KVR Audio

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Wed Dec 31, 2014 3:07 pm

Happy belated holidays, dear HS supporters!

I would like to take a minute and explain some changes that will happen starting January 1st, 2015. First I'd like to apologize to Dan, Dan the Novachord man for shamelessly stealing his statement about the situation from his own Hideaway Studios newsletter. But he's a good chap so I'm sure he won't mind!

So, here goes:

Due to fundamental changes in EU VAT legislation which come into play on January 1st, 2015, all B2C digital download service providers selling direct into the EU must charge VAT at the customer's local rate. The new "place of supply" directive affects very many world-wide online businesses including most sample library developers who sell and supply direct to the public over the internet. Frustratingly the new directive was very poorly publicised in the UK and left a tremendous number of smaller businesses unaware of the impending situation. To achieve direct compliance would require VAT registering in all 28 EU states posing a huge burden on small businesses due to a mountain of extra paperwork. For this reason Hollow Sun and several other independent sample library developers are in the process of migrating our payment and digital download facilities to fully compliant intermediary services. The migration and subsequent testing is likely to take a number of weeks to undertake and I regret that during this period the current purchase and shopping cart functions will be disabled from 1 Jan for customers from ALL regions.

Or, perhaps it's better to show this all with a picture (click on it for full size)!

For more info about all of this, please check this site if you're interested.

I apologize for any inconveniences caused by this, but we really need some time to make things work according to the regulations, and this will take some time. Note that the website with product information and demos is still going to remain online, but all "Add to Cart" links will be unavailable. Thank you for understanding and your unwavering support!

Here's to a successful 2015, everyone!

Cheers,

~Mario Krušelj (a.k.a. EvilDragon)

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 10:32 pm

Phew!

It has taken me less than expected, but after a little over a week of doing all sorts of things, I can say with confidence that Hollow Sun is back in business after a slight setback created by the EU and the new VAT regulations. The whole Hollow Sun product range has been migrated from Payloadz to FastSpring distribution service, and this brings a few changes in the way HS operates.

Firstly, some might notice prices will adjust according to their geological position. FastSpring requires stating the product price in USD and GBP. I did both - USD prices are slightly higher now (1 GBP = 2 USD), but this will bring the prices more in line with what Europeans pay for HS products + VAT now. Payment is still possible via credit card and PayPal. Use whatever you like better.

Secondly, you might notice I fumbled around slightly with Hollow Sun site. Mainly the menu bar on top. We now have a dedicated F.A.Q. section, and a dedicated Contact section - which now utilizes PHP form to send out support e-mails. This will hopefully reduce the amount of spam that has been coming to HS e-mails (mario/steve (at) hollowsun (dot) com).

Thirdly, a couple of products are now moved to Freepacks section (Stylophone and JayPea, as well as 2013 Spring Bank Special named as 'Big Synth') - these were too cheap to be economically viable when VAT is accounted for, plus FastSpring's per-order fee. There might be some more products that were previously specials for certain occasions showing up in the Freepacks section, so keep your eyes peeled!

And on the subject of e-mails, I would like to kindly request all Hollow Sun users to redirect their e-mail queries pertaining to Hollow Sun to either the new contact form on Contact page, or the newly created support e-mail (support (at) hollowsun (dot) com)! Steve's e-mail is likely to become phased out at some point, so there will be no replies from it when that point is reached. For the moment both Angela and myself are checking out the inbox of Steve's e-mail, but don't say I didn't warn you!

I believe that about wraps it up. I would like to shout out to mr. David Brenan who was a lion in helping me out with the migration to FastSpring. He uploaded all the products to their servers - my upload speed over here in Croatia is quite atrocious! Thanks, David - you're a legend!

Awfully tired but in good spirits, yours truly,

Mario Krušelj, a.k.a EvilDragon

jobi7 · Post by **jobi7** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 11:01 pm

Thanks for the update ED. Glad Hollow Sun is back!

FYI, the 2013 Spring Bank Special looks like it's pointing to the Aaah file. They both have the same link.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 11:03 pm

Whoops - thanks for letting me know. Fixed it now. Refresh the Freepack site and try again!

bftucker · Post by **bftucker** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 11:06 pm

I got the email saying the website is again open for business. Welcome back!

Wishing Hollow Sun a prosperous 2015 despite the new regulations.

blortblort · Post by **blortblort** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 12:32 am

welcome back!...and not a moment too soon! ...just saw that the Yamaha FS1R exists...never even heard of it and NOW... I at least have the HollowSun instrument created from it! Superbadass.

this thing sounds amazing...never even heard these sounds in films from the late 90's...really had no idea this was out there

djshire · Post by **djshire** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 1:48 am

Evil, not sure if you want to take the time and the effort, but I'm not sure people really know about the free Reaktor ensembles that are also on the website...might be worth moving them to someplace more visible than on the sidebar in the Vintage section of Products.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 8:07 am

The website is going to be overhauled at some point. Things will be laid out much better when that happens. Patience...

IMHO, those ooooold Reaktor instruments aren't really anything to flaunt about compared to everything that's out there for Reaktor. I might just upload them to the User Library...

Basspartout · Post by **Basspartout** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 2:49 pm

Many thanks for the update, Mario. I'm so glad that one of my favourite sample libraries will continue and, as somebody who's also selling 'digital goods', I'm glad that a reasonable solution could be found so quickly in all this new EU VAT confusion. All the best for 2015, Sascha

cocoazenith · Post by **cocoazenith** » Fri Dec 18, 2015 7:53 pm

It's a pity that FastSpring's currency exchange rates are so bad for the customer. It really puts me off from ordering...

To cut the long story short: £15 is more like £21 + VAT of course...

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Fri Dec 18, 2015 9:04 pm

That's not FastSpring's currency conversion. I have made separate prices for UK residents and separate for the rest of the world. When UK residents pay VAT it ends up in the ballpark.

After the (long postponed) website update, all prices are going to be in current USD prices... for everyone.

cocoazenith · Post by **cocoazenith** » Fri Dec 18, 2015 10:25 pm

My prices in FastSpring:

British Pound: 15 + 3 VAT (= $26.8 - google)

USD: 30 + No VAT (=$30 flat)

My local currency RON: 131.81 + 31.63 VAT (= $39.39 - google)

That's almost $10 on top of the USD price and $13 on top of the UK price.

Psyclapse · Post by **Psyclapse** » Fri Dec 18, 2015 10:59 pm

EvilDragon wrote:After the (long postponed) website update, all prices are going to be in current USD prices... for everyone.

How will that affect customers in the UK? Will prices be higher, lower or same compared to prices today? Does this mean we will pay about 20% more than our American friends to account for VAT?

Its quite unusual for UK prices to be lowest, so I think I prefer it the way it is.

Many vendors (all types of products, not just music software) have parity between dollar price, euro and GBP.

Eg. if your IP adrs is based in UK you would be charged £100, in USA $100, in Europe 100 euro.
Converted to GBP these values are (according to google) : £100 / £66 / £73
So in the UK we often pay 50% more compared to people in USA and 33% more compared to people in the rest of Europe. Crazy.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 10:45 am

Prices will then be higher for UK residents. But I don't want to deal with constant currency fluctuations between USD and GBP... and FastSpring absolutely requires for the price to be set in USD (we can't have just one price in GBP that then gets converted to other currencies), so I'm going to set the price to USD and let FS convert to other currencies according to their conversion rates.

I might slightly lower the USD prices, though. We'll see.

For one thing, I won't do $1=€1=£1 thing. I think that's just nasty.

bluedad · Post by **bluedad** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 11:03 am

Hollow Sun in 2015