Big News for Slate Digital All Access Pass Subscribers

[Larry Shelby]

Slate All Access Users who migrate from Gobbler get the entire SSL Collection

 

[PavlovsCat]

I think Steven Slate's company (or technically, former company) is the only subscription model in this business that I really haven't seen many people complain much about. How many folks here have it? 

[Bapu]

9 minutes ago, PavlovsCat said:

 How many folks here have it? 

 

 

?️

[Patricio Campos]

I had it like 4 or 5 years ago for 2 years. It was really good value for the money, but I could hardly justify the expense considering that for me this is a hobby I dedicate less than a couple of hours weekly (with luck). So I finished my subscription.

Then I had to replace the plugins in my unfinished projects (almost all of my projects...) because buying them was cost prohibitive for me. Then I promised my self to never suscribe to plugins.

But... the plugins were amazing, then I saved and bough VML-1 and VSX, both amazing products I couldn't live without it.

Edited November 2, 2023 by pcampos

[PavlovsCat]

When Steven was just starting out he called me up for some marketing advice. We really hit it off and he's a really fun and interesting person -- and he's written and sung some pretty cool rock songs (he plays drums too). We both share a love for the Beatles. He even told me, get the compay's name *Yellow Matter Entertainment"?  Of course, I'm a huge Beatles fan! But I'm just a hobbyist and can barely even play for 5 minutes without stopping from tendinitis pain, so I limit my spending and would never buy a subscription, we already have enough of those for cable TV, streaming services, etc. I don't want more! But I did hear Steven's stuff is really good and it seems like the only subscription service I have heard people really say good things about and have yet to see anyone complain about  it (as compared to some others like Waves). I suppose I haven't heard anything bad about Musio, I just haven't heard much talk about it at all, beyond when they had their lifetime deal. Every dev with a lot of plugins or sample libraries thinks about the subscription model, and I think the dev best positioned to pull it off successfully is NI/Izotope.   

[TerraSin]

I know I had a few things on Gobbler but they locked out getting into website as far as I can tell so I can re-download the license application to see. Hopefully they make a way available that we can get back in there.

[Larry Shelby]

I had it...but cancelled when they raised the price...

[Guest]

(removing acct)

Edited October 24 by Guest

[Guest]

(removing acct)

Edited October 24 by Guest

[Guest]

(deleted, double post)

Edited November 2, 2023 by Guest

[PavlovsCat]

1 hour ago, mister_tea said:

long post!

I own and enjoy using some slate plugins (VTM, VMR, VCC, FGX) from before they went subscription. They're good stuff. But I'd be hesitant to get into the brand at this point with the huge number of alternatives available.

Biggest concern is the future -- Slate Digital was founded by Steven Slate and Fabrice Gabriel, who Steven hyped up as a DSP genius responsible for lots of technical magic. But the founders are no longer there. The Audiotonix team and Slate alumni are probably awesome people but at least to me the future seems less certain.

I don't like subs in general but especially those where you basically lose playback on old projects if you forgot to freeze. Feels like ransom though I'm not an anti-capitalist. Some vendors handle this well, like Plugin Alliance giving you vouchers to spend on perpetual licenses at the end of a year, as well as having deep sales on those perpetual licenses a year or so after release.

When the Slate subscription was released, they promised don't worry, they'll still develop lots of high-quality Slate plugins. They promised don't worry, they'll still have sales. The pace of new first-party releases seems to have drastically slowed down, the new stuff seems different than the old stuff, and discounts seem to have evaporated.  I haven't been watching super close though. The pricing on new products is well above what competitors charge... $249 for their LA2A and custom variant for example. It feels like when PA backed down from their brief "some future products are subscription only" stance, by pricing perpetual licenses super high, like setting MSRP at $449 for that first Amek console and saying "you wanted a perpetual license, we listened, here you go!"

The Slate sub has plenty of third-party content which could make it a good deal for some. I already had those that I was interested in, also purchased on sales over time.

That's all not to say I don't like or use my Slate plugins. I do! In 2023 though, there are so many options compared to re-spending $150 every year. Black Friday is coming up and with a couple years of subscription money you could get a whole collection of PA plugins. Or most of IK's range in a group buy. I can't believe we now have UAD plugins, running natively, in the $30 range with coupons.

Great points. It was on a different topic, but I just was writing a post -- getting analytical (I used to write; maybe that's why my posts can be so long!). I think a bunch of people have pointed out that there's some major price drops that have been happening for effects. I think we're starting to see this in the sample world to some extent too, but not as big. And some sample developers are getting concerned that there are some big changes. I can go into details, but I'll spare everyone. The short version is, I think that the radical dropping of plugin prices is going to hit the sample library world next. Why? The markets getting really crowded and a bit stagnant. Waves dropped prices and the industry followed. I think that with lower prices for sample libraries that some subscriptions for sample developers might work -- IF they're priced right and they have a wide enough breadth of breadth of instruments. Will CineSamples Musio line work? I think it's very iffy and would say the odds are more likely it doesn't than does, especially if we see some serious pricing disruption that results in sample library pricing coming down, particularly on the higher priced libraries.  My instincts are that we're going to see major changes in pricing for sample libraries in the coming year. There's been too much major discounting for it not to occur.  That would be great news for us, but could mean for a bunch of shakeups in the sample developer world. I mean, I just spent the last week seeing how a sample developer is freaking out over another sample developer deep discounting, fearing it will lead to "a race to the bottom" and in one sense, it's driving the guy batsh*t crazy, but in another sense, he is kinda right. Once you get used to a formerly $500 USD library selling for 100 bucks or so, it's hard to justify -- especially for hobbyists -- shelling out $500 again. And I bet some of the more successful devs may be acquired. 

 

[Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann]

I thought that with the exception of some orchestral and niche sounds, sample libraries were already at a low price point not far from plugins, often lower (e.g., see the sampletekk libraries when they're on sale). Subscription mopdels for sample libraries can be tricky: if you let a subscription lapse for a plugin, you can print or freeze the track before you lose access. If you let a subscription lapse for a sample and you lose your rights to use the sounds then you completely lose your work (probably a good reason for never using subscriptions). If you retain the rights to usage of the sound (but e.g., lose the convenience of the virtual instrument), then it becomes very difficult preventing you from just resampling the instrument and unsubscribing, although, if the subscription service regularly release interesting products, that could keep you renewing the subscription