Maybe it's me, but wasn't the plugin market already saturated years ago?!? aka Stop with the new plugins, already!!

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I might be wrong, but it seems that plugins are being released at a crazy rate. I remember many comments over the last few years claiming market saturation, too much choice etc, so it's interesting that it looks like production is actually ramping up.

I do get that in most cases they are improving on the quality from yester-year [ ?] but does that really account for it? Certainly, there are other companies that seem to be releasing stuff where quality doesn't seem to be a given

Not really anything but an observation (Haven't we had four new reverb releases in the last week?). And for myself, I'm glad to be (pretty much) over all of it. If I had that type of g.a.s still, then I'd imagine this period being completely ruinous

Edited: for writing nonsense

[funky lime]

There are also more musicians/producers than there were in previous years, as well as many more coders/developers. Just look at Udemy, Groove3, Lynda, and other online learning sites; there are so many resources available for people to learn this stuff that took some of us decades to grasp.

And there is the psychological aspect of consumers striving to stay up to date, owning all the latest and greatest releases because, for some, newer automatically means better.

Also, AI and neuroscience are really hot topics for young people right now especially, and there are a lot of associations there with music and audio (generative/AI-based composition, deep learning, speech/music recognition, etc) so it's possible a lot of non-musicians are dabbling with digital audio manipulation, too.

I think it's a good thing, personally. If the demand didn't exist, then there wouldn't be all these new products coming out. While it may have been the case in recent years, I don't think the "old hands" that have been doing this stuff for 20+ years are really the primary audience for this stuff anymore.

[chk071]

I doubt that the plugin market will ever be saturated. Whatever that means.

[funky lime]

Now the distortion pedal market, on the other hand, is plenty saturated. Overdriven, even.

[chk071]

[Distorted Horizon]

Over saturated with mediocre stuff maybe.. There's never enough vst(i)'s that raise the bar against the competition.

[do_androids_dream]

You can never have too much choice. I love capitalism me.

[excuse me please]

Still waiting for this plug in to fix my mixes.

[whyterabbyt]

I can imagine that in an industry where there is increasing competition, but an open-ended market (ie the userbase will buy multiple versions of the same basic device), then developers will consider producing more products to be a viable business option. Bigger product line = more potential sales.
Meanwhile the balance of 'software isnt as good' from an older/more conservative/more luddite generation of potential customer has shifted somewhat, as a combination of a less predisposed audience and technological improvement.

Its not just plugins, though. Feels like there's a lot more hardware out there too, especially analog, especially especially cheap analog.

[SHall1000]

I think the most obvious sign of saturation is the relentless downward trend in prices and almost constant sales.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I think the most obvious sign of saturation is the relentless downward trend in prices and almost constant sales.

And yet developers must be making money.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

To clarify: I'm not making any real judgment either way. If people want to buy, and developers want to develop, then everything is all good

[Lotuzia]

the 'market' is not only about new plugins btw. It's also about some plugins beeing improved and getting new features, and plugins beeing abandonware, be it clear and assumed, or not declared but factual.

I took a look at the specific 'drum machine' market recently. Seems to me that, all in all, as many plugins saw the light, that some were abandonned and saw the graveyard, or in the best case 'left as it' with very few to no hope that bugs will be fixed someday, or that they will support os changes etc.

Then some new instruments are created because, hopefully, they will fill a gap (like a prestigious hw machine not, or badly emulated at this poin, or bring new features. Or both.)

[Gamma-UT]

I think the most obvious sign of saturation is the relentless downward trend in prices and almost constant sales.

And yet developers must be making money.

Not necessarily. Some might just be trying to make some sales in an effort to recoup the spending on development rather than actually turn a profit. There aren't many developers creating plugins full-time - many seem to be doing freelance programming or doing the plug-ins in their spare time.

[Robmobius]

My GAS has definitely slowed down... There is so much choice but most of it I don't particularly want. Probably because I already have one or two hi quality options already.

Unless the product is something truly innovative or is such high quality that it replaces my older stuff. But this is particularly rare these days.

"We've released an analogue delay for 2018!"
"Thanks but I've got 8 already."