Suggestion: Paid Premium Firmware Updates

To the OP...Its all good. I understand your Logic. Thats How JJOS survived and is still thriving. Everyone Dropped that $100+ and now we have Lifetime Updates. And he listens to requests. If Akai Had that business sense, They would have enough revenue to expand everyone's request.

Us JJOS users are not Cheap, and entitled. We Pay Thousands for this equipment, why not pay 5 or 6 Andrew Jacksons to get quick responses to Bugs and upgrades. The New Crowd gets FREE Updates and still complain

Yep, companies need to maximise their revenue streams, and having a bunch of customers using old hardware and expecting to be handed out free updates for life is probably not too appealing to Akai.

I suspect it wouldn't matter how many bug fixes or feature requests Akai implement, a proportion of customers will always push back. If they want to stay on old hardware and not pay another dime for updates or whatever that's absolutely their choice, but I assume eventually the newer firmwares simply won't work on the '1st gen' standalones, especially if 'gen 2' are rocking faster CPUs.

But in terms of 'tiers', I feel the hardware is what provides the tiers with MPCs, I like that there is one firmware, with the more expensive hardware providing a better experience with that same firmware (e.g. more memory, more dials, bigger screen, more I/O etc).

If Akai can develop a model that generates enough extra income purely from 'add ons' like expansions and plugins, then perhaps more people will be happy, although I assume many will still complain that the 'paid plugins' should also be free. Personally, I'm happy to pay for a decent upgrade (and/or purchase newer hardware that includes it), and happy to see options for paid plugins (including third party plugins if at all possible).

BeatWilson wrote:The fact you feel the need to come on a MPC Forum speaking about how you would pay extra for Specific Features or Updates pisses me off....

They should be in the software already...
You just want to throw money at them?
Paying them 20.00 isnt going to make them work any faster, they are just going to take your money and still make you wait you stupid fool!

I swear.... The shit that comes from people....

Just request and say.... I wish the MPC Software would do this or do that.
These garbage ass companies will take your money no problem. Just send it over to them....

AKAI's business model is complete garbage. The MPC line is nothing like it was in the past. I already on and off think about selling my MPCX since I've gotten the S2400, amongst a handful of other samplers that sound better than it. If they pull BS like this I'm out... If its just one update... maybe.... but if they start pulling some shit, I'll sell it in a heartbeat. I can make beats on almost anything... The MPC is nice, but I'm not sure it's an absolute need.

this all day they pull that shit I’ll be cracking this **** faster than you can say jack sparrow lol. lmao even. I will never pay for a hardware update that shits hilarious. It’s an ancient tablets guts in a box with a midi controller attached. Hell no am I paying for an update. They know there’s no money in that when they could just redrop the same shit in a different colour and get a boost in sales. If they want more money they can just make a new box with marginal revisions and make bank again and again. Then guess what after that? A new half cooked box everyone with foam over. All the while these boxes are making the same dusty ass beat they’ve been cranking out for 40 years

Jawbrizza wrote:

BeatWilson wrote:The fact you feel the need to come on a MPC Forum speaking about how you would pay extra for Specific Features or Updates pisses me off....

They should be in the software already...
You just want to throw money at them?
Paying them 20.00 isnt going to make them work any faster, they are just going to take your money and still make you wait you stupid fool!

I swear.... The shit that comes from people....

Just request and say.... I wish the MPC Software would do this or do that.
These garbage ass companies will take your money no problem. Just send it over to them....

AKAI's business model is complete garbage. The MPC line is nothing like it was in the past. I already on and off think about selling my MPCX since I've gotten the S2400, amongst a handful of other samplers that sound better than it. If they pull BS like this I'm out... If its just one update... maybe.... but if they start pulling some shit, I'll sell it in a heartbeat. I can make beats on almost anything... The MPC is nice, but I'm not sure it's an absolute need.

this all day they pull that shit I’ll be cracking this **** faster than you can say jack sparrow lol. lmao even. I will never pay for a hardware update that shits hilarious. It’s an ancient tablets guts in a box with a midi controller attached. Hell no am I paying for an update. They know there’s no money in that when they could just redrop the same shit in a different colour and get a boost in sales. If they want more money they can just make a new box with marginal revisions and make bank again and again. Then guess what after that? A new half cooked box everyone with foam over. All the while these boxes are making the same dusty ass beat they’ve been cranking out for 40 years

Wow pay for upgrades I don't think many would upgrade if that was the case..

