Rack Extension subscriptions in shop closing 13th of April

[nooomy]

REASON INFORMATION

Hi,
We are writing to let you know that we will be closing the Rack Extension subscription service available in our shop. We believe the Rack Extension subscription service was too complex to manage for customers (and quite complex for us to maintain too!).

The final day for customers to renew their Rack Extension subscriptions will be the 13th of April 2023.

If you have an existing Rack Extension available on subscription there is nothing you need to do.

Thank you for being part of Reason!

Best regards,
Reason Studios

What do you guys think?

Is this good or bad for the rack extension market?

[Loque]

One subscription less, is good. On the other side it was a cheap way to temporary use some RE.

Now there will be no more calls of rent-to-own with subscription...Maybe we will see a real rent-to-own or something else...

Maybe we see a buy all for XXX money like we see on Plugin Alliance.

Maybe they shut down the RE shop at all and only sell their Reason+.

Maybe we have more "maybe" soon.

Maybe we will have more facts in 5 years.

[Yonatan]

I did only try few times, but I will miss the ability to use certain RE for shorter times or for a project or if collaborating.It was not properly advertised or promoted, so it feels like something else is in the plans. Not enough interest, a bit of an excuse if not promoted.

I would not be overly surprised if this is a clean up preperation that allows RS to sooner or later bring Reason+ sub to different levels or ad on packages and maybe ”all in shop” or whatever. My point is that I believe they reason, that they want to streamline their servicesand products and be able to enhance and evolve the Reason+ idea.
Maybe there will even be a cheaper or free level also that would make perpetual users now, see value to go subscription.
Who knows, maybe Reason as a DAW will become cheaper or almost free, as part of a package, and they have other revenues in sight. Whatever, I look forward to see where it all become in the near future.

[dioxide]

This should also mean they allow you to demo REs for a second time after a certain amount of time has passed. There are REs that I demoed when Rack Extensions were new that I've been unable to take a second look at years later when my needs have changed. In this case my only choice is to buy it or set up a new account to demo it, which I'd have thought isn't something that RS would want.

[Yonatan]

This should also mean they allow you to demo REs for a second time after a certain amount of time has passed. There are REs that I demoed when Rack Extensions were new that I've been unable to take a second look at years later when my needs have changed. In this case my only choice is to buy it or set up a new account to demo it, which I'd have thought isn't something that RS would want.

Yes and it dont need 30 days if unsure if one wanted a RE, just 24h would be enough. Because many times it is when RE is on sale, so one only need to test drive it for 1 day to decide.

[Popey]

Sounds to me like not many people used it so it became more hassle than it is worth. Not something I ever used but am sure some did.

Perhaps r+ will get a new tier that encompasses all rack extensions and not just rs ones. Not sure how devs would get rewarded but it would certainly be a feature rich option if r+ had everything.

[DaveyG]

I suspect most people had pretty much forgotten it was an option. I certainly had.
I guess there is also the risk that people would confuse it with the R+ subscription.

It makes me wonder if the days of rent-to-own are numbered too.

[Loque]

I am a visionary

2023-01-09 11_49_58-Products _ Account _ Rent-to-Own _ Reason Studios.jpg (17.56 KiB) Viewed 5759 times

[_andreypetr_]

I think it could be a step before the new authorization implementation

[Mattvank]

I used the 9 Euro model for different times. Sometimes the trial is not enough or something is too expensive and not in use everytime.
Now i wait with the trial until i check enough videos, comments and the manuel. LaunchEON is such exsample. Intresting and worth but to less informations and ,,in use´´ videos. So it needs time and the right moment.

[moneykube]

I did it once on a rack... I should have just trialed the rack, because I ended up buying it within a month, which caused the price to be 9 dollars more in the end. Oh well. More support for the company that seems to care little about long time users these days. Meh.

[moneykube]

I am a visionary

2023-01-09 11_49_58-Products _ Account _ Rent-to-Own _ Reason Studios.jpg

yep

[Aosta]

I used it once simply to finish off a few tracks from a few REs I'd messed around with in demo modes. It was handy but not something I'd use all the time.

[arnigretar]

I never used it, so I guess it doesn't bother me! Maybe it helped some devs? But maybe not, since this is going to the bin.

[Mataya]

The model was greedy, like some other models they have/had. Look at plugin alliance. For 14.99us you get 150+ plugins, 40+ modular effects, some synths(which are pretty cool), a sampler with sounds and some quality tutorials...and you get to pick three plugins after 12month of sub that you keep forever. That's a good deal if you ask me.
So I don't mind that they are removing a deal that obviously no one wanted, or maybe a few, now and then.
I always wonder why does it take so much time for them to realize it's not a good deal and it will not work. I mean almost everybody here said the same time.

Anyway...

M

[joeyluck]

The model was greedy, like some other models they have/had. Look at plugin alliance. For 14.99us you get 150+ plugins, 40+ modular effects, some synths(which are pretty cool), a sampler with sounds and some quality tutorials...and you get to pick three plugins after 12month of sub that you keep forever. That's a good deal if you ask me.
So I don't mind that they are removing a deal that obviously no one wanted, or maybe a few, now and then.
I always wonder why does it take so much time for them to realize it's not a good deal and it will not work. I mean almost everybody here said the same time.

Anyway...

