Reply To: The Long-Term Cost of DAWs Compared

[fossile]

might be worthwhile to expand the table to clearly show the costs including:

1. purchase price for “perpetual license”
2. monthly subscription price(s) – DAW vs truly optional component and services
3. annual “maintenance / support fee” (if any)
4. version “upgrade fee” (if any)

for example, Studio One dropped all versions except “Pro”, so all users who had artist etc who want the next version have to pay for the “pro” upgrade vs the previous “artist” upgrade (an extra ~$100). and now they’re on v7, but in 5 years will be v10 or v11. each upgrade (assuming they keep the same price – which is not historically how it’s been going) $164 for say 3 upgrades, + the originally $199. is now $691 for a 5 year period (presuming that most SO users want the latest features which will only be available via an upgrade charge). and at some point (usually no more than 6 months after a new version is released, the older version is no longer supported, and so you’re on your own as far as OSes compatibility goes)

so if doing a 5 year analysis on CoO, it’s important to include – what is the least amount someone with no interest in upgrading or having support, vs some % of users who will likely persue upgrades and/or support options over that time. otherwise you don’t have a proper balance against the subscription model which (typically) has this “built-in”…

so the SO pro subscription w/ all the goodies, on an annual cost is $179/yr x 5 years = $895 (oddly the same as Cakewalk subscription) BUT you get all the upgrades on the DAW + upgrades on the goodies + support relative to your OS of choice.

now if you really want expensive, time to include ProTools 🙂

 

• This reply was modified 1 month, 4 weeks ago by fossile.

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