Unfair Upgrade Pricing

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Want to compare NI to Arturia?

Here are the percentages.

Komplete Retail is $1,199
My Upgrade Price $299

Percentage: 25%

Arturia V6 Retail is $499
My Upgrade Price $199

Percentage: 39.8%

As you can see, night and day.

At 25% I'd only have to pay $125 for Arturia's upgrade. That, I feel, is more than fair.

So no, Arturia's upgrade model isn't even CLOSE to Native Instruments. In fact, it is absolutely the WORST upgrade model of any company I know. And if there's one worse, trust me, I've probably never even bought any of their products.

Sorry, but unfair upgrade pricing is EXACTLY what this is.

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I'm looking at the new VST instruments I got this year and I'm unable to fit 4 into a total of €199 (any combination exceeds it by a good amount), so... like I said previously, $199 (€199 in my case) for 4 +1(Piano V2) +1(AL3) new instruments doesn't seem too much.

Fortunately, people can choose when or even if they want to upgrade at all :)

...also, companies like the ones mentioned in this thread have progressively "trained" their customers to wait (if they want) for sale seasons, so, there's that as well.

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I think their strategy is fine and fair. There ain't no such thing as a market price. But there are different values for different customers/users of a given tool like Arturias bundle.
Those who use it a lot and make money with it ( they are also price sensitive) and those who use it more rarely or just got it out of nostalgia (like me). How the hell should Arturia get what they deserve from those who earn money with the tool and have enough of cash?
Simply make them hot!!! Make them feel I can't wait to get my hands on, it will push my next piece into heaven.... Those are already owners of V 5. It is fair to put up a reasonable price for them. All others won't be lost, but have to wait until that market is saturated. Then Arturia can cash in the rest who are happily willing to pay 99...
I would call it a good and fair business modell. We all want Arturia to keep on creating those babies...

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I believe it would be most fair if it would be cheaper to upgrade from v5 to v6, and a little bit more expensive from v4 to v6, and yet more expensive from v3 to v6, and so on. I agree with everyone saying that $99 is the magic number. If it was $99 I would upgrade right away.
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wagtunes wrote:Want to compare NI to Arturia?

Here are the percentages.

Komplete Retail is $1,199
My Upgrade Price $299

Percentage: 25%

Arturia V6 Retail is $499
My Upgrade Price $199

Percentage: 39.8%

As you can see, night and day.

At 25% I'd only have to pay $125 for Arturia's upgrade. That, I feel, is more than fair.

So no, Arturia's upgrade model isn't even CLOSE to Native Instruments. In fact, it is absolutely the WORST upgrade model of any company I know. And if there's one worse, trust me, I've probably never even bought any of their products.

Sorry, but unfair upgrade pricing is EXACTLY what this is.
My feelings exactly.

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ATN69 wrote:I believe it would be most fair if it would be cheaper to upgrade from v5 to v6, and a little bit more expensive from v4 to v6, and yet more expensive from v3 to v6, and so on. I agree with everyone saying that $99 is the magic number. If it was $99 I would upgrade right away.
I think prices and especially upgrade prices are not about fairness. Fairness is coming in how you are treated after you have agreed to a price and bought it.
Out of the companies perspective, they need to survive and get the most out of a broad as possible range of potential customers. The wealthy ones should pay more, the not so wealthy ones less, and the poor should not be put off either.
If you bought V 2 and never took the opportunity for any of the inbetween upgrades, a higher upgrade price would not do so either. But it would be difficult to offer something lower than the one for the V 5 to V 6...;-)
And its a simple rule as well. You can't afford every upgrade? Simply leave one or two out. If you can trust that policy, you are more likely to jump on that waggon one day, than if you would be forced to one of these fashionable subscription models. I promise, never ever would I subscribe to software which would leave the tool unusable once I cancel.

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ATN69 wrote:I believe it would be most fair if it would be cheaper to upgrade from v5 to v6, and a little bit more expensive from v4 to v6, and yet more expensive from v3 to v6, and so on.
Exactly. I'd like to see some kind of reward for frequent returning customer. Otherwise, I will definitely think twice when V7 comes.


