Culling my plugins ... pruning subs and direct debits .. it adds up

[Carl Ewing]

3 hours ago, MusicMan said:

I can't help but think that a lot of the people heavily using subscription services will be like a leaking ship when it comes to finances and struggling to make ends meet, but never really understanding why until they see what they all add up to each year.

 

It's exactly the opposite. I run a studio. Subscriptions are a fixed cost. They go right into the annual budget.  They save enormous amounts of money in being able to trial products for an entire year to see what is / isn't used, and never having to worry about buying something at off-sale times, never having to worry about version upgrade cost or compatibility, never wasting money on products that become discontinued / obsolete, or wasting time (money) waiting for sales, worrying about flash sales, or other nonsense. I have access to every product new / old from a company 365 days a year. No stress. Access to everything. One fee, budgeted 1 year in advance.

Currently have 17 software-related annual subscriptions for studio. Those include everything from Creative Cloud, Composer Cloud, Loopcloud, Plugin Alliance to Office 365, Arcade, VPN, Spotify, some web services like Dropbox for clients, etc. 

They total around $2000 per year. It is a relatively fixed cost (goes up a bit each year of course, but some things also get removed / added, so stays about the same.) It covers almost all core software needs, from graphic design to music / audio production, networking, web hosting, cloud hosting, for 3 networked systems in 2 rooms.  On top of that, there's a capped budget for additional software like upgrades and sample libraries. This budget cannot be exceeded, and purchases sit in an itemized list until Winter sales season (with few exceptions), and very rarely are products purchased without a full year of trialing, or a substantial review history on Youtube (if the product can't be trialed). 

You know what budget stresses me out the most? It isn't the subscription one. The day Native Instruments or Spitfire Audio or Orchestral Tools offers something like Creative Cloud (that covers their entire catalog) it will be purchased on day 1.  I would much rather have $5K in subscriptions that cover way more than I'd ever need, than half my annual budget assigned to "hope and pray that Black Friday sales allow me to buy what I need".

With these subscriptions, it is quite normal for software expenses to remain below $5000 per year. I don't know how long some of you have been around, but for a professional studio, that is ABSURDLY low.  10 years ago, it would not be uncommon to spend well over $1000 just on a handful of UAD plugins, or over $1000 on a single string library.  You know what I spend on plugins last year, including PA subscripton? $400. See a difference here?

The amount I spent on libraries & plugins between, say, 2005 and 2015 is likely (i have the figure somewhere) worth 30 years of my current annual subscription budget. And almost all those products are now obsolete / abandoned. Shelf life of these products are maybe a few years, unless there's a substantial fee for upgrading to newer versions. You want to talk about waste of money? Buying software is a waste of money. I have a legacy system that has a ton of abandonware worth $1000s of dollars so that projects from 10+ years ago can still be opened if needed. And most of that **** doesn't open. Most of the software can't even be authorized. It's almost entirely pointless to keep the system running. It's like a $10,000 brick of garbage. So much for "owning" software.

 

Edited September 24, 2023 by Carl Ewing

[aidan o driscoll]

I get you @Carl Ewing .. And from what you describe most of your subs are for software that is used to make money from clients so they pay for themselves via charge built into client fees?

Where it becomes a drain to speak is things like ( optional I know ) Spotify, Netflix, Prime, SKY TV and the like + all other ESSENTIAL monthly bills.

I was more flagging that already some of these subs are increasing and thats an issue .. they are almost stealth increases year on year OR every few years and I would be afraid once we are all on the sub hook for everything we could theeen see a pattern of endless year on year monthly sub hikes.

Many people BTW do not ( and they should ) look at there monthly bank statements and query same on a regular basis. I have had clients who discover a sub for say an antivirus they stopped using years back and they are still "unknowingly" paying monthly/annually for it.

Where I really noticed this sub creep was in biz accounts online. I started paying Quickbooks €14.99 a  month  a few years back now we are at €25 for same thing. I will be looking at that shortly to see if I can step down to lower sub.

https://thehustle.co/11052019-free-trial-subscription-creep/

https://innotechtoday.com/subscription-price-creep-is-real-heres-how-to-push-back/

I suppose I am also seeing this alongside the high cost of living last year  or 2 ( inc food ) in Ireland and the off the scale Energy / Motor fuel costs now + rent and house prices and the like. It does all add up esp if much of it cannot be clawed back from  a client fee

In music terms I am not a music biz .. just a personal muso/amateur

 

Edited September 24, 2023 by aidan o driscoll

[mibby]

2 hours ago, Carl Ewing said:

It's exactly the opposite. I run a studio. Subscriptions are a fixed cost. They go right into the annual budget.  They save enormous amounts of money in being able to trial products for an entire year to see what is / isn't used, and never having to worry about buying something at off-sale times, never having to worry about version upgrade cost or compatibility, never wasting money on products that become discontinued / obsolete, or wasting time (money) waiting for sales, worrying about flash sales, or other nonsense. I have access to every product new / old from a company 365 days a year. No stress. Access to everything. One fee, budgeted 1 year in advance.

Currently have 17 software-related annual subscriptions for studio. Those include everything from Creative Cloud, Composer Cloud, Loopcloud, Plugin Alliance to Office 365, Arcade, VPN, Spotify, some web services like Dropbox for clients, etc. 

