Reason Studios has introduced Reason+, a new subscription service that offers their Reason DAW – along with a library of 70+ Rack instruments, audio effects, and MIDI Player effects – for $19.99/€19.99 a month.
Additionally, Reason+ introduces the Reason+ Companion, where you can browse and download sound packs.
Subscribers have full access to Reason Studios’ complete array of devices, inside Reason’s Rack plugin and standalone audio workstation. There are over 70 instruments, effects and MIDI Player effects available in Reason+, including Europa, Kong, Grain, and the recently released Friktion and Pattern Mutator. Any new Reason Studios devices and features offered in the future will be immediately available to subscribers.
Pricing and Availability
Reason+ is available now for $19.99/€19.99 per month or for $199.00/€199.00 per year. You can try it for free for 30 days.
They’ve jumped on the subscription train… I’ve been loving the reason rack in ableton. Wonder if they will do tiered pricing. But for $199 for all the instruments, fx and pack seems pretty fair for a full year. Roland cloud is the same price for the year, but they don’t offer the wonderful fx like reason has.
Reason user since ver.1 and never skipped an upgrade.
Will consider the new annual subscription model due to 50% off for first year.
I’m already Roland Cloud user since day one and pretty happy with that.
Seemingly everyone is jumping on subscription model these days…
reason always sounded great and im glad to see they went the optional plug in route. its really where it shines. the sequencer is outdated but the time stretching audio is great. i think the 199 price is worth it and throw in a rack extention 1 or 2 times a year. i would like to see them bottle up more of that audio stretchihg and put it in a rack extension as well as the ssl compresser and do away with the sequncer and audio recording and just be a plugin.
I would say it still worth it
“Its got soundpacks!!!!!!”. I’ve owned Reason for many years, paid to upgrade a few times, nothing too crazy. Key work there is own. If I just stopped upgrading, id just continue using whatever version I have. So with this new subscription service, im sure they did some pricing and included current owners in the equation so its just a matter of time before they drop the ball there.
I’m assuming the upgrade model is going to go and if you want the new version, subscription time! They’ll offer a discount for owners for a year, now you’re a renter.
I used to rent apartments from a landlord. Now I own a house. It’s mine. I prefer the latter.
Hang on. Computer software is not an appreciating asset like your house.
That said, you’re conveniently forgetting the mortgage, upkeep costs, cost to furnish a larger space, property taxes and the cost of maintaining a lawn and grounds (mower, tools, time) in your kooky analogy.
I’m a huge fan of Reason, been using it since version 1. Not keen on the subscription model however. Looks like they also killed the Intro version which was a complete and great package for people starting out.
Their current webpage and marketing are really not my kind. They could do a much better promotion of the modular aspect since modular is so popular. The modular aspect of Reason is quite unique and one of the key points i love it so much. One can use “modular” VSTs in any DAW but it’s just so much fun to be able to press tab at see behind the rack at any time. I use Reasons’s CV in almost everything i do.
Also hope they don’t drop the DAW side, it’s the only DAW i use. It does all i want.
y’all do realize you can still buy-to-own rather do the subscription right? and that the latter comes with *everything* plus various bits? they’re different things for different purposes with pros and cons respectively, but it’s honestly a thoughtful way to introduce a new option – and options are always good! such cranks here…
Options are good until they get rid of the better one. You don’t convert your pay-to-own product to a subscription service to still service owners. People can do simple math. Subscription services only work when you cant just buy it. Owning will be gone in a year otherwise they wouldn’t be offering it at a discount for owners, they’d only be focused on new customers. They want you to transition.
Or Im completely wrong and they’re fine with everyone just using reason 11 forever.
Reason Studios does claim it will continue selling licenses. While skepticism is fairly healthy, i do think that’s a bold claim that they didn’t have to make, so I’d be inclined to believe it – given how rabid internet commenters are lol.
I also totally disagree about your point about how subscriptions “only” work – for one, this is a case where Reason Studios may have won a customer, as I am more interested in this kind of short-term cheaper thing than going in on the whole DAW. I’m a committed Live user, but the devices in the Reason suite are stunning – having access to those is a huge boon – and like, friktion, parsec 2, complex-1 are all about $100 on their own anyway. having that rolled into the DAW purchase for the subscription does come out to being cheaper than buying stuff individually.
it doesn’t work for you – that’s fine. i just think it’s silly to toss all subscription models out as bogus when i think it clearly does have a place.