The final anount to be paid is very individual. 200 is fine for me. For a lot of people, it's too much. Companies can not make products cheap, just to meet people's expectations, who don't earn enough money. They ask what they need and/or want. Even if only 20 dollar would return all investments, they can still ask 200, just to get filthy rich :D

I believe, even if it would be only 20 bucks, there still will be people complaining about it to be too expensive (not judging about their budget). And if it would be free, people still will complain about missing features.

And when all possible and impossible features are in there, each OSC types, all filter types, all combinations of those, it emulates all vintage synths with 100% realism, has at least 1024 voices, a matrix this universe haven't seen yet, no bugs, totally intuitive, suited for beginners and full seasoned sound designers, fully compatible with all formats even with the formats abandoned 10 years ago, compatible back several OS-versions, switchable between resizable and fixed GUI for monochrome and retina screens, requires only 5MB of RAM, can be installed and run of on hard drives, floppy discs, tapes, ZIP-drives, SCSI-drives, USB-sticks and so on... plus it's free...

there will be still people complaining about something :D
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I think prices and especially upgrade prices are not about fairness. Fairness is coming in how you are treated after you have agreed to a price and bought it.
I agree, but for me it started when I bought the v5. That's when fairness comes in and how they treat me as a customer in regards to support, upgrade prices, etc. I am very happy to support a developer I like and buy their product but the price still has to be reasonable. I don't feel that $199 is reasonable, especially since users with much older versions will pay the same, all though they take a big leap in terms of upgrade compared to v5 owners.
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Isn't the reward simply using and having fun with the software? Is there any necessity to feel better because you are a "loyal" customer?
It boils down to we all want to be loved...;-)
Maybe some companies don't see too much marketing value in making those customers who need the feel they are loved happy... ( and would get less reward for it)
I prefer personal love...

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Well, they aren‘t really in the business for being fair, they are in the business for creating revenue. And it is perfectly legitimate for them to price it in a way that optimizes revenue.

Having said that, this upgrade price is too steep for me. I usually update everything right away even if I do not use it that often. I‘m a little bit OCD that way. But this one will have to wait for a sale which will probably pop up in 6-12 months.
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mgw38 wrote:I usually update everything right away even if I do not use it that often. I‘m a little bit OCD that way. But this one will have to wait for a sale which will probably pop up in 6-12 months.
This is where I'm at, I'd like to update but I've rarely ever used the Arturia tools because right after buying them I fell off the cliff into the bottomless pit of Eurorack. While I'd update in a flash for $99 even knowing I might go another year without using them, paying $200 to let them languish just doesn't feel right nor the fact that during Arturia's promotion my upgrade price is 50% the cost for someone buying new.

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mgw38 wrote:Well, they aren‘t really in the business for being fair, they are in the business for creating revenue.
Absolutely. On the other hand, revenue and rewards to loyalty is not excluding each other. In the opposite. It may even create more revenue.
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Tj Shredder wrote:Isn't the reward simply using and having fun with the software? Is there any necessity to feel better because you are a "loyal" customer?
It boils down to we all want to be loved...;-)
Maybe some companies don't see too much marketing value in making those customers who need the feel they are loved happy... ( and would get less reward for it)
I prefer personal love...
Well, I worked >5 years as a sales rep in a home electronics shop when I was younger and I know that loyalty generate cash. I always went the extra mile for my customers and they kept coming back to me, generating more business and more revenue. I don't criticise the $199, just wish it would be around $99.
What I do criticise is their decision to charge as much for me as a v5 user as they do for a v4 or v3 user.

$199 is a lot of money and when you look around on the market as a whole there are a lot out there that I would consider more value for the money. There is however no law forcing me to upgrade and it's all up to free will. Therefore I will not upgrade at this point. I don't know when, or even if I will continue to upgrade. It all depends.
Win 10 -64bit, CPU i7-7700K, 32Gb, Focusrite 2i2, FL-studio 20, Studio One 4, Reason 10

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koshdukai wrote:
Fluffbomb wrote:What about the $ vs Euro pricing. $199 vs 100 Euro's. That seems more unfair to me
Haven't seen 100€ anywhere.

Only 399€, 199€ and 249€ (on respective offers).
Makes a huge Difference in my Currency as 249€ = $297... :?:

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The price is fair for people who want to be on the cutting edge of new instruments. You can always wait for the 50% discount next year. Or you can stick with what you have, which is still a lot...over 5000 presets in V5. Also, V5 owners still get Analog Lab 3 for free. I really don’t understand the fuss.
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