First of all, I don't get paid for playing the music. They're non-profit ballroom dance groups, not night clubs, and I just contribute the music as a service. I only brought it up because even as a fairly serious user of the product, it still bothered me to get no credit for buying a previous version.
Another way to look at this, and maybe this will better express how I really feel about the whole thing, is that I no longer have any financial investment in MJ from the standpoint of getting current, and thus, no financial loyalty. I'm on the same terms buying MJ over again as I would be for buying any competitor's product, or for any new user buying MJ. That's why it hurts.
Maybe the way the registration keys and purchasing is set up at J River, there's no easy way to do what I consider the most fair, which is to provide one free upgrade from the version you originally bought, (not the most recent paid upgrade), and then the same upgrade fee for any new version thereafter. I wouldn't think this needed to be handled in the program, just in the purchasing portion of the web page. When you go to buy the key for the new version, a purchase of the full price for the previous version entitles you to the new key for free, while any previous purchase provides a 50% discount.
If the upgrade costs are 50%, and a user buys every upgrade, then the actual amount of money being paid in the long term is identical and perhaps that's why there are so many posts that think I'm being unreasonable. I admit the difference is partially just in the way the costs are perceived, but people's feelings are a real commodity. (The first paid upgrade, such as 8.0 for me, is where this is most notable). Also significant though, is that a user who chooses to skip an upgrade or two for whatever reason does start seeing cost differences.
There's lots of ways to look at this, such as having paid $25 to use the program for all this time, etc. I just prefer a business model that maintains some financial value in having bought an older version. Some recognition and value for being an existing customer.
When it comes down to it, I suspect the real reason I didn't upgrade to version 8 is that I didn't see enough added value over v7 to justify the cost. With only a few exceptions, 7.2 has been working pretty well for me. I also have an old 266MHz laptop, and newer versions with added functionality often perform worse on aging hardware.
I would like to know whether a couple of features have been added in more recent versions. Two of the things I miss the most are:
"Add to current playlist, immediately after the current playing song".
and, "Stop playback when the current song finishes".
Thanks,
- John
Author
Topic: Upgrade prices (Read 1816 times)