Rental makes purchase madness...

Logos Now is an add-on for your Logos 6 Base Package.

Logos Cloud is subscription-based access to Logos Bible Software tools and content. (It's a replacement for a Logos 6 base package.)

I do find this confusing... I'm all for a subscription based service for those who want it, Logos Cloud. I'm really not keen on the idea of great features being reserved for rental only, Logos Now.

A quick bit of maths says that if I could rent everything I've bought for $49.99 per month it would take 13-14 years before it would have been cheaper to purchase. Given lost interest on savings, new books being published to keep up with, etc it becomes total madness to purchase when the rental option is available.

I have no hard feelings about the money I have spent so far because: it was without a doubt the best study experience at the best price I could have had at the time. I am pleased if more people can share that experience because it becomes more affordable.

I think it really hurts people who have purchased though if rental becomes a necessity also. If I subscribe to Logos Now today in 13 years I will have spent $8.99x12x13=$1402.44 on top of the eye watering amount I already spent.

My question is this... Does faithlife have a way of making me feel like the money I already spent contributes to the experience going forward? At the moment it looks like by next year my previous investment could be swallowed up in a rental scheme. ie. They add nothing to what I can access on the rental scheme because they are included at that price etc. Maybe that is the inevitable brave new world? Could faithlife do something to make me feel better about it though?

For example...

Dynamic price/steep discount on rental...
A Subscription based buying scheme to keep my library up to date inc. new journals, new commentaries, a fixed number of book credits ie. keep track with the rental scheme by buying at a price which matches the rental scheme?

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Comments

Graham Criddle

A quick bit of maths says that if I could rent everything I've bought for $49.99 per month it would take 13-14 years before it would have been cheaper to purchase. Given lost interest on savings, new books being published to keep up with, etc it becomes total madness to purchase when the rental option is available.

But that isn't what is being offered - the contents of purchased base packages and resources available via a Cloud subscription are different

John Goodman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/727810#Comment_727810

the contents of purchased base packages and resources available via a Cloud subscription are different

for now maybe?

Mark Smith

John, you raise some of the very questions that were raised when Faithlife started to explain their marketing plans to the MVPs ahead of time.

While someone like Phil or Bob at Faithlife will have to give definitive answers, some of the things we were told included:

Many of the high-value resources will not be part of Logos Cloud. This would include things like AYBD and some of the higher end commentaries. (Of course Faithlife has to get publishers to buy into this approach before any of their materials would be available and them Faithlife would be making choices on what to include.)
Faithlife sees that there are two markets and they wish to cater to both: the buy-and-own market (the only one they now have) and the rent-and-never-own market (Logos Cloud). To make that work they have to keep both markets happy. They are aware of this.
Conceivably in the future the rental model will bring in more revenue than the current model, and/or people's desires will change so that Logos will phase out buy-to-own. They haven't stated this is their plan but they are certainly going to respond to the market dynamically. In this case we will still own our materials so suffer no direct loss. Selling them would be much harder if that is something we hoped to do some day. Faithlife leadership is committed to being fair to its current buy-to-own people if ever this happens. What is fair can't be defined at this point.

I think you may see this more optimistically than I do. Faithlife is not giving access to the company store for $50 a month (or even $100). My understanding is that $50 will get you about the equivalent of a Standard Platinum Diamond package.

At the going rate of $50 a month, if just the contents of Logos Standard Platinum Diamond is offered for rental, in 43 months six years one would spend what it would cost to buy that package yet still own nothing To me rental will always be more expensive than direct ownership which is why I don't want that option to go away. Yet there are some people who will budget $50 a month to do this who'd never put down the $2150 $3,450 to buy the equivalent. Faithlife is hoping to find lots of those people.

(Edited to correct the approximate contents of the $50 a month offering.)

John Goodman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/727815#Comment_727815

I guess I'm convinced by their intention and integrity more than the plan as it stands;)

When you consider kindle unlimited pricing and 800,000 titles if Logos is to be compelling they will start throwing in a lot of titles for the money... but that is just my guess...