Digital Juice new lifetime sub is that a deal?

[Andrew Jezierski]

Just got email from DJ with a new offer $250/500 one time fee for life. It is hard to figure out if the deal covers th same stuff what foinding members paid $250 lub 10/mth plus $1 per download. What is the level of satisfaction of founding members?

[Craig Seeman]

At least it's a onetime price rather than a subscription.That's OK if you're a heavy user of their software graphics packages. I do think the one time price is better than the subscription.

I'm generally only interested in their gear though. Apparently gear sale prices are now members only as well. It's just not worth it to me.

[Gary Huff]

It's that "one-time fee" for the privilege of being able to spend $1 per every piece of media you get.

[Shaun Roemich]

Digital Juice has an interesting business model whereby early adopters are often rewarded and along the way, there are cherries to be picked as well. NO ONE in their right mind buys DJ stuff at retail unless they absolutely NEED it before it goes on sale. I've spent thousands over the years. Some of it I actually use, but less and less every year.

They have their devout, their fanboys and customers whom they've either benefited or who feel screwed over because they "missed" a deal.

Some folks used to brag about owning ALL the DJ stuff when I frequented the forums there back in the day. I bought what I thought I could use (and still would today if the right product and price coincided with my needs).

[David Dixon]

Well, the original deal of this revamped Digital Juice was a $250 membership fee (which came with $500 of merchandise) plus a $10 per month subscription that dropped the cost of every graphics item they sell to $1 per item. For those who took that deal, they next offered that for a $99 one time fee you could waive forever the $1 per item. Now they are offering the $500 feature to forever waive the $10 monthly subscription.

There are other perks for certain members also, like free shipping on gear, etc. Now that the initial signup is over, the initial membership fee is higher and they do not guarantee that the $10 per month won't go up in the future. And, everything, including items you bought several years back, is available for on-demand download so no more shuffling stacks of DVDs.

If you really like their products and make heavy use of that type of thing, it is a good deal. And with this big infusion of cash they have obviously hired a lot of staff, because they are churning out new product at a high rate.

I'm just curious to see how things go after several months and this big cash intake dwindles down to the $10 per month/$1 per item level. I did become a member and took the deal to waive the $1 fee, but balked at the lifetime membership.

[Craig Seeman]

I wonder how this will affect gear sales. I've only bought gear when they had sales. IMHO the gear is a bit overpriced compared to similar gear from competitors. Since it seems gear sale prices are only to members I can't see that being very profitable. I might be interested in their new MiniBurst 504 LED light but certainly not at $649. I might consider it at their sale price of $399 which is competitive with iKan's equivalent.

[Paul Cronin]

I am in the same boat as you David. I no longer pay the $1 fee but still pay the monthly. The lifetime fee kind of pissed me off, they should have offered this right along to the founding members. But they needed to drain us of a few hundred first.

Never purchased gear from them, but I use a lot of their graphics and music.

[David Dixon]

One correction to my earlier info - the lifetime fee is $500 to get everything they offer, there is also a $250 lifetime offer that doesn't include their more complex offerings, like AE and Motion Templates, etc.

Now, today comes yet another offer - if you are a certain level of member (which I am), you now have the option to pay the $10 per month subscription as $99 per year instead. So that does save $20 per year. I should probably do that, but am frankly a bit tired of the continuous new deals that require more upfront cost. I think I'll pass for now and see how much I use it over the next few months.

One other thing about the Gear products - again, if you are a Platinum level member like me, you get any Gear purchases with lifetime free shipping. That's pretty good as well, as depending on the gear, the shipping cost often made certain things not as great a bargain as they sounded.

[Paul Cronin]

Interesting David,

I am also a Platinum member and have not received the lifetime offer but received the $99 offer starting mid last week.

They are starting to turn into a bit of a cash drain for what we get in return.

[Andrew Jezierski]

I am trying to understand the $500 deal- are they offering all their digital products for life for one time payment of $500 or do you still have to pay $1 every time? Are those all the future products or just certain categories or just the products they produced so far?
Also I heard some horror stories about their new Juicer or its' equivalent not working and terrible support. I have a small collection of DJ legacy products and I only found use for some of them. However there must be something I am missing in $500 deal - its to good to be true especially comparing to founding members.

[Paul Cronin]

Andrew,

I agree they are not clear on the $500 for life. And I have asked by email with no response.

As for Juicer not working, that has not been the case with me. Also support has been swift with positive results.

[David Dixon]

Well, the original "Founding Members" of which I was one, got a lot of perks. For the $250 fee you got $250 worth of their existing content, plus $250 from their new store. There were other perks, including locking in the price of the $10 per month subscription for at least a couple of years, free shipping, more download capability, etc.

It's complicated. One way to look at it is that I had to buy $250 worth of content but then got that much more free. So yes, that second $250 is now sort of redundant, since I now get everything for free by just paying the $10 subscription. But, I could have already gotten that second batch of content back in the summer and been using it - I just didn't. I was waiting until more of the new content was posted.

For years I used LOTS of DJ products, but have now sort of evolved my editing style so that I don't really use a lot of animated backgrounds, showy transitions, etc. But, they also started adding overlay products that can be used for a stylized look or for subtle backgrounds. I've used some of their Motion templates (carefully chosen to avoid the ones that I don't need or like) to add some motion graphics polish to title sequences, etc. In fact, their AE and Motion templates require more than just a beginning knowledge of those programs to use, so they are adding soon their own software that lets you add your text and do simple tweaks to the templates even if you don't have AE or Motion or don't know how to tweak them other than typing in your own text.

So, I don't use as much of their product as I once did, and I find that lots of it does not suit my style. But, I still use it enough that I was willing to pay the upfront cost and grab a bunch of products that I liked. And, I can now pick 1 item from a volume, instead of buying a bunch of stuff that I hated just to get a couple of things I might use.

I also like that I can retire my stack of DVDs, because everything I've ever bought from them is now online and I can grab it as needed. And those of us that were early joiners did see some teething problems with the new system, but the speed is better now. My biggest complaint is that I personally find the interface design of the new site difficult to understand and navigate.

So, the new setup is a great deal if you like and plan to use a fair amount of their material. I do like that I can drop the subscription later if I wish, and most of the items I've gotten will still work.

Andrew, they have several options. You get a bunch of free stuff for joining and paying the upfront fee. Then you pay $10 per month and $1 per item. However, there are now options where for a one time fee of $99 they waive the $1 per item for life, and for $249 or $499 they also waive the $10 per month for life. I did the $99 option but not the full membership.

Here's the link to details of the new lifetime membership and what you get for free if you do the $249 or $499. Remember, once a member, for $10 per month and $1 per item you get access to everything.

:: Digital Juice

[Gary Huff]

Originally Posted by David Dixon

You get a bunch of free stuff for joining and paying the upfront fee. Then you pay $10 per month and $1 per item. However, there are now options where for a one time fee of $99 they waive the $1 per item for life, and for $249 or $499 they also waive the $10 per month for life. I did the $99 option but not the full membership.

Here's the link to details of the new lifetime membership and what you get for free if you do the $249 or $499. Remember, once a member, for $10 per month and $1 per item you get access to everything.

It kills me how complicated the pricing seems.

[Mike Watson]

Combined with the terrible website setup... the convoluted pricing is the icing on the cake. I passed.

[Paul Cascio]

This offer has a faint smell of desperation, IMO. It's similar to joining a gym that charges a large membership fee except there's no protection if the business folds.

The other thing I don't like is that it may stifle production of new products. I love DJ's stuff that I purchased in the past, but this move raises a red flag for me.