[Rant] iLok Desktop DRM vs. iOS App Store

Enkerli

It’s likely been said many, many times before but it still feels good to say it: a cool thing about iOS musicking is that we don’t have to go through the hassle of desktop-based DRM like iLok.

It’s really sad that Apple is eliminating the affiliate program for apps, but the iOS App Store remains a huge benefit over the kind of experience one has to get to install a few plugins on a desktop OS. Sure, there are many things the iOS App Store lacks (upgrade pricing, conditional discounts, trial versions, easy refunds…). But do y’all remember how things were, just a few years ago?

Just bought the Sonivox “Premier” suite from Plugin Boutique (buying a 2$ Sonivox app to get the upgrade price of 49$). Still not sure it was worth the aggravation.
Granted, people at PB try to ease out the pain. They provide instructions and links to speed up the process. Though there isn‘t much transparency about pricing fluctuations, some of these regular discounts can be attractive. Despite that, though, it’s nowhere near as quick or pleasant an experience as clicking a link from @discchord, using Apple Pay, and playing with an awesome new plugin in your host of choice.

Sure, it may tell me a lesson about avoiding inMusic Brands like AIR Music Tech, M-Audio, Akai Professional, and “SONiVOX”. But it isn’t much more fun dealing with Native Instruments, Waves, Eventide, Plugin Alliance, FXpansion, Softube, AAS, Propellerhead, Ableton, Bitwig, Tracktion, Steinberg, etc.
Haven’t bought desktop versions of Audio Damage products and maybe they do a better job, thanks to their iOS experience. But, overall, buying music software on macOS and Windows isn’t a fun experience.
With Free/Libre or Open Source Software on Linux, you can get even trickier issues with weird prerequisites and all sorts of compatibility problems. So the situation is typically more complicated. But, at least, you might feel that the time fiddling with this kind of stuff is somehow worthwhile because you’re learning something new. Not much learning involved in dealing with iLok issues or handling Native Access.

There’s also been a bit of discussion about AUv3, on Facebook. There might be issues with the standard, including the fact that it’s exclusive to Apple’s platform. But is there really a benefit from the variety of other standards? Sounds like VST3 isn’t as pervasive as VST2, though VST3 came out the same year as the App Store.

So… While we sure like complaining, around here, it feels like we really have it easy, on iOS.
At this point, my intention is to avoid desktop software as much as possible. And spend more of my disposable income on the App Store. Especially for apps brought out by indie devs like Bram.

Anyhoo… Sorry if this rant isn’t entertaining (or helpful). Just had to get it out.

Thank you.

jwmmakerofmusic

The only thing I hate about the appstore is when an app goes subscription without a one-time-fee option. Okay, Auxy notwithstanding as the subscription in a way pays for new sounds monthly. Other than that, the appstore is far superior to anything else out there.

realdawei

... iLok caused me to completely stop buying 3rd party plugins. Especially once I discovered just about everything I really needed was already in Logic Pro.

On iOS with the App Store it’s fun supporting 3rd parties again.

Turntablist

The app store is not the gold standard by a long way, you seem to be under the impression that iLock is the norm and everybody can learn lessons from the app store "Haven’t bought desktop versions of Audio Damage products and maybe they do a better job, thanks to their iOS experience" for example.

Audio Damage = Download and use with a serial, and that had nothing at all to do with app store experience, they have been like that since they existed, some moderate changes here and there to help with licence transfers, but still the same.
Klanghelm = Download and use no copy protection at all.

Both of those are already better than the app store by a huge margin, Apple are making it increasingly harder to back up your apps, and both of the two examples above are simple to backup and in the case of Windows will likely work forever, if an IOS developer disappears and leaves an app dormant for long enough, Apple will remove it, or they have threatened to do so in the last year or so at least, I can still run VST plugins from the first few months after VST existed on Windows, not so on my Mac machines, but then the Macs don't have forced updates, but that is an entirely separate rant thread.

Also did you notice the licence transfers ? actually selling expensive software tools that you no longer use, never going to happen on IOS, because no matter how much you think you are buying apps, you are not, you are just renting them.

The Windows and MacOS software/plugin experience is much superior to IOS for now, rumours of a new MB Air based on IOS could well be the downturn of MacOS and the forced updates mentioned previously are already killing desktops left and right on Windows (We are actually back at Win98 reinstall windows after every big project, absolutely ridiculous) right now it actually looks from the outside that the big bosses at Apple and MS actually want all the pro users to move to Linux.

