The suddenness of the cutoff for upgrades is indeed unsettling. Why the haste? Does VSL need the money that badly that it is willing to cause so much disquiet amongst it's customers? I'd want to know if I was intending to beat the deadline.

I for one will not be bullied into upgrading to a product I don't want just to stay on an upgrade path and protect my "investment." And anyway, I'd be more than a little nervous "investing" in samples locked into a proprietary player when it's made by a company with VSL's track recording of misleading marketing, punative upgrade paths and applaing PR gaffs like this current fiasco.

 I’d respectfully like to make a few suggestions to VSL:

1.    Recognize that your change in policy regarding updates, however necessary it may be, was articulated and presented in a way that has caused a public relations disaster with potential long-term negative impact on your business.
2.    Recognize that the good will of customers who have made significant investments in your products is one of your most important business assets.
3.    Analyze honestly why your announcement has aroused so much upset and opposition even among those customers not personally affected by your announced change in update policy.
4.    Admit that your announced change in update policy is completely inconsistent with the promises you made to customers earlier on.
5.    Recognize that breaking promises, even if it is necessary to do so, will predictably arouse anxiety and distrust among your customers.
6.    Recognize that, so far, your attempts to explain the reasons for changing your update policy have been perceived as murky and unconvincing by your customers.
7.    To change this perception, be open and forthcoming with your customers in explaining why you have found it necessary to change your update policy.
8.    Recognize that defensiveness on your part will only intensify the negative effect on customer loyalty whereas openness may rekindle the sense of collaboration with customers that has been one of the unique characteristics of VSL.  
9.    Work with your customers to find a way around the current impasse.

At the same time, I’d suggest to customers that we all have an interest in the long-term survival of VSL and continued development of its products. Customers need to realize that the entire enterprise VSL has engaged in has a very strong idealistic component. The decision, for example, to offer complete set of articulations for Contrabass Trombone cannot have been rooted in fantasies of mass market appeal. It was, however the right thing to do, in terms of offering a complete orchestral library.

Similarly it was not necessary to develop profoundly thoughtful products such as the VI sample player, VE 2 and VE 3 - - but these products are extremely useful. Why couldn’t Apple, for example, with its infinitely greater financial resources, have offered an improved version of EXS 24 with the ability to easily load and control a large number of multiple articulations on a single MIDI channel? Why also hasn’t Apple also offered its own version FX Teleport? Most likely because it decided that spending the money on developing these features would not generate significant additional return. In other words, "good enough" rather than excellence was the operating mantra.

Customers also need to recognize that market demand for a product of the quality of the VSL libraries and software is extremely limited. To make these libraries is an expensive proposition. It would be great if there were a mass market for them. It would be great if they could be priced so that every school and every student could have access to them - - but the fact is that there is no mass demand for such products. This lack of demand is why the prices are high. There is an inevitable - - and painful - - conflict between the kind of idealism which wants to do the job right and the fact that, without a mass market, the costs of excellence will be such that its selling price will be affordable only to relatively few.

If one looks at the orchestral sample industry as a whole, one finds that it is not a roaring money making success. Garritan, for example, announced the imminent release of its Steinway sample library almost a year before it was actually released - - one suspects that the delay had something to do with having to find funds for completing the work. Dan Dean has a good set of solo woodwind samples featuring eight velocity layers for many articulations, yet it is sold at a bargain basement price - - which one guesses is the only alternative to not selling it at all. Logic 8, on the other hand, comes with an endless number of Apple Loops and a Symphonic “JamPack” - - and this seems to be enough for many Logic users.  

If more people were engaged in seriously making music, rather than in simply “consuming” it on their iPods, things might be different……

 Fred:

Excellent summary!

Thanks. 

The development of wonderful accompanying programs like VI interface, VE and projected MIR from the VSL can be attributed to

a) Artistic/technological vision from the team responsible for this superb overall product which we all have come to admire and in which we all have invested tremendous money purely for the privilege of access to it, and

b) The company's need to stay ahead of the other sprouting companies with which it competes and has to keep abreast of their innovations and offerings; they simply could not remain idle on their laurels for too long.

These are not reasons to "cut" any "slack" to this recent behaviour, since all of these additional products cost (and will cost) us extra money which we should happily pay since their development requires ingenuity, patience, taste, and financial risk. I personally respect these qualities and I always propagandize (as in an earlier post) against piracy of this and all other software, as proof of that respect as well as moral values. In return I expect the same respect, and if not the same moral values, at least the same courtesy from them to us customers. It is true that if the VSL is under financial strain (about which I have grave doubts), they cannot just announce it on this forum or by e-mail. On the other hand, we cannot - even joking - be asked to shoulder any of it, I didn't see any shares of the company being offerred here, did you?

