Att'n Developers: Rent Your Plugins

[pough]

Sorry still weak arguments........The dev will make $20 or $40 instead of $120 for a plugin....

You're completely ignoring the possibility that the dev will make $20 or $40 instead of $0. The options aren't rent or own, they're rent or own or do nothing or go with a different developer's plugin.

On a side note, exactly how many periods do you think a single sentence needs?

[Mushy Mushy]

@ Teksonik: there is absolutely no burden on the developer. He makes say a 14 day version, a 30 day version and a 60 day version, This is as simple as modifying the existing demo code that uses x many days. I'm no developer but I would think this should take all of 30 mins.

I'm a developer. If you have a plugin that doesn't time out after x days, then it is a burden to implement your sugggestion.

In general, those tweaks that take 30 minutes to code, take a long time to actually get out into the world as a final product. Take your tweaks, and multiply by the number of formats you have to release things for (VST/AU/RTAS/AAX, 32/64 bit, OSX/Win). Then factor in testing. And contacting all customers. A 30 minute tweak can quickly turn into a few full work days.

Plus, I have absolutely no interest in implementing a rental plugin system. But that is just this developer talking. Others may have a different mindset.

Sean Costello

Sean yours are cheap enough anyway. If somebody needed to rent one of yours I think they would be better off spending money on less interesting things such as, I don't know, food and shelter perhaps

[Teksonik]

Adobe does this with their software. My 3d software has a subscription service so that when then next version comes out you get the upgrade (if your subscription is current).

I admit that there would need to be development time and costs, but I love the idea of being able to "Lease-to-Own" Omnisphere, for example.

I have a feeling that companies would attract customers that they ordinarily wouldn't get because of a price-point, and that they'll at least get something rather than nothing at all.

You'll have to admit that Adobe is a larger company than most if not all Music Software companies........Maybe N.I or IK could pull it off but not without added expenses and labor that may well erase any money they may make in the process.........

[Mushy Mushy]

30 Days from when? 60 days from when? If I rent a plugin for thirty days that 30 days starts on the day I rent it..if Joe rents a 30 day the next day and Bill a 30 days the next now you've got to track when my 30 days expires, when Joe's 30 days expires and when Bill's thirty days expires. How would the software know when the thirty days starts? That's right it would have to encoded or tracked some way in each download.......

What?????

You are aware that there timed demo's currently available???
We don't all need to download on the same day for these to work!

[Teksonik]

Sorry still weak arguments........The dev will make $20 or $40 instead of $120 for a plugin....

You're completely ignoring the possibility that the dev will make $20 or $40 instead of $0. The options aren't rent or own, they're rent or own or do nothing or go with a different developer's plugin.

You're completely ignoring the possibility that the little money they would make might be eaten up in extra processing and labor costs.....not many small developers could pull it off......would you like to try?

On a side note, exactly how many periods do you think a single sentence needs?

As many as it takes....going after personal attacks now that your argument has fallen apart....predictable......

[Teksonik]

30 Days from when? 60 days from when? If I rent a plugin for thirty days that 30 days starts on the day I rent it..if Joe rents a 30 day the next day and Bill a 30 days the next now you've got to track when my 30 days expires, when Joe's 30 days expires and when Bill's thirty days expires. How would the software know when the thirty days starts? That's right it would have to encoded or tracked some way in each download.......

What?????

You are aware that there are currently timed demo's available???
We don't all need to download on the same day for these to work!

Yes but you don't have to pay for those demos....and track when they expire so you can collect the next rental payment......

[Mushy Mushy]

30 Days from when? 60 days from when? If I rent a plugin for thirty days that 30 days starts on the day I rent it..if Joe rents a 30 day the next day and Bill a 30 days the next now you've got to track when my 30 days expires, when Joe's 30 days expires and when Bill's thirty days expires. How would the software know when the thirty days starts? That's right it would have to encoded or tracked some way in each download.......

What?????

You are aware that there are currently timed demo's available???
We don't all need to download on the same day for these to work!

Yes but you don't have to pay for those demos....and track when they expire so you can collect the next rental payment......

It doesn't matter. Once the rental period expires it stops working. It is up to the customer to renew should he wish to continue using it.

[Teksonik]

Ok Ok you win.....it's brilliant idea....fortunately no plugin developer in his or her right mind would implement such a scheme so it's not something we'll have to worry about............Peace.

[Mushy Mushy]

Ok Ok you win.....it's brilliant idea....fortunately no plugin developer in his or her right mind would implement such a scheme so it's not something we'll have to worry about............Peace.

