Are the days of the high priced plugins history?

[lfm]

Just looking at what's been happening the last 1-2 years:

- Completely new pricing strategy from Waves, Arturia and Native Instruments.
- Plenty 50% offers and better from many.

Now seeing only 25% off on some FabFilter stuff, they try to maintain high price philosophy. Does not seem they got it yet.

Voxengo stuff like Elephant now seems very high priced compared to before.

What do you think?

The resistance to pay more than $150-$200 for single plugins is huge by me.

Does the future belong to those charging $30-$40?

[mellotronaut]

some lower their prices, some don't. some do sales, some don't.

[monkeymanx]

I think it is a yes. Sales are almost on a regular cycle at this point. For instance, I purchase Slate VCC from jrr for $107 last year. The "retail" on it is $250. It has gone "on sale" a couple of times. I think if they are not selling stuff, they have to adjust the price permanently or at least temporarily. Plus, there are a good amount of low cost solutions out there if you are willing to look. Look at Toneboosters and DDMF. Between those couple bundles they sell, you have a lot of ground covered at a very small cost comparatively.

[lfm]

I think it is a yes. Sales are almost on a regular cycle at this point. For instance, I purchase Slate VCC from jrr for $107 last year. The "retail" on it is $250. It has gone "on sale" a couple of times. I think if they are not selling stuff, they have to adjust the price permanently or at least temporarily. Plus, there are a good amount of low cost solutions out there if you are willing to look. Look at Toneboosters and DDMF. Between those couple bundles they sell, you have a lot of ground covered at a very small cost comparatively.

Yes, it seems list prices are just kept for show - and there are discounts and campaigns all the time.

[mellotronaut]

Voxengo does a summer sale for years with slightly cheaper prices and U-He never does a sale and the prices are on the same level for years. while there is general tendency to go down with the prices, not everybody is following the trend (and: not everybody has to follow).

[TabSel]

It's a tough business in a tough economy situation.
The best seems to do a subscription model for some patches, around 20 bucks a month/patch, not more than 240 per year I'd suggest...

[Urs]

Some software companies have become hardware companies. Once 80+ % of revenues stems from hardware sales, they can lower their software prices. Software development becomes part of their advertisement budget, kind of.

And that's good. It's a downward redistribution process. Takes money from the less flexible "big" hw companies, leaves space for more software sales of smaller companies.

[lfm]

And that's good. It's a downward redistribution process. Takes money from the less flexible "big" hw companies, leaves space for more software sales of smaller companies.

I guess that is very true - Arturia and NI are very much into hardware as well now.

Maybe even can tie licensing to hardware makes software sales the same as what is used - lower prices.

[osiris]

[4damind]

IMO there are more offers/special deals. So some plug-ins are cheaper than in the past. Waves has a lot of this stuff! Facebook coupon code, month special stuff, the resellers having completely different prices etc.
Permanent lower priced... Arturia, yes. But they selling hardware too.
NI... not really cheap but lower than in the past, but they playing also more with offers/special deals and providing very interesting update/upgrade offers for existing users. I remember Massive was >200€ now it's about 180€ and with offers and stuff it was sometimes sold for 80€...

But there are always companies selling very expensive plug-ins like U-He.
Since years the price is near 200€ for Zebra, no specials or offers etc.
Softube? Very expensive... Afaik their Cl-1B is near $400, sometimes they have specials so you have 20% off but it's always expensive.

I think because of missing sales, bad economy and stuff we will see more of this offers. For new products we see more companies releasing beta software and making special intro/early adopter offers to get very early some money also if the product is not finished.

[zerocrossing]

I checked "maybe." I do think it's great that Arturia, one of the companies that's moving toward becoming a hardware orientated company as Urs said, went from charging $250 to $99 on their synths. While I applaud them for that... it may be too little too late. I've always felt that some companies "get it" and price their software right. Urs is one for sure. There are always very nice "early adopter" discounts and U-He never releases a lack luster product. Oxium was a no-brainer for me. Diva like quality with lot's of quirky coolness for $89. Diversion at $169 remains un-purchased though. I don't need it so while it's worth $169, I'll wait for a sale or used license because my VST folder is packed with great plug ins and it has to be an almost "entertainment" purchase. A "no-brainer" so to speak.

