soft synth market

[ppyvmw]

i'm currently writing an essay on the market forces within the software synthesizer industry and would greatly appreciate any help! who would you say are the main competitors at the moment? do most people use the big synths, or do a lot of people use les well known ones? is there really much competition out there? do the buyers really have any power in the marketplace? how available are programmers to the soft synth industry?

i appreciate that this isnt very interesting, but if anyone has anything to say on this matter i'll be extremely appreciative. cheers, mike.

[pHz]

(moved from instruments to everything else)

[jones-y]

i'm currently writing an essay on the market forces within the software synthesizer industry and would greatly appreciate any help! who would you say are the main competitors at the moment?

There are no main competitors. Everybody has a share. That's the beauty, its a new system. The big boys have very little advantage, beyond marketing. But forums like this one even the ballgame. If you're perhapes looking for the most well know names, then maybe Native Instruments, Spectrasonics, and Steinberg.

do most people use the big synths, or do a lot of people use les well known ones?

I personally tend toward excellent values. For example a crappy free synth has no value for me. But neither does a mediocre payware synth. I go for excellent synths. Like Linplug Albino and RM IV, WusikStation, GreenOak Crystal, Alphakanal Buzzer2, pHATmatik Pro. Interestingly, the developers of all those synths are very accessible.

is there really much competition out there?

Not really. Due to the nature of the business, there is room for a lot of developers to move their products. And I don't see that changing any time soon. I don't think its gonna whittle down to a "big Three" situation like hardware synths and cars.

do the buyers really have any power in the marketplace?

I don't know. NI is still afloat, despite their poor customer service and slow bug-fixes. I personally would never buy from them, buy somebody is... Developer responsiveness and customer support are very high on my list.

how available are programmers to the soft synth industry?

Most of them are very available, which is great for the users. Some are marginally available, but offer great support for their products. Then there's NI.

Of course all this is my opinion.....

i appreciate that this isnt very interesting, but if anyone has anything to say on this matter i'll be extremely appreciative. cheers, mike.[/quote]

[ppyvmw]

thanks very much for your thoughts mjones4th, very much appreciated.

[PaulSC]

Not a lot to add, but it's clear from mjones4th's gear list that, like me, he's based on a Mac. That's an issue that might be relevant in your essay: there are a lot more choices, so presumably also more competition, on the PC. And there's a lot more free/shareware stuff on that platform as well.

[jones-y]

Yes I'm on Mac and yes there is much more available for PC.

That's why I picked up a PC, just to run some of those excellent free and inexpensive synths. Its not up and running yet, but I am so stoked! I did buy WusikStation (PC only) and Ravity is next, and I am also gonna be saving for Z3ta+, Rhino, and/or Discovery.

[shamann]

I'm not sure how the market breaks down, hopefully some of the devs around here might add something, but there are some companies that obviously have many more users than most other software houses. I don't think there are monopolies, there aren't obvious Yamaha/Korg/Roland type touchstones, but a company like Native Instruments has a much wider consumer base than many of the small, often one-coder developers.

One thing that usually indicates where the bigger pool of cash lies is in the bricks&mortar music shops. They'll only carry software that comes boxed. For small software houses that expect to make 10 sales a month, boxed isn't particularly economically viable. Maybe not always the case, I doubt Gmedia ships as many units as NI, but probably a lot more than Big Tick (one of my favourites). I think the recent flurry of group-buys by smaller companies is an indication of them looking, or maybe even needing, to vastly expand their user bases.

I think there is a ton of competition out there, too much to allow a monopoly to take hold. There are a lot of softsynth makers, and the sheer volume of shareware, freeware, or Synthedit-made synths has expanded the pool considerably. For users it's great, for the industry, who knows, they might hate the competition.

Cheers,
Steve

[jeffn1]

Quote:
is there really much competition out there?

do the buyers really have any power in the marketplace?

I think there is a lot of competition out there among developers and the consumer is in a very good position as a result. I think that, in part because of websites like k-v-r, the soft synth market for PC's comes pretty close to an ideal competitive market fostering innovation and customer service (which, of course, costs developers time and money).