They total around $2000 per year. It is a relatively fixed cost (goes up a bit each year of course, but some things also get removed / added, so stays about the same.) It covers almost all core software needs, from graphic design to music / audio production, networking, web hosting, cloud hosting, for 3 networked systems in 2 rooms.  On top of that, there's a capped budget for additional software like upgrades and sample libraries. This budget cannot be exceeded, and purchases sit in an itemized list until Winter sales season (with few exceptions), and very rarely are products purchased without a full year of trialing, or a substantial review history on Youtube (if the product can't be trialed). 

You know what budget stresses me out the most? It isn't the subscription one. The day Native Instruments or Spitfire Audio or Orchestral Tools offers something like Creative Cloud (that covers their entire catalog) it will be purchased on day 1.  I would much rather have $5K in subscriptions that cover way more than I'd ever need, than half my annual budget assigned to "hope and pray that Black Friday sales allow me to buy what I need".

With these subscriptions, it is quite normal for software expenses to remain below $5000 per year. I don't know how long some of you have been around, but for a professional studio, that is ABSURDLY low.  10 years ago, it would not be uncommon to spend well over $1000 just on a handful of UAD plugins, or over $1000 on a single string library.  You know what I spend on plugins last year, including PA subscripton? $400. See a difference here?

The amount I spent on libraries & plugins between, say, 2005 and 2015 is likely (i have the figure somewhere) worth 30 years of my current annual subscription budget. And almost all those products are now obsolete / abandoned. Shelf life of these products are maybe a few years, unless there's a substantial fee for upgrading to newer versions. You want to talk about waste of money? Buying software is a waste of money. I have a legacy system that has a ton of abandonware worth $1000s of dollars so that projects from 10+ years ago can still be opened if needed. And most of that **** doesn't open. Most of the software can't even be authorized. It's almost entirely pointless to keep the system running. It's like a $10,000 brick of garbage. So much for "owning" software.

 

I've always thought the subs worked better for pros, but that is one of the most well laid out and convincing explanations I've read. Hopefully there's a sweet spot where it makes sense for both studios and hobbyists and the devs can earn a living doing their thing. It's an amazing time to be a hobbyist with a home studio.

[Grem]

3 hours ago, mibby said:

It's an amazing time to be a hobbyist with a home studio

Yep.

[audioschmaudio]

@Carl Ewing thanks, that was very insightful. I only started getting interested in music production two years ago as a hobbyist and wasn't aware how quickly perpetual licenses might become obsolete/deprecated/abandonware. Now that I have read your post I'm considering switching to subscriptions, for the first time ever.

What are the most attractive audio subscriptions?

[Doug Rintoul]

6 hours ago, Carl Ewing said:

Buying software is a waste of money. I have a legacy system that has a ton of abandonware worth $1000s of dollars so that projects from 10+ years ago can still be opened if needed. And most of that **** doesn't open. Most of the software can't even be authorized. It's almost entirely pointless to keep the system running. It's like a $10,000 brick of garbage. So much for "owning" software.

Counterpoint...there is no guarentee that subscription service software will not become abandonware either. I don't know if it is less likely, or not. I also can't help that feel that you would still need to keep the legacy system running because the current versions of the plugins/software no longer work with the old projects.

But as you pointed out, subs do make sense from a business perspective.

[Cookie Jarvis]

It would be nice if subs were setup like Autodesk and Eon. I have a sub at both but my Eon sub for Vue is relatively cheap because it is a non-commercial sub...same software, just can't make money on it's use which is fine for the hobbyist. My sub at Autodesk for Maya allows income from software use up to $100,00 a year with the stipulation that it can't be used on  a project that make more than that $100,00. I never understood why I have to pay the same as a multimillion dollar studio for the same software? Even worse if you work for a living and are just getting by you pay a lot more than someone who goes to school and doesn't pay taxes or do anything to benefit anyone but themselves!

Crazy world!

 

Bill

[mettelus]

11 hours ago, aidan o driscoll said:

I get you @Carl Ewing .. And from what you describe most of your subs are for software that is used to make money from clients so they pay for themselves via charge built into client fees?

Carl has a good point, and that is something I try to remind folks with subscriptions. If you are making revenue from it, then it is a little different than it falling into the "entertainment" bucket (disposable income). I know a lot of business owners who use Adobe CC to make their business function, but folks who are not going to pull revenue from its use need to weigh its "value" to them. Granted, there are a lot of expensive hobbies out there, so much of this simply falls into "to each, his own."

Switching gears (pun intended), I worked next door to a pair of guys into drag racing that were talking about filling an engine with concrete before use (one of the fads there). I just chuckled and said that is a pretty expensive and time-intensive venture for 15 seconds of use, but whatever.

[MusicMan]

6 hours ago, Cookie Jarvis said:

It would be nice if subs were setup like Autodesk and Eon. I have a sub at both but my Eon sub for Vue is relatively cheap because it is a non-commercial sub...same software, just can't make money on it's use which is fine for the hobbyist. My sub at Autodesk for Maya allows income from software use up to $100,00 a year with the stipulation that it can't be used on  a project that make more than that $100,00. I never understood why I have to pay the same as a multimillion dollar studio for the same software? Even worse if you work for a living and are just getting by you pay a lot more than someone who goes to school and doesn't pay taxes or do anything to benefit anyone but themselves!

Crazy world!

 

Bill

I've always thought it was pretty great how Reaper does that. The full commercial version is well priced, but non commercial is heavily discounted. It would be great if Cubase and other DAWs did that too ?