We all support Steinberg! I think they are a great company!
And I’m quite happy, too, that I noticed @GoranGrooves because of what he was writing here. I clicked on his link, and found he is making and selling fantastic sounding drum plugins and loops 
I guess I’ll have to try some of them out… 
Thank you all who have engaged in an intelligent conversation as opposed to petty personal attacks.
@Cuttlefish, You bring the first solid and valid argument to the table. Coupled with Tyson’s quote, I would think I wrote it myself. 
Yes, the keyword there was “at scale,” and I purposely included it to make a clear differentiation.
I want to provide a little background on me for the sake of context and my point.
While I have a Jazz degree specializing in drums, necessities have forced me to adapt and learn many, many skills not directly relevant to my specialty. I have designed websites, span up, configured, and scaled servers, implemented CDN’s, set up, configured, customized, and maintained e-commerce solutions; integrated various payment solutions; performed web optimizations, and designed and managed the development of custom plugins for them. Over the years I’ve learned some coding to accomplish some of those tasks.
When I decided to release my drum sample libraries, I didn’t take the easy path of jamming them into a Hallion or Kontakt library. I took a much, much harder path of developing my own virtual instruments. I’ve been having to learn to code in HISE programming language (similar to JS), and it is by far the most challenging thing I have ever done. Combine that with everything that comes with software compiling, debugging, packaging, notarizing, signing, stapling…I had to do it all.
So, while I am not an expert in any of these areas by any means, put together, I have a much broader understanding of what it takes to have an operational online store than an average person.
When I am deciding on a path I should take, “hard vs easy” is rarely a part of my calculations.
My daily work for the past few years has been constant learning, inventing, and problem-solving. The reason I am telling you this is to demonstrate that I am no stranger to very challenging work and constant personal development and that my proposal is rooted in knowledge and experience.
So, when I hear certain “reasons”, I recognize them as only being excuses and not actual reasons.
@Cuttlefish You know what the biggest problem is with you holding your best eggs in someone else’s best basket? It is THEIR basket holding YOUR eggs and that you have no control over. That’s the reason Steinberg is in the situation it is in right now.
If we were discussing 3rd party store vs a self-maintained one some years ago, your side of the argument would have a lot more weight, and I would argue otherwise. But, I point to the evidence of what happens when you leave yourself completely vulnerable by placing your main source of revenue at someone else’s control.
So, while there are certain challenges associated with setting up and managing your own store, the benefits far outweigh the effort and seriously cut on potential risk.
@nitrateaudio I am doing it. What you experienced with a fundraising corporation was most likely the right way to go about it. FYI, even when you have and manage your own online store (as I do), you do not take care of the payment processing, retaining, or seeing any sensitive data. That is being done by payment processors. The difference between that and what Steinberg has done is that you can switch a payment processor with a click of a mouse, while if a 3rd party e-commerce provider holds all of your assets, Steinberg’s current reality is the result of what happens when they go bust.
@THambrecht With the right team of people, it can absolutely be done within a few weeks. They don’t have to build anything from scratch, but customize existing components to suit their needs.
And let me point to another piece of evidence here: Steinberg’s website, licensing system, and forum. They are already successfully managing the online traffic, user accounts, and all the necessary functionalities at scale. E-commerce is just another piece of this ecosystem that they can absolutely handle themselves.
@pschneider1968 Any medium-sized company, including Steinberg is made up of various departments staffed with people of different skillsets: designers, marketers, software developers, web developers, accountants etc. depending on each company’s needs. Nobody is suggesting that Steinberg switch their business model to become an e-commerce provider 
The missing piece of the ecosystem they have to re-integrate should be in their ownership and control.
It would require precisely 0 additional accountants for them to manage their shop. All of the necessary data gets exported and organized automatically. This would be no different from what they had in the past.
And speaking of paying unnecessary fees: who do you think pays 3rd party providers like Asknet and how much? They are not doing it for free, are they? Their fees are on top of the payment processing fees (VISA, MC). The money wasted there could be better used to have a full-time online store manager and have leftovers.
