# Serum Rent-to-Own Warning



## ghobii (Feb 25, 2018)

Not sure if this happened because of something I did wrong or not, but I just got the notice from Splice that I had paid off Serum. They sent me a permanent serial number, which worked fine. However, as I was trying to figure out how to turn off Splice, now that I didn't need it anymore, I found I was now signed up for their monthly plan, with a payment scheduled for March 12. It was no problem to cancel, but I thought I'd give a heads up to anyone else, so you don't get auto-billed.


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## tav.one (Feb 25, 2018)

Thanks, mine is ending in 3 months


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## R. Soul (Feb 25, 2018)

ghobii said:


> Not sure if this happened because of something I did wrong or not, but I just got the notice from Splice that I had paid off Serum. They sent me a permanent serial number, which worked fine. However, as I was trying to figure out how to turn off Splice, now that I didn't need it anymore, I found I was now signed up for their monthly plan, with a payment scheduled for March 12. It was no problem to cancel, but I thought I'd give a heads up to anyone else, so you don't get auto-billed.


13 months left of mine, so I'll probably have forgotten about this by then. 

Have you not subscribed to Splice's sample plan before? Seems odd that would somehow be initialised as soon as you complete your Serum subscription. I tried it as soon as I signed up, but I was put off by the fact that you couldn't download whole soundsets, but had to do 1 sound at a time instead, so I cancelled after a couple of days.


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## David Chappell (Feb 25, 2018)

R. Soul said:


> 13 months left of mine, so I'll probably have forgotten about this by then.
> 
> Have you not subscribed to Splice's sample plan before? Seems odd that would somehow be initialised as soon as you complete your Serum subscription. I tried it as soon as I signed up, but I was put off by the fact that you couldn't download whole soundsets, but had to do 1 sound at a time instead, so I cancelled after a couple of days.


You can download whole packs, at least I did. Signed up for one month just to download a pack and then cancelled. But as I recall the website was pretty horrific to make sense of, so I don't blame you, plus I'm afraid I can't remember how I downloaded the whole pack to be of much further help!


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## R. Soul (Feb 25, 2018)

David Chappell said:


> You can download whole packs, at least I did. Signed up for one month just to download a pack and then cancelled. But as I recall the website was pretty horrific to make sense of, so I don't blame you, plus I'm afraid I can't remember how I downloaded the whole pack to be of much further help!


It might be that the packs I wanted wasn't an option. I can't remember exactly, but it didn't strike me as particularly user friendly either so I just left it.
It looks like it might be the way forward though with Noiiz and NI following suit.


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## synthpunk (Feb 28, 2018)

Guys, that what your calendar on your phone is for  



R. Soul said:


> 13 months left of mine, so I'll probably have forgotten about this by then.
> 
> Have you not subscribed to Splice's sample plan before? Seems odd that would somehow be initialised as soon as you complete your Serum subscription. I tried it as soon as I signed up, but I was put off by the fact that you couldn't download whole soundsets, but had to do 1 sound at a time instead, so I cancelled after a couple of days.


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## R. Soul (Feb 28, 2018)

synthpunk said:


> Guys, that what your calendar on your phone is for


I've already subscribed and unsubscribed to their monthly sample plan, so I very much doubt I'd be resubscribed again. But good idea, just in case.


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## kitekrazy (Feb 28, 2018)

I'd rather use a CC than these type of plans. When you start getting into all of these affordable subscriptions they eventually add up. You even loose track of them and realize $50 a month is going to all of these low price subscriptions. That's also waiting almost 2 years to finally own the latest and greatest synth. I don't need a synth that bad.


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## R. Soul (Feb 28, 2018)

kitekrazy said:


> I'd rather use a CC than these type of plans. When you start getting into all of these affordable subscriptions they eventually add up. You even loose track of them and realize $50 a month is going to all of these low price subscriptions. That's also waiting almost 2 years to finally own the latest and greatest synth. I don't need a synth that bad.


The good thing about the Serum plan is that you can pause it anytime. I only paid for 2 months initially as I just needed it for a project. And I actually thought I'd just use it for those two months, but for certain genres this has now pretty much become my go-to synth.

I can see that if you subscribe to East west, Slate and Waves (does anyone else do it?) it starts to become a bit too much.


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## ironbut (May 26, 2018)

When Adobe switched to subscription services I thought, "Oh no. Will this be the end of owning software?"
So when Pro Tools, Slate and East West offered subscriptions as an alternative I saw it as testing the waters for following Adobe's lead.
I really have no doubt that if enough folks had switched to the Pro Tools' sub it would be the only thing available (as it is, I pay $99 a year to get all the upgrades).
Maybe I'm just paranoid, but because of that, I never sign up for subscriptions when I don't have to.
Full disclosure, I'm a cheap son of a bitch!


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## Wes Antczak (May 26, 2018)

In this new world of subscription plans, it seems that Paypal is now offering a service where you can pay all of these things from one account and where you can keep track of all the separate items you are subscribed to. I have not pursued it myself. but it might be something to look into for those who might have a use for it. I've been staying away from these things because I'm not ready to go down that particular rabbit hole.


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