I also believe that comparison to other colossal companies (like Apple, Avid and the like) is nonsensical since there are so many other different parameters to be considered, the simplest of which is that us, as customers, can always re-sell these other companies' products and try to cut our losses somehow. If one regardless wishes to pursue such comparisons, I can accommodate them with an example of my own just in order to answer some poor excuse given here by some people saying that VSL is shifting towards smaller packages of samples due to relative customer  shift:

If Apple suddenly realized a vast number of people and companies were interested almost solely on Mac minis they could decide to drop the Mac Pro line altogether. Even if that meant it was leaving the likes of me in the cold, there is nothing reprehensible about that kind of business decision. Please let VSL come out officially and say that due to such circumstances the bulk offer of libraries will heretofore be discontinued and they will be concentrating on their individual instrument offerings. HOWEVER, since this is a license-based business setup, they should at the same time orgnize honourable and past-expenditure-relevant upgrade paths for their comprehensive users. My suspicion is though (looking at competitors) that big packages will continue to reign supreme, and that we will be asked to succumb to what should be their new advertisement: "Now you are able to buy 1 package for the price of 3! Don't miss out!!"

VSL wished and manage to grab a lot of the lower (financially) end of the market for samples with products such as Horizon, SE, etc. Why punish the higher end? 

This crisis requires a different kind of solution from the management, as I am sure they know their competitors are also monitoring this forum and particularly this post, and perhaps they are now holding meetings discussing how they can take advantage of this. 

I just wanted to add an opinion specific to the Opus/SE users out there:

When VSL switched to the VI and associated dongle, the SE users became limited to a single machine.  You folks with the full libraries got individual licenses for each section, so you could continue to use your PC/Mac farms.  SE users suddenly had their PC farms turned into worthless heaps.  So regardless of limited time to upgrade, the upgrade results in a pretty serious REDUCTION in capability (all that extra processing power can't be used any more).  I don't understand that policy or why folks are OK with it.  Where's the harm in letting us work like we used to?  At least offer additional licenses at a steep discount and let us put that processing power to work!

Now, if I want to use the SE like I used to use Opus 1/2 on two machines, I have to purchase TWO ADDITIONAL SE libraries. So it's even worse than paying for the same samples twice, it's paying for the same samples THREE times...  Yes, we do get extra samples that we didn't have previously (saxes, etc.) but the fact remains that we are, in fact, paying for the same samples again.

But, as has been mentioned elsewhere, only VSL know their market and they are, after all, a business.  So they'll do whatever makes the most money.  My guess is that the posts on this forum represent only a small percentage of their customers, so they're probably not paying much attention...

rgames

@benbartlett said:

The Cube is no longer on my shopping list, whereas the piece meal packages probably will be. Ultimately, as a professional, I would rather divert my budget towards sessions of REAL strings etc than spend the equivalent to have, lets face it, samples.

That has got to be the strangest post I ever read. By definition everyone here who is complaining about feeling cheated has decided they do need the cube. The issue is not whether they need it, but how much it's now going to cost.

And you respond by telling them they should stop wanting it, and emulate your workflow instead. I doubt whether even the VSL people are going to thank you for defending them by telling people to stop wanting so many samples.

 [quote=PaulR]There's a lot here that don't understand the fluidity of business and business models and use strong language like liar - the British having had 11 years of Labour is the only apology of an excuse I can make to VSL on that one.

Why on earth are we apologising? So far there have not been any satisfactory answers to some very simple and reasonable questions. And the word liar, whilst strong, appears to be completely appropriate until these questions are answered. For instance, if the problem, as they claim, is really that it's difficult to run two discount systems simultaneously, then what is the problem with a permanent note on the file of all Pro-Library owners, showing the discount they can expect on the VIs? The only obvious answer is that they actually want the money they will make by taking the current upgrade path away, but they're not prepared to say so.

You're not the only intelligent person here; we do understand the fluidity of business, but some of us believed VSL were different. Some of us genuinely believed they could deliver what they said they could. The revelation that they can behave so deceitfully is not only of concern to those who had been on the upgrade path, but will shake confidence in the company as a whole. I don't think VSL realise just what a disaster this could turn out to be.

Herb, thank you for this extra grace period.

The VIP is more valuble to those of us who buy less frequently:  The outlay is so much more serious for someone like me--I have to budget FAR in advance (more than 6 months).

