I think very seriously that the current tragedy must sound the end of the eLicencer.

…never send to know for whom the bell tolls…

Aside from my suspicion that Steinberg is a gov’t dept, 11 Pro is very good and I’m pleased I managed to upgrade (eventually). Still use Dorico for scores though, outstandingly good software. Not that keen on the dongle, but Vienna Symphonic Library uses it too.

…wait, what?! lol

i do concur , however what is the alternative … easy route for hackers to further undermine the worlds best DAW to the point steinberg go bust ???
i hate this dongle thing just as much as anyone but… if anyone has a viable alternative then lets see it
maybe start a poll with other options then the winning option gets forwarded to new features requests
:slight_smile:

Both Ableton and Studio One are openly pirated, and yet they seem to have a great revenue still. I think ultimately, the answer is to make a product that people are happy to pay for whether they’re forced through a dongle or not.

People who pirate, generally, were never going to buy the software anyway, but those on the fence may try a pirated version for a year or two, fall in love with it (Or rather have projects dependant on it) and it could lead to a legit purchase when they’re financially able to do so.

So, i can appreciate the sentiment whereby software that is readily pirated can positively promote the usage of it… What’s not clear is whether that increased userbase would still equate the same revenue longterm.

Too many unknown factors, really. And i don’t know what kind of overheads/burden supporting a hardware dongle is financially for Steinberg vs the potential loss of revenue if they dropped it.

The other option, of course, is how everything else is going to a monthly subscription - that may ultimately prove to be the answer.

good point
i like the slate idea of the ilock and cloud based security .
whereupon you leave youre i lock at home and use cloud dongle for …lets say out of house work or even permanent
one step further could be
dongle … one time purchase but then cloud based dongle from then on in whereupon the user programes the activation code him or herslf into the dongle which then uploads the new permissions into the cloud…
this way … no server overload no usb real estate lost etc.
maybe the freedom of choice would be the seller …
however i would love to get my hands on the RED dongle the workers at Steinberg have , oooooh yeah …all access to all products on one little red usb stick :slight_smile:

This is how i would see a monthly sub panning out, Steinberg would kill it if they had an ‘everything’ bundle. I’d find it very hard to resist. And of course, the business model works as within a few months of subscribing you have projects reliant on all the assets you’ve used from their collection - so they have you by the balls! :slight_smile:

+1
having both “Dongle” and “Cloud Based” would be a great help

This is also how UAD.LUNA have recently implemented
(and this is also how propellerhead.REASON has been for some time also)

+1 on that. If I can leave my key at the studio but have access to the licence on the move with my laptop I’m very happy

… For those of us with patchy internet access in the world though I dont want to see cloud only licence

hi mart !
this would only be log in log off only
if all else fails the H/W dongle would still work…
the benifits of this would stop server overloads in the future while we could upload our own activation code to our stick via cloud or viseversa

What do you expect them do have instead? I think the dongle is because it is not network dependent, unless for the cases when it need to be altered. However the new download mechanism is not good. They implement a user tracking mechanism that I dont think is on a safe level from GDPR violation. You can maybe motivate the online check if you dont have a other mechanism to verify legitimise usage of the product. They have the dongle, so it is not needed.

Perhaps one could look at all the other DAWs for ideas on how to implement a licensing scheme without using a dongle.

The dongle is there for the benefit of Steinberg, and has no benefit to the customer. Now we are seeing another problem it causes for the customer. They need to move away from this legacy solution that detracts from the customer experience.

I don’t think this has anything to do with the dongle. Even if the dongle was retired, the license still has to be downloaded from the server to the hard drive. And I am not a particular fan of the dongle but I accept it as the way they have chosen to protect or at least greatly reduce piracy.
This may hurt so you may want to look away…
It more likely signals the end or at least a change to the Grace Period. The Grace Period is really the problem here. So many people (including me) were waiting to activate their licenses that it overwhelmed the license activation process. There were probably six months worth of sales saved up for the release of C11. And now, with all the OVER-REACTION going on, the answer might well be to end or modify the Grace Period policy. I don’t want to see this happen as I like the Grace Period policy. If I don’t need new features badly, I buy and wait until a version that has new features I want or need. But we may have forced it by making such a huge deal out of this.

So all about the money then.

Customers saving money by not using the software they have paid for to get the next update apparently free. Is that really a saving or just a poor way of trying to compute costs. Time is money after all.

Cheers
David

Update completed. Thank you Steinberg. Real fast solution.

Yes, they’re getting a $100 upgrade for $60 due to buying x.5 during the 40% off summer sale.
To move from C10 to C11 would usually cost around $150-160 i think, so that’s a hell of saving, $60 every 2 years for every full update.

Actually, I think it was $37 during the summer sale. I went from C10 to C11 for $37. And I think I went from C9 to C10 two years ago for (IIRC) $25. And similarly from C8 to C9. It used to be a great thing but people kept advertising it all over the forum and then this happened. Now, I imagine they will switch, at least, to an immediate activation at purchase like most other audio and video software. So, at least you can’t buy during a sale and wait six months. At least, that is what I would be thinking if I were Steinberg… I am not sure where people are getting the idea that the dongle is to blame. Although the dongle MIGHT be standing in the way of an immediate activation at purchase because of the need to have it available… Not sure about that part though.

Roland do a Cloud based authorisation but it is rubbish. It slows down the pc and doesn’t like it if you re offline. I like the dongle. Also all others require online authorisation which in itself can be a problem

Exactly my thought. Still wondering what all the fuss concerning the dongle is about.
I can understand that it could be an issue for those working with laptops, but even : it has an USB key format. And each and every one of us are using USB keys, these days, I guess. So… :confused:

Beside this, I’ll ditch immediatly any software which will need an internet connection to be used on a daily basis. As simple as that…

For me, it’s mainly laziness. I have a small studio space where the dongle is located which is outside of my house. When i’m indoors i may just want to load a project up, or write some music - but i can’t without the dongle, so have to pop to the studio to pick the dongle up. Many times i end up not getting it, as i just can’t be bothered to trek out (Esp when cold).

The only other way around that is to constantly travel with my dongle ‘incase’ i need it, but then i worry that i’ll lose it or it gets broken.

None of this was a real problem until we had lockdown in the UK in spring, where the building where i’d used it last was locked overnight, and i had no access. I used Reaper and Studio One Sphere subscription over that period and i loved being able to run them on any machine i wanted.