Cubase PRO lifetime updates for free

Cubase
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FL Studio has to sell free upgrades, because that’s how they can stand out in a crowded market. Being a little facetious: They can do this, because they sell at a low price, so there’s tons of wannabe bedroom producers who buy it, try it, and then move on, so there’s a reasonable revenue stream of 16-year-olds with their first convenience store paycheck to spend. (A new batch every year!) (Some of my favorite EDM artists use FL studio, so, this is just an illustration of a business model!)

Cubase does not use that business model. Cubase is an ecosystem, largely for people who do integrated media and music production, plus a number of other use cases. The market of Cubase users does not get a new batch of high schoolers to sell to every year, so they need a different model to keep the product alive and moving with the times. That model is a higher initial selling price (for the Pro version,) and a somewhat-regular upgrade price.

If you rely on Cubase, and get value out of it, and want it to keep thriving as a production software suite, then you should keep paying them money. If you’re OK with FL Studio, and don’t need Cubase, then you should not pay Steinberg money for Cubase. That’s how business works! Asking for things for free might be nice wishful thinking, but remember the saying: “whenever you’re not paying for the product, you ARE the product!”

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CB11 Pro to CB 12 Pro =£90. =Bring it on!!

Popping in car dealer later to negotiate £0 upgrade on the new model to mine… It’s only fair…
As someone said earlier… Pointless discussion.
Just buy FL… Feel good.

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Excellent!

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before writing you have to read

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Pro Tool does offer a perpetual license but they are trying to phase it out. With Pro Tools you have a perpetual licences but you have to pay every year for the support plan and updates. That costs about $200 every year and if you lapse over 12 months that’s it. No more updates and no more reinstatement so your stuck with your last version and no updated every again. It has been like that since they stopped selling perpetual reinstatments . Last year, for the first time in about two years, they sold perpetual reinstatements for 3 weeks as a special offer. But if they never do that again (which they have said they will not continue with perpetual reinstatements) then users have to pay $200 per year, every year, for their updates and they cannot skip a year without being frozen out forever.

So Pro Tools is twice as expensive as Cubase per year.

But with Cubase you do get free updates until they stop supporting that version which Pro tools does not offer, You have to pay for your support plan to get the updates with Pro Tools.

I do not find Cubase to be expensive but I do find Pro Tools to be expensive and quite often with Pro Tools the changes they offer in updates are very small.

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Every DAW developer has to think of a business model that generates enough revenue to keep the company running and pay the employees.
There are probably as many models out there as there are DAWs, and every approach is valid, and what works for one company wouldn’t necessarily work for another.

Logic is of course subsidized by Apple and their hardware. ProTools is expensive and targeted to studios and the post pro world (there’s still money in there). Reaper is cheap, because the founder is a dotcom multimillionaire who wouldn’t need to charge anything for it and still could afford to develop it for years (also, a lot of work is outsourced to the community). FL studio - I really have no idea how they make it work. A lean operation most likely, but the fact that they also sell plugins and more and more sound packs and loops makes me think that the “lifetime update” thing isn’t the most sustainable way. Bitwig is a quasi-subscription, and Live updates are less often, but even more expensive.

The price for a Cubase license today is less than it was 20 years ago, but updates are more expensive (remember the times when we got .5 updates for free?). When the perceived value of an update isn’t good for me because it offers nothing I need, I buy it later in a summer sale, and maybe use the old “register-the-update-within-the-grace-period-of-the-new-release-to-get-that-for-free” trick. That way, you pay like 50-60 bucks every two years for the updates.
So if you can live without immediately having the latest and greatest version of Cubase, updates can be had for a lot less…

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I think a lot of people in these forums need a serious reality check.
I work as an engineer during the days and one of my CAD programs charge $7,500+/year for a single user license.
Cubase is a highly sophisticated cutting edge program developed for professionals. To think $100/year is asking a lot is laughable.

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That’s the problem… Most bedroom musicians think they are ‘professionals’ and don’t realize what working an actual job in the industry actually means. I’m a ‘bedroom producer’ nowadays, and I know damn well if I want to use the big boys toys, I have to pay the big boys toys money. Otherwise there are plenty of other options that will get you to the same place like Garageband, Reaper, etc.

I can still remember the veins popping out of my bosses head at UC Santa Barbara when I got the quotes for one our architects AutoCAD and GIS licenses haha.

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@Logico

Seriously dude??? Apple makes your OS outdated which FORCES your fav DAW company to DROP old versions. Blame this ALL on APPLE where it belongs.
Oh, and Logic stopped being upgradeable here as well. Time for a new Mac.

Forced bricking of your shiny Mac is Apples doing as well it is NOT Steinberg doing this.

$100 a yr is fine for a Cubase update IF all they did was squash bugs and work on workflow. We have no need of new VST Instruments that suddenly get dropped for technical reasons. Not to mention they sucked anyway.

