Hey everyone,

I’d love to hear your thoughts on something that just happened to me:

A few years ago, I bought UBK-1 from KUSH Audio — not a subscription, just a regular plugin license. Recently I needed to reinstall it (new machine, clean setup), but to my surprise, the support team told me that UBK-1 is no longer available for download.

Their solution?
I can buy UBK-2 for $99 (the upgrade price), and in return, I’ll get a NFR version of UBK-1 so I can still open old projects.

To be honest, this feels pretty questionable. I paid for a product, and now I can’t access it unless I buy an upgrade? It reminds me of a situation where you bought an album on Bandcamp years ago, and now you’re told: “Sorry, you can’t download it anymore — unless you buy the deluxe version for $100.”

So I’m curious:

Do you save your installers?

What do you think of this kind of support?

Has this ever happened to you — being locked out of a plugin you paid for?

What do you think about the general direction some developers are going with licensing and support?

This whole situation honestly makes me hesitate to buy anything new from KUSH. I feel like trust is part of the deal when you invest in tools for your studio, and this doesn’t exactly build confidence.

Looking forward to your thoughts!

Alex

Yes. It's a pain to keep track of them and delete previous versions on updates, but for quite a bit of software I do that. Most of my software is from known-good (assumed-good?) vendors, though, so I didn't actually have to use this archive.

In your place I would register on all electronic music forums and post this. Until their revenue is down some 20%. That seems fair.

If that is really their policy, that is sleazy.

I have every installer and every Kontakt library downloaded and saved. And, where possible, the licenses (for the few that allow that).

It's software. You never know when a company will disappear, make updates, or change their policies.

That is extremely sleazy and not something I’d expect of Kush. Sorry, I only skimmed, but did you contact support to plead your case a bit? Makes me nervous. I’ve spent so much money on this stuff. Might need to devote a weekend to downloading and savings installers to an external drive. I do that for Omnisphere and Trillian already because they already only offer so many downloads before you have to pay again.

While I fully agree it's a bad user experience, I also don't believe a company has to forever offer support for something they once sold.

Where's the threshold? I don't know.

We got outdoor chairs 10 years ago. The frames are in great shape but we needed new cushions. The manufacturer no longer made them, so they had to be special ordered from somewhere that still had them in a warehouse. We were lucky and we were unhappy. But we didn't call the manufacturer "sleazy" (we'd have had to have special ordered custom made ones from the manufacturer had we not found the others - sort of like having to buy new ones to get old ones).

Sure, software takes very little space per se, but the analogy still applies, since technology, laws, licensing, etc. all change and evolve over time. I know that if someone doesn't work in tech for tech companies a person may not fully understand that.

I always save my installers and sometimes that comes in handy. Just in terms of saving download times when putting in a new computer.


However every time you run an installer, it says it will "run a program to determine". To determine if this software will even run on your current OS. Eventually the old installers won't install even if you still have them. If the company has to work to make an updated version compatible with modern computers, it is reasonable that they should be able to charge for it. So in that sense you would be paying for an update to version 1 and getting version 2 for "free".

Still, if the old installer and version 1 will work on your machine, it seems extremely shitty to withhold it from you as a matter of policy. If there is a justification for that, I cannot imagine what it could be. I never bought the product in question, or I would send you a copy of my installer.

They don’t have to offer support forever. They are taking the active step here of getting rid of/disallowing people from downloading the product they bought. Status quo would have been “we’re not going to update this anymore” but not actively restricting customers from getting their product.

I understand that and agree it's poor customer service.

There can be technical and legal reasons we don't know for it - don't assume out of the gate the intent is malicious. That was an OLD plugin and maybe supporting it the way it was cost them in resources more than they could allocate so they made a tough call. Or maybe it is just a stupid policy decision. But, again, we don't know the reason(s), other than probably the old one probably used outdated licensing/security tech and the updated version doesn't.

Code, like physical goods, don't have to be "stocked" forever, and 10 years or however long UBK-1 has been around is even longer in tech. Again, see my true story above about cushions. The manufacturer doesn't just stop updating their cushions, but move on to new materials, new shapes, new tools to make them.

They offered the OP that if he buys the new version they will give him/her the new and the old release package.

So I think we can rule out other reasons such as legalities and fourth-party licensing restrictions.

They are just dicks and should be called out for it.

