> It is unrealistic to expect to be able to pay once and use an app "forever".
That's the other extreme though.
There's a middle ground that http://reaper.fm/ uses. You buy the current x and x+1 versions. Then you pay for the license again for x+2, x+3 if you want to. The price is very reasonable and there's no subscription as such. If you're happy with the old major version, you can use it as long as it continues to work.
In that case the number of users who would buy x+2, x+3 is probably not half as many as users who bought x, x+1 and the developers would no longer be incentivized to build any more versions, making such a business unsustainable. And newer versions of operating systems, especially Windows, break old software like Office 2003 to ensure that you are using the latest version of Office 365 so they can profit. You can stay on Windows XP to avoid that, would you?
I'm not sure why you make that assumption. X+2 is going to be bought both by users happy with x+1 and by new users who only just learned about it. Why would that be lower than the original buyers?
> You can stay on Windows XP to avoid that, would you?
People do. But realistically either you'd upgrade your computer since XP was sold and get a new license included, or just pay for the update once in almost 2 decades. I don't get the issue you're trying to point out.
There are other and more important motivators in the world than money…
It is of course necessary to make ends meet and plenty of software shops do just fine with the business model of making a good product and charge for upgrades.
I got my license back when 5 came out just as I was getting into music in 2015. That covers me to 6.99, and it's taken 7 years to reach 6.64. That's one heck of a bargain.
That's the neat thing. They're always making a new version. They dropped a whole notation editor in with nothing more than an item in the changelog. The video compositor is always improving.
You get all of whatever version you start on (Even if you start at x.99), plus the next, and then your license is done unless you renew it. So no matter what, I don't get updates after 6.99 unless I renew.
Most of what I do music-wise nowadays is making songs live in Ableton Live on Twitch, and I rarely bother to take them to a "produced" state, so what I have in the current Reaper is plenty. I probably won't upgrade, but I'll keep recommending it.
Oh, I know they release new versions, I've been using them for over a year. I meant that I wouldn't mind if they released a major version every year or two. Still worth it.
No one should be able to stay on an outdated version, both for security and compatibility reasons. Supporting old versions of you have an api attached is a cost in it self as well.
It's a music editing app, not a public internet facing service. There's an argument to be made for providing updates, but "No one should be able to stay on an outdated version" is just being a dick to the users. Don't disrespect the users.
That's the other extreme though.
There's a middle ground that http://reaper.fm/ uses. You buy the current x and x+1 versions. Then you pay for the license again for x+2, x+3 if you want to. The price is very reasonable and there's no subscription as such. If you're happy with the old major version, you can use it as long as it continues to work.