As I already said, our posts crossed, and I had not seen your list when I wrote that (obviously ! ) once again, thanks for clearing this up. No point in arguing now that we have the info, but I have to say that the word 'includes' is ambiguous there, it could be taken to mean either " consists of, amongst other things" or just "consists of" ... and ambiguity is what we were trying to remove, so ...

Anyway, looks great, thanks again.

I didn't 'think' it included Ghostwriter, I actually confirmed it... instead of posting here with over-caffeinated words like 'crazy', 'insane' and 'wildly', I calmly went to the EW site yesterday and confirmed it was on the list. :D

Where exactly did you see a list with all the included libraries yesterday ? I spent a real long time clicking on everything on their project page and never found one. Given the confusion that surrounded that question here and elsewhere, I apparently wasn't the only one. Can you give me a link ?

No problem . Haha probably true!

That's actually more or less what I've been starting off my writing with (fairly new to this) - I downloaded the demo for Ghostwriter when it first came out and attempted a kind of haunting atmospheric direction and it was a lot of fun. I do play heavier guitar too so I'll see how the two end up combining in the end. Glad to know there are more people out there who appreciate this sort of thing!

Definitely still worth a try, and I think I'll end up buying it when I have my ducks in a row. I entered the demo contest SW set up when releasing the instrument (turned into a "how many fbook friends can you get to "like" this each day" contest...but I digress) and out of all the ones I heard, I was the only one who messed around with the sounds a good deal.

My only thing was that as much as I love SW's sound design (it's perfect IMO), I don't want it to be instantly recognizable as a Porcupine Tree sound specifically, just for the sake of originality. The PLAY editor is great though, and I made a lot of the sounds in the library completely unrecognizable without removing that eerie "SW sound design" feel. If you use it properly it can be quite useful, and for someone that likes both Bass Communion and Porcupine Tree, I'm sure it will work great, especially if you get creative with the sounds.

Looks interesting. Is there any minimum subscription time (more than one month)?

Just noticed that the iLok requirement is removed for the subscription. Awesome!

Yes, it is for 1 year, payable either for the year or monthly.

Hi, is there any advantage to paying a year upfront?
Thanks,
Randy

Is it only me who's seeing this new renting trend as the perfect creativity trap?

A painter will create his/her colors from a handful of basic color tones. I bet if you were to present the artist with an infinite palette of colors(all the different colors that can be the result of varying degree of red, green blue), the artist wouldn't know where to start and would be paralyzed by all the choices.

Not to take into account the fact that you'll have to print everything you do to audio as the libraries will be gone the day you stop paying for them. Not talking especially about EW here but if all the FX plugins, VI plugins and sample libraries companies start to offer this, someone could easily drown in a sea of choice that will paralyse you. I know so many people who have an incredible collection of software(don't know if they paid for it all, I'm not the software police) and they never produce anything.

To use with moderation, me thinks...

KA

Oh boy another subscription service. Looks like Native Instruments with their kontakt libraries will take your business. Wait till steinberg start developing similar libaries for halion down the line.

sadly to me the future looks bleak if everyone starts going down this subscription route...

If the mandatory minimum is a year, this is a lot less appealing. I'd think it would be great for a user who wants to use certain instruments for certain projects, etc, and my own intention would be to try out different instruments to see if I can find what I'm looking for. For a whole year, however, I'm not sure it's worth it. There should be an option for i.e. $49 or $59 for month-to-month or the like?

I'm all about it

I think many of us would prefere that. But I understand that the whole point for the EW is to get money in with the "long term" subscriptions, increase the "utilization rate" of the libraries they are sitting on.

No, you are not the only one. But the same concerns all the software/gear supply of the modern time. As we have discussed, the quality of the end-result has not increased as fast (someone may say it has decreased) as the technological possibilities. "Minimalism" forces you to use your brains. However, I'm for the technology.

Yeah that makes sense. Would be nice if they had the option though - even if it was $60 for one month, I'd probably still do it as it'd give me a decent amount of time to see what first impressions are like for each library.

Storm Drum 1? Aren't they up to 3 already? Wouldn't it be wiser to try and sell the newer product?

Perhaps they're so busy working on their new subscription model, they've had to close down the support department. 72+ (business) hours waiting for a response.