(also i do want to be clear that i think a subscription-only model is stupid and does stand to hurt users, but that a both license/subscription parallel pairing is beneficial)
The lifetime value of a customer is lower when you’re selling the product than it is when you’re renting it. Investors want a constant revenue stream over lump sums. The company I work for is currently having this discussion, trying to figure out how to not screw its current user base. It’s an issue.
I’m just coming in with a theory and yes a skeptical one. I think we just have a case of the “they’re selling what you want so you unwilling to see a downside -VS- I don’t want what they’re selling, I already have it so I’m seeing this from both sides.”
We both agree that a sub-only model is stupid so how are we even on different sides of this argument? All is well right now, but when it becomes a sub-only model, then we’ll high five for both thinking its stupid.
I’ve subscribed to Roland Cloud since it came out and have been very happy. This very criticism was there from day one. In response, Roland Cloud now allows you to purchase individual instruments for a flat price. So I feel like it is unlikely that a company would start out with both and then remove the ownership model when there’s still a strong demand for it.
Good point. Id be interested to know if Roland Cloud started as a flat price service then transitioned. Were the instruments available individually before the sub-only model or were they introduced with it and that capitalized on an additional revenue stream when subscriptions started to decline. If you offer a product in your subscription service and lose a customer to monthly cost. You much be able to squeeze some money out of them offering the single synth they actually wanted that was locked behind a subscription.
If I remember accurately, I think it was one price for everything. And they kept adding instruments frequently. They also had a loyalty play where for each year you subscribed you got to own an instrument outright. Sadly, that is now no longer the case. Now it’s a tiered service (in the top tier you still get everything) with the option to buy any individual instrument for more or less the same price ($150). While the pace of new instruments coming out has slowed, they come out with more content like patches more quickly than I can explore it, so I feel I get more than my money’s worth.
It all depends. Subs are ok if you are using a product daily. Personally I ReWire my Cubase to the Reason rack every 6 month or so – only to realise that the tiny GUI is hurting my eyes. A sub would be down right silly.
If Reason REALLY keeps the current licensing model along with the subscription option, I’ll be impressed, and the first to say, “wow, I didn’t expect that”.
But I really don’t expect that. When Reason brought in outside investors a few years ago, I asked Matthias about it at SuperBooth, and whether Reason would keep their artist/musician focus and not blindly chase revenue. He TRIED to give the company answer, saying “it was a good thing” but his body language said he didn’t 100% believe what he was saying.
I love Reason, so I’m hoping this move isn’t indicative of MORE decisions I won’t be crazy about, or worse that they will eventually fold. But maybe they’ll end up like Cakewalk Sonar who tanked not long after moving to a subscription model (and yes, I bought the “one time, life-time” subscription, smh), and someone will offer the software for free!!
They’ve certainly buried the option to buy in their website. You have to hunt for the shop down in the site footer.
I wish I’d known they were going to kill this product before I upgraded to 11 over the summer. I usually stay current with Reason, but never use it enough to pay $20 a month.
There are a lot other interesting things you can subscribe to on the internet for $20 a month, and now Reason is competing with all of them with this pricing model. For example, maybe instead of Reason I should get a Photoshop subscription instead? Or I could subscribe to Apple One, or Stadia, or any number of other things. All I know is that money definitely won’t be going to Propellerhead.
I have no interest in renting software.
We can’t say we didn’t see it coming. No matter what, I still won’t support that kind of business model, period!
Prefer living rent fee. Those subscriptions are pay for ever traps. I respect their Hustle but when you come like this folks will compare Reason to the top tier vsts (even free vsts are more impressive than some of the RE shop offerings), DAWs and and sale bundles out there. Good luck with that. Plus they are notorious to moving slow on adding modern day features and refinements, something they probably have to get in gear now with. They are just updating their GUI in 2021. That’s crazy. Hope they get it together! When Reason moved to the SSL mixer it really became a powerful tool to work with (sound design is still unmatched in Reason in my opinion), no other DAW needed. Just need to complete the package.