I download the latest RGC instrument and I must say I am very impressed.

Unfortunately, I get sticker shock when I convert the US price to CDN dollars. I would buy this synth right now as I can afford 150CDN but this converts to 235.00 CDN (Gulp!). How about having a one day currency "holiday" where you can buy the synth in your own currency or converted to a currency not pegged to over valued US dollar. I think the sales on that day would be so strong as to make the exercise very profitable.

My two (canadian) cents.

The Turks would looove this idea...

And we brits would hate it with a passion.

I feel your pain. I was looking forward to Atmosphere but it works out to $625 cdn, and that just kills it. That and the price of gas! (and then add customs fees and shipping and GST and what have you).

I'm still saving for PlaticZ!

Man, you've hit on a pet peeve of mine! Software is ridicously priced in Canada. My wages and expenses are comparable to my US counterpart, but software is always 1.5 to 1.6 times more expensive. Suppose some guy in the US gets paid $14us/hr for making widgets, saves up, and buys Phatmatik for $99us. The same guy in Canada would make $14cdn/hr (or less), save up and buy Phatmatick for $160cdn.

Most things I buy here after doing the currency exchange are the same as they would cost me if I bought them in the US: burgers, jeans, CDs, food, etc. But software is much much more.

$600+ for atmosphere? As Jim Carrey would say, "yeah."

I think software companies would make a lot more sales in Canada if they sell on par. With today's on-line purchasing systems, you'd think they could ensure that the purchaser is actually a Canadian resident. If marketing research shows US residents are willing to buy a vsti for $100us, the same research would show that the Canadian resident is willing to pay $100cdn.


sluggo

Lol.

I'll start buying things online with Canadian dollars. Everything will be twice cheaper.

What you see here is value of money. USD is simply a yardstick.

Hey, I'd appreciate it even more if you 'Nucks would keep your cheap-ass, poorly-minted, crap currency out of OUR circulation! At least our currency *feels* like currency . . . yours feel like play money . . . like it was made by Parker Brothers or something . . .

US $ might be a yardstick and I guess you can hardly expect the developers to calculate a price in every currency; they could at least a fairer conversion. But, the net result is that piracy is rampant in Canada! If feel like my wallet is being raped everytime I buy a piece of sofware and I'm sure I'm not alone. Americans are flocking to Canada as everthing is way cheaper - it used to be the other way arround. Lets find a currency that more representative of "average" buying power.

Is the US dollar bloat situation the same for other countries?

Come on Canada. Lets send out a message. If the price is quoted in US dollars we will demand a fair exchange in Canadian dollars or boycout (and notify the seller) !!! The buck (well loonie) stops here!!! No more software purchases on direct exchange. Here is what I'm going to do.

Manifesto

1. Notify the software vendors of what I'm willing to pay in CDN. Give them a chance to re-adjust their pricing
2. Not buy software at the direct US exchange from this day forth.
3. Setup a canadian fair audio software priocing foundation

Feveria wrote:

What you see here is value of money. USD is simply a yardstick.

Unfortunately, cost of living in other countries isn't taken into account with that yardstick.

Oh, and there are fewer crazy people with guns.

JEMSKIJEMSKI wrote:

Oh, and there are fewer crazy people with guns.

I don't know - TO's had it's fair share of gunplay over the past month...
WTF is up with that? Can't even go out to a club without worrying about coming home with more holes than I went out with.

I said "fewer" people. But your right this has been a bad month. Still I think we definetely less gun grazy than "you know who". Have you seen bowling for Columbine? Scary!!!!!

JEMSKIJEMSKI wrote:

I said "fewer" people.

Ahhh - I jumped the gun on my post (punny ain't I?)

Let me know when your new software laws pass so I can start buying VSTi's without putting myself in financial straits...

I wish there was a better way to do it. Download as purchase has helped a little, that way we cut out the customs, taxes and shipping, but the conversion is still a killer.

Hey, atleast we've got more 'red, white, and blue' colours to our money than the bland and boring US 'green'. And talk about 'play money' - I've seen the 'new design' and 'denominations' you guys are getting down there. Where'd that idea come from? Hmmmmm?

