Commercial and Non-commercial pricing option

[basslinemaster]

Would you be more inclined to buy a VST if it had a cheaper, non-commercial option, like Reaper does, and like TX16WX?

http://www.tx16wx.com/purchase

You can get the non-commercial version of TX16WX even if: "You are an individual or business, using TX16Wx for commercial use, and the yearly gross revenue does not exceed 10,000 EUR." That's pretty fair.

I guess there must be loads of 'bedroom musos' (like myself), who are only making music as a hobby, in our (limited) spare time, and either can't afford, or don't want spend much on, music software. Of course, if you've been using a certain VST for a few years and then become good enough to make money from your music, you aren't going to stop using that VST, and you can then upgrade to the commercial version once you've 'hit the big time', so to speak.

I've bought a number of VSTs when on sale, in group buys, and am about to buy some second hand, because it's all I can afford right now. Some prices are 'no brainers' and you just have to get them, even if you hadn't been thinking about buying them before, when they were full price.
What do you all think?

[cryophonik]

I think it's a great idea, in theory. But, it seems that it would difficult, if not impossible, to police it from a developer's perspective. So, that pretty much leaves it up to the "honor system" and hope that commercial users will be honest and pay the commercial price. However, seeing the number of well-known pros who bust themselves using cracked software in their video tutorials ( ), I don't think the honor system would be very reliable.

[Lotuzia]

If there were only 2nd hand purchases, devs would be starving. Logic. So, in order for people to be able to buy it 2nd hand, some people who buy it first seems to be still required.

Other than that, I only think that a synthesizer or any other musical instrument should bring back its authors/builders enough to pay the numerous hours spent to create it and to make a decent living out of it. End of the story -as I see it at least-.

So whatever the sales model, if it fullfill this simple goal, its ok. If it fails to do it, there's probably a problem *somewhere*.

[Winstontaneous]

I'm guessing most devs already have enough issues selling plugins for full price. Plus summer/winter "Black Friday" sales have much the same effect - pros pay full price because they need a product, and then write it off; other folks buy when the price comes down.

I suspect Reaper can handle the commercial/non-commercial pricing because Justin Frankel (lead developer) got a big chunk of change for selling WinAmp to AOL.

[Phorous]

This is one of the major things that sold me originally with Reaper. I still will drop the big bucks for a plugin/software if I feel it is worth it. Omnisphere and Komplete are not cheap but they are worth the price so I went ahead and shoved out the cash and bought them.

Wish I could buy a Prophet 12 or Virus TI2 cheap for non commercial use