I have full confidence that Steinberg would successfully manage their own e-shop, but I have very little confidence in their current judgment-making.
i just think your comment about “Sack everyone” and start a fresh was slightly OTT
Oh, such a comment would be more than OTT; it would be insane. Fortunately, I never made any such comment. What I said was:
I think you should be changing your leadership if anything.
Nobody needs to be sacked to accomplish that.
If they take the same path, then it is not strategic planning for the future but hopeful thinking at best.
I leave you all with a wonderful quote from Winston Churchill:
“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.
I think the general consensus of the people giving business advise is: We would love to spend five time the price for everything if we could buy it from a genuine Steinberg retail website. Money is no object for the true “professionals”.
Hum, five time ? Not sure I will follow.
Hoa sorry it was a joke
Yeah sure,pay 5 times the price,and steinberg will stay with 10 % of its customers, all pure pro (and some reach hobbyist )
Not that its gonna happen,but Are you serious ?
I’d like to believe you that it could be implemented in a few weeks, but I don’t have enough specialist knowledge for that
But at the company headquarters in Germany you wait 1 year until you find a programmer who can do something like that. I know companies in germany that are looking for programmers all over the world and can’t find anyone.
Maybe the uncertainty about finding such people was too great - or maybe it’s just that they decided that the costs would remain lowest this way.
As managing director, I would have preferred an in-house solution and changed it years ago.
But I just see that Abbyy (Finereader) is still working with Asknet. I live 15 minutes away from Asknet - and here it is assumed that Asknet will continue.
Must … reach … for … that … button … that … says … “Tracking” … drop-down … “Muted” … click … 
That statement would seem to be born out of a fundamental intolerance about different people running their lives and businesses with different sets of underlying priorities than yours.
I actually deeply respect what you’ve chosen as your approach to business. In quite a few ways it’s close to many decisions I’ve made in my life.
But the lack of tolerance is much more difficult to respect. Where I deeply differ with you, is that I do not think my priorities are the “best” way and any other priorities are “excuses”.
p.s. I also have to admit my disappointment, that you never answered some of my honest questions?
I think people also need to take into consideration that Steinberg is owned by Yamaha. Steinberg can’t just do whatever they want without consent from the higher ups. Everything always seems so simple at first, but I’m sure there are many factors involved in making this decision and change.
Personally, I would like Steinberg to focus on software development (it wouldn’t break my heart if Steinberg hardware never existed, but I think that is more towards the Yamaha side 
).
Leave the web shop to folks that specialize in that field. I think this is what they are currently doing and is the correct choice.
Of course, opinions are like … oh, never mind 
.
what might be happened if Steinberg’s new products would be sold now by other online stores like sweetwater ,amazon ,Thomann etc… (while the Steinberg shop is not functional)
probably its not that profitable for Steinberg to do such a move !
also curious what are the sale share in quantities for product like cubase update in its initial release (say the first month from release)compared to later on sales during the year.
and also the divisions of sales for existing Cubase users updating , and cubase new buyers.
maybe there was some option to sale the new products now considering all factors, maybe just for new costumers ?? (well that would lead to riots haha)
but probably considering the situation , is best for users and steinberg just wait patiently for the Steinberg shop to reopen. (sorry for not contributing to these topic really 
)
This topic started as the place where people can find information regarding the situation of the closed online shop. To ask question to Steinberg staff, to get their trial times expanded.
It has derailed into a discussion about Steinberg business decisions.
I vote to move all these messages that concern themselves with giving Steinberg business advice to another thread in order to keep this one ‘clean’.
I hope this doesn’t delay Nuendo 13 further down the road now that Cubase 13 hasn’t been able to come out sooner. Hopefully Nuendo 13 comes out quickly after Cubase 13 :)!
I must admit that I find this discussion quite interesting, and that’s because I am a Steinberg customer and I care for Steinberg. Also, I think the tone of discussion is quite civilized, so I’d vote to just keep it here. Whoever is not interested any more can always choose to stop following this thread.
I totally understand your point. However, I REALLY miss the “old, dirty” lounge. 
The old gray mare … she ain’t what she used to be! 
Maybe for the better, maybe not.
I miss the wild west days.