But it is true - Canada currency sucks big time in a most revolting reville manner. And then the jackass goverments up here spend huge tax dollars trying to figure out why our exports are amazing, yet no one here is buying imports? DUH! And then the all time pisser - you see someone on eBay or Yahoo.Ca selling a CD from Windsor, Ont. for $7.99.... USD! Only via PayPal. Jeff Bezo's got it right with Amazon.CA - that's actually a good site I find. Now if they could only expand their music software offerings....?

Or Canada's about to make the Russian Black Market look like freakin' Tiffany's if our retarded goverment regimes continue to toss America's salad and want to see how brown our tongues are. I spit on Mulroney, and kick Chretien in the ass. They're supposed to be working for Canada, not the other way around!

But I digress.

John Westwood wrote:

Or Canada's about to make the Russian Black Market look like freakin' Tiffany's if our retarded goverment regimes continue to toss America's salad and want to see how brown our tongues are. I spit on Mulroney, and kick Chretien in the ass. They're supposed to be working for Canada, not the other way around!

How very non-Canadian of you John! Normally we're bowing are heads and "assuming the position" while the government has it's way with us...

As long as they don't make me personally toss anybody's salad!

This is very stupid conversation. Developers also have to support some kind of standard of living - they calculate the price of their effort and translate it into dollar value. Many of the developers are not even US based.

Just because your currency is weak - doesnt't mean you somehow entitled to discounts. Simple as that.

Just to give you a prespective - in Russia a good salary will be 100$ - 150$ a month. So i assume that VST's should cost about 5$ each?

Find a 'cracked' one and it's free, huh? Or the price of a beer to a friend for searching the sites like kazaa = $5. How hard is it to make a book of matches? Machinary, paper, sulfer, packaging, say a $100,000.00 investment? Go to a 7-11 Eleven, and what do they cost each? A penny.
Long time to recoup the investment.

I think the software prices could stand to maybe come down 15% or so in leu of less packaging, direct downloads and payment, constant upgrades, competition with table top hardware, and then the competition of warez and crackers. I understand - more money paid, more products made. But when the 'best' product software comes out at the price of a Kurzweil synth with options and you can't afford to buy either.....Then what?

It's not your constitutional right to purchase the best software or Kurtzweil synths. If prices are unreasonable - laws of market economics and competition will quickly correct that - no demand = prices drop.

But if other people are buying it and you can't afford it - then it means that the price is right and it stands for quality which people are buying at the premium. The quality which you can't afford. Thats too bad - but i don't have Kurtzweil nor i drive a BMW.

So to answer your question "Then what?" - the naswer is - You stop obsessing about stuff that is out of your league - and start using stuff that you can posess to the limit.

Hey Feveria

Yes your right. The salaries in Russia are low and how common is Software Piracy? It's almost endemic!!!

I don't think developers are putting as much thought as they should into this. My gut instinct is that they pick a nice round number (say 100US), but are not fully cognicant of what that really means in countries other than the US. Few sales in Canada? oh, well they mustn't be interested in it!!!!!

I'm not advocating that developers become economists, but surely there's a middle ground here. I want to buy your product but you think that I'm earning a US salary? I'm afraid not.

If you don't make the sale and/or your product gets pirated then you loose the whole lot then don't cry to me! I think developers have good reason to consider a "currency" relief day or some adjustment for non-US countries as an option. Hands up those who agree!

JEMSKIJEMSKI wrote:

Hands up those who agree!

Can you see my hand raised?

Hand noted! Well if its just me and you were in big trouble!

you guys make valid points....if i lived in, say, mexico, i would not be able to buy the things i do as well......

Thanks for the feedback. Although I agree that developers deserve to
get paid fairly for their work, the point I'm trying to make is this is a big
lost opportunity for everyone concerned.

how about we make all audio software free so lazy, unemployed bastards such as myself can have it all?

My hand's way up for you J! And I agree that software guys shouldn't have to adjust prices everyday like gas stations do with gas. But that in itself tells one something about 'supply and demand'.

But for software to say $39.99 or $399.00 and you multiply by 1.62 (on a bad day in Canada), and add all the poop. Forty becomes ninety, and $399 becomes $768.82 - I could buy a AN200, or an AdrenaLinn, or a Evolver at Steve's for that kind of scratch.

But I'd rather sit here and download good soft synths without Visa, PayPal, and UPS tipping off Canada Customs that I just spent $40US and MUST BE PUNISHED! I like like your thinking very much, and let's hope someone in the 'soft world' takes heed as well?