This year, with the launch of our new website, we’ve had to make substantial changes to the way we operate as a business. We’ve moved away from outdated ‘Instant Downloads’ and ‘Multipurpose CDs’, to shiny new ‘Digital Publications’. And as a result, we’ve also had to make licensing changes as well. This article explains the detailed reasons for all the licensing changes we’ve made.
What’s changed?
For most customers, especially those buying a brand new publication, there isn’t that much of a difference at all. Just a nice new ‘Digital Publication’, easily accessible on any device immediately after purchase.
We’ve got rid of our old ‘Instant Downloads’ which came in a single ‘zip’ file. These were never fully compatible with mobile devices, and were increasingly being ‘blocked’ as a ‘security risk’, even though there was absolutely no risk at all.
We’ve also had to say goodbye to our old ‘Multipurpose CD’ format, which relied on customers having a computer with a working CD drive. This was becoming more and more of an issue with all the main computer manufacturers actively phasing out CD drives from new computers!
We had to change. There was no choice. We just couldn’t persist with outdated technology any more.
The solution was ‘Digital Publications’. An online package with everything you could possibly need to stage a show, accessible on any device, with more content than we’ve ever given before, all regularly updated, and importantly, with all licensing included.
We then made the tough decision to streamline all licensing through an annual subscription to the ‘Digital Publication’. A subscription with NO auto-renewal, just subscribe one year at a time, as and when required. And for those who still want an old fashioned audio CD in addition to the above, we introduced the ‘Complete Pack’: All licensing, all digital content, and an audio CD through the mail.
Simplification is Key
With regards to all the changes we’ve made, the number one thing that has occupied our thoughts is the word ‘simplification’. Although most customers immediately ask for a ‘performance licence’, there are actually three licences that most customers require:
- Annual Performance Licence – Allowing as many performances as required within a one year period.
- Annual User Licence (Site Licence) – Allowing you to share your Learn2soar publication on more than one device.
- Annual Recording Licence – Allowing the distribution of recordings of your performance.
It can get confusing knowing which licence to buy at which time. Therefore, we threw them all in to the one ‘Digital Publication’ to create a simplified package.
The Toughest Decision
As a company one of the main questions we had to ask ourselves moving forward was: Do we still want / need a separate performance licence system? Or, can it just all be integrated into the one streamlined ‘Digital Publication’ subscription package.
For customers buying new publications, it would make little difference, other than making their lives easier. But the big issue was always going to be existing customers wanting to renew an old licence. To add some context, the vast majority of existing customers still buy different publications every year. Roughly 30% may revisit a publication after three to four years. And then there are the few customers that use the exact same publication every single year!!! Yes, really!
In the end we felt we had to make a decision that would be most beneficial to the largest majority of customers. Therefore, we decided to move away from the old separate Performance Licence system and streamline everything in the one ‘Digital Publication’ package.
But there’s a lot more to it than that. As with everything, there’s a bigger picture. Here are some of the other issues we had to take into account when moving to this new structure:
Crucial Updates
90% of all our publications have been updated since they were first published, including every single Christmas title we’ve ever produced. Some publications have only had one update. Some have had several major re-workings.
Most updates have simply involved editing out errors, or digital remixing of audio tracks, or adding new artwork, or PowerPoints.
However, several publications have had crucial updates to address issues that may have been acceptable at the time of publication, but are no longer acceptable in today’s society. The most recent example of this would be with our musical ‘Christmas Around The World’. This year we were forced to rewrite it and remove a song, because it was about Russia, and let’s face it, no one has the appetite to celebrate Russian culture at the moment,
Therefore, in the same way that companies like Microsoft and Apple, actively try to push their customers to update to the latest versions of their software for security reasons, we too want to get all our customers using the latest and best version of their publications. We really don’t want any customer using a 13 year old version of ‘Christmas Around The World’. The world has changed so much in that time. Thus we decided that the best course of action would be to ensure that any licence renewal would also allow access to all updated resources and the easiest way to do that would be a subscription to an all-in-one package.
Stamping Out Illegal Usage
Our old website always treated licences as ‘optional extras’, when they never really were. Too often the system was abused. Many customers, for whatever reason, incorrectly believed that the issue of licensing just didn’t apply to them. So, for example, some customers would buy a publication like our best-seller: ‘Our First Nativity’, and then would just use those same resources year after year, without paying for any licensing fees. Over the years, this has caused us a great deal of harm.
The only time we would ever have the opportunity to engage with these customers about their illegal usage, would be when their CD or download went missing and they wanted a new one. Although even here, most of them would still try their hardest to get out of buying a licence, which sadly over the years led to us issuing a number of fines, where despite warnings, it could be proved beyond doubt that illegal usage had taken place,
Therefore, the decision to have everything in one package is also aimed at stamping out this illegal usage. It’s no longer possible for any customer to buy a publication or individual CDs, separately from the licensing that’s needed to cover the usage of those resources. Basically, it’s now the whole package or nothing.
Conclusion
Finally, we have to address the elephant in the room. Our prices! Like those of all our competitors, our prices have had to increase. We’ve again not had much of a choice. Our monthly bills have more than doubled this year, and we are trying to make enough money to pay our staff and bills just the same as all of you. Despite this, we have endeavoured to keep our prices as low as possible, and we believe our prices are still really competitive compared to our main competitors, some of whom are now charging close to £70 for renewal of all licensing, and that doesn’t even include access to the publication again.
Nevertheless, we always knew that throughout all of this, despite our best efforts there could still be a very small minority of customers who could feel annoyed. Particularly, those loyal customers who lovingly persevere with exactly the same musical year after year, and who already feel that they have the most up-to-date version, and who don’t feel they can afford the price increase. To those wonderful customers we do sincerely apologise. We hope that everything we have written above will help you appreciate the careful thought that has gone into the decisions we’ve taken.
If you believe you fall into this category, please do get in touch. We really hate to see any customer disappointed, and are happy to help out on a case-by-case basis in any way we can.
If you have any further questions about any aspect of the above information, then please feel free to contact us.