How Many Units Does A Hit Synth Sell?

[ouroboros]

no, you're fine. your post doesn't condone stealing at all, and the story illustrates your point well. I have to say I am shocked at how few synths are sold world wide.

[Lotuzia]

Ok Thanks for the answers gentlemen

I'll just leave it as it is We're here to share experiences and thoughts. This is now just another infinitesimal part of Kvr database

LtZ

[WilliamK]

I saw the same things with a bunch of my students. Who intend to make a living of music or postprod btw. These ones are not uberRich, though many are not poor as well. There just prefer to buy Nike shoes than their software. LtZ

Yup, that said it all. I know several people who have money but don't buy software. But they have expensive cars and life-style. I don't judge them, but I wonder, what happens that it makes them feel like doing that? I think that the world's moral is just too low, people just don't care anymore...

A long time ago, I had a fight with a cousin, and disowned him, as he was a total piracy lover. I was wrong, that's not the way to do things, I know. But, with time, he was talking with me again, but every know and them, he would say things about piracy, trying to make me feel good about his own piracy reasoning...

Last week, he was here again. He said that he will buy a unblocked-cable-thingy, which will let him see all channels without having to pay a thing. He said that all those channels are free on the dish anyway. But heck, didn't he think for one second that he would still be using the cable that the cable-guys put on his house for a cost? Hummmm.... I wonder what goes inside his head.

I heard someone mention that people think that since Bill Gates is so rich, that he doesn't need more money. And yes, that's exactly what a lot of people think. But if we would take this to the "real" world, it would be a total chaos... well, heck, I will steal a penthouse in NY, as those people are already rich... maybe a Ferrari? That won't hurt the company, as they are rich already....

[xh3rv]

You need to break out of the KvR bubble mindset. Talk to normal, averagely-educated people over age 35, realise how much computers still indimidate the f*** out of most of them.

I see a fair amount of this with people under 35 who don't want some stigma of using a computer for music, too. Even if it's digital stuff in hardware

To be fair, I think the way the 'signal' chain can grow with software might be off-putting to people who don't object to the sonic aesthetics of digital synthesis. A dedicated CPU, a host program, a MIDI board and output (integrated or not), and finally a decent synth or two probably adds up very differently in people's heads than a hardware unit in classic instrument form even when the costs can be approximately equivalent or somewhat less for the software solution.

I guess a tangent would be, how many units does a hardware synth sell that could implemented just as well or better via software? Or, how many units do Receptor or Open Labs or similar soft-synth in hardware form sell? Will the market(s) look the same in 5 or 10 years as they do now here, will developments bring some forms of convergence to this industry? Do developers have theories or plans about this sort of thing? I'd be interested in what people think on that.

[amiga909]

not sure if this thread should concentrate on piracy once more.
short note: yes, the world is deviating. morals vanish, etc. 50y. ago, 200y. ago humans were 'better'? surely not. its just more comfortable to check a torrent site and dl all new stuff with a few clicks than visiting each devs site, registering and having a demo that needs a dongle.. beatport/iTunes proved its possible to make money with mp3.
KVR could improve here? eg. linking direct demo downloads, streaming mp3 demos, plus displaying infos about demo restrictions?

back to topic: i'd be interested to learn more about the VST market. out of curiosity.
question: are private deals (services such as consulting, installations, studio setups, etc.) significant for (some) VST companies? at least for NI it seems to be the case?

[bmrzycki]

KVR could improve here? eg. linking direct demo downloads, streaming mp3 demos, plus displaying infos about demo restrictions?

You mean a plug-in database that shows:

* the synth's features
* a screenshot
* user reviews
* type of copy protection
* price
* operating system support
* links to the author's page that 99% of the time has audio demos

Here you go: http://www.kvraudio.com/allpluginsononepage.php

[BASSDRIVE]

I think hardware will always outsell software because hardware is a more intimate piece of gear. It's physical, you can really get in touch with the piece and learn it inside-out by touch. Software on the other hand is pretty much always very similiar looking, there's always competing freeware alternatives and you have to have controllers to map the controls too. Not every midi controller is the same either so not all functions might be mappable or as effecient, as opposed to hardware units, all the controls are specically built for it.

I personally still prefer software for it's quick ease of use and saves space. Of course, most will rather still have an actual hardware unit, than a piece of flat software on the screen.


It's like acoustic instruments (guitars, bass, wind instruments,...). If you can play them, it's a no brainer to choose the actual phsyical instrument over a software based version. Your just fooling yourself if you think it's the same thing.

[fas1piano]

and the rest is taxed 40%

if it's taxed at 40 % in D you are doing ok. fortunately !! still, we do reach that bracket too early in this beautiful country.

[eduardo_b]

For some reason I was figuring it might be in the millions but obviously not. I guess us soft synth users (or rather buyers) are still a pretty small and exclusive group and there isn't a copy of Reason sitting on the study book shelf in millions of homes.

Top selling soft synths, and a small number at that, might sell upward of 5000 after several years. Most don't even come close to that. The music software market is much smaller than it might appear.

[Hitch]

For some reason I was figuring it might be in the millions but obviously not. I guess us soft synth users (or rather buyers) are still a pretty small and exclusive group and there isn't a copy of Reason sitting on the study book shelf in millions of homes.

Top selling soft synths, and a small number at that, might sell upward of 5000 after several years. Most don't even come close to that. The music software market is much smaller than it might appear.

Yes, and I'm it!

[WilliamK]

How about that Steinberg claim of over 1 million Cubase 4 sales? Is that real? Ignore me if I got it all wrong...

[Karmacomposer]

William,

It's different because that's a DAW and not just a softsynth.

If it's accurate.

Plus they have deep pockets for advertising - not like us (heh).

Mike

[Blue Wind Project]

3,000 x $200 = $600,000

3.000 x $120 rather, as there are fees involved, and about 600 licenses were upgraded from Zebra 1.x while about 500 people took advantage of the dinosaur crossgrade.

And make no mistake, even a one man business has immense costs to keep things up and running.

As I said somewhere else, a Zebra alone doesn't feed its developer

O.K., So it's $375,000.00 after expenses and taxes, over a period of
6 years. that's $62,000.00 year. I see your point. I hope you have a day job.

Thanks for clearing that up URS, I hadn't looked at it from that
point ov view, I always understood it that you are one man,
that did all the work yourself, and ran everything yourself, but
I honestly didn't know the other aspect of it.

My intial impression was someone that made $600,000.00, payed some taxes
and tried to make it seem like it was a struggle....but then again,
I have to claim complete ignorance as I havn't the slightest clue
about developing a synth...heck..I don't even know how a synth works,
I just turn knobs and sliders untill I think " Hey, that' sounds cool "

[xh3rv]

I think hardware will always outsell software because hardware is a more intimate piece of gear. It's physical, you can really get in touch with the piece and learn it inside-out by touch.

Ya, for sure there's an immediacy with the physical unit. I guess I (naively) just see various solutions that could be wired up I think without an amazing amount of effort or difficulty, to make something that could have that immediacy but with VST-domain software (VST-domain has incredible stuff, IMO) - seems like a lot of people have a couple of pieces of the puzzle put together, like Receptor or some of the hardware controllers that have been showing up recently, but I wouldn't have any clue on where that's headed or all of the dynamics on that.

[penguinfromdeep]

Fortunately Berlin is still very cheap place to live compared to other european capitals But yeah, German taxes ...