Knowledge Base

• We make this deal with our customers (a service agreement): We will give you Lifetime Free Updates and in return you are not allowed to sell or share your license or access to your account. We have stood by this agreement since 1998, and so we expect you to honor your side too. We take this seriously because:  
• Lifetime Free Updates is incompatible with Account transfer - A 2nd, 3rd and even 10th-hand account holder has access to all future versions of FL Studio, without limit! This is why the used value of an FL Studio license is ALWAYS as fresh as the day it was purchased. Compared to 'pay for update' software that becomes almost worthless over time. Imagine someone using FL Studio for 10 years, getting free updates and support, then selling it at current market value. Inevitably, this online marketplace of used FL Studio licenses would grow to the point it would kill our primary sales, and so, FL Studio. 
• When you buy used software from other developers, you end up with an outdated, or soon to be outdated version. There is a strong possibility you will pay for an update in future (and probably more than one). We only get to sell FL Studio to our customers ONCE, so there is no possibility of update fees like there is with other software. Every user-transferred license is a lost sale that competes directly with our primary business. 
• We don't use hardware protection (key/dongles), only software based licensing. We do this because we don't believe in burdening customers with complex and unreliable copy protection schemes. 
• We are reasonable and offer fully functional & time-unlimited trial versions that allow people to test our software, before they buy. There is no reason to buy the software to 'test it out'. 
• For each change of ownership there is support involved to new owner (downloads of installer & extra samples, tech support of forums & tickets). An FL Studio Lifetime Free Update license represents almost unlimited potential for these sorts of hits on our support system and a loss of income for us.
• We offer our software at affordable and fair prices. 
• Many customers who stop using FL Studio for a number of years up their Lifetime Free Updates later and become active again when time and life changes. 

NOTE:  Apple, Google and Microsoft do not allow the transfer of App purchases between customer accounts in the EU, or anywhere world-wide. We believe the situation is similar to our case as Apps are sold with Lifetime Free Updates. The sale of a lifetime updated app directly impacts on the developers ability to maintain their income, since there is no chance of upgrade purchases.