Steinberg e-licenser to Steinberg licensing

Cubase
41

Cubase 10 was released six years ago to the day tomorrow… And you think Steinberg should just give you a free update just because you don’t pay attention to what is going on?

That is not their fault YOU only found out the eLicenser was being discontinued recently, and you do not want to upgrade as often as they would like. That is not their fault that times change and 6 years later the newer versions of the software (4 now since you bought yours) are using a new protection scheme. Not to mention, you’ve had PLENTY of opportunities over the last six years to move on at discounted prices.

Everyone knew the eLicenser’s day was coming for well over 4 years now when they announced they were moving away from it. The absurd sense of entitlement from some people nowadays…

42

Yes many of us here share that journey, the userbase is one of the most mature out there in my experience.

But it’s all pretty meaningless if we just decided to not support Steinberg for half a decade, as they’d go under and fail to exist.

You see, Support works both ways, and attempting to blackmail a company by saying you’ll go elsewhere if they don’t treat you in a different manner to others is just childish if you want my honest opinion.

43

Yes, let’s blame the users!
Steinberg’s hands are tied.

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44

I think you need to re-read this thread, particularly @SoundOf 's post above.

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That’s right. There are going to be comparisons between versions where not a large amount has been added, but certainly once you go to 3+ ‘levels’ of difference it’s quite significant. Comparing Cubase 10 to Cubase 14 for example shows a big difference in functionality.

Yeah, a tape deck or mic from decades ago might still sound great but it also didn’t gain functionality.

The way you should look at it is that your tape deck might break and then you have to service it. Same with the U87. Costs money. If your eLicenser breaks after the servers are shut off and you can’t get it serviced then your “service” fee will be the cost of a new license of Cubase.

You can think of the upgrade as “insurance” toward that possibility. You would be betting (today) $250 to maybe “save” $320 in the future. But, you’re also getting a bunch of valuable new features along with that insurance.

So now put this all together and think about it for a minute: You got Cubase 10 about 6 years ago, presumably you would have paid around $330 (current price) for it which means $55 per year, or $1 per week, roughly. Assuming then that you can get another 6 years out of Cubase 14 you would be looking at $0.80 per week ‘as insurance’ and with all the new features.

I get it, we want to be able to buy stuff and keep it for a long time. In your case the cost is lower per time unit on average, which is good, and on top of that Steinberg doesn’t have a habit of doing this. This is the first time ever that I’ve seen this and I see no technical or business reason to do it again any time soon.

Lastly; please stop using words like “fraud” and “blackmail” because those words have an actual meaning and there are legal ramifications from actual fraud and blackmail and the words should not be thrown around lightly.

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46

Plus 1

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47

No. They only need to move the right to update from the old system to the new and declare that it is the license that are updated are the licenses that are on your account and the dongle is now obsoleted.

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48

I’m capable of reading, thank you very much :slight_smile:
I also read and understood SoundOf’s post and have nothing to argue there.

What really irritates me though is the need to defend Steinberg and blame the OP, while belittling him/her in the process.

Let’s face the facts for a minute:
Steinberg decides to switch to another licensing system, decides to drop support for the old one somewhen next year. No problem so far.

But they also decide that I can’t update after that, but have to pay the full price.
Today, I can update from v6 to v14 for 250 bucks. The day after “end-of-service” in a few months I have to pay 580 bucks even though I have v11.
This is also a decision made by Steinberg, it’s not god-given, it’s a decision from them which isn’t very user friendly.

But apart from that: What would have stopped Steinberg from better communication?
What about " Hey everyone, with the old licensing model being laid to rest and Cubase 14 around the corner, we would strongly suggest to upgrade your stuff during our anniversary sale,"

What about better communication from the support when I explicitly asked them about future possibilities to jump on the new licensing?

Or what about taking all of the old users with them by auto-upgrading everyone to v12, as I suggested earlier. It’s already an old version by now and would probably have had a much better impact on sales as well as on positive feedback.

These are things that you should be allowed to criticize as a user, without being blamed for missing a sale or not upgrading earlier.
Guess I shouldn’t have worn that skirt?

And all the people arguing that you still have the version you paid for are missing the point that there is a difference of 300 bucks when not deciding to (or being able to) update before “end-of-service”.

It’s not like anyone wants anything for free. It’s about not pressuring people to pay now or pay even more later.