Perhaps I didn’t frame that the best way. What I meant is what may seem like an unconquerable reason for (not) doing something may not truly be a reason if serious dedication is applied to the problem.
But you do have a valid point. It is not a good thing, and I am working on it.
So you don’t feel disappointed, I’ll directly answer your previous question.
Do you think, potential customers would be more likely to convert into real customers after reading your posts in this thread? Or would they be less likely to sign up for your services?
That would depend on who is reading the thread. Is it someone defensive from a cult Steinberg who takes criticism of the company personally, is not interested in and fails to understand the core point of my argument, or is it an intelligent, open-minded person trying to understand the validity of the argument?
So, if it is the former, they would probably not, while if it is the latter, they would be more likely.
Either way doesn’t bother me one bit. I am not here to court customers.
I am honest, true to my values, and not afraid to speak up. That directly translates to my business and personal life. You may notice that I didn’t launch any personal attacks on any individual or have thrown insults at anyone. For anyone who doesn’t like my point of view or is offended by it, that’s fine, too.
Right or wrong, for better or worse, you’ll always get 100% genuine Goran.
I hope that answers your question fully.
I must admit that I find this discussion quite interesting,
Now, you have me spending all my weekend commenting to keep the entertainment going for you 
@Scab_Pickens Good point. Usually, the bigger the company, the less likely progressive the decisions are made quickly.
@THambrecht Oh, yes. That too can be a serious decisive factor. Since the company is “bleeding”, the short-term goal would probably be damage control in which case a 3rd party solution could very well provide that relief sooner.
However, past that initial period, I strongly believe that for risk mitigation, full control and ownership of the e-commerce platform is imperative to avoid similar crashes in the future.
That’s not entirely reasonable for those of us who are interested in the little nuggets of progress shared by some of the Steinberg team members in this thread, but not as interested in the free business advice.
We are however free to mute some of those business advisors.
You might be surprised at the differences in business culture between the US and Germany (and Japan is even more different).
German business leaders often think that their US counterparts overreact to short term trends, and that has negative long term consequences. And as your post demonstrates, US business leaders often think that German business leaders are too slow reacting to sudden crisis, and that (as we see) can also have negative consequences.
Having lived on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, I have experienced these (and other) cultural differences first hand. The idea of what’s “reasonable” can be quite cultural.
And unless you’re a deep believer in American exceptionalism, it should be possible to acknowledge that each cultural disposition has advantages and disadvantages in different scenarios.
—
P.S. I’m not even trying to defend Steinberg, because I have no idea if their approach was erroneous - since I have zero of the required internal info that goes into such decisions. — However, I think throwing explicit or implicit advice without detailed understanding of all of the decision making factors seems a bit like yelling at the TV during a football match. It’s fun, but not really a sign of superior intelligence or knowledge.
For example: What if the long term cost saving (net profit increase) over 10 years is higher with an exclusivity clause, than a 4 week revenue reduction every 10 years?
Or with example numbers: What if the current outage costs Steinberg 1 million Euros, but having their online store with some exclusivity saved 1 million Euros each year? It would seem that this would still be 9 million Euros better than an exclusive deal, if such an outage occurred only once every 10 years.
But yet, we all have done this at times, right??
Keep calm and carry on making music. 
Goran is speaking the truth. There are certainly many strong tools a company can use to launch and maintain their own online shop that would not be as exposed as relying on a separate company like ask.net. By ridiculing him, that reflects badly on yourself.
Clearly Steinberg would have considered the path Goran is suggesting and decided speed and minimum initial investment were more important than the long-term benefits of controlling their own destiny.
Both can be valid decisions, and they are not mutually exclusive. They could return to business with a short-term partner while pursuing their own in-house solution for the long term. Daniel has indicated their strategy, instead, is to eventually hook up with two separate companies to provide this service. That sounds like a complicated thing, but we should assume the people at Steinberg have considered all the alternatives.
I ridicule all and everyone, always. That’s how I am I can’t take this weird world seriously, that would drive me mad!
Besides, both paths have pros and cons. @dspreadbury has communicated Steinberg’s decision, and we all have to accept that. We should concede to them the benefit of doubt that they have good and valid reasons for their decision.