Att'n Developers: Rent Your Plugins

[trimph1]

OK..so some developers, such as Adobe can do that type of thing..but how many companies are actually capable of doing that?

What about this miserly issue...do we really know the size of THIS market? Here? Now?

[pough]

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?

I agree that it's probably more work than worth it for small developers, unless they manage to work a system that works well. It would probably require a good web developer. In which case, it wouldn't be eaten up in extra processing and labour costs. All the systems currently in place were probably a big time suck until ways were found to automate them. That's just the nature of the business, isn't it?

I wouldn't mind trying. You're seeing a challenge as a barrier (and fighting against it pointlessly, I might add) where others might see it as an opportunity.

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

Oh, sweet baby fuckstick. If you think that's an actual attack... ...and if you think your ellipses from Hell weren't something I would comment on unless my argument fell apart (which is only in your mind)... Well, then ..........................................

[A.M. Gold]

...sweet baby fuckstick.

Isn't that a song by James Taylor. Oh, wait...never mind.

I think this idea has some merit for people who like a demo enough to want to use it on a few projects, but either can't, or ethically won't, render using the demo itself. They could pony up 20 or 30 dollars and have the thing to freely (and commercially) use for a month. Then they might come back and buy it if those projects they used proved to really benefit from having the rented plug-ins on the mix.

As has been stated, though, this would only make sense for plug-ins in the well-over-$100 range.

[Fritze]

Just make good plugins. Then people will buy them.

Well, it works with me

(I know, I'm a genius)

There are things out there that cost a little more than a little candy for the kids. So for some people out there it might not work always as it does for you.
Cool for you that you're right now in such a wealthy position to just buy what you want.

[Fritze]

OK..so some developers, such as Adobe can do that type of thing..but how many companies are actually capable of doing that?

What about this miserly issue...do we really know the size of THIS market? Here? Now?

And even if it would be as small as you might think: Making a little extra money by some rental shouldn't be a bad thing. Except if all the devs out there are working 60+ hours with their normal stuff already and making 10k+ a month. Then it might be too much overhead. And yes, I have a little insight into this industrie.

[DF2R]

fortunately no plugin developer in his or her right mind would implement such a scheme

There's at least 3 plugin developers by my count who have implemented such a scheme already.

[Nielzie]

In the music software industry it's quite common these days to allow second hand resales of products. This of course gives us all the opportunity to buy software for less then the full retail price and then sell the product again if not needed anymore. The KVR Market Place makes this quite simple in fact.

That might also be a reason that a C/R rent of software is less favourable (compared to the above) for many people.

If all those companies would disallow resales, the renting idea might have more chance to succeed, but if they do that then all hell will break loose I'm afraid

[spirit]

Product "rental" is the big thing in the software world these days mainly because greedy beancounters and marketing scum figure that's where you can make more money from the same product.

Instead of allowing people a simple "license to use", you lure them with a low upfront cost, then when they're hooked, you keep them buying and buying every month over years until the the long term price is many many times greater than what they'd pay upfront.

It's greedy, cynical marketing BS and in some ways is part of the whole corporate swindle that has led to the occupy wallstreet movement. People want to make more and more money by "clever" manipulations and marketing rather than honest work and good products.

Software rental is the dark path of greed and a pox upon any developer who goes down that road.

[Aloysius]

Att'n Developers: Rent Your bodies

[jens]

Dunno if it has been mentioned yet, but the idea is ultimately stupid.


It would mean you couldn't properly open older projects anymore after the rent period of certain plugins had expired. Also it would cause additional work for both the customer and the plugin-company. The idea only has disadvantages, no real advantages at all.


The idea is just stupid (imo of course).

[aciddose]

People want to make more and more money by "clever" manipulations and marketing rather than honest work and good products.

this has always bean the case. see what i said about "sales".

it's unfortunately the way the world works. avid believers in "free markets" tend to think this is for the best. yes it makes some things less efficient, but they say on a whole it's the lesser of evils.

other people who we tend to consider dirty hippies who ought to get a job have been raving about the horrors of unbounded capitalism for well, forever.

it tends to turn out that the capitalists are right about one thing - it's unfortunately the way the real world works. it's natural state is unbounded capitalism and our only recourse is to apply bounds to it.

then you have a third group, the insane anarchists who call themselves free market libertarians... enough said about them.

[whyterabbyt]

Plugin users tend to more fussy and indignant about copy protection schemes than just about anyone other 'software consumer'. Introducing yet another tier of DRM isnt really going to endear any developer to the tier of users who wouldn't just buy the plugin outright in the first place.

FWIW, Digidesign already do short-term rental, and it needs an iLok... that's the current commercial solution to ensuring a 5-day rental stays a 5-day rental. so bang, there would go the anti-dongle brigade on another crusade...

[whyterabbyt]

Instead of allowing people a simple "license to use", you lure them with a low upfront cost, then when they're hooked, you keep them buying and buying every month over years until the the long term price is many many times greater than what they'd pay upfront.

So, basically the same as any mortgage, loan, credit card, hire purchase or credit scheme, then?

edit : emphasis added for those who missed the bit I was referring to.

[aciddose]

Instead of allowing people a simple "license to use", you lure them with a low upfront cost, then when they're hooked, you keep them buying and buying every month over years until the the long term price is many many times greater than what they'd pay upfront.

So, basically the same as any mortgage, loan, credit card, hire purchase or credit scheme, then?

i don't think you're really that ignorant are you? with a mortgage or loan you only pay a percentage of the value of the item as interest in return for the up-front cost being covered. at the end of the transaction, the item in question is fully yours.

it's more like, well, a rental. once you finish paying, what you've paid for disappears.

the thing about mortgages is that you can buy a property for a small percentage of about 15%, pay about 5% interest, then sell it for the full value and take all profits greater than the interest you have paid.

so if you can increase the value of a property by more than 5% by for example building a house on it, you make an awful lot of profit.

like any commodity exchange this profit is justified because you are introducing liquidity into the market. for banks, money becomes available as long as you can pay the interest which is there to attempt to ensure you don't make investments that will be unprofitable. (it sets the minimum acceptable level of profitability for any venture to the level of interest.)

for developers or real-estate people, you're providing two sides of a service. on one side it becomes much more easy for the owner of a property to sell their property quickly. on the other, for a buyer more properties are available and the cost of making them available is covered by the developers or real-estate agents.

the only question is exactly how much can you justify? should real-estate agents be millionaires or simply live a comfortable middle-class lifestyle? that all depends upon whether you're an insane anarchist or filthy commie hippy.

[Teksonik]

You're seeing a challenge as a barrier (and fighting against it pointlessly, I might add) where others might see it as an opportunity.

There is nothing pointless about fighting an idea that doesn't make sense. Do you really want to keep track of when all your plugins expire...let's see ABC Reverb expires tomorrow....better get this project finished....XYZ Compressor expired right in the middle of a project because you forgot to renew....you're trying to load a project that contains an expired rental....do you want to have to re-authorize a plugin each time you renew? No thanks too much hassle for me. If I like a plugin enough to rent it I'll just buy it.......In my opinion you're fighting pointlessly for an idea that doesn't make sense....not an opportunity....and so on and so forth.

Oh, sweet baby fuckstick. If you think that's an actual attack... ...and if you think your ellipses from Hell weren't something I would comment on unless my argument fell apart (which is only in your mind)... Well, then ..........................................

Oh now resorting to foul language....another bastion of those whose argument has no merit....If you don't like the way I've been posting for many years then take a look over to your left. See the mute button? Hit it and your problem is solved........and you'll eliminate a minor annoyance for me as well..........