Protools does not have a lifetime anything. If you think that you are confused for sure.
IF you like a subscription model have at it.

Bite the bullet and switch to Logic. You will be pissed when the current Logic won’t run on your old Mac though. (Experience).

Open Core Legacy Patcher, memorize that. Im running Monterey on a 2013 iMac that APPLE says can’t run the current Logic. (But I am now). Current Cubase as well. Tada

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34

I’m a bedroom producer (ha ha, as if!), i don’t think $100 annually is too much to pay for a working Cubase update!

Don’t know much/anything about the other sequencers, and i almost exclusively do live recordings. Cubase is pretty good for that kind of stuff.

I don’t do beats, for better or worse!

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IF you are doing live recording Reaper is a great option. $60. It saved my butt on a live recording here. Classical pianist looking at me like what’s up? Are you ready I said as the other DAW I was using wouldn’t work with the audio device driver. Booted up Reaper while he was staring at me. Rolling… Whenever you are ready

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Yeah, I’m a CAD/CAM guy myself. Software prices are scary! I think Cubase prices are a bargain for what you get. Two different worlds with completely different paybacks, I guess …

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nice one

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Unfortunately developers cant live off the earnings produced by their software! I know the feeling when an update doesn’t have anything to offer ( me ) so I wait a few versions until something sparks my interest and the upgrade cost feels like I paid for all the interim versions anyway!

But $ 100 ( Cubase ) -$ 200 ( Nuendo ) per year isn’t unreasonable even for a hobby. It’s equivalent to a monthly subscription of $10-15 per month , which is where I think we will inevitably end up. At least then you could subscribe/unsubscribe at will to ensure you were only paying when you were actively using the app.

Pro’s and Con’s either way, but payment is a required part of anyone doing work for us! Although for most of my projects I may as well be working for free… lol

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The prices of CAD software need to come down as there are many more ‘hobby’ and home maker users getting into the software, some vendors of that kind of software have free or a cheaper variant with appropriate features to suit that market which is good, but there are segments that require features the home hobbyist will never need so the businesses who need it, solely pay for it.

to add to the thread:

Steinberg does the same, Nuendo is more priced for businesses that make a decent profit, and the Cubase range is priced so a hobbyist can spend a range of prices for differing features.

  • Free upgrades in perpetuity? NEVER GONNA HAPPEN.

how about this:

  • Bugfixes after a new version comes out? I want that. A feature freeze but all bugs that resolved as newer version come out are backported to an older version you pay extra for than the base version would be something I’d want. I’d even pay for it.

To elaborate - Steinberg sets up a dedicated team funded solely by LTS sales and their job is solely to backport fixes that the main line dev team addresses and are applicable to the older version, then if there are still bugs left over they fix those too and are pushed to the main line team, if all bugs are fixed then the move onto fixing the main line version’s current release and that then becomes the next LTS release.

So from the customer’s perspective in doing this the customers willing to pay for such an LTS version like ‘Cubase 12 LTS’ or ‘Nuendo 12 LTS’ (Long Term Support), maybe like at the cost of $300 on top of buying the software / upgrading to it, they get all the fixes & optimizations that are made in newer versions, are backported to the LTS version they buy, while say version 13-14-15-16 or so come out and issues are fixed (that apply to the 12) are backported. Sort of like how Ubuntu linux does it with their LTS releases.

The LTS period should be a long period of time, something like 5-6 years, then when it’s over you keep access to that fully updated version when support ends. Then you can purchase the next base version with LTS which may be version 17 with all features introduced since version 12.

I’d rather be on a constantly more stable version of the same Cubase for a number of years than be on the bleeding edge of new features I didn’t ask for, I don’t need yet another piano rompler, another 1000 sounds, or some creative effect, just improve the core reliability and resilience of the DAW, I’m already bought into it and invested, just fix the damn bugs.

Though it would be a tacit admission that the product is ‘less than perfect’ but anyone who has bought Steinberg software and read the Release Notes for any patch, or used the software for a while is not under any illusion that this is not the case.

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Yeah it would be nice to have something like 4 years of big fixes and stability releases for each version.

I would say that Cubase Pro and Nuendo are both Business products. They are aimed at different markets. Cubase Pro is a studio music production product and Nuendo is a post production house product. But there is a sliding scale with Cubase Artist etc for hobbyists.

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Devs have bills to pay too you know. I’m not against paid updates if new features are good and they don’t break more stuff. What I want from Cubase updates is better quality control.

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I actually think Cubase Pro at $99 for an upgrade is not expensive at all for what you get. Right now a Pro Tools Studio subscription is $300 a year! I got Pro Tools only to be able to open sessions created in another studio. Total rip off for what I need it for.

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Indeed. In fact, when adjusted for inflation the price has dropped over the years.

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I would agree 100% if one got an upgrade/product that performs as advertised/expected.

I think there are many that would say the cost was too expensive, only because their C12 is performing so far from that standard.

It’s not black and white therefore, IMO.

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