CloudBasedDAW

Quora Answer : Is there a cloud based music production solution, not a DAW alone per se but rather a dedicated or shared dedicated server with one or more of the more popular DAWs available to choose from wherein each is already loaded with vst & samples?

May 1, 2020

I agree with Benedict Roff-Marsh's logic (see what I did there?) that suggests it's not a good business model for DAW makers.

OTOH, if I understand correctly, Splice offers "rentable VST plugins" which you can start using right away for a monthly fee. (And then you keep them when you've paid them off, so it's a "hire-purchase" scheme)

Many of the big VSTs these days are inherently tethered into the cloud (for accessing sounds / sample banks etc.)

I don't think it's in principle impossible for one of the big DAW makers to jump to a cloud-service model. Much as Adobe has done for Photoshop and Microsoft is trying to do with Office.

However, that seems to be a strategy that companies do when they are already the monopolist, and their main competition is piracy.

Possibly with the DAW makers, as well as not liking the model themselves, they ALSO realize that it may not be so good for users. And as they are still in competition with each other, they don't risk trying it.