Reason Studios business model for Reason

[sellyoursoul]

Going on the state of what the rest of the daw and plugin market are doing, I would think that far fewer Reason users are favorable of subscription licensing than perpetual licensing. But there are some issues that likely confuse comparison of which might be more favorable for users and more profitable for Reason Studios.

One issue is that development of major devices by Reason Studios is for Reason subscription license and the rack extensions market, not being added to new versions of Reason. In the meantime, a new user of a perpetual license pays $500, seeing minor devices added in a new version (arguably filler devices) with an update cost of $150. So the perpetual license user has paid $650 over a couple of versions, with no major devices being added, likely only seeing a few unwanted minor devices added. This makes makes the perpetual license much less attractive than before subscription licensing was added.

Another issue is that if the perpetual license user still wants to add major devices via rack extensions, most commonly at a cost of $100 or greater per device, those licenses are non-transferrable. So if a user ever decides to stop using those rack extensions, $100 or greater per device is thrown away, which is unlike most VST plugin licensing where users can sell their licenses to recoup some cost. That of course makes buying rack extensions much less attractive to users of a perpetual license for Reason, which makes the perpetual license even less attractive.

Still another issue is that Reason Studios gives priority support to subscription users, which makes the perpetual license ever less attractive. This likely weighs heavier on new Reason users, making new perpetual license adoption less likely.

And another issue still is that, devices aside, Reason as a daw is behind the rest of the daw market on features and not getting any major updates to justify some of that $150 per update. So no new major devices, in a daw that is staying behind the rest of the daw market.

All this isn't to say that these issues which make a perpetual license less attractive makes a subscription license more attractive. I would think that it turns more users and potential users off of Reason altogether.

And lets say that a user does decide to do a subscription license. That is $240 per year. Release is every 2-3 years, which is $480 to $720 in subscription fees per version, ongoing. It's pretty well known by now that most users of daws and plugins are hobbyists who are learning, tinkering, and making music at home while that subscription clock is ticking on. For professional musicians and producers, the subscription fees may be a small amount as a cost of livlihood, which might even be tax deductable. For the average hobbyist, subscription fees make much less sense compared to a daw and plugins that have perpetual licenses.

If I were someone new to daws and plugins, would I choose Reason? Not likely, because I don't see Reason Studios licensing making good value sense today. If I were a user of an older version of Reason, would I update a perpetual license to the latest version? It depends. I had a license for a very old version of Reason for which I lost interest and stopped using because Rewire was too much hassle, even though I really liked using a few of Reason's devices. So updating for me brought the rack VST, support for VST plugins, and some major and minor devices to explore. And as I became interested in Reason again, Reason Studios happened to have a sale, making updating to version 13 from version 6 a bargain. My case won't be the case for most Reason users, though. If I were say, a version 12 user, I wouldn't see nearly enough value to pay for an update to version 13.

I don't have any idea of what profitability is for Reason Studios and whether their current business model makes sense for them, but I don't see it making sense for most users or potential users. And to me, that paints an ugly picture for the future of Reason. But maybe I have it all wrong, and maybe Reason Studios found a business model that works for them to keep development going. And maybe my personal perception of their subscription licensing isn't as common as I think it is.

What do you think?