Anybody else put off by some sales?

[Aloysius]

Unread postby GMusic; Wed Aug 22, 2018 12:15 pm
Anybody else put off by some sales?
Don't get me wrong, I love a good sale. Cyber Monday, annual sales, and other reasonably seasoned sales are nice. But what irks me the most is flash sales and frequent random sales. In the physical market, I understand it's necessary to have similar 'clearance' sales to clear inventory, but virtual instruments? Come on.

If I buy an instrument full price at $300 and there's a 10% off sale, oh well. But if there's a flash 80-90% off sale..ouch. It makes me feel cheated and undervalues my purchase. Sure, you can argue that it must have been worth $300 to me when I bought it, so no harm no foul, right? Whatever. It just tells me the company doesn't value its loyal full paying customers. They probably are in a lull and wants a quick boost so they put a ridiculous flash sale to get volume sales for a quick buck. However, this undermines people who purchase new releases at full/intro price whether they need them or not, to support their favorite companies.

So, please do your research before you buy ANY virtual instrument/library at full price. It seems the norm these days is to overprice items, have frequent sales to make people think they are getting a bargain, meanwhile the oblivious or just plain indifferent loyal customer will be paying full price.

This is why I value companies like SPECTRASONICS and IMAGE-LINE the most, because not only do they keep their loyal customers happy with massive free updates, they don't make them feel cheated with random crazy sales. Why can't other companies just make good product and have honest upfront pricing?

Stop playing games with your loyal customers.

They have to do whatever it takes to survive as a business. To make profit. You feel a little cheated on one thing and very lucky on another. It all balances out in the end. Just remember what Confucius say ...

Man who buy drowned cat must pay for wet pussy.

[DJErmac]

When you pay full price, you get it exactly when you want it. To get it with a sale price, you have to wait, sometimes for months. That's imho the real meaning of the price you pay. Full money is for instantaneity.

That's why I almost never regretted to pay more. I got it before. When I needed, or wanted it. I personally see no devaluation in this.

Of course there are oddities. Such as Air Vacuum Pro that I paid 149€ on sale, and that went $1 then, or D16 Group Sigmund or even Exponential Audio R2 that were basically given for free when you bought them for some money... But globally I don't feel ripped off because I got the product when I wanted it, and this means a lot to me.

[chk071]

They have to do whatever it takes to survive as a business. To make profit. You feel a little cheated on one thing and very lucky on another. It all balances out in the end. Just remember what Confucius say ...

That's what i would say too. I also noted, on the post i was about to write, when the topic got locked, that we can be happy that we live in an environment where there are price dynamics. Opposed to one product for once price, and everyone has to pay the same, think the same, and act the same. Without that, there are people who NEED IT ON THE FIRST DAY OF RELEASE NO MATTER THE PRICE!!!! and people who tell themselves "If i wait a year or two, i can grab it for half the price...". Ultimately, it is up the buyer to decide. Which is an absolute awesome thing in my book. It's also an awesome thing that there's competition, thinking about way to gain sales, or popularity, opposed to some brain dead "Hey... everyone does the same... you have to pay the same... everyone is the same..." crap. People aren't all the same. They're very different, in fact.

[fluffy_little_something]

I don't like the sales epidemic, either. It's like dumping.

For poorer customers a rent-to-buy plan makes more sense.

Interestingly, good developers rarely do sales. When you offer a good plugin, people will appreciate its worth and ultimately buy it.

[chk071]

Interestingly, good developers rarely do sales.

Define "good" developers. Let's just take the two biggest players in the DAW and in the plugin business, Steinberg and NI. Both have frequent sales. As do all the others. Actually, even u-he do sales, even though they won't admit it. Intro sales for their plugins, and special deals for Bitwig customers. They also had a sale on Diva, IIRC. There are some small developers like Valhalla, Cytomic, and others which don't do sales, but most of the companies do sales.

[fluffy_little_something]

Intro promotions are for everyone and for a specific period. Tal has them as well. But U-he and Tal don't give their stuff away at a considerably lower price later on after the regular price is in place so that regular customers feel ripped off.
I don't like Steinberg and NI, so I avoid them altogether.

[chk071]

Intro promotions are for everyone and for a specific period.

As are sales.

[fluffy_little_something]

Intro promotions are for everyone and for a specific period.

As are sales.

But since it is an intro offer, obviously nobody bought it at a higher price before and might regret having wasted money.

