Announcement concerning the future of license management for Steinberg products

The hard part of living with aging minds: we can still think as well as we always could, and with a great deal more experience. We just can’t do it as consistently as we used to, nor for as long as we used to. :grinning:

Too often I find myself thinking, “What was I just thinking?”

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@Ed_Doll

I have several Nuendo & Wavelab licenses with a new person who needs access to a copy. Rather than buying a new dongle which will be obsolete, will there be any issues with licensing them to the computer to be used (the soft eLicensor)? I only ask because Daniel indicates it’s best to stay with a soft Dorico license, I don’t want any issues going dongle<->soft with regards to the future licensing. Thanks -

I really hope that a dongle alternative is still possible as I surely won’t buy a Steinberg software where I have to trust them to get a response code or whatever when I get a new PC or need to reinstall. Otherwise you have seen the last cent from me.

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DaddyO - tell me about it!! lol!

Good News!
I’ve been waiting for that soooo long!
There are much better (more flexible) licensing systems out there e.g. Plugin Alliance or iLok.
Thanks!

It’s great news.

I’m in no position to offer advice but I would say this: delivering on that pledge of “seamless migration” is going to be unbelievably important.

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It’s too early to reveal anything yet. We want to make the transition for both USB-eLicenser and Soft-eLicenser users as seamless as possible.

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I hope it will be possible to use Dorico on more than one computer. Every other company allows using their software on at least two machines.
I also hope the license is cross-platform.
I have not completely switched to Dorico from Sibelius because I cannot use it on my macbook, having been already licensed on my Windows pc.

If the dongle goes away, I could even consider buying some Cubase edition

It goes without saying that it will be cross platform. Their products are cross platform, and would therefore need to be authorized on both.

Le dongle ne me gene pas non plus. J’espère que la nouvelle solution aura que des avantages et que l’on ne sera pas obligé d’avoir une connexion internet.

… OMG… !

Interesting, thanks Daniel. Here is what I would like to see:

  1. Two licenses for one single user, so people can use Dorico on e.g. a work computer and a home computer. Or a desktop and a laptop, if you are on the road. This is what Sibelius has now (and I think it’s an advantage of Sibelius over Dorico) There are companies that have more licenses per user (e.g. Arturia with I believe 5 licenses, and Omnisphere / Spectrasonics or Cockos Reaper with no limit at all, and from a user perspective that is lovely, but obviously it does create a risk of e.g. having a school with 300 pupils all happily working on one license which is probably not what you would want.

  2. The ability to transfer the license(s) from the dongle to a computer and back, similar to iLok. This way people who don’t want to take their dongle on the road for fear of losing it, won’t have to.

  3. A simple and reliable system to move licenses back and forth. You should be online when activating or transferring a license, but otherwise you shouldn’t have to be. “Reliable” meaning avoid drama like iLok has had, or Avid Link to some users (not me though).

  4. Have good 24/7 support for any tech drama which at least inasfar as registration and license issues is concerned, should not be dependent on having the most recent version of Dorico.

Good luck with everything!

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Yes, this would be amazing…!

“The future will be dongle-free,” according to the announcement.

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I would LOVE to have 2 licenses, I dread taking my Elicencer out for remote recordings with my laptop.

dongles and USB adapters and the new computers don’t use the USB type A
:sunglasses:

My elicenser dongle died the other day, so I’ve just bought a nice new one. Works fine, can I keep using it, particularly as Virsyn Matrix requires the dongle too?

I’ve always been ok with the dongle - I’ve only been against the use of it for demoing the software.

In fact, I’d be happy to keep the dongle but just have Cubie and Dorico not go bananas if it happens to come out of its socket. (Not saying that’s a regular occurrence but mine’s been gaffer taped up for over a decade and is rather delicate).

Overall I think I agree with a transition away from dongles if that’s what you’re doing, especially since it’s hard to insure a software dongle as an end user.

Sounds good as long as this does NOT represents a stealthy first step to a subscription-based only, type of licensing.

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We have already stated on several occasions that the change in license management system is not in any way connected to the introduction of subscription pricing. It is a change in license management technology, not our entire business model.

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