Digital Juice new lifetime sub is that a deal?

[David Dixon]

With this infusion of cash they are putting out new product (although a lot of it doesn't fit my needs) at record pace. However, once the initial cash infusion settles down, I don't see how they can keep this pace.

Yes, a $500 investment would require a huge love for their products and a huge faith in the longevity of the company. They have been around quite a while, but that was too much of a stretch for me.

[Paul Cronin]

Agree David,

I am just going to keep at $10 month and by the time I would have spent $500 I am sure there will be cheaper options.

[Kyle Root]

I'm curious, how are their "music" offerings?

I'd be willing to swing $249 if I can get lots of great royalty free and constantly updated music offerings for projects. I could also see some benefit to backgrounds and textures etc.

Based on the email it's a one-time fee of $249 and download everything free after that.

[Craig Seeman]

Since I'm primarily interested in their gear and it seems gear sales are now only to members, I think they'll lose a lot of outside sales as their gear is otherwise much more expensive than competing products.

Given how hard they're pushing memberships and changing the deals and extending the deadlines, it does seem they are in an insecure situation.

That said, their lifetime membership would be attractive if one uses their software a lot. If not, it drives away the a la carte sales.

[Chris Medico]

B&H carries most of the Digital Juice gear. Membership not required. :)

[David Dixon]

I find music selection to be such a personal thing I hesitate to comment. And, as a retired music teacher, arranger, orchestrator, etc. my taste is maybe different than others - I find 90% of all royalty-free music selections overly cheesy and synthetic sounding. I liked some of the DJ music offerings a few years back, but am not a fan of their recent offerings. They may fit the needs/style of others though.

[Craig Seeman]

Originally Posted by Chris Medico

B&H carries most of the Digital Juice gear. Membership not required. :)

While their prices are lower than Digital Juice gear list prices they're much higher than the sale prices. B&H doesn't carry the MinBurst 504 which DJ lists as $649 (way overprices IMHO) but had been on sale to the public (non members) only once at $399. B&H has an iKan 508 which is similar at $449.

BTW this is a pattern with most of DJ hardware. They have extremely high list prices compared to competing products but good sales prices. If their sales are only to members they're seriously hurting hardware sales. I can't help but think they're pushing membership deals so hard because the numbers haven't been what they hoped for. The membership deals are good if you use their software frequently. I generally spend under $100 a year on their software. They seemed to have stopped third party software sales as well.

[Chris Medico]

I'm not a fan of their subscription model and I've not offered them any of my money since they implemented it.

I don't want to wish failure on anyone. I would like to see them adjust their policy though.

[Craig Seeman]

And all I want is to buy their hardware when they have sales, without have to subscribe or become a member. Mind you, this is hardware, not their various software elements.

B&H doesn't require me to pay $500 at the door to by gear.

About the only places I know that require a membership to shop their discounts are Costco and the like.

So, for example, if I want the DJ Miniburst 504 my options are pay $649 or $899 (membership plus sale price and it still isn't only sale most of the time!). In fact you become a member and you still don't get the discount until they have their narrow sale period.

I can't help but think they haven't really thought this through. Given the frequent changes in their membership offerings, it's really looking like that's the case. It's a shame because they do have some useful things and if you're a heavy user of their software, I can certainly see the value.

[David Dixon]

Well, to be fair, the membership fee comes with a slew of heavily discounted product. So you get far more than just the ability to buy stuff. About B&H - I'll be curious to see if they are allowed to continue selling DJ items once they've sold what they have already in inventory. Again, that's just me guessing.

So, like it or not, successful or not, their plan is to not sell to you unless you're a member. It's like B&H saying you have to be a member to buy anything, but for that required $250 membership fee upfront you get $500 worth of products.

So, if you really want and use their products, you're already ahead on the membership alone. And, they've invested a lot in an online system for downloading everything on demand, etc.

They are not really changing the memberships, just gradually adding a somewhat confusing array of "lifetime" options to remove the per-item and monthly costs.

As I think I've said, they've taken in a lot of funds this year, but it will be interesting to see how it goes once they're mainly relying on the $10 per month. Can they sustain this?

And, unless you pay for a lifetime membership (I have not) they do not guarantee that these prices won't ever go up.

[Craig Seeman]

Unlike their software, they don't come out with new hardware every month. It's more like maybe one item every year. In addition, it's not like members get a constant discount on their hardware. If's full price for everyone, member or not, unless they have a sale for a few days. If membership got you a permanent discount on hardware there'd be some value but that's not the case.

[Chris Luker]

I have bought a lot of DJ gear in the last few years. Good stuff mostly...
Now that they want a subscription, I have not (and will not) buy anything from them again.
Adobe was bad enough (and I still haven't gone with their subscription pricing), now I have to pay every month just to be able to buy their stuff? Nope.

As a side note, me and my wife were betting on when they would actually pull the plug on the founding member deal - weeks and weeks of "THIS IS THE LAST DAY!" emails...

[Craig Seeman]

Seems all their marketing I receive is now for one time payment for lifetime membership. That might be OK for software but it's horrible for hardware especially since their sale items are of limited time frame and quantity. It makes very little sense to join for hardware sales.

[David Hillyer]

I have to say I'm very concerned about the future of Digital Juice. These lifetime subscriptions and other 'deals' they have don't make a lot of sense to me - other companies that do this type of scheme tend to need the operating cash in the short term and worry about the long term implications later (if they survive that long).

Their current Juicer program is in perpetual Beta. It does what I need most of the time but often doesn't redraw the screen and other little annoyances. It works, but barely.

It just feels like they need to focus on a couple of specific markets and really make great products there, then push to other markets. I really want them to succeed. I just don't see how they can when they are basically giving away the farm to get some quick cash.

Overall I've been very happy with their products and have used them a lot. I've spent several thousand dollars on them over the years. But this latest business model doesn't appear to be sustainable. Once my 'free' 250 pieces are done, I will likely cancel the subscription and move on. There's plenty of good stuff out there nowadays on envato or other such sites.

[Craig Seeman]

It does seem like their current model is designed to raise some up front capital in a hurry. They dumped their monthly subscription model very quickly.