Enkerli

@Turntablist said:
The app store is not the gold standard by a long way

Nope, that wasn’t the point.

you seem to be under the impression that iLock is the norm

Not quite. But my rant was based on a frustrating experience with SONiVOX plugins, which do use iLok.
My experience wasn’t that much better with “Native Instruments, Waves, Eventide, Plugin Alliance, FXpansion, Softube, AAS, Propellerhead, Ableton, Bitwig, Tracktion, Steinberg, etc.”
While the title mentions DRM and iLok was in many ways the trigger (sounds like it was the biggest problem in my setup), the full experience with setting up these things from the initial download to use in a plugin host isn’t just about copy protection. It’s also about running installers, getting all my hosts to scan for new plugins, checking that things work (some SONiVOX still don’t show up as AU versions), etc. Some may perceive these as minor hassles and you may care more deeply about another model for software management. To each their own

It’s just that, to me, the process of discovering a new iOS plugin and playing with it feels quick, seamless, elegant, and gratifying. Goes well with my whole experience of musicking on iOS, which is deeply enriching.

everybody can learn lessons from the app store

This does sound accurate. Package managers on Ubuntu and other Linux distros could also be an inspiration. They’re not a gold standard either and it’s easy to get into incompatibility problems. But they’ve gone a long way to make “desktop Linux” more pleasant to use.
Microsoft has been trying its hand at an App Store, but it hasn’t helped so much. Haven’t been on the Android App Store in quite a while but it’s clear that it has its strengths and weaknesses.

My statement about Audio Damage was admittedly strange. Didn’t necessarily mean that there must have been a causal connection between their App Store experience and their installation process. It does sound like their pricing strategy integrates some lessons (iOS versions being 10% of the desktop versions).
Did mean to say that my experience with a few of AD’s iOS plugins leads me to think that their process of setting up apps is better than, say, Propellerhead Software’s.

But, again, it’s not just about using a serial number or an activation app. It’s about the overall experience of going from a YouTube video to my own playing with a new plugin in AB3 or AUM. Maybe part of the reason many of us do a lot of impulse purchases has to do with this. Price is a big factor, too. But, as has been noted elsewhere, there are enough free plugins on desktop platforms that it can get quite overwhelming.
You may perceive impulse purchases as an issue to be solved. It’s still an interesting phenomenon. (And it might happen a lot on desktop platforms as well, but that’d be surprising enough to warrant some thoughtful research.)

Also did you notice the licence transfers ?

Yep. Including all those posts on KVR forums about reselling licenses. Surprised me, at first. Haven’t really encountered it much outside of music software. Makes the most sense with expensive software, as you say. But it’s also about slow update cycles and/or things which don’t break compatibility. In a similar vein, been quite surprised by the durability of, say, Reaktor ensembles. Not only do they remain usable across versions of Reaktor, but they often don’t get updates for years. Feels more similar to (La)TeX than, say, Drupal.
Each model has its advantages. License transfers only make sense in some models.

no matter how much you think you are buying apps, you are not, you are just renting them.

As someone who prefers to rent than to buy, not really moved by such an argument.

(We are actually back at Win98 reinstall windows after every big project, absolutely ridiculous)

Oh?

right now it actually looks from the outside that the big bosses at Apple and MS actually want all the pro users to move to Linux.

Been going back to Raspbian and Ubuntu MATE (both on Raspberry Pi and Lenovo laptop) on a fairly regular basis. Been enjoying different parts of the experience, including installing stuff from a package manager. It’s quite fun when it works well. And it can be rather stable and “plug and play”. For instance, got a MODEP setup, using a Raspberry Pi to emulate the virtual pedalboard on the MOD Duo, using LV2 plugins.
Been using it during jams and demos. It can work pretty much like a pedal. Just need to plug the Pi into a socket (or portable battery), plug my MIDI devices (DIN or USB), and use a ¼" jack to connect to an amp. Running it headless most of the time.
To set things up initially, just burnt a relatively small SD card from a downloaded image and everything ran smoothly. Never had to connect the Pi to the Internet.
It’s also remarkably easy to swap SD cards to change your whole setup. Did eventually investigate ways to compile more LV2 plugins. It was very time-consuming but rather interesting.

Thing is with Linux, though, there’s eventually something which stops working for one reason or another. For instance, it wasn’t possible for me to upgrade from Ubuntu MATE 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) to 18.04 (Bionic Beaver) because the former isn’t LTS (unlike 16.04 and 18.04). Ended up erasing my SSD partition and starting over. Updating MODEP is kind of dangerous, as some dependencies get rather complex. And JACK remains far from the most elegant way to handle audio.

So, yes, there are benefits to every software management model. Including those for DRM-heavy VST/AU/AAX plugins on Windows and macOS. My experience with the iOS App Store for the past 10 years has gotten me used to some things being pleasant, seamless, efficient, elegant, and gratifying.