Stormdrum 2 Pro and Stormdrum 3 are also on the list.

I don't view rentals in an of themselves as the issue, rather the central issue is whether companies try to copy the Adobe model (which essentially removes choice in licensing and forces a rental on everyone).

But I'm not sure anyone in pro audio has the sort of market leverage to pull an Adobe. There is Pro Tools as a "standard" but there are many good competitor DAW's, which is far less the situation in graphic design. Photoshop is a standard and the competition is not as deep as in pro audio.

Subscriptions do bring up the question of understand the breaking point for people to afford monthly fees. $30 per month for one provider might sound okay, but imagine paying that to twenty vendors. Those rental fees add up fast.

Also, during the next recession, one the first things most businesses will cut are monthly expenses. It will be interesting to see what happens because software purchases have traditionally been something akin to capital equipment purchases (i.e. long term), and rentals change that, perhaps making them more expendable during business cycle downturns.

IMO rentals should only be offered as a monthly option for all products. Buying a product for daily use makes more sense, with the customer choice to upgrade or not when available (paid). The rental can then be used as a temporary, or even permanent deal to cover all available products. I do not see the Adobe model as a sucessful business model in the audio industry.

Won't people who have already bought libraries get any continuous benefits from being loyal customers after having bought libraries for a lot of money already? Just the first year at a reduced rate, regardless if you've bought one of the cheapest or ten of the most expensive libraries - even though it still isn't the best versions, feels a bit stingy IMO.
The libraries you already own a license for, could be omitted from the rental model and the rent lowered to a reasonable extent. Then I feel it might be a good alternative for your loyal customers, instead of mainly for new customers...

EW feels that this is a very inexpensive service for what is offered and it entails substantial ongoing costs for EW, so sorry, that is not planned.

New to EW sample libraries but purchased and use the Quantum Spaces reverb, which is great. I checked and am eligible to participate in the early cloud. I've never used PLAY before and I'm currently a Cubase Pro8 user Win7/64, 16gb, 7200 drive. Which libraries would you recommend for acoustic and electric guitar sample work? Are there any known issues with Cubase that I need to watch out for in the installation and use of PLAY. Thanks!


www.soundcloud.com/tkeefe

I totally agree...I was about to buy CCC the day I got the email announcing this subscription model.
Anyway, I thought I'd ask a question here thinking someone might know the answer:
I've started the loooong process of downloading a few libraries on a new HDD I got but haven't received the SSD I'll be using for the OS yet.
After installing my OS (Win 7/64) I'll be reinstalling all of my software.
Once I reinstall the new EW installer how do I indicate where my previous downloads are located?
Thanks,
Randy

Unless I just missed it in reading about this stuff I have a few questions for Jay:
1) The introduction price for existing customers is 29,95 but otherwise it looks like it is 49.95. So what happens after the first year? Will the price then be 49.95 for all the customers? If not, then why at all is there a introductory price that is only valid until April 23rd ?
2) There seems to be a more limited 7 - collections offer for new customers for 29,95 ... why not offer this for existing customers for 19.95?
3) On the web page it says that "Converting your existing EastWest customer account into a Composer Cloud subscription is a simple three-step process"
What does this mean? I have 4 EW products that I have bought. Does this change something in my usage of the EW programs I have bought? Surely not?

Thanks

If someone has Symphonic Orchestra Platinum /Plus, it will simply work with the iLok asset, I assume? And if this user stops using the cloud after a year, his original bought products will continue to work, correct?

1. Correct. The lower price for existing customers is for the first year only and you must sign up for it by April 23rd.

2. No idea, I don't make policy.

3. No. You own the licenses for products you bought in perpetuity for perpetuity.

Yes. You own the licenses for products you bought in perpetuity for perpetuity.

Thanks for this although being an EastWest newbie I'm still confused with some lingo. For $29.99 a month(x's12) you get the below with the "7 Collections for new customers":

"Instant access to your choice of 7 award-winning Composer Cloud Gold virtual instrument collections. You can upgrade your plan at the end of each subscription month."

It mentions "Gold". Does that mean only VIs with "Gold" in the title?
What about "Silk" or "Ghostrider, etc etc....do you get a total of any of the 7 items listed below? Thanks!