Maybe they are.

The only way to know for sure it's the same is examining the code. It's possible the licensing code changed etc. Add that to likely code management and tracking changes, and so on.

I lost Logic. I cant download It again but I bought It.

Because Apple deleted my account and there´s no way to get an answer why from them.

Just an heads up for all logic/apple user.
They can close your account with all your stuff in It without even telling you why..

Yes I contacted the support. The answer: Yes, you are no longer able to download the most recent version of UBK-1, however, if you refer to the message we sent - if you purchase UBK-2 you'll also receive an NFR license of UBK-1 so you can continue to use it in your projects.

Do I understand it right: so all apps I bought through the App Store would be gone?

Yes. And now you understand why you will also do so in the future.

Yeah for sure. Can't claim to know what the nuances of their policy decisions are.

I don't think the cushion analogy fits very well. This is not a physical good that relies on space and material costs and upstream suppliers, etc. This is a file, hosted on their website, which is already set up for hosting files, already has user profile areas, already has authentication schemes, etc.

I understand wanting to be done with the burden of updating/supporting. But disallowing the simple download seems kind of egregious to me.

Yes, and everything you got on icloud or what It called.

I didn´t use my account that often, but one day when I was thinking of install Logic in another computer my account was closed, there´s no way for me to get anything back or get any answer why they did It. This might sound weird but It happens to people, there some threads about It.

I backup all installers on a seperate deive and cloud. After all worst case scenario dev dissapears ie Alchemy CamelAudio sold to Apple, installers gone.
As a suggestion as this is iLok, surely soem kind soul can send an installer link.

At the bottom of the downloads page there's a section for legacy installers and a UBK-1 link there...is there any chance the installer you need is in there?

Wonderful, that was what I am looking for. Strange the support didn't gave me this hint.

I was in the same boat and purchased UBK-2. Really like that plug. It's better than Lexicon PCM bundle. I'm completely out in that situation. Software....I guess you can't expect them to keep it going forever.

Kinda ridiculous and also not really the easiest thing to find, either.

Is it possible they misinterpreted what you were asking for? I mean "support" is not "sales", they aren't likely to be working on a commission. So why would they push the upgrade? What is in it for them?

I wrote:
Hi Lindsay,

Do I understand it right that even I own UBK- 1, I can not download it?

Best,

Alex

She answered:

Lindsay (Support Guru)
Apr 11, 2025, 1:31 PM PDT

Hi Alexander,

Yes, you are no longer able to download the most recent version of UBK-1, however, if you refer to the message we sent - if you purchase UBK-2 you'll also receive an NFR license of UBK-1 so you can continue to use it in your projects.

Best,

So the message come from a Support Guru
_________________________________________

There's a difference between not offering support and actively preventing you from installing a product you've bought a perpetual license for.

Not offering support would simply mean you're on your own if you try to run and install it on your system. If you do run into a problem you'll have to resort to forums/troubleshooting on your own. They're also under no obligation to update the product to make it compatible with a newer OS or DAW or to provide a VST3 version if the plugin was originally only VST2, or to provide ARM binaries if it was originally sold for Intel Macs and so on.

On the other hand, actively preventing you from using a product you've already paid for would be for example shutting down the activation server and not providing an offline activation method, or actively blocking the plugin from even installing on more recent DAWs/operating systems.

Clear enough.

Punish them.

Why not return a message that you found what you were looking for on their website and they misinformed you?
I doesn't have to be malign.

How many installers nowadays don't need to talk to a server for authentication of a product key? Installers are no good if the server won't talk to the plugin anymore and you can't use the plugin after installing it.

well I see a possible 'room for interpretation' right there. Maybe the downloadable version that MichaelVincent pointed you to was not "the most recent version" but some older, legacy version.

In fact, several interpretations are possible
• the support person was honestly unaware of this option
• she thought you were asking for the "current" updated UBK-1 and did not understand you wanted the 'old' one
• she gets a commission for upselling you to UBK-2
• the company policy is to keep this download a secret
• the company rushed in to add that link 2 days ago when the thread started, because they knew it made them look bad.

I am not promoting any of these, as being more likely than any other. Nor am I excusing your treatment. Just pointing out that there are many possible conclusions that could be jumped to.

I sent them a message with a link to this thread. So they know what’s going on here, if they are interested. And could participate in the discussion.