I don't know what the market is really like, but I hope companies like Lexicon will remove their collective heads from their buttocks and price their software for what it is: software. Why anyone would drop the kind of money they're asking for a software license is beyond me. Maybe if I owned a commercial studio or did full time audio design... still, with excellent reverb plugs in the $200-300 range and Lexicon hardware selling for less than even that, I'd go used hardware any time I could before buying expensive software.

[KBSoundSmith]

IMO there are more offers/special deals. So some plug-ins are cheaper than in the past. Waves has a lot of this stuff! Facebook coupon code, month special stuff, the resellers having completely different prices etc.
Permanent lower priced... Arturia, yes. But they selling hardware too.
NI... not really cheap but lower than in the past, but they playing also more with offers/special deals and providing very interesting update/upgrade offers for existing users. I remember Massive was >200€ now it's about 180€ and with offers and stuff it was sometimes sold for 80€...

But there are always companies selling very expensive plug-ins like U-He.
Since years the price is near 200€ for Zebra, no specials or offers etc.
Softube? Very expensive... Afaik their Cl-1B is near $400, sometimes they have specials so you have 20% off but it's always expensive.

I think because of missing sales, bad economy and stuff we will see more of this offers. For new products we see more companies releasing beta software and making special intro/early adopter offers to get very early some money also if the product is not finished.

I get your general point, but I do have to disagree with your statement that zebra and other u-he products (and other developers' products) are expensive at a $200 price, give or take. Imagine how much a hardware modular synthesizer that could function exactly like zebra, completely 1:1, would cost. $200 offers a ridiculous value in favor of the customer.

But like I said, I get your point. I think that most people who buy these products are hobbyists and people hoping to become pros, and ultimately, any of this software, for them, is classified as a luxury item. Compared to other luxury items, like a video game which will range from $5 to $60, it may seem expensive. However, for a professional user, $200 for zebra is an absolute no-brainer. And I think people who want to become professionals should view this the same; in terms of the value per dollar spent, and given the large number of options available, prices favor the customer, not the developer.

Of course, we also live in a society that increasingly believes the results of everyone else's work should be free, so that probably affects people's perception of prices as well.

[mellotronaut]

i also don't think, Zebra 2 is expensive. it's just a matter, how much you use it. the same goes for Omnisphere.

[4damind]

But like I said, I get your point. I think that most people who buy these products are hobbyists and people hoping to become pros, and ultimately, any of this software, for them, is classified as a luxury item.

I think it's true that more hobbyists buying software than pros.
We have seen a lot of pros using cracked software, samplelibs and stuff. I think it's not really true that plug-ins in the range > $200 are cheap for such people and luxury for hobbyists. I see the opposite, that a lot of hobbyists buying a lot of stuff and collecting expensive synth etc.
Many pros having only a small income compared to hobbyists with a daytime job. There are also statistics eg. from the KSK (social security system for artists and journalists in Germany) where the average income for musicians is about <1000€ per month!

[4damind]

i also don't think, Zebra 2 is expensive. it's just a matter, how much you use it. the same goes for Omnisphere.

Compared to other synth it's expensive. A comparable synth is Synthmaster (semi-modular, eventually some more options and stuff than Zebra) which is sold for about 80€!
Quality synth with a good reputation like Massive: 179€. Rob Papen Predator: 149€ etc. All the Arturia stuff 99€.
Omnisphere has no competitors and it's IMO more a 40GB sample library and a synth (Hybrid) so I would say it's a bit special for 359€.
For a synth only (no sample lib and stuff) with >200€ I think Zebra is the most expensive synth.