US vs Canadian pricing for Pro upgrade

What I’m curious about is the pricing inconsistency for Steinberg products in Canada. Canadian instrument/music retailers are selling Cubase Pro 10 Full Version in retail box format for $699.00 CDN, while the Steinberg site will sell me the Cubase Pro 10 Full Version download for $844.00 CDN.

Like the Nuendo pricing I mentioned above, that’s not a small difference, and it doesn’t make much sense to me.

Even in Germany the price differs from the Steinberg page to local dealers. If you do not want to buy from Steinberg - don´t. Apart from that, their price policy is certainly not your business.

Developers (Steinberg in this case) will never undersell retailers (that carry their products), so it’s normal for prices in the Steinberg store to reflect this. I’m a fairly new Cubase user (about 1 year) although I’ve been around for some time (don’t ask how long) and by going from Elements to Artist to Pro over that 1 year period cost me a grand total of 580.00$ CDN (including eLicenser). And, all my purchases (except the eLicenser) were done through the Steinberg store.

How can this be you may ask? I pay attention to deals, special offers and so on and so forth. It’s a commitment to keep informed about these things but well worth it as you can see. As for the update cost to Cubase 10, I agree that it’s steep for what is currently offered, so I will simply wait it out for now and continue working with a stable and full featured Cubase 9.5.41 and be very happy about it! :sunglasses:

And I don’t have a problem with how Steinberg decides to price its products and where…, that’s a free market economy for you.

Most companies have a recommended retail price and then a minimum advertised price (MAP) and companies can price the product between these two and that price is reffered to as the street price. To not screw over vendors, Cubase will charge the recommended retail price. Almost all music equipment and software companies do this. The price you are seeing will reflect the recommended retail price in Canada. The US just has a bigger market so the stores can sell products a little cheaper because they sell more of them so the retail price for the US can afford to be lower. It is the internet, it’s not hard to trick websites on the internet of your location if you really want US pricing but the effort may exceed the savings if it’s only a small amount or you can just support your local music stores which will help your local economy and you can get the street price in your country which is likely to be lower than the recommended retail price if the store is willing to sell below recommended retail.

Thanks for reporting the difference in what is shown on Dorico.com and on the online shop. We will have a look at that.
When it comes to price differences between our shop and for instance Long & McQuade, please keep in mind that we set a suggested retail price and especially large retailers reduce that price significantly sometimes. It’s the same in Europe/Germany. But this is common practice with almost any product. Just take a Samsung S9 and compare prices in the Samsung store and at Amazon.

I too have been in conversation with Steinberg and Asknet on the pricing and the inequitable way in which they are charging for their software updates.

I am based and trade in Thailand and my original conversation with them was why should I pay VAT?

If I buy the upgrade from Nuendo 7 to 8 as my account was originally based in the UK (I will put everything in $ to keep it simple) the cost is stated as being $270 on the ‘My Steinberg’ page. This includes 20% VAT. When I go to buy the product I am redirected to the check out and am being charged $284 which, although it does not say it, according to Asknet and Steinberg support does NOT include VAT. I had to go to a lot of trouble to get this stated in writing.

If I buy the same product in the States it is advertised as costing $250 for the same upgrade. However this version is only allowed to be used in the States. The software knows where you are.

OK so there is a small disparity in charges which is irritating but not the end of the world but to me it demonstrates a lack of cohesion in their pricing strategies and judging by the comments above this is a worldwide issue. In my recent experience there is no core cost which is then affected by local circumstances which shows bad management in the globalised society we now live in. It’s just seems to be ad hoc which is a weakness that should not exist.

The communications I had with them over a period of several weeks has left me with a bad taste in my mouth and I think considerably less of them in terms of their valuing customer relationships and will not be evangelising them in the same way any more. As a previous endorsee of Nuendo and one of the few people using it professionally in Thailand the honeymoon is over.

I personally will have no choice but to upgrade as I have invested countless hours in learning Nuendo and need the new tools that they are offering for VR for some of the work I am undertaking.

Not disagreeing with anything you’ve stated at all- just want to add, you can indeed use the license regardless of your location– it does not try to detect your location when you use the software. The software only knows where you say you are when you buy the license.