not cost them very much. Probably next to nothing. Thus, without going into accounting theory, they can basically sell the product for whatever, after all expenses have been covered, because producing extra units hardly costs them anything. If they were selling boats, it would be a different matter (limits on capacity, time, pricing, materials). So hopefully you can see, if they didn't offer the Edu discounts, in a sense, they would be loosing money. They wouldn't do it if it were costing them money, and they definitely are not doing it to piss anyone off. They simply have an opportunity to reach more people because they can and want to. Hope that helps. [/b]

To puzzle people like you

DaddyHam wrote:Being a student in business perhaps I can shed some light on the subject.

Firstly, in todays business world it is important to develop customer loyalty from the get go. So, edu discounts target a huge demographic of students and teachers. By offering discounts, Ableton hopes that they can create life long customers, not one time purchasers. Therefore, there is a potential for many repeat purchases from a customer who could potential be a loyal user until the end of their life.

Students, as many of you likely once were, are or will be, don't have much money. I mean its obvious, but some kids do appear to have a lot these days. However, a typical canadian university degree of 4 years costs around 60,000. Remember, most students are coming right out of high school, and are relying heavily on grants, loans, scholarships and likely their parents.

So ableton could charge the same for everyone, but that would leave out a huge market share. Now, assume ableton does not have the edu discounts yet. They will create sales that will cover all operating expenses, admin exp, salaries, etc and then hopefully churn out a net income in order to survive. The nature of the business is software, and the true cost of software comes from hiring programmers, investing in R&D, and not the actual physical creation of the product, its only a DVD or a download. Those cost virtually nothing. So, Ableton is presented with an opportunity. To create a serial number and a CD or download, really does not cost them very much. Probably next to nothing. Thus, without going into accounting theory, they can basically sell the product for whatever, after all expenses have been covered, because producing extra units hardly costs them anything. If they were selling boats, it would be a different matter (limits on capacity, time, pricing, materials). So hopefully you can see, if they didn't offer the Edu discounts, in a sense, they would be loosing money. They wouldn't do it if it were costing them money, and they definitely are not doing it to piss anyone off. They simply have an opportunity to reach more people because they can and want to. Hope that helps. [/b]

You want a discount - sign up to do a college course and you got it.

And you might educate yourself in the process Win-Win

And you might meet some hot chicks or if you're the other way inclined some hot dudez ... win-win-win


What you waiting for ? .... Community college is usually fine to qualify you AFAIK.

Maybe somebody could sign up for classes, get their student id card and then drop the classes and get a refund
although... thats wrong.. don't do that...

is the edu thing only for the time someone is in school?

Lot of piracy goes on at universities (it's all that goes on if you believe the RIAA) - offer a discount and you might get a sale (and a junkie on the upgrade path) from someone who might otherwise use a crack. Not saying it's the sole reason, but it probably has a bearing.

no mention of some people using Live as part of their studies?