Plugin Alliance - still ok? i see lots of sales?

[Caine123]

Hi guys i didnt follow the progress of them a lot since 1-2 years but i see some bad feedback and sales a lot. I use a lot plugins, effects mostly so im wondering if there was some important news i missed and i might not worry or is there something up? Only a question, nothing more. Thx a lot!

[martinjuenke]

All these intrusive marketing tactics combined with the mostly mediocre quality lead me to abandon their stuff completely some time ago. Never missed anything.

[jwd606]

All these intrusive marketing tactics combined with the mostly mediocre quality lead me to abandon their stuff completely some time ago. Never missed anything.

Like how they abandon updating the plugins to work on Mac Ventura.

[Scotty]

There are a lot of people opting for subscription and then selling the plugins they have. That is why you see the long list of individual plugins that people are selling for under $10 usually. There has been no downturn in quality that I have seen. I'd like more frequent updates for their software. PA is gamifying the buying experience and that isn't going to sit well with a lot of people. If you don't want to get bit by this, try them out and wait for the sales. I have my favourites and some that I wouldn't buy again if I had the chance. There is some good stuff in their catalog for sure.

[osiris]

I found out Plugin Alliance is owned by Soundwide, which also own Native Instruments & Izotope (as well as a few other things), so to me this is like their 'outlet' store. (That's probably a very American phrase)

[davestretch]

The other reason there is an abundance of PA stuff being sold is they ran a promotion at the end of last year where you could buy the entire catalogue for a low price which gave people multiple licences so they have been selling them. Because of the $20 activation fee PA charges for 2nd hand licences and frequent sales they run, no plugins are worth more than $5-$10 on the used market. I still use quite a few PA plugins on a regular basis but don't buy any new stuff as have all the bases covered.

They do also elicit a cult like following on same FB pages too which can be quite off-putting.

[davestretch]

All these intrusive marketing tactics combined with the mostly mediocre quality lead me to abandon their stuff completely some time ago. Never missed anything.

Like how they abandon updating the plugins to work on Mac Ventura.

Now if you are complaining about not all Plugins being M1 Native yet I can understand it. Ventura will probably be covered by their annual Maintenance Update. Last one was March 2022 so probably due in the next couple of months. Not really fair to expect everyone to be compliant with a less than 6 months old OS. 2 ½ years in to Mac Silicon though I don't forgive any developer that has yet to release a Native version of ALL their software which is still for sale!

[GaryG]

You may notice a lot of these lists of plugins are very similar, the plugs almost given away thanks to the last few years of megasales, free $20 vouchers etc. On top of that, plugs actually given away in various promotions (shadow hill compressor, bx-oberhausen etc etc...)

Saturation in the low end.

[Anchor]

The simple and bitter truth is that subscriptions, annoying marketing tactics with mega-discounts, abundance of similar plugins have led to these unfortunate consequences.

And how about any interesting releases and good updates?

It's a death stranding, despite starting off on the right foot. There may be a chance for a second wind tho.

[Caine123]

thx alot guys, i got also a LOT of their plugins and use only a handful. but im also concerned if they still manage their plugins etc. what im using mostly is the STL Transient Designer Plus, Twin Tube and especially the Unfiltered Plugins. oh and Tantra

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

In Plugin Alliance's defense: they did an idiotic number of sales before they went subscription and continue to do so. Just ignore them. My "Promotions" folder is full of stuff from companies that have perma-sales. It's a little obnoxious but clearly it works or else they'd stop.

[jamcat]

I wouldn’t buy PA unless it’s a BOOMMEGAULTRAFIRESALE

[lightsfadelow]

There's nothing wrong with plugin alliance. I don't think they're in any trouble as a business. Their plugins aren't any worse than all the other big developers (and they give free demos of everything so you can decide for yourself), and they also act as a storefront for some very cool indie plugin makers (Unfiltered Audio, DS Audio, to name a couple).

Their sales model is a little wonky - pricing so many plugins at premium prices and then selling them at 10% of their list prices regularly during sales. (Or using those steep prices to make their subscription seem like it's higher value than it may, in fact, be... you can choose for yourself what you think the value is... they do have a boatload of plugins and many of them are good.) But I don't think anyone pays full price.

Also, their copy protection and licensing policies are fairly favorable. (One can forgive the license transfer fee given the deep discount sales.) And I've rarely had a stability issue or other kind of troublesome bug.

[serge]

PA has some really great plugs if you take the time to cut through the clutter. ADPTR utilities, DS Audio Thorn Synth, can’t go wrong with any of the Unfiltered Audio stuff, some Brainworx stuff like crispytuner, bx limiter True Peak, bx digital v3. They continue to put out high quality stuff. Some plugs are CPU hogs though, like DS Audio Tantra. When you grab this stuff on sale, like the current buy 2 $30 get 2 free, with an average price of $15 per plug it feels like a steal. But for me the big issue is sifting through hundreds of plug-ins to find something I like. That’s why I wouldn’t ever buy their bundle. I’d be most trying to figure out which EQ to slap on.

[MogwaiBoy]

Don't worry the persistent sales are a core aspect of their business strategy.

"Never pay fool price"