VST keyword observation on Google Trends

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Just wanted to share. Corresponds to the current plugin market decline pretty well. Just for comparsion, I've added Native Instruments keyword, decline correlates. >35% decline in 5 years. Tough.

Select Worldwide:
https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... uments,vst

AAX keyword, decline is also noticable:
https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... 05-y&q=aax

[stratum]

If you add the keyword "synth" the result is a bit different

https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... ,vst,synth

[mike_the_ranger]

I added "hummus". This is great

https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... nth,hummus

[Aleksey Vaneev]

If you add the keyword "synth" the result is a bit different

https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... ,vst,synth

"synth" is a decades old term, even more applicable to synth hardware, you can't tell which part of "synth" is software or hardware. E.g. "synth plugin", "synth software" or "synth vst" search volume is negligible.

We are all going of business, titans will probably go belly up faster.

[stratum]

We are all going of business, titans will probably go belly up faster.

This audio-dsp 'business' has never been a 'business' for me. There used to be a day when high quality sound was associated with expensive gear. During those times I had a crappy electric guitar that was often out of tune and a crappy transistor amp that had audible crossover distortion, and they were expensive. It was about 20 years ago. Perhaps 25. If you can't buy good ones you are supposed to build it yourself (as if learning that could possibly be cheaper, but I had no idea about that) This started a hobby which involved building amps and eventually dsp algorithms. By the time I had accumulated adequate dsp knowledge about how to make an amp plugin that could possibly compete with the first generation modelling amps, the free ones were commonplace and they sounded just as good.

As for synths, the reason I don't attempt to make one is more cultural than technical. They require a more diverse range of skills and I have never cared about most of the musical styles they are being used for.

[Aloysius]

This is since they started demanding weird requirements to run their new VSTs.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

This is since they started demanding weird requirements to run their new VSTs.

But VST is used across a wide range of audio host applications, about 75% of DAW market, so it's not only about Steinberg's decisions. And AAX is also falling similarly. I assume that Google Trends reflects part a particular keyword took in total Google search requests. Then if we assume daily number of these requests did not change considerably during 5 years (China is still beyond firewall), interest in audio production declined considerably, plugins are tightly related to audio production.

It's also interesting to see trends starting at 2004 - there we can see that VST was quite popular when Internet was a smaller place, then its trend plateaued and began falling.

[stratum]

It's also interesting to see trends starting at 2004 - there we can see that VST was quite popular when Internet was a smaller place, then its trend plateaued and began falling.

Interestingly when I search for "famous artists of 2004" I couldn't see anybody other than KT Tunstall which I would be bothered to listen to.

https://www.billboard.com/artists/top-100/2004

[mystran]

I added "hummus". This is great

https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... nth,hummus

If you add the keyword "porn" you'll see that it also shows a steady downward trend of about 25% over the 5-year period and while it's certainly possible that the internet has lost it's interest in porn (sounds reasonable, right?), at this point I would also consider the possibility that something more is going on here.

[quikquak]

That’s because ‘pornhub’ is the new trend.
https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... st,pornhub

I thought ‘plugin’ was a good indicator for us?
https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... nth,Plugin
But of course that covers graphic plugs as well.

[Urs]

Maybe because people have figured out that Adwords don't do much.

[Urs]

Maybe because people have figured out that Adwords don't do much.

On that topic, our Google Trends went down notably in Spring 2016, once we slashed our Adwords budget from excessively high to moderately low. Year to year revenue is still pretty consistent, growth is tied to new product releases. Not entirely sure if there was any effect, i.e. if the spendings justify the conversions.

[Andrew Souter]

I agree with what others have said or inferred: our time as developers/entrepreneurs is much better spent on developing innovative things than it is on over-analyzing web analytics and prophecizing doom and gloom etc.

In general I think it is almost a complete waste of time.

Personally I spend almost exactly zero time on this stuff...

[stratum]

our time as developers/entrepreneurs is much better spent on developing innovative things than it is on over-analyzing web analytics and prophecizing doom and gloom etc.

Or probing the requirements needed on the planet Mars from the Earth.
The thing is, if you are on Mars, you do not need a probe.

[quikquak]

Maybe because people have figured out that Adwords don't do much.

I stopped using them years ago, when I realised I was competing against myself!! I noticed if you leave it for a few months all the prices just drop!