Question...How Many Of You Would Rent The Software You Are Using To Produce Your Music?

 I am not interested in renting software as I never know when I am going to use it because of my schedule. I think it might be a good concept for some people though.

 

It does present some interesting possibilities.
 
Instead of purchasing expensive sound libraries (much of which is never utilized) I could pick out the exact samples I need for each project.
 
It would be nice to compare/use some high end plug-ins without purchasing each one.
 
from what I've been reading 'cloud computing' is coming down the road;
and if that's the case the individual user won't have to worry about operating systems, installing plug-ins, driver conflicts, etc; This will all be handled by the site you connect to.
 
It might be interesting to know if the cakewalk staff sees a day when and if this will happen

Only if it were rent to own and wouldn't exceed the purchase price at time of agreement.

Not a cool idea for me. 

Masterwriter has a monthly program where you lease it for as long as you need it.... IDK exactly how that works to keep it working on your computer. I would assume you need some sort of internet connect that's active and it checks the status before it opens.... 

I would do that IF, and only if I was wanting to try something out before sinking money into it.... But for example, Masterwriter has a 30 day free demo IIRC..... with most features active during that trial...... 


Yeah put me in the "I'd rather buy it" camp. 

IQS has some sort of plan called the Good Faith Agreement, allowing you to get the software and make monthly payments. That's something I'd be more likely to use than just renting for a limited time.

 
Yeah, I agree...
The reason IQS went this direction is that SAW Studio is expensive (relative to other choices).
If a DAW app stays in the $400-$600 range for the flagship product, I'd rather just purchase it.
 
I wouldn't want to have to rent all my software/plugins... that would be a major PITA with authorizations. 

Isn't that what we already do?  We don't own SONAR - just have access to it.  We can't sell it, which is surely one of the definations of "own."  And every year we pay a little more to keep it upgraded.  It is renting in all but name.

@

I knew that adobe has that program..but, like you mentioned I would be more to buy the thing outright.

I'm thinking that the overhead for  something like this..the registrations, any updates, et cetera would be a real issue in some ways as well.

bitflipper


The way it would work is vendors would create a special version of the software similar to a time-limited demo. After the rental period, the software could remain in place on your disk along with its related registry settings, presets and data files so that if you ever needed to rework an old project that used the plugin it would be a simple process of re-authorizing it.

Exactly, I did exactly this with some disk partitioning software, The name escapes me, wanted to use it once, so I paid a few bucks for a 10 day license. In that situation it was the ideal solution.

mmmm..that would be interesting. They would have to extend the period would they not? At least, I hope they would if that were the case.

Rain
good point - and what if it took some time to correct said bugs - all sounds to be getting messy to me!!!!
I think I agree with you about software you perhaps only need to use for a short period of time; probably makes some sense.
But otherwise, as Jim says, the authorization problems would probably drive you mad!! - as I have just changed to a new windows 7 Sonar X1 64bit system from Jim and even though Jim loaded some of my software, it has taken me a couple of weeks to download latest versions, load and authorize the rest - not something I will want to do again any time soon!!!!!!!!!!!
Nigel