You can see on this website how skilled smaller developers can really give the big boys a run for their money. While the small developers are more likely to sell their wares via downloads (granted, this is more difficult for more sample-based romplers), the larger developers are more likely to sell through boxed sets in a retail setting. There are also a lot of very high quality free synths (especially for PC's).

Sorry to be political here, but it is interesting that there is such a strong anti-market/anti-capitalist sentiment here at k-v-r when entrepreneurial market mechanisms are functioning so well to the benefit of electronic musicians. But, (to generalize further) I suppose Europeans are more left-leaning than Americans and young starving musicians tend to lean left as well.

(Well, I suppose that will generate a little heat here).

jeffn1

[cptgone]

many people use free or cheap stuff (there's some great free stuff around).

there's a lot of user - dev interaction (especially when a new synth is just released) with the smaller devs like rgc:audio, wusik, voxengo, etc. etc.

the group buy fever has shaken things up lately, it seems like a very powerful marketing approach for DL-only products, generating sales and lots of word of mouth publicity.

worth a mention is also the fact that the 2 biggest sequencer makers have been bought by bigger companies recently. Emagic is now owned by Apple, Steinberg by Pinnacle. both were german. allthough i should add that Steinberg was sold only because the owner needed money urgently. in the case of Emapple, the underlying strategy is obvious.

main competitors? dunno. i do know there are companies selling boxed products, companies selling DL only, and companies in between. there are companies with small staff (even one man shows) and a few with bigger resources (Steinberg, Native Instruments). and than there's the really big guys (Emagic/Apple, Sony) and the hardware synth companies (Novation, Korg).
oh, and there's the SynthEdit devs too. SynthEdit is a free Make Your Own VST app, many people try and sell their SynthEdit apps online. I suppose many of those companies aren't exactly typical, you could easily imagine a teenager doing it with little effort. (i'm not dissing SynthEdit devs or synths here!)

there's very much competition but many buyers buy as many VSTs as they can afford none the less. i get the feeling some of the smaller devs try to have a positive attitude and cooperate. often there are beginning devs asking questions on KvR and getting the low down from pro's.

[shamann]

Sorry to be political here, but it is interesting that there is such a strong anti-market/anti-capitalist sentiment here at k-v-r when entrepreneurial market mechanisms are functioning so well to the benefit of electronic musicians. But, (to generalize further) I suppose Europeans are more left-leaning than Americans and young starving musicians tend to lean left as well.

It's funny you should bring this up. I was reading a book this morning that mentioned FFT-based spectrographs, which were developed by the old Bell Labs in the US. It dawned on me, that while digital technology has been at the centre of a huge financial boom in th US for the past 50 years, much of those technologies were developed at Bell Labs, the Department of Defense, or public universities, all state-run or controlled organizations.

Free markets can and do produce great stuff, XEROX being a good example, and if free markets are designed to weed out monopolists properly, it is probably the best way to go. But free markets also produce a lot more evolutionary dead-ends, like Ronco rotisserie cookers and other shopping channel junk, and so progress will likely take a lot longer without government intervention.

Food for thought.

Cheers,
Steve

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

i'm currently writing an essay on the market forces within the software synthesizer industry and would greatly appreciate any help! who would you say are the main competitors at the moment? do most people use the big synths, or do a lot of people use les well known ones? is there really much competition out there? do the buyers really have any power in the marketplace? how available are programmers to the soft synth industry?

I'm going to mouth off on all this as well! Run!

Right now the market is served by a few larger developers selling in to so-called "professional" users - folks like NI, Steinberg, Apple - and a large crop of "smaller developers", like Big Tick, rgc:audio, Linplug, Camel Audio, and Wusik.com. I'm leaving out freeware and focusing on "for-pay" products to keep things simple.

Typically your brick-and-mortar user fancies themselves a "pro" and pays the greater price for a product that comes in a box from a "name" company, so the NI/Steinberg/Apple sort compete amongst themselves for that dollar. I think of that market as very separate from the "download/CD-R" market of the smaller developer, where I see more of a "coop-tition" vibe happening with most of the smaller devs actually sharing ideas off and on (with the occasional notable exception). Many of the folks here will own a synth from each of the smaller devs (lord knows I do) due not only to the fact that it's "instant gratification" (download it on purchase w00t) but (as has been mentioned) in support of a kind of anti-big-corporation vibe (yeah that's me too).

