Yes, this is what’s overlooked by the customer. The protection keeps Steinberg in business, the software in existence, and all its features to exist.
On a side note, I have never once thought the dongle was a pain. Or, wait… that older, longer dongle stuck out too far, but the newer shorter one, perfectly fine. So, this licensing change, well… I’m anxious to see how it’s gonna be better.
But, I’m here for it, regardless.
best wishes for Greg Ondo on today’s hangout 
Yep, poor sod, will deserve a pay rise after tonight…
Why did Apple get rid of DRM protection on music? Why do platforms like Gog.com work without copy protection? There is even a study by Rice University and Duke University that there is less piracy if you remove copy protection completely.
That may not be true in the case of Cubase because, as I read it, there is no current pirated copy at all.
But in the case of the largest CMS system, Wordpress, that is definitely the case. For that, there are numerous paid plugins and themes, most of which have annual subscriptions. Because the Wordpress GPLv2 license extends to the plugins/themes, they are actually all available for free as well and there are some sites that provide them, but the providers still make good revenue. One of the top themes has sold 754,000 times for $60. Customers just appreciate the support and automatic updates.
And even if there are pirated copies, they ultimately help the market share in the social media space. And new customers are also generated again via the presence on the Internet. Cubase urgently needs a breath of fresh air here. If you compare Cubase and Ableton Live on Google Trends, Ableton wins in almost all countries.
Sad, but thanks for the answer.
Steinberg censorship did like a link to google trends.
When I remember the 90s where you had to pay 3000,- to 5000,- bucks for a synth, also samplers and fx devices where super expensive, trackers and sequencers basic. Today we get ALL of this and mastering tools in one package and still I read post here where some people don’t accept to give 99,- bucks for the hard work on product feature updates and want nearly unlimited grace periods 
…
Dear Matthias,
how does Studio One’s Native M1 5.4.0 Version manage to run non-native vst 2 Plugins and cubase 12 will not?
People know damn well Universal Audio, Native Instruments will never release VST 3 versions of their plugins, so does Steinberg expect people to get rid of such big vendors plugins? 
Hmm, well I’m not sure how you would study piracy on a product that doesn’t actually copy protect. I’m curious about their methodology. Not saying it isn’t possible.
I’m sure the brains at Steinberg have analyzed the pros and cons. Their user base is definitely limited because of how good their protection has been, for sure. And the free model has shown to work, true. But if it were a hands-down better choice, then everyone would be jumping on board. I’m sure it’s different depending on the case. Non-DRM protected music? That just makes good sense, to me. But a full-featured DAW? I dunno. Isn’t Bandlab trying this? How many people do I know who are willing to shell out for Pro Tools because that’s what they all use in L.A.? Does Avid need to change their protection scheme? I just think it’s a complicated thing. Personally, I don’t care about free music software, because I’m so many years into Cubase, I’d rather not be bothered to learn something new and just pay the $100 to upgrade. But, now I’m not even talking about copy protection anymore.
Hmm… would be interesting to know how Ableton Live or Presonus S1 have implemented it. If there is also some kind of regular connection to their key servers and a “time-out”. It may be something similar but nobody complains. Anyone knows?
If I have Cubase 10.5 Elements with a soft e-licenser, What will happen to my Cubase? Do I get to upgrade to something? Will there be a link to that kind of upgrade? Will it be free? Thanks!
No, it will just take 13 minutes longer to start up Cubase, but I wouldn’t worry, the lack of oxygen and high radiation levels will have killed you long before then.
Are you updating the RND plugin bundle and the Yamaha vintage bundle to the new Steinberg Licensing system?
Underwater is fine. As is in post-apocalyptic subterranean cave-cities. So we shouldn’t panic too much.
Except for those who have had their brains transferred into cybernetic bodies for future colonization., let’s be clear…
Agreed. Vital to create stems of a project when finished. Though one great thing about Cubase is that it has managed to keep projects able to be opened across a large number of version upgrades. I have far more problems with defunct or forgotten third party plugs.
But what about the impending Robot Apocalypse, will the new license registration system still work after our AI overlords have taken hold of Steinbergs servers? because if not I’m sorry I’m out
in heat!
let me get this straight. steinberg, the inventor of the VST format can’t manage to run vst2 in their native m1 cubase, but studio one can run vst 2 intel plugins in their m1 daw? how? HOW???
Only my personal reasoning, but I expect they actively want developers to move to VST3?
There’s features in Cubase that require VST3 format to operate, and seemingly their issue with plugin scaling on 4k/HiDPI displays is reportedly worse with VST2 formats.