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49

That statement was not seriusly, but sense of the dongle was to avoid this, that´s why I mention this contradiction, thats not mine.
I didn´t decide that was needed elicenser and now not.
Regarding I had opportunities to upgrade, I didn´t received no email from Steinberg, and I´m not subscribed to any newslatter so my email should be plenty of newslaters, so I unsusbribe for all by default.
I have hardware and software unsupported, of course. But one of my preamps, or a keyboard may die, but doesn´t depend from e dongle.
The argument that I didn´t supported a company it´s absurd. For the same reasoning I can tell you didn´t support any company you used. I f you bought a plugin, or and app, you got a s-n, and even you didn´t update and probably many will can run on windows 11, but in case is important for you and the company is dead, still can use it on a XP if you keep the s/n righ?

Now we are discussing about Steinberg. I have a cubase Pro 10 on a dongle. It´s on a dongle because Steinberg decided it. Its ok for me and I dont´need Pro 14, yo yes, it can die, like thousands of sofware and hardware companies that simply didn´t have market.
But I paid for a sofware, and did software depends on a server elicenser “THEY” decide I must use. NOT ME. That means that if the dongle is damaged, I will cannot use the software, that was what I bought.
I DIDN´T BOUGHT ELICENSER. I bought Cubase 10 pro…, if upgrade or not is my decision like the decision of buying any oher piece of sofware or hardware, but none of them depends on a third party enterprice (elicenser) to work.

Acuse me to “support” a company is as absurd as I should ask you why you don´t support a company I like. This a market and one thing is that I may want spend money for the updates (if worth for me), and other thing is that I maybe will canot use the sofware already bought just by a “company” politic. It has no sense at all.
Is like you buy Photoshop, and after some time for any reason, using the same OS, and Photoshop version you can not use it because the licence was on the cloud (example), and now that cloud server (here is a dongle), doesn´t exist anymore.
For me does have any sense.

50

There is no pressure. If people want to buy an update that’s entirely on them.

If they have a failed dongle after the shut-down, Steinberg have said contact them as they have individual solutions to that also.

Just because someone makes a dramatic post with the words blackmail in it, doesn’t make it fact. It’s all quite clearly defined:

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51

I agree that offering a free update to v12 might be a reasonable thing to do.

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52

I´m not asking a free update.
I just want keep using Cubase 10. The “support” issue of the “dongle” was cause by THEM, not me. So the bad idea is from them, not from me if now decide is bad. I dont need, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 cubase version. Even I upgrade this is simply, will I expend another 300 on a company that have the licence “online”?? what will happen if that fail? Have you thought about that??

53

Trouble is, for users that want to continue running older versions on hardware that the new licensing won’t run on. Which I presume is the position that @lagoausente is concerned most on.

Having a C12 license won’t help them if their dongle breaks, for example.

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54

Sure.

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Not, users here have said was “rebate” prices for update that I not saw…

and you said I´m asking preference?? is a joke???

56

Fair point. But at least OP would have the option to continue to use C12 if C10 isn’t working anymore.

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57

Well said Uarte!

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58

Sure, but that’s what SB are likely to do when people contact them, they just aren’t going to put that information out publicly as many will exploit it. But for some that won’t suit, so perhaps they will also have some spare dongles ready activated with C11 on it too. Who knows.

It’s this idea that people are being blackmailed when SB have repeatedly demonstrated that they do what they can to support users both new and old.

It’s wrong to fall into this mindset and make such presumptions and start throwing such words around.

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59

Users complained for YEARS that Cubase required a dongle and Steinberg listened to the complaints and switched. I prefer a dongle, but it is what it is. Now I have to use the cloud stuff.

If you want to keep using Cubase 10 you can. If your dongle breaks then contact support. That’s it. @skijumptoes posted a link to that statement several times now.

I’m not sure what you want to happen now. If you want to keep using Cubase 10 you can, you just have to have a working dongle. This cannot change. If you want to update to the latest system you currently have to pay: You can either wait for another sale or buy it earlier.

Now, you can also “lobby” for a discount to get Steinberg to charge you less for an upgrade, but the question then is if the language you use is the most productive to reach that goal (?).

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60

Yes… that´s the reason I using the title, jump is just the same!!!, but I must update when they decide? why?