DaVinci Resolve 14 - New Licensing Model

It would be great to know more about the new licencing.

If you have dongles can you exchange them for node-locked licences?
Will you be able to easily disable and enable the licence if you need when moving between systems?


* A side note, I'd actually like BMD to start charging for updates. I love everything they add in so much every time but I would love to be paying them more money to contribute to the development. Now they have dropped the Studio version price even lower I don't know what to do. I guess I can just buy new licences with each new version and give them to students or edit assistants to use.

It would be great to know more about the new licencing.

If you have dongles can you exchange them for node-locked licences?
Will you be able to easily disable and enable the licence if you need when moving between systems?


* A side note, I'd actually like BMD to start charging for updates. I love everything they add in so much every time but I would love to be paying them more money to contribute to the development. Now they have dropped the Studio version price even lower I don't know what to do. I guess I can just buy new licences with each new version and give them to students or edit assistants to use.

For those of us that paid for our dongles, they just went from being worth $995 to $299. That is a huge value reduction. I do mean value, because when many of us purchased dongles it was because we were buying into a product we believed in from a company that valued it's early adopters and rewarded them with long term loyalty. We were willing to live with the hiccups of a growing company because we felt we were growing with them.

For those of us that paid for our dongles, they just went from being worth $995 to $299. That is a huge value reduction. I do mean value, because when many of us purchased dongles it was because we were buying into a product we believed in from a company that valued it's early adopters and rewarded them with long term loyalty. We were willing to live with the hiccups of a growing company because we felt we were growing with them.

I don't really see that as a drop in value, the product has more which I would see as an increase in value. The only loss in value is if you want to sell your dongle. We have a bunch of dongles which we have bought over the years as our business has increased. We have done so much work with them and made so much money with the software so they have more than paid for themselves. If you are in the same position the drop in price if you were to sell your dongle is easily outweighed by what you have earned using the software.

As a dongle owner, actually 3, Looking at it another way, it's just the resale value that has been reduced.

The usuable value of the dongle has gone up if you look at all the new features we have just gotten for free!

I entered this business when edit suites were a million dollars.

The cost of most of the elements today are almost free in comparison.

BMD hasn't charged for new versions EVER! They haven't charged for support.

Their hardware is incredibly cheaply priced. (Okay not the advanced Panel I now own)

In some way I wish they would charge for upgrades once in while.

A profitable and healthy BMD is much more important than a few dollars it might cost me

For insanely good tools that just keep getting better.

Originally my post touched on the value of a more expensive initial purchase with unlimited free updates versus a lower buy-in with paid updates. It was based on an assumption that future updates would be behind a paywall. Pure speculation at this point, so it was deleted.

Now, as far as value goes, it really depends on when and how the software was acquired, what was done with it, and ultimately what you expected to get from it in the long term. In your cases, it has been invaluable. A strong dependable platform that has provided profit for you in the past and continues to give you opportunities for present and future success.

That much can be true anyone that uses the software.

Just for arguments sake, let's say DR becomes subscription based. The loss of value comes from the person who bought in high with the expectation that all updates would be delivered at no personal cost, which has been one of the advantages of a Davinci Resolve purchase.

Now, is that sustainable from a long term business standpoint? Perpetually, probably not, as creating and maintaining software is not free. And the larger a company gets the harder it is to continue innovating without finding ways to cover costs and continue growth.

That said, there are only a limited number of dongles in the wild, and if the software's future is truly tied to a registration based series of updates, I would only hope that early adopters would be grandfathered into an arrangement that allows basic updates and builds to continue on the path they have been.

I hope as part of this licensing pivot they allow purchasing directly from BMD. I don't understand the point of exclusively requiring resellers for digital downloads.

FYI

We will announce details at final release. Our plan is all existing dongle users will be able convert to the non dongle license. All existing Studio users will have a no charge upgrade to v14 when released.

I just purchased an used dongle few weeks ago. For €299. Now it's €279, d'oh!
If i knew that i'd wait few more weeks. But ok, not so high price loss for me.

My question is: will dongle guarantee future updates? Will dongle work with 14? Or a license switch is mandatory to run 14? By considering the value of the original dongle, if the new licensing system will be pay-for-upgrade, it would be wise to keep dongle working for every new release. But now i'm just dreaming? I guess dongle will be ok up to 14 then stop its function?

There is a huge rage against Adobe and all subscription-like models for software tools lately. My Facebook page is full of F"**k you Adobe!!" since Resolve 14 was announced yesterday.

Black Magic Design is about to destroy all competition so it would be a mistake of epic proportions if a new subscription model is hidding behind the new Studio price of $299. They will turn an immensely positive situation into a huge disappointment.

I don't know how BMD is doing this amazing software development we are witnessing but the big picture is that their strategy is continuously attracting more people to their ecosystem. I have 2 RED cameras and already considering changing to BlackMagic ones next time.

If there is a new licensing model in BMD's plans then people should know now.

if a new subscription model is hidding behind the new Studio price of $299.

Grant explicitly said in the NAB presser that he is against software subscriptions, and that's at the core of BMD's software strategy. Their ads for DR14 talk about how a seat of the Studio version costs less than a year's subscription of competing products. Adobe and Autodesk, I'm looking at you.