M

I didn't see it that way. I think it's $9 for $400 value? And while you don't get as many plugins, you have the flexibility to choose from many more plugins. I would imagine the devs aren't getting much splitting $9. I can't imagine splitting it even more... It's probably easier for PA to arrange because they only have a handful of devs (and it's not custom, right?) so they can determine who gets what from every subscription. There's just way more REs and devs in the Reason shop.

[Mataya]

I understand your point. Compared to plugin alliance again, it's 14.99us for 32.000us and you get to keep even more then you paid trough out the sub year. I understand the problems they might had with maintaining such model, but again, it's a failed model because people recognized it as not really that fair. Also 38 well established dev's at plugin alliance is not really a handful.

Thanks
Mataya

[jam-s]

I didn't see it that way. I think it's $9 for $400 value? And while you don't get as many plugins, you have the flexibility to choose from many more plugins. I would imagine the devs aren't getting much splitting $9. I can't imagine splitting it even more... It's probably easier for PA to arrange because they only have a handful of devs (and it's not custom, right?) so they can determine who gets what from every subscription. There's just way more REs and devs in the Reason shop.

Mataya is talking about the MEGA L subscription from PA which includes almost all of their plugins which would equal about $3-4k at the regular sale prices if you would buy all of those individually. Add to this the option to keep some of those forever and some free automatic online masters and you've got a much better deal in comparison to the old RS RE subscription packages.

[joeyluck]

I didn't see it that way. I think it's $9 for $400 value? And while you don't get as many plugins, you have the flexibility to choose from many more plugins. I would imagine the devs aren't getting much splitting $9. I can't imagine splitting it even more... It's probably easier for PA to arrange because they only have a handful of devs (and it's not custom, right?) so they can determine who gets what from every subscription. There's just way more REs and devs in the Reason shop.

Mataya is talking about the MEGA L subscription from PA which includes almost all of their plugins which would equal about $3-4k at the regular sale prices if you would buy all of those. Add to this the option to keep some of those forever and some free automatic online masters and you've got a much better deal in comparison to the old RS RE subscription packages.

Yes I know and I'm talking about the RE subscription in relation to that

[Creativemind]

This should also mean they allow you to demo REs for a second time after a certain amount of time has passed. There are REs that I demoed when Rack Extensions were new that I've been unable to take a second look at years later when my needs have changed. In this case my only choice is to buy it or set up a new account to demo it, which I'd have thought isn't something that RS would want.

I'll second that.

And yeah I've done the same. Trialled Re's when they had just come out as I was really intrigued or just eager to have a play with them, then 12 months, 18 months or even 2 years later you really want, say a new reverb then you want to trial some and see you already trialled 1 or 2 of the 4 or 5 in the shop then you can't compare them to make sure that is the definite best one at this current time and can you remember what it was like 18 months before? can you eck.

[Yonatan]

It was also a little better deal back when many RE had lower original prices. €4000 dont go long after price rise.

[Loque]

I understand your point. Compared to plugin alliance again, it's 14.99us for 32.000us and you get to keep even more then you paid trough out the sub year. I understand the problems they might had with maintaining such model, but again, it's a failed model because people recognized it as not really that fair. Also 38 well established dev's at plugin alliance is not really a handful.

Thanks
Mataya

32.000$ is ridiculous. They sell a plugin for 300, which is worth 30 and will be sold in sales for 20-35$.

This makes effective 3000-4000$ worth plugins and in a bundle even lower. And AFAIR they tried to sold everything for around $400 in December, which make the 15$ rent not the best deal...

And do not forget, that PA consists of repeating effects, like you have 1000 EQs, which are probably all analog emulations with breath taking new patent pending technologies and all that marketing bs, but are all just EQs.

[chimp_spanner]

I had a sub for aaages, pretty much since it started. But eventually I did realise it was false economy to 'save' money by not having to spend £xxx on all the things I needed while spending more than that over the lifetime of the sub. So I started replacing them with licenses over time. By the time I got the email yesterday I had one left to buy, and then I wrapped it up. Probably for the best tbh!

[Mataya]

I understand your point. Compared to plugin alliance again, it's 14.99us for 32.000us and you get to keep even more then you paid trough out the sub year. I understand the problems they might had with maintaining such model, but again, it's a failed model because people recognized it as not really that fair. Also 38 well established dev's at plugin alliance is not really a handful.

Thanks
Mataya

32.000$ is ridiculous. They sell a plugin for 300, which is worth 30 and will be sold in sales for 20-35$.

This makes effective 3000-4000$ worth plugins and in a bundle even lower. And AFAIR they tried to sold everything for around $400 in December, which make the 15$ rent not the best deal...

And do not forget, that PA consists of repeating effects, like you have 1000 EQs, which are probably all analog emulations with breath taking new patent pending technologies and all that marketing bs, but are all just EQs.

Well, I see your comment as something that again looks like a great deal from PA. 400us for everything. Wow! And you can say the same thing for all RE's. Bunch of same things, overpriced etc.
I don't want to go into what's marketing, what I can and can't hear. Those are all products with prices and it's up to you to decide on what you get for the price asked. Reason people decided you're not getting much for the dollar and maybe dev's to and they ended it. Good for us. Give me a new offer please.

tx
M

[joeyluck]

I only ever heard comments about the fairness of RE subscription from the side of the dev and not from the side of the customer.

I only ever used the $9 subscription a few times and it went a long way. Back when I suggested RE subscriptions, I thought it would be worth $9 for myself to get an extra 30 days to just one or far fewer REs.