Is plugin market going down?

[plexuss]

I think the best thing an audio software company can do is create innovative and useful products that inspire musicians and audio engineers and enable them to do a better job of their work. Pricing is important but as long as the price is competitive that's all that's important. In terms of online distribution, this also isn't complicated: adhere to best practices in user experience and web design. Solid helpful and efficient support is also important because when you solve people's problems quickly and efficiently it inspires the customer to feel good about the brand. Building a good brand is also important but this is bread-and-butter marketing just as the website and ecom implementation is.

Do all this and you'll be fine. But skimp on any of these things and it just opens up risks. For example: certain poorly designed web experiences where the risks are around product fulfillment; great products but sub-standard support and flaky software also negatively impact success, etc.

It comes down to:
- innovative products: products that do something in a unique way that provides value to the musician and engineer
- useful products: products that are useful and inspiring to use
- competitive products: products that are similar to those in the market but have aspects that make them the best choice for the customer (includes all the other points here)
- positive brand recognition: so that people feel good and seek out your products
- competitive prices: nuff said
- efficient delivery: be it the ecom solution, after-sale processes, activation solution, etc.

Compromise any of these and your success as a software company are diminished.

Don't listen to your spreadsheets - listen to your customers.

That's about all the advice I can give as a musician and engineer with 35 years experience and a digital product designer with 25 years experience.

It's not rocket science. The biggest impediment to success is a narrow mind.

[Zaphod (giancarlo)]

Everyone wants to be competitive, efficient, innovative. If the market of cars goes down and you produce cars, nobody is buying cars any more, possibly you could be successful only if you are the best. Maybe this requires your change your business model and you produce electric cars, not gasoline ones any more. Agreed.

Possibly you are in time for doing it. Possibly not. So you go to a forum and you ask

"Is the car market going down?"

And Mercedes answers

"Nope, our visitors are still 185000, everything is awesome here"

Tesla replies

"Dude we are increasing our income by 10% each new year"

And someone else suggests

"Be innovative, efficient, competitive, nothing will hurt you"


I'm quite sure nokia did all the best for being efficient, competitive and innovative, but simply apple produced an iPhone, and this thing was so revolutionary that they were not able to CHANGE in time the whole business, their plans.
Yes the phone market WAS going down, but a new category of phones, the smartphone category was rising up. Did Nokia commit a mistake? Possibly. Could you avoid your bankruptcy being always innovative, efficient, supercool? Yes sir. But sometimes shit happens.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Well, it's hard to become bankrupt in plugin business. I monitor online presence of 188 FX plugin producers, and during all these "plugin market" years maybe only 5 went off the scene (e.g. Kjhaerus). The reason is that plugins sell themselves, technically speaking-you only have to maintain technical quality (no crashes) of plugins and website. Maybe only the bigger players may become bankrupt due to their need to maintain a bigger staff.

[burkek]

Exchange rates are a big factor for purchases these days. We Canadians have to pay roughly 34% more than Americans, and since we treat our dollar like they treat theirs, well, ask yourself would an American pay 34% more than your posted rates for one of your VSTs. Likely not. So that's some of your conversion rate wiped out.

As well, while people have multiple EQs, reverbs, delays, compressors, expanders, etc., I would argue most don't know which one is best for any given situation. Or how to use it properly. I've licensed over a hundred products, including a great many Voxengo, and am just as confused as ever. And I don't have much free time to study, test, learn, apply, retry, ad infinitum. That's why I like the direction Izotope took with Neutron. Automated tools that at least help you get where you want to go.

That's what Voxengo should be looking at to future-proof their business. Automated AI-type tools that analyze and help make content-based mixing/mastering decisions. A matrix would be nice whereby the tool ingests content from all tracks or busses from the DAW, allows you to identify what instrument each track represents, and then the tool can look for EQ conflicts and dynamics/gain issues, at minimum.

And, yes, your GUIs and website are extremely dated.

KEv

[stratum]

The first smart phone I used was a present, I didn't buy one until about a few months ago. These toys are more like fashion than a requirement or a real innovation. Pretty much like a nice GUI on a plugin or a website with tutorials and videos, but I agree it's not reasonable to argue against fashion because the phenomenon has no actual reasons behind it.

