Synths and effects on sale at half-price???

[michkhol]

I've never seen it before. As long as I remember, u-he synths were never on sale. Only when a new product came out, it was on sale for a limited time. And now iZotope runs the sale of the most popular synths and effects at half-price: https://www.izotope.com/en/shop/u-he.ht ... _All_EMAIL.
It basically means that no one would buy those for the full price anymore. I'm not at all sure that there is more than twice number of people who can afford them now, meaning less revenue for the developer in the long run.
What happened???

[mabian]

No, they were on sale with NI on the past too actually... at least once.

- Mario

[kylie]

NI currently has u-he on sale as well:

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/s ... ffer-2022/

[waltercruz]

Ni and iZotope are part of the same of the same umbrella company Soundwide. It wouldn't be a surprise if the u-he deal appear on Plugin Alliance site too (they are part of the same company).

The deal with u-he instrumtns is rare, but already happened on other years on Native Instruments.

[tony10000]

I've never seen it before. As long as I remember, u-he synths were never on sale. Only when a new product came out, it was on sale for a limited time. And now iZotope runs the sale of the most popular synths and effects at half-price: https://www.izotope.com/en/shop/u-he.ht ... _All_EMAIL.
It basically means that no one would buy those for the full price anymore. I'm not at all sure that there is more than twice number of people who can afford them now, meaning less revenue for the developer in the long run.
What happened???

I believe that the looming global recession is having a negative effect on many companies in the MI space. Inflation and rising energy costs means that many people to not have a lot of discretionary income to pay for plugins and musical gear. u-he needs income to keep afloat and to continue developing plugins, so I am not surprised that they are partnering with other companies to bring in an infusion of working capital.

[michkhol]

I believe that the looming global recession is having a negative effect on many companies in the MI space. Inflation and rising energy costs means that many people to not have a lot of discretionary income to pay for plugins and musical gear. u-he needs income to keep afloat and to continue developing plugins, so I am not surprised that they are partnering with other companies to bring in an infusion of working capital.

Well, I don't see how it would bring any more capital. After a big sale like this any prospective buyer would be holding off until the next sale. It means a) no revenue between sales and b) the business will be forced to do another such sale to restart the revenue flow. Slashing the prices would actually bring more capital than sales like this.

[vurt]

I believe that the looming global recession is having a negative effect on many companies in the MI space. Inflation and rising energy costs means that many people to not have a lot of discretionary income to pay for plugins and musical gear. u-he needs income to keep afloat and to continue developing plugins, so I am not surprised that they are partnering with other companies to bring in an infusion of working capital.

Well, I don't see how it would bring any more capital. After a big sale like this any prospective buyer would be holding off until the next sale. It means a) no revenue between sales and b) the business will be forced to do another such sale to restart the revenue flow. Slashing the prices would actually bring more capital than sales like this.

new customers, some of which will purchase soundbanks, updates

sales like this are rare, this is the second, one when nks was kinda new, and now one post a big nks update.
so banking on the next sale of this kind, could be a long wait.

business is always a numbers game, customers now are being more choosy, so getting a big chunk of new users in to your ecosystem before it goes too far, is a good idea really.
they're more likely to update a product in a year or so, than buy the new version once their money is worth even less.

[michkhol]

sales like this are rare, this is the second, one when nks was kinda new, and now one post a big nks update.
so banking on the next sale of this kind, could be a long wait.

We are talking sales (plural) already, and people are listening. Like I said, the long wait could be very detrimental to the business because the market is oversaturated with cheaper synths and effects of the same or similar quality. So if someone is in the market for a particular sound (not synth), they could find many cheaper alternatives and this long wait may be just the time without any revenue for the business.

business is always a numbers game, customers now are being more choosy, so getting a big chunk of new users in to your ecosystem before it goes too far, is a good idea really.
they're more likely to update a product in a year or so, than buy the new version once their money is worth even less.

The u-he business model has been unique because the updates were always free. There was no additional revenue from the updates. So this influx of the new users needs to be a) considerable to compensate the possible losses and b) has to be repeated on the regular basis for the reasons I stated above.

So the next logical step would be paid updates.

[Urs]

NI have done sales with our stuff twice before. Each time, after a week or two, our sales were just where they used to be. Second hand prices were just where they used to be. There was never any destabilising effect on our revenue, nor the perceived value of our software.

I guess, the trick is to not do sales all the time, but maybe every 2 years or so.

Note that we do these sales/promotions/cross sellings because we're currently not releasing any new software, hence forgo typical sales peaks. Instead we're fundamentally renovating and updating existing products for mostly free updates. The income from the sales helps us tackle some long term projects. It takes away financial pressure and let's us think in much broader terms than any day-to-day business could.

[vurt]

NI have done sales with our stuff twice before. Each time, after a week or two, our sales were just where they used to be. Second hand prices were just where they used to be. There was never any destabilising effect on our revenue, nor the perceived value of our software.

I guess, the trick is to not do sales all the time, but maybe every 2 years or so.

Note that we do these sales/promotions/cross sellings because we're currently not releasing any new software, hence forgo typical sales peaks. Instead we're fundamentally renovating and updating existing products for mostly free updates. The income from the sales helps us tackle some long term projects. It takes away financial pressure and let's us think in much broader terms than any day-to-day business could.

the way i see it, no one knows your business better than you. (as in uhe, im not saying urs is the king of vsts before anyone complains)
youve succeeded so far, and considering how you started out, loan dev working from home (assumption about that bit i admit) to running a decent sized team, working with some huge talents...
i dont see why you would make a rash decision, we havent seen the deal (nor do we need to, not our business, we are customers, not investors) so anything anyone says is guesswork and speculation at best.

im quite sure you know what you are doing by now