I'd say that, based at least on my readings about these here fora that the greater percentage of people have several synths from the "little guys". Given the relative cost - that I can own a WusikStation, a Rhino, and a z3ta (say) for less than the cost of an Atmosphere bought at the local Guitar Center - it seems obvious that those folks less endowed with cash will go that route. And, while a year ago I might have said the big devs had the edge in sound quality - that hasn't been true with the latest crop of synths from small developers.

At the lower "small dev" end there's a modest amount of what I think of as good-spirited competition - plenty of devs post "If you like that you'll like my [name of synth here] product" about and it's generally well-received. The good thing (for the buyers at least) is that the costs are low enough that you *can* buy a synth from each of the best small developers and still have beer money left over! At the high end, it's all about name from what I've seen, more of a "snob appeal" along the lines of "Well I use Gigsampler and you use VSampler, you must suck poor boy, get a real studio together someday" (a rare but still in places prevalent attitude).

As to buyers power in the marketplace - and I'm assuming you mean buyers influence on developers - that's pretty simple. Common buyers have zero influence on Steinberg, Apple, and NI - maybe if you own a huge studio or have lots of cash, you might have some hope of getting a feature in. As to the smaller developers, well you just have to check some of the product-specific forums and you'll see active solicitation of user input for products (there ARE notable exceptions, again).

Available programmers.. hmm, DSP is a hot field in many places (I work in consumer electronics software) and it's still a bit of a specialized art/science. Good, *experienced* developers are hard to find, as with anything. Tools like Synthedit make it easier to develop custom/one-off synths if you're not a PhD in math and/or don't have 10 years of DSP coding experience, but it's not the same (of course) as hardcore coding. Good engineers with deep experience in various CPU architectures able to optimize their algorithms and take advantage of SSE/SSE2 are never going to be easy to find!

There, my two cents worth.

[Sepheritoh]

I may not be selling any synths and I do not have sinister access to any data but I may air some views that are probably clouded by perceptions, just like most of the opinions expressed so far.

To think that only a few large corporations rule the market is not realistic. Newcommers are comming in every day. The soft synth market is new and the big guys have not yet found their dominance. Those who sell well are doing so because they offer value. Newcommers are still breaking in and making it big, purely because they offer value. I can immediately think of GPO and DR008 that has become legends within a very short time just because these synths offer so much better value for money.

I disagree with the views expressed that the big guys do not listen to the customers. I can think of a number of examples where myself and others have expressed certain desires and the big guys have complied by adding these features.

The market is very competitive and the scene changes fast. Marketing has become a lot easier. Many users brows firuns like KvR and take into account what other users have to say. User feedback has become more transparent with the internet and word of mouth has become a great selling tool. Developers know that and they do their best to please the customers in the hope that those customers will promote their product on public forums.

Users like myself who do not have much to say, but have a bit of extra time to type long essays while waiting for a download to finish has a certain amount of power. Each person now have a soapbox to preach from (the forums) and softweare companies realise that. Nothing has changed in this sense however, meaning that marketeers have realised since the times of adam and eve that the word of mouth can be important.

[Urs]

Competition in this small market is huge. But when developers meet, they drink a beer and it's okay

Okay, I wouldn't drink a beer with freeware developers (with some exceptions), but that's another story

do the buyers really have any power in the marketplace?

As for me - and the majority of devs I know: Yes, definately. I certainly read every critical posting (in English and German) and I have a friend who summarizes Japanese postings for me. I also read every email (even those I do not answer). I get a bigger picture and try to improve things from that.

edit: and of course, if people don't buy a developer's stuff, the developer has to improve things (or downsize/sell the company)

Urs

[pough]

Okay, I wouldn't drink a beer with freeware developers (with some exceptions), but that's another story

You already have, you stupid Hun. Unless you expect me to believe that you and Stefan didn't drink beer together...

[Urs]

Okay, I wouldn't drink a beer with freeware developers (with some exceptions), but that's another story

You already have, you stupid Hun. Unless you expect me to believe that you and Stefan didn't drink beer together...

as I said... with some exceptions (e.g. Airy, Marc and Stefan)

Urs