[xoxos]

And, yes, your GUIs and website are extremely dated.

this from some burke who wants tools that tell him how to create, in case he creates wrong :p

WOAH THERE SONNY OUR AUTOMATED SENSORS DETECT WRONGFUL EQUALISATION

WE SUGGEST YOU HOLD BACK ON THAT EQ BOOST THERE, YOU DON'T WANT TO NOT SOUND LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, OR THERE WILL BE DANGER DANGER NOVEL DANGER

there's time, and there's timelessness. i suppose it's true, many contemporary customers likely aren't up to autonomous conception, which is why they are drawn to the latest, with-it thing. because without it, there's a vacuum for them, having no gravitational mass, substance of their own to recognise


remember you wise folks are giving elementary market advice to someone who monitors 188 plugin companies. you know what dated is is when you keep up with someone else instead of the source of all intelligence in the universe which allows you to do things like write a dsp process

for god's sake, please try to have unique thoughts

[Guillaume Piolat]

I feel Voxengo UIs are very clear, very easy to read, but may not convey the idea than "this-is-a-high-value-product-and-I-feel-higher-class-using-it".

So I took Elephant (a limiter that impressed me very much on version 2) and wrote down what I feel is slightly wrong.

Hopefully it is actionnable, as ridiculous as it seems to give Voxengo advices...

[Zaphod (giancarlo)]

Well, it's hard to become bankrupt in plugin business. I monitor online presence of 188 FX plugin producers, and during all these "plugin market" years maybe only 5 went off the scene (e.g. Kjhaerus). The reason is that plugins sell themselves, technically speaking-you only have to maintain technical quality (no crashes) of plugins and website. Maybe only the bigger players may become bankrupt due to their need to maintain a bigger staff.

sure, a lot of companies maybe will continue selling plugins, but without further r&d, and doing something else as daily job. Apart that basically I agree with you.

[Zaphod (giancarlo)]

remember you wise folks are giving elementary market advice to someone who monitors 188 plugin companies.

for god's sake, please try to have unique thoughts

this

[aciddose]

The hue gradient seems dated because it emulates "new LED technology!" from ~1979 where you started to see this a lot more often in equipment, although it was a gradual process. It's like changing everything to "new BLUE leds!" from around 2005.

LEDs in general, VU meters more often >~1982.

Evil eye-scorching blue LEDs.

Also the style looks dated because it's protrackeresque ala 1990.

[Zaphod (giancarlo)]

What I don't get:
1) A guy from voxengo (talented, carefully analyzing the market) is making a question about the market trend
And
2) you suggest better colors to plugins and his website.

Why?

[Aleksey Vaneev]

What I don't get:
1) A guy from voxengo (talented, carefully analyzing the market) is making a question about the market trend
And
2) you suggest better colors to plugins and his website.

Why?

That's my karma that's why I'm also quite puzzled why it is so often happens that people actively critisize and in some cases make suggestions. Probably it's good that they care, I'm grateful. I just wanted to say that Voxengo is still doing great and I've accumulated some wealth during these years-in Russia it's enough to retire already, and I'm a landlord myself owning some business real estate.

[fluffy_little_something]

Well, it's hard to become bankrupt in plugin business. I monitor online presence of 188 FX plugin producers, and during all these "plugin market" years maybe only 5 went off the scene (e.g. Kjhaerus). The reason is that plugins sell themselves, technically speaking-you only have to maintain technical quality (no crashes) of plugins and website. Maybe only the bigger players may become bankrupt due to their need to maintain a bigger staff.

Is the plugin business just a hobby for you or do you do it for a living?

Just because someone still has a live site after many years, does not mean people are still buying the stuff because technical maintenance alone might eventually lead to other developers overtaking you in terms of features, GUI appeal, sound quality etc.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Is the plugin business just a hobby for you or do you do it for a living?

Just because someone still has a live site after many years, does not mean people are still buying the stuff because technical maintenance alone might eventually lead to other developers overtaking you in terms of features, GUI appeal, sound quality etc.

I'm doing it for a living. I think the plugin market has reached a "singularity". Some of the best visual designs were produced and reached, some of the best DSP algorithms discovered and implemented. We clearly see a war of marketing and discounts instead of plugin development. It's now similar to a grocery market.

[aciddose]

GUI comments are almost always nonsense. I agree there is certainly a UI aspect and that people are manipulated to an unholy degree by cheap aesthetic effects.

When this is the sole comment people make; "the VU meters use green-amber-red gradient! IT NEEDS MOAR BLEEEUU!!"; I feel this is a sign of picking at anything they can find that is trivially expressed often times when more detailed and constructive critique is beyond their ability to express clearly.

I absolutely agree about bracketed labels though "(Ceiling)" adds an asymmetric element in an otherwise symmetric GUI. For example you use full capitalization "Full Capitalization" to enhance this (in my opinion often a bad decision but definitely a personal preference) meanwhile "in/out" is uncapitalized and thrown anywhere it could fit without being part of the original design. It definitely doesn't look polished.

As I'm sure you're well aware you have to assume the majority of customers don't understand the first thing about dynamics processing or audio quality, but they can sure pick apart anything that seems "wrong" with a GUI screenshot.

Sadly I've found small GUI changes make a much bigger difference than significant audio quality or efficiency improvements. As with everything in life!