VST keyword observation on Google Trends

[kippertoffee]

I added "hummus". This is great

https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... nth,hummus

Ah.. the great hummus bubble of November 2016. I remember it well

[Aleksey Vaneev]

I agree with what others have said or inferred: our time as developers/entrepreneurs is much better spent on developing innovative things than it is on over-analyzing web analytics and prophecizing doom and gloom etc.

In general I think it is almost a complete waste of time.

Personally I spend almost exactly zero time on this stuff...

Well, I think VB-Audio as a business did a great thing by switch from plugins to streaming mixer - high-profile streamers use it. Not sure if VB-Audio analyzed trends, but the move was spot on.

https://2caudio.com has unsecure content - check your URLs on the page.

[Richard_Synapse]

Maybe because people have figured out that Adwords don't do much.

On that topic, our Google Trends went down notably in Spring 2016, once we slashed our Adwords budget from excessively high to moderately low. Year to year revenue is still pretty consistent, growth is tied to new product releases.

Same here, in fact we stopped using AdWords (i.e. text ads) a couple of years ago, iirc.

Richard

[Aleksey Vaneev]

I thought ‘plugin’ was a good indicator for us?
https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... nth,Plugin
But of course that covers graphic plugs as well.

It covers much more - plugins of all sorts. But this trend is telling. Software tends to integrate functionality previously offered by plugins, so probably the "plugin" market is falling in all niches globally.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Maybe because people have figured out that Adwords don't do much.

I stopped using them years ago, when I realised I was competing against myself!! I noticed if you leave it for a few months all the prices just drop!

That's AdWords mismanagement. You could include "negative keywords".

AdWords is also telling. VST keyword downward trend correlates to increased competition in AdWords for a wide range of VST plugin-related keywords. AdWords is almost useless now unless you have Native Instruments budgets (which is displayed to me as a higher-bidding competitor in AdWords).

[Richard_Synapse]

It covers much more - plugins of all sorts. But this trend is telling. Software tends to integrate functionality previously offered by plugins, so probably the "plugin" market is falling in all niches globally.

I think it's more of a trend towards different ways to use the internet. Google text search may still be standard for us developers when researching a topic, but for creative people there is many other ways to learn about new plugins.

Richard

[Aleksey Vaneev]

It covers much more - plugins of all sorts. But this trend is telling. Software tends to integrate functionality previously offered by plugins, so probably the "plugin" market is falling in all niches globally.

I think it's more of a trend towards different ways to use the internet. Google text search may still be standard for us developers when researching a topic, but for creative people there is many other ways to learn about new plugins.

Richard

That's in theory. KVRAudio and GearSlutz and specific DAW forums were here for a decade. Or do you suggest that now Instagram and Facebook are used to discover new plugins? Exactly where do you think now people discover new plugins?

[DJ Warmonger]

Or maybe people aren't googling basic words anymore, as they already know stuff. If I need to learn anything else about VSTs, I visit KVR or other production-oriented sites directly via bookmarks.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Or maybe people aren't googling basic words anymore, as they already know stuff. If I need to learn anything else about VSTs, I visit KVR or other production-oriented sites directly via bookmarks.

That's not exactly correct. For example, to visit Voxengo website they do not type voxengo.com, they use search toolbar in their browser (which in most cases tied to Google) to type "voxengo".

[Richard_Synapse]

Or do you suggest that now Instagram and Facebook are used to discover new plugins? Exactly where do you think now people discover new plugins?

Yes exactly, all social media platforms.

Richard

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Or do you suggest that now Instagram and Facebook are used to discover new plugins? Exactly where do you think now people discover new plugins?

Yes exactly, all social media platforms.

Richard

Type "vst plugins" in Facebook and Twitter search and you'll mostly find free plugins. Not good for business.

Plugin discovery partly moved to Splice, PluginBoutique, but there you basically have to pay to be visible. "Run promotions" in other words. And the worst thing is they'll promote who they want, not in a free market competition sense like Adwords.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

One more observation:
https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... on,vst,daw

So, DAW and music production trends are stable.

[stratum]

Is there still any real reason to buy effect plugins except perhaps one or two that serve a niche interest? A typical DAW would already have many that serve common cases.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Is there still any real reason to buy effect plugins except perhaps one or two that serve a niche interest? A typical DAW would already have many that serve common cases.

Sure thing, plugins are leaving the scene.

[Andrew Souter]

Well, I think VB-Audio as a business did a great thing by switch from plugins to streaming mixer - high-profile streamers use it. Not sure if VB-Audio analyzed trends, but the move was spot on.

Sure, it's not a bad thing to be aware of trends. But we work in a micro passion industry. A good product that you and customers are passionate about can reverse and create new company specific trends fairly easily.

And there is better, more effective market research that can be done for bigger bang for the buck. For example, if many people on KVR often give free advice by suggesting a new GUI style might help a particular company's trend-line, this might be a more important trend to listen to than to try to extrapolate data points from sparse google data about a relatively tiny passion industry. IMHO...

And to be clear when I speak of "innovation" etc, I consider your/Voxengo's work one of the leaders and pioneers in our field, particularly in aspects of dsp/mathematics. You've made a great contribution and have been ahead of the curve for quite some time in these areas by my estimation and I fully respect your accomplishments over a couple decades now!

https://2caudio.com has unsecure content - check your URLs on the page.

Thanks I will explore.

edit: fixed... (was just the sound-cloud player as suspected)