Question

I am familiar and happy to use subscriptions and think that Presonus Sphere offers great value.

The current rhythm of big updates seems to be every 2 years. Since I own S1 v4, I could upgrade to S1 v5 for ~150 EUR and be fine until ~2022 when S1 v6 comes out. I'd love to move to Sphere but paying ~14 EUR/month means that, by 2022, I would have paid about 336 EUR instead.

Is there's a less expensive version of Sphere subscription for people who already own S1 v4 and want to make the jump to the subscription model? Basically some kind of "upgrade from S1 v4 to Sphere".

Thanks!

EDIT: Simon brings up a very valid point: that Sphere does include additional content beyond Studio One and, as such, is it understandable it costs more and it's up to us (me!) to decide whether I want to pay the extra for the extra content. Thanks!

Answer 1

Hey Javier,
I don't know if there will be another price for us old users but one thing you should take into account when paying for Sphere is that you're also paying for the extra Presonus content + Notion + Cloud storage etc which you're not getting if you only upgrade from V4 to V5. Wether that's worth the extra 186 EUR in 2 years is a good questions we all should ask ourselves :)

Answer 2

This is a valid question and I wonder it too.

If I’m a new user I’d pay over $400 for Studio One v5.

But since I’m a S1v4 user I’ll only pay $170 for the upgrade.

However. Both new and old users will pay the same for the Sphere which means Presonus doesn’t care if I’m a long-time user and have bought every version the past 5+ years. That’s a bit sad.

But I guess I can sell my S1v4 license to someone who doesn’t want the subscription model and then just sign up for Sphere.

Still. This was a bit sour actually.

Answer 3

And what about those who bought PreSonus Professional, and then bought some add-ons, like the CTC and the PreSonus Orchestra?
If they move to the Sphere, will pay the same 14€/month than a new user starting today.
I think this is not fair to the old folks.
PreSonus will get a bunch of new costumers beggining using S1, but the old ones, the people who talk good things about S1 and encourage people to leave PT and other daws and embrace S1, are left on the side.
This is not PreSonus policy (or hadn´t been so far). So, what happened to PreSonus?

Answer 4

HI All: this type of upgrade vs.subscription issue will be with us until most software publishers 'get with' the subscription model, exclusively. They have all learned from ADOBE.

I was wrong about ADOBE's "Subscription-only" model, which successfully went on to make a LOT OF MONEY for ADOBE !  Remember, for most companies, business-model trumps all else.

Like many, i just (recently) paid to upgrade to V4 Professional, and am not willing to pay more, right now - 'extra' services now won't get me to forgo the 'permanent' license to V5.

It's possible, in a year's time (?), that we will all have other offers on the table

Answer 5

I am struggling with the same question. It looks like if, at any time, you drop Sphere, you will return to access only to whatever old version of S1 you have registered. Combined with the fact that version 5 does not seem to have the ability to save a file in a format readable by an older version, there's no going back for any project that you touch. Once you switch to Sphere, you may as well forget that you owned a prior version.

Since I'm almost exclusively interested in tracking and mixing for bands, I'm thinking of sticking with the purchased license. I don't really need to keep up to date with revs as long as the software is stable, so it can be hard to even justify the upgrade cost versus the benefit.

If they offered an automatic upgrade of your already owned license to the current rev when you pay for a year of Sphere, I'd try it since the extra cost and long-term risk are both minimal. Absent that, I'll probably stay with what I'm using.

-Bob

Answer 6

I look at this as being similar to (but not the same as) buying fast food. You will always save money by buying ingredients and cooking food yourself, but with fast food, you're paying for the food PLUS the convenience of not having to cook it yourself and getting it much quicker than you would if you did.

With software, under a subscription model, you get the software, and less worry about updates, upgrades and the chunk of cash you have to lay out for major version releases. Plus you may get additional content you'd otherwise have to pay directly for. With Presonus Sphere, you get Studio One, Notion, cloud storage space and a significant amount of additional content plus exclusive tutorial videos for an expected price that's easily budgeted for most people.

In my case, I'll pay a little under $400 over 2 years; this is less than I'd otherwise pay for Studio One and Notion, assuming I wanted both. Of course, with upgrade pricing, it would be cheaper to buy both directly. But, considering the additional content and storage I get with the subscription, it's well worth it FOR ME. It depends on what you want; it may not pan out that way for you.

Answer 7

I wholeheartedly agree.

I find it a little insulting that we would have to pay the same price to, essentially, upgrade.

An acceptable compromise, for example, would be if PreSonus offered Sphere to us for a promotional price for the first two years. Maybe 40-50% off the annual fee.

Answer 8

I have the same thoughts! I am a HUGE Presonus fan, since version1
I had SO4 and upgraded to SO5 license, I tried the subscription and due to losing the internet for a few hours I could not open SO5, and I had a client booked to record. The project I was working on in SO5 would not open in SO4, so that was embarrassing but it led to my permanent upgrade to 5.
I can't risk losing all my work if the internet goes down!!!!

My question/suggestion is:
Can Presonus offer a reduced price subscription that does NOT include software licenses, just the networking, community, and storage features in Sphere? I would gladly jump on that boat!

Presonus please let us know if this would be something that you would make available.
Thank you Presonus! and keep up the GREAT work that you have been doing over the past years!

-Rob Chandler