LOL.
Come on mate, you started so strong. Don't give up now

[Teksonik]

Ok Ok you win.....it's brilliant idea....fortunately no plugin developer in his or her right mind would implement such a scheme so it's not something we'll have to worry about............Peace.

LOL.
Come on mate, you started so strong. Don't give up now

Not giving up.....just no sense butting heads. Tell you what, we'll let the Free Market system work it's magic. If it's a good idea we'll see developers adopting the scheme in ever increasing numbers. If it's not a good idea it will die....let's revisit this thread in a year and see what happens........

[valhallasound]

@ Teksonik: there is absolutely no burden on the developer. He makes say a 14 day version, a 30 day version and a 60 day version, This is as simple as modifying the existing demo code that uses x many days. I'm no developer but I would think this should take all of 30 mins.

I'm a developer. If you have a plugin that doesn't time out after x days, then it is a burden to implement your sugggestion.

In general, those tweaks that take 30 minutes to code, take a long time to actually get out into the world as a final product. Take your tweaks, and multiply by the number of formats you have to release things for (VST/AU/RTAS/AAX, 32/64 bit, OSX/Win). Then factor in testing. And contacting all customers. A 30 minute tweak can quickly turn into a few full work days.

Plus, I have absolutely no interest in implementing a rental plugin system. But that is just this developer talking. Others may have a different mindset.

Sean Costello

Sean yours are cheap enough anyway. If somebody needed to rent one of yours I think they would be better off spending money on less interesting things such as, I don't know, food and shelter perhaps

True enough. People might rent a Neumann U87. I doubt that many people rent a Shure SM57. And my stuff (by design) is firmly in the SM57 market.

Sean Costello

[Sendy]

Just make good plugins. Then people will buy them.

Well, it works with me

(I know, I'm a genius)

[trimph1]

Ok..if renting is so good then why are we not seeing people getting into this whole hog then?

Look around you. Are we seeing developers in other areas going all gaga about renting?

[Vintage73]

As I said, Adobe does.

I doesn't work for all software or even most developers, but I could see Camel Audio doing this, or Spectrasonics, or even u-he to some extent. I'd think a software price-point around $149-199 as a starting point for the viability of "rented" software. And price would depend on the developer.

The concept is just in its infancy right now. Soon enough there will be developers that design rent-to-own code for other developers to use in their software as the concept grows and matures.

Payment schedules would be up to the user. If they don't pay, their software stops working until they pay again. You pay early, the time is added within the software. Easy enough. All automated, and no personnel need keep track of people's contracts.

Re-activation could be activated by an authorization code that the user would get once they pay, and then enter it into the software.

I don't see why this is such a hard concept for so many people to get.

Car leases are extremely popular, but when they started, most people thought...that's stupid, you pay and pay and in the end you don't own a thing.

Rent-to-own licenses WOULD end up with you having a perpetual license. So you're really not out anything. And the developer would get that extra 25% or so for each piece of software that is rented to the end of the contract. Administrative costs? There ya go. Plus they reach a whole new market of people who would not have purchased your software to begin with because they couldn't afford it.

Companies lease equipment all the time. I don't understand why people can't equate software with equipment. You may not be able to handle a physical program, but it's still just as necessary to a business as their equipment.

[aciddose]

lots of companies already rent software. for example large packages for bug tracking or customer support or so on that corporations would need to use.

the way it works is C&R, or dongles that time out.

so you're saying vst plugins should come with C&R or dongles only, and that licenses should always time out?

hm, curious.

it's also curious to note that the prices are not reduced. they remain the same, you just get less of a product in return.

anyone selling a product is going to want more income, not less. if they implement anything it's to increase their income. suggesting anything that amounts to charity is completely insane.

do you think sales are to make customers happier? it just so happens that during sale periods companies tend to make more income than during any other time of the year. do you think they would have a sale if this were not the case?

if they reduce the price permanently the effect is lost. that is because a sale does not function due to a reduced price point. the sale works by tricking the customer in several ways. first, they see the purchase as a savings rather than an expense. you should notice that advertising tends to focus on "20% off!" never on "now only $159 rather than $199!", it's "save $40!".

secondly, they also create an artificial scarcity by making people view the product as having a limited availability. this creates an artificial inflation of the perceived value of the product.

thirdly, they increase word of mouth. people will tend to talk a lot more about saving $40 than about a product itself. if the product can't spread by word of mouth on it's own merits, it generally can if people see the information about a sale as "useful". due to the belief that they will be saving money, they spread the information in order to impress or gain favor with the people they share this information with. of course nobody bothers to consider the fact that without making a purchase at all, you could have saved $159.