This is a bad decision by your company. You just pissed off a lot of loyal customers.
If there was a pay once, use forever fee, like the 3.5.x, then maybe I would be interested. I wouldn’t if it was absurdly high though. There are other options available for High fidelity playback on the Mac and Windows and you don’t seem to realize that loyal customers who once evangelized for your product are now seriously annoyed.
It seems to me by changing the model so drastically that many will be unhappy. And from what I see in these forums I am not the only one.
The purchase of 3.5 was a pay once. You now own it. It seems there will be updates/fixes continuing (one came through a few days ago). Audirvana Studio is a different product, only available on subscription. You choose.
There has been an update to version 3.5 to assess the number of active users. This version 3.5 works well until we all switch to a competitor (they will necessarily come) or until a change in Audirvana’s policy.
The rule is easy, in computing and elsewhere: you only rent and subscribe to services. Anything that needs to be kept and one day passed on to children must be bought, even if on credit.
Don’t forget too that some web browsers had to be bought (Netscape). Even if they were better, they all disappeared because others were free.
So the only viable solution for a paid audio software is neither one-time purchase nor subscription:
it should be free, but with limited features (to increase its user base)
it should be paid to unlock several features needed by advanced users (all audiophiles become advanced users, so this model works).
Subscription for SERVICES such as automatic audio tags, radios, streaming, sharing, Cloud should always remain optional.
The 3.5 Audirvana version I tried was too buggy, so I was waiting for the next main version, which obviously now is here. As much as I try to understand the idea of a subscription model, I don’t agree to it. The excuse or explanation to this is to get the best for the customers this way and I don’t agree to this too. Of course, Audirvana 3.5 obviously still works, but if there are no updates, one has to live with the bugs.
I am using Jriver’s Media Center for quite some time now (clumsy, but stable) and always buy the next version. This makes me feel to support the efforts of the developers, whereas with a subscription model I only feel the urge of the makers to make money with me.
Thank you.
I asked you because I hope that the bug will be fixed before the end of the trial period. Because of this bug, I could not listen yet to the SQ of AS at optimal conditions.
Well, this subscription thing, won’t happen to me either. I prefer, and I want, to have only what is definitely mine, and not to be at the mercy of someone with rented products.
Here is obviously aiming for a more substantial fundraiser by subscription than by definitive sale.
A simple calculation tells us that if I bought the software permanently for, let say: $ 50, this would be the only amount collected from me even after 10 years of use Audirvana, but if I pay $ 50 regularly, every year, in the form of a subscription, in 10 years I will be charged with a total of $ 500.
When the success goes to head… But don’t worry guys. Soon or late they will realize their mistake and come back to purchase model. In the meantime alternative solutions will have taken the place. Audirvana is a good player but not enough to justify 100$ annual fee. Most software editors dream about subscription revenue but very few such as Adobe can afford it. Let’s just be patient.
Don’t exaggerate please, nobody didn’t mentioned nowhere to have this for free. If you can’t read what I’m saying then try to not tag me anymore please.
I said that I want to buy for good a software, not to rent it, where is here the suggestion to have it for free??!!
Yes, but you get notification there is an upgrade to 3.5.43, it fails, the only install download is for Studio, for which you have to pay. I was only able to recover my Audirvana 3.5.46 by doing a complete restore. Sucks big time.
But the fact remains that (1) if you had not purchased 3.5 when it was available, you are out of luck – you can no longer purchase it, and (2) although there have been a couple of bug fixes to 3.5 (directly involving the ability to play files), not too much is expected in terms of future fixes, for example, I don’t ever expect to see bugs with the user interface to be fixed.
It’s always possible that Audirvāna will offer a purchase option for Studio in the future. I suppose it depends on how well Audirvāna does with the subscription based model.
Audirvana should offer studio for free to people who do not stream, and charge subscription from users who stream. This way it will attract many users to studio and a lot of them will subscribe.
