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Many of these plugin companies charge for software version upgrades, it’s common practice.
Just because it’s common for audio companies to gouge people, that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable. I’ll never pay for an Adobe product because of their business model, for example.
I wouldn’t have an issue paying for support, upgrades, or new versions, that’s not what this is. This is charging us to continue using the same software, just on another computer. In principle, it feels like monetizing something that doesn’t need to be. As I mentioned in the original post, if you pay for something, you should get some added value or benefit. This is not that. The benefit of continuing to use the same software. Again, the amount isn’t what’s at issue, it’s the principle of it. The FTC is cracking down on auto dealerships to help stop them from being deceptive and gaining profits and offering no added value in return. If Leif and Co need more financial support, they could consider changing into a subscription model. That may prove difficult this far in, however.
I see the key replacement fee as an administration charge. Leif’s company has to employ someone full time, provide office space, email facilities etc just to process licence requests. Add in all the other costs of employing a person these days (I am much more familiar with Australian regulations, but there are costs like superannuation contribution, insurances etc as soon as you put someone on the payroll). Up until now, for the past 20 years, Leif has absorbed those costs, but he has now decided to look at a “user pays” scheme.
I don’t know exactly what is involved, but it would at least involve retrieving information from a database on just what the requestor has licenced, generating the new key, updating the database accordingly and then emailing the key to the recipient. If that takes 15 minutes to complete, the charge is totally justified.I personally don’t have a problem with that in principal. However, I’d like to think that, if anyone experiences a “difficult” installation where multiple attempts are made to get BA1 installed and registered, that there would only be the one fee charged. I’m sure if you wrote to them in a situation like that, they would make exceptions.
I’d also like him to consider a sliding scale of charges, rather than a flat fee. Some users of the software have multiple cores, the remote admin option and other licenseable options, so I believe that they should pay a premium for that. Maybe $10 for those who just have an HD core, through to $25 for those with much more complex options.
I hear what you both are saying. Administrative actions and support would justify a cost to the end user. However, I feel like this could be easily automated where you paste in your license info from the software, it’s processed and it spits out a new key. I don’t know that they need to pay a person to be doing this. Yes, development of such an automation would incur some cost. But it’s possible as I have other software that works like this. Or, do like stereo tool does and send a license key based on your paid features and that’s your permanent license key. You change computers, you look up your key and bam, done. I think it’s over-complicated as it is. I am no programmer so I don’t know what is really involved with all this I’m describing. All I know is it’s possible and probably quite feasible.
Hi Folks, just wanted to stop by here and clarify some stuff.
People have suggested the sliding scale or reducing the cost. Sliding scale based on what license you have is hard math. Someone with a passthru core and livewire for instance just to use as a streaming encoder at 5% the original value would be $5.40USD. It costs us 3%+$1.50 of that to even process your credit card. Flat fee just made the math simple for everyone. After the dust settles, your 15 bucks, we see just under about half that (taxes, fees, hosting fees, processing fees, fees for the fees, etc, the things we are trying NOT to do).
Going to an automated licensing system has huge costs these days. Commercial products available to people like me and Leif are upwards of $3500 a YEAR and $500 a month for hosting the service. This would have to be put somewhere. Either new customers would pay for it (hopefully?) or it’d be a sunk cost and we would be out of business really quickly. Either way the costs go up drastically. Hans also wrote his own system for licensing, which yes, it can be done, but he also has other ventures that utilize that licensing mechanism so it does pay for itself in his case. Changing ours to something like that has a huge cost (time and money) and we just haven’t been able to come up with a system that works and makes sense at the current prices. It’s not going to get better, we will have to do something, we just haven’t figured out what that is yet.
Right now every key is made by hand, by a human. We review every key request, every change, every order. That’s why it might take a day or two to get you a new one. We have familes too, graduation parties, school recitals, vacations, etc. Bear with us, it might take a day or two to get to your request, but we do get to them.
Leif is good at telling me this one line every time I ask for something I assume is “easy” to do. “…says the person who doesn’t have to write the code”. And he’s right. Something us non-programmers take for granted is that we think a “simple” thing like licensing or allowing the stereo pilot adjustment to move more comes at some greater difficulty we don’t see or understand where Leif does and understands that maintenance tax or implementation tax.
As has been said, that fee is not friction for those who change machines once every 5 years or so. We understand computers have a finite lifespan, things get struck by lightning, etc. This is more for the ones who abuse the thing we technically don’t have to do at all, and that is reissuing keys to allow you to move around. The downside is that we can’t apply that surcharge to just a handful of people, it’s across the board. (laws and all that) We aren’t dismissing that $15 is nothing, because it’s obviously something, but doing it for less than free all these years have now come at a pretty big cost, mentally, financially, even medically in some cases.
I hope this clears up a few things surrounding this new charge. It’s not meant to disuade you from buying, upgrading, or even transferring your software around. It’s to keep the ability to do so alive entirely and Breakaway Software available at an affordable pricetag.
//Alex
As I said before—and I stand by it—I have no problem paying $15 (or the equivalent in my local currency) to reactivate the license; I understand the need for it, and it’s not an exorbitant amount. All I ask for is more frequent improvements—specifically, expanding the pilot range (I really appreciate that this is coming in a future update to bring it to 6). I realize that coding and programming take time, but I’d love to see more life breathed into Breakaway. It would also be cool to implement the processor’s phase scrambler—like Leif did for the Omnia 9s—or the “auto-pilot” feature. Again, I have no complaints; I just want interesting updates that keep customers happy. Since we’re paying for and using the software legally, I think it’s fair to ask for improvements—simple as that. And I’ll say it again: I’m not the type to complain about paying $15 for a new installation; that’s nothing. Just look at the cost of physical hardware or big-name systems, and you’ll see what I mean—haha.
I got this email today. It includes a link to the place where you can order a licence replacement. I guess this takes care of the charges, but I’m unsure how you go about submitting your configuration details for the new computer.
Leif and Alex have implemented a new license key policy.
***NOTICE***
Beginning 7-1-2026 we will be charging a $15 Replacement Key fee for anyone requesting to move/change/replace their existing license key. I regret having to do this, but too many people abuse the nice ability of a simple key request all too often causing piracy. As such, we will have to impose a fee to replace keys going forward. -Leif
***NOTICE***All BreakawayOne license key changes are submitted through https://www.breakawaysoftware.com/store/p/key-replacement
Please submit your request through our website. If you require special consideration, please email us with any questions. All license changes are reviewed and generated by humans; please allow up to 48 hours for a response.
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