[chk071]

But everyone knows that there are sales at some point.

[Max369]

So tiny VST market and so little "possible buyers" range. And surely KVR Audio marketplace where all of us buy or sell our used licenses... Developers have to do something that will allow them to survive. I understand you but also I understand the vendors.

Personally, I bought "Akai VIP" during the sale for 120USD but two weeks after, they offered it for 39 USD... Now we can find it here for 5 or 10USD. Also bought "Air Hybrid" and "Air Vacuum Pro" for about 100USD eachand now bothof them are on the eternal sale for 1 USD.

But I will never buy again any software at the full price from "inMusic Brands, Inc" (Akai, Sonovox, Air, etc)

[fluffy_little_something]

But everyone knows that there are sales at some point.

Not really, there is no sales schedule, people know neither when sales will be nor how much the stuff will be off.

[fluffy_little_something]

So tiny VST market and so little "possible buyers" range. And surely KVR Audio marketplace where all of us buy or sell our used licenses... Developers have to do something that will allow them to survive. I understand you but also I understand the vendors.

Personally, I bought "Akai VIP" during the sale for 120USD but two weeks after, they offered it for 39 USD... Now we can find it here for 5 or 10USD. Also bought "Air Hybrid" and "Air Vacuum Pro" for about 100USD eachand now bothof them are on the eternal sale for 1 USD.

But I will never buy again any software for a full price from "inMusic Brands, Inc" (Akai, Sonovox, Air, etc)

Same here, Air has gained the reputation of a rogue developer with me...

[chk071]

But everyone knows that there are sales at some point.

Not really, there is no sales schedule, people know neither when sales will be nor how much the stuff will be off.

Well, that wouldn't make any sense, would it? Discounts are there to fuel extra sales.

I figure the main confusion is that there seems to be some kind of "set price" in the head of many. A developer can take from 0 to infinite for his plugins. What we see with synth plugins, for example, is a price which seems to have established itself on the market. You're not paying the price it costs to develop the plugin, nor is it fixed that the dev can live from it. Or get so rich that he can buy an island. When you compare iOS apps with PC or Mac plugins, it becomes apparent. For the same functionality, you pay 1/10 of what you pay for a desktop plugin. Why? Simple. Because it's another market. The involved work is the same.

[fluffy_little_something]

But everyone knows that there are sales at some point.

Not really, there is no sales schedule, people know neither when sales will be nor how much the stuff will be off.

Well, that wouldn't make any sense, would it? Discounts are there to fuel extra sales.

I figure the main confusion is that there seems to be some kind of "set price" in the head of many. A developer can take from 0 to infinite for his plugins. What we see with synth plugins, for example, is a price which seems to have established itself on the market. You're not paying the price it costs to develop the plugin, nor is it fixed that the dev can live from it. Or get so rich that he can buy an island. When you compare iOS apps with PC or Mac plugins, it becomes apparent. For the same functionality, you pay 1/10 of what you pay for a desktop plugin. Why? Simple. Because it's another market. The involved work is the same.

Well, people want to buy stuff, so they might not want to wait and hope that what they want might go on sale god knows when.

As far as I can tell, iOS stuff is usually just a variation of the main desktop plugins.

And yes, a good desktop synth usually is $xxx. And that's no arbitrary price, but kind of reflects the cost plus a little profit. If a developer made only an iOS plugin, they might have to charge a higher price as well if they are employing multiple programmers working in a rented office.

[chk071]

Well, people want to buy stuff, so they might not want to wait and hope that what they want might go on sale god knows when.

What's the problem then? Just go for it.

As far as I can tell, iOS stuff is usually just a variation of the main desktop plugins.

No. There are also iOS exclusive synths. Also, it takes modifications to make them run on iOS. iOS is a different market. When you sell 10 times as many plugins, you can just take 1/10 of the price as well. Regardless of other reasons, like, staying competetive on a market whwere prices are much lower, or the advertising factor.

And yes, a good desktop synth usually is $xxx. And that's no arbitrary price, but kind of reflects the cost plus a little profit.

Again, that is just incorrect. It reflects the price the developers thinks is feasible for the market. If you take KV331 Audio, for example, they offer a 180 € synth for 99 €, with frequent 40 or more % off discounts. It's a different strategy, creating more sales, and it seems to work for them. It's a good example to show how different prices can lead to similar results. After all, we're talking about software, not a physical product, which also has to cash in production costs, for the hardware part.