On Wednesday, Aug 20, 2003, at 21:40 Europe/London, Mark D Lew wrote:
That's approximately how I feel about academic discounts. I understand the software company's motivation for offering them, of course, but it still ticks me off to know that kids who are living off their parents and/or taxpayers get a better deal than others who have to work for a living.
Your poor thing. For goodness' sake. The majority of students I know (and I know a few) struggle to attend lectures because they have to work to pay the rent, and those few who receive government grants have to survive on about half the minimum wage -- the rest end up with a debt that takes decades to pay off. Moreover, they are required to present work that has been word-processed, or in the case of music students, typeset in Finale or similar. Or are you of the opinion that access to education should be dependent on daddy's income? Did it ever occur to you that whole societies benefit from education? They will all pay full price for software when they have "proper" jobs like your righteous self. I realise that you inhabit a culture which has difficulty with anything that can't be reduced to money, but some people have other motives for being educated, and simply cannot afford to buy hundreds of pounds worth of software at full price. Maybe your ire should be reserved for the executives who make enough in a month to provide fresh water to several million for a year.
As someone who has been a full-time student *very* recently, I stand in the middle of these two opinions. I got my first Finale (2000) at the academic discount when I was a college freshman, but I have bought all succeeding versions at the same price as any other upgrade.
Like Allen Fisher said, if it weren't for the academic discount on Finale, I definitely would not have the job I have today. Academic musicians (as far as I can tell) are the largest definable group that are customers for notation programs, and new freshmen each year provide an expanding customer base of people who are potential long-time customers like myself.
I think it's a smart business decision... Coda (for that is what they were called at the time) sure hooked me on their product for a lifetime by extending the academic discount. Also, you must remember that the academic discount covers not only college students but college professors and even private music teachers, and its companion theological discount is extended to music ministers. So favor is not merely being shown to the students.
------------- Brad Beyenhof [EMAIL PROTECTED]
_______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