MPC-Tutor wrote:...is probably not too appealing to Akai.

OTOH They could easily had called the 2.10 update 3.0 and charge 99 monetary units for it. With all the stuff they put on it I thought that was going to be the case at that time. And now they are coming with a 2.11. This is Akai not being grabby in my book.

soulgolem wrote:I would gladly pay 20$ a year if that means they hire more peeps to do the bug fixing and adding a few basic features along the line.

lol I pay $20 a month to Roland for Zenology Pro and Cloud Ultimate, Yet I still complain that Zenology has no Built-in Reverb.

"Pay for Premium" sounds like a good idea, but in this case, a lot of us already paid the premium price when we invested in the first batch of current generation standalone MPCs.

I paid $1199USD for my MPC Live in 2017, knowing that it was a basic sampler/sequencer without plugin instruments, only very limited FX, and simple MIDI control functionality.

As many have said, the "Premium" software already exists, in the form of Expansion packs, plugins, and hardware features. The basic entry point for MPC is an MPD218 with MPC Beats software. If you want to pay for the "Premium" software, it costs $249. (Which blows my mind because I had forgotten all this time that I had the full version included with my hardware purchase.) By paying for the standalone hardware, I received the "Premium" software because I also got 7 of the AIR plugins available for download in my InMusic Account.

Charging $99 for a 3.0 upgrade makes sense, and I'm confident it will happen at some point. Pay for plugins makes sense, and we will see how they decide to implement this new feature.

The MPC Key 61 may very well be a "Premium version" of the software, in which only the 8 new plugins are compatible due to additional RAM. Akais current business model works for them, and I don't see it changing any time soon.

I'd be happy to pay for a 3.0 upgrade if it came with some cool new features and would work on my OG Live. I'm amazed that they have given so many free updates for so long actually. I can't afford to buy new hardware, but if I can get some new features or instruments for not too much cash that would be good. If they can allow 3rd party's other than AIR to design instruments etc that would be awesome. I'm hoping that the new instruments on the MPC Key 61 will work on the old systems RAM/CPU, but that might just be wishful thinking.

Ok get this straight... You would be happy to pay for 3.0 update if it came with the features you want. That's how everyone is going to feel. They are each going to want there little features added.... AKAI should be doing this anyways. This thing is only sorta good at everything still. Its not the most amazing kit. It is great but there's tons of other devices with better sample capabilities and sound quality.

I would never hand my money over for software to Akai. I have basically never used the software. Only the hardware. Even if its a firmware update, it better be something good, because I will still have a bitter taste if they charge me for it. At this point with a DAW, SP404mk2, S2400, I don't think I need anything. My Sequential Pro3 Records Automation within its sequencer and that was one of the main reasons for the MPC at one point, but I can do that without a DAW and still make beats all day. Maybe if I was making something more technical, I would see myself absolutely needing to keep my MPC, but for now its a cherry on top. I do love it at times. But it pairs better with my AKAI S900. Those two together are the Jam at times.

Maybe I'm getting old and bitter...

BeatWilson wrote:
Maybe I'm getting old and bitter...

No you're being reasonable while a bunch of people think that a "premium os" will automatically have everything
they want (LOL) and AKAI won't charge $100 a month for it, with mandatory internet verification every 10 days just to run it...

To those who want to pay AKAI more money, you can already go spend $500 there to support your favorite brand with
"premium instruments"

Look what you’ve done you animals

Would be happy to pay for having the force arranger and mixer on my mpc

fmq75 wrote:Would be happy to pay for having the force arranger and mixer on my mpc

Yes, it's just called buying a Force, more money for AKAI if you have to buy both products. Or are you willing to pay $800 for that? cause why not...

It's bizarre how people here think that the "premium update" that would bring the features they want would be cheap...

mpc_fan_2022 wrote:

fmq75 wrote:Would be happy to pay for having the force arranger and mixer on my mpc

Yes, it's just called buying a Force, more money for AKAI if you have to buy both products. Or are you willing to pay $800 for that? cause why not...

It's bizarre how people here think that the "premium update" that would bring the features they want would be cheap...

May i ask how much more noise you want to contribute to this thread?We get it,you would just use cracked software instead.

fmq75 wrote:May i ask how much more noise you want to contribute to this thread?We get it,you would just use cracked software instead.

Sure, i'll answer as soon you answer the question i asked first, instead of making noise of your own with a a useless comment.