Bargain Center: discussion, gossip, etc.

[Fleer]

From time to time, he had some sales around Black Friday, like on LFO Tool.

[OneOfManyPauls]

And what if xfer puts it on sale? I'd feel a bit salty if I still had to essentially pay full price. Maybe that's the downside of this deal.. you must pay full price.

presumably the sale would be for a short window, so not sure why that should have any impact on a spread-payment deal.

but surely it's no different than when you buy something and you see it discounted a short while later/elsewhere - that's just life.

people entering into the deal know what they're signing up to pay to own it from the get-go.

[greenfly]

Steve wrote this a couple of years ago regarding sales on his products:

I don't (historically ever) offer sales. While I won't say "never", there are no such plans any time in the future.

I have a few reasons why I do not.
As a customer of a ton of music software myself:

1) it always seems like punishment to see a sale after purchasing. I don't like that feeling
2) I don't like the "pressure" of "maybe I should buy this thing I might not want, just because it will cost more later". Similarly, I want customers who really want the product. This makes everyone happier.

I'm pretty sure I view sales differently than the average person (and business)... but this is my thinking on the issue.

Cheers,
Steve


Personally I welcome this move from Steve, particularly given that many Native Instrument customers were hoping for Massive to be updated in the latest release of Komplete 11 announced a few days ago. This should be a nice sweetener for those who feel let down a little by Native Instruments and jump ship to more ethical smaller outfits like Xfer Records.

Also I think that with the release of Icarus, this type of pay to own model is yet another feather in the cap for the best wavetable synth currently on the market and something that Tone 2 should consider.

I hope to see more companies adopting this model for the sale of their plugins, but will only work for those that tend not to put their products on sale or at least commit to saying that they won't have this product in a sale for x years upfront.

Its good for combating piracy too because the rationale often mentioned by those that use cracked software is that they can't afford to buy the plug in at it's full price.

In fact Steve's a good guy. Hurrah for Steve

[EdSevered]

Splice.com are offering serum on a rent-to-own deal at 19 x $9.99 a month:

https://splice.com/plugins/purchase/serum

This is big! I hope more companies start doing this.

Seconded! I had this idea for a long time and wondered why all companies didn't do this.

You see...the thing is...no one really pays any attention to manakins, they're just part of the scenery.

[Fleer]

LFO Tool and Nerve were 50% off at PluginBoutique last November.

[jsp1979]

LFO Tool and Nerve were 50% off at PluginBoutique last November.

That sale caused a controversy as it appears the discount on Nerve was not sanctioned by Steve. The Nerve portion of the sale was cancelled after a very short time if I recall correctly.

Personally I welcome this move from Steve, particularly given that many Native Instrument customers were hoping for Massive to be updated in the latest release of Komplete 11 announced a few days ago. This should be a nice sweetener for those who feel let down a little by Native Instruments and jump ship to more ethical smaller outfits like Xfer Records.

I agree that Steve seems like a great guy, but I'm not sure how NI is considered (relatively) unethical.

[Uncle E]

Personally, I prefer Serum quite a bit over Massive and anything else in this vein. It and DIVA are my two go-to synths.

Steve is an extremely great and talented guy. Everyone here knows he produced Nine Inch Nails and was the other half of Deadmau5's BSOD project? JRR Shop has been and will continue being a dealer for Steve's products and it's been an absolute honor.

[Fleer]

Right on, Uncle E.
And let's not forget xFer's fantastic Cthulhu

[OneOfManyPauls]

And let's not forget xFer's fantastic Cthulhu

yep - love that. sat here using that right now...

[greenfly]

LFO Tool and Nerve were 50% off at PluginBoutique last November.

That sale caused a controversy as it appears the discount on Nerve was not sanctioned by Steve. The Nerve portion of the sale was cancelled after a very short time if I recall correctly.

Personally I welcome this move from Steve, particularly given that many Native Instrument customers were hoping for Massive to be updated in the latest release of Komplete 11 announced a few days ago. This should be a nice sweetener for those who feel let down a little by Native Instruments and jump ship to more ethical smaller outfits like Xfer Records.

I agree that Steve seems like a great guy, but I'm not sure how NI is considered (relatively) unethical.

In logic, this kind of deduction you made would be a non-sequiter. I haven't said that Native Instruments are unethical, I said this pricing on Serum would be a nice sweetener for those who felt a little let down because Massive wasn't updated in this latest release.

I do rank Xfer Records as more ethical than Native Instruments. That doesn't necessarily mean one is ethical and the other is unethical.

[jsp1979]

Well, I just wanted a clarification of what you meant, but good on you to take the discussion to a new level of pointless seriousness with a dash of condescension.

I did use the word "relatively" to imply a comparison. Would you prefer "relatively less ethical"? If someone is extraordinarily ethical and another person is much less ethical, then it would seem that the second person is relatively unethical when compared to the first. Hence, the use of the phrase "relatively unethical".

At any rate, now that I see what I'm dealing with, forget that I even asked.

[Numanoid]

I do rank Xfer Records as more ethical than Native Instruments.

How do you figure that?

Selling a Xfer plug second hand costs $25 in transfer fee and the plug becomes NFR

NI no transfer fee and not NFR

[greenfly]

Well, I just wanted a clarification of what you meant, but good on you to take the discussion to a new level of pointless seriousness with a dash of condescension.

I did use the word "relatively" to imply a comparison. Would you prefer "relatively less ethical"? If someone is extraordinarily ethical and another person is much less ethical, then it would seem that the second person is relatively unethical when compared to the first. Hence, the use of the phrase "relatively unethical".

At any rate, now that I see what I'm dealing with, forget that I even asked.

No condescension intended. Peace

[jsp1979]

No condescension intended. Peace

Fair enough.

[Vintage73]