Which is to say, I am still hoping that you will stretch it further...please consider, as you will retain more of your customer base.  I for one will continue to buy when I can afford it, but if I lose my status, my next purchase will have to be smaller and much later than sooner.

Hell, I'd be willing to put down a small deposit (like a layaway item) to reserve a product at the VIP price.  I could complain about lifetime investment, etc., but really I'm so desperate right now I'm actually losing sleep over this.  Show me a hoop to jump through, just point the way!

Clark

 I must say that this thread and the plaints of so many make me sad. Here we are far from the spirit of creative collaboration that has, over the years, made these forums a uniquely happy enterprise. Promises made and then breached always have this effect. To the folks at VSL I say, listen....

@Pingu said:

You're not the only intelligent person here;

@dsstudio said:

Just want to voice out my disapprove about the decision to drop upgrade plan for 1st/Pro edition. I for one was very close to buy a performance set for EXS24 [clearance price for 1600] Along with the EXS24 problem, now the new upgrade plan, I feel like that was a GREAT ESCAPE! I have lost confidence when buying VSL library, I will hold up ALL plan and wait until a better time, let's see what July 15 will bring Regards Sonny

@PaulR said:

I'm sorry, but call me old-fashioned - I don't understand how some of the people on this thread know how to walk and breath at the same time - I mean - HOW do some of you ACTUALLY live? Huh? How do you manage to pay your bills. Beats me.

There you go again with that incredible arrogance, when actually the problem is not anyone else's lack of intelligence, but the fact that you keep completely missing the point of the thread. I'm sure there are probably good reasons that VSL have had to go back on their promises, and no they're not by any means aggressively avaricious, judging by previous behaviour. The point is that they won't explain their reasons. No matter how you keep excusing it there has been a breach of promise, and we would like to believe that the team we've come to know would at least explain.

Even you should be able to tell that endlessly reiterating the mantra, 'They're not as bad as some firms,' doesn't actually answer the question of why they've done this. All you're doing is suggesting that we should learn to expect VSL to become as bad as any other firm.

 I've been speaking out about this, and they're my first posts in months.  Here - and in other forums - those of us scratching our heads and asking for answers are being portrayed as helpless whiners.  Well, helpless I'm not.  I head a fairly thriving little music production company, which my wife and I have nurtured and built over the years.  We're active in our local business community, and we work with a committed, talented group of composers, sound designers and the like.  When it comes to certain costs (capital expenditures, as my accountant calls them), we have to balance MANY needs.  We also provide health insurance to our team (paying 100%).  Costs are skyrocketing, and their health and well-being is more important than owning the latest and greatest sample library.

So, would I have LOVED to have been able to upgrade to VI already?  Yes!   But other priorites have interceded.  To set those priorities, we used information we trusted.  Had we known that VSL would rescind the very offer that played a part in my decision to invest in their product; had we known that at some future date the upgrade price would effectively double, we might have placed the upgrade higher on the priority list.  I remember my wife saying specifically, "The health insurance is going up again and we had some unexpected repair costs.  What can we cut from our spending plan?"  I answered, "Well, as much as it pains me - the VSL upgrade is over $5,000.00, so we can wait a while longer.  The upgrade price will still be there."

See where I'm going with this?  If I offered my best clients a free session for spending a certain amount of money with us, never mentioning a deadline, then arbitrarily told them that they only have 3 months to use it - or they'll lose it - I would EXPECT them to be upset!  If they ask why I'm suddenly putting a cutoff on the offer, they have every right to EXPECT a good answer, and I'd feel a responsibility to give them one.

That's the thing about the free enterprise system - there's no law that says you can't make a bad decision.  Heaven knows I've made MY share.  And that's all I'm saying.  My opinion as a customer, and as a businessperson, is that VSL has made a bad decision here.

So, am I whining?  Call it what you will.  VSL doesn't owe me anything.  And I don't have the time or inclination to pursue the matter further.  I'll either be able to afford the upgrade during the (now) 6 month period or I won't.  With the enormous expense of building a new studio looming, the timing's pretty lousy - but that's not VSL's problem, or their fault.  I'll deal with it.  

I just hate to see a company I admire so much make such a misstep.  It's left a bad taste in my mouth, and - for the first time - has me listening to demos from the other guys.  

Thanks for indulging my lengthy post.

Fred Story 

@Fred Story said:

We also provide health insurance to our team (paying 100%).  I remember my wife saying specifically, "The health insurance is going up again and we had some unexpected repair costs.  What can we cut from our spending plan?" Fred Story