Overpriced Soundbanks

[Robmobius]

I also think that they are overpriced.

While I generally make my own sounds, I do buy sound banks form time to time. But I always look around for good sound banks at a good price. There are some really talented guys out there who make great patches and at very competitive rates.

40 or 50e is not something I'd be willing to pay. Then add a clump of VAT on top. I doubt they sell all that much to be honest.

It's a buyers market, if you're prepared to hunt the web.

[fruta]

I buy a lot of soundbanks

Like everything in life some are overpriced others not however imo the price of the synth should not be the comparison point

I dont see any logic in sayn synth A costs 100$ bank for synth A costs 60$ with 125 presets and is overpriced

U can make a wonderfull soundbank invest 500 hours in designing and put the price of 125$ and while the synth costs 125$ also i would consider the soundbank cheap because of the original and diff sounds

[Kriminal]

Price a product too cheaply and the sound designer will never recoup anything worth their effort.

Wrong.

[valerian_777]

Very wrong! Ever heard of Xenos Soundworks?
http://xenossoundworks.com/

[Lotuzia]

Very wrong! Ever heard of Xenos Soundworks?
http://xenossoundworks.com/

Actually, I remember Edit "a famous sound designer" declaring in a thread in KVR that he barely get nothing as income per month for his munerous soundbanks. Was it earlier this year, or in 2013, cant remember though.

Finding the right price for a product is probably not so easy. The cursor should be set so that your work/hours are paid, AND your users are truly happy.

Anyway, I dont really have any advice to give to anybody, as anyone can rule his/her business as desired. Things work well for us, and I wish the same thing to all other creators.

[ThoughtExperiment]

This is one of those silly threads that's going to keep going around in circles until somebody insults somebody else and it gets closed down.

No amount of reasoning is going to change the OP's mind because it's his opinion and he believes he's right. I think he's wrong but that's just my opinion. The people who set the prices for the soundbanks have to strike a balance between charging enough to stay in business, but not so much that customers stay away - so nobody's going to change their minds either.

The real 'solution' has already been given - if you think something is overpriced, then you either look to other soundbank-makers (if you can) or you learn how to make your own.

Now, who should I insult???

[ATS]

Programming (making) a synth is WAY more time consuming than making a preset bank for it.

[valerian_777]

Very wrong! Ever heard of Xenos Soundworks?
http://xenossoundworks.com/

Actually, I remember Xenos declaring in a thread in KVR that he barely get nothing as income per month for his munerous soundbanks. Was it earlier this year, or in 2013, cant remember though.

Finding the right price for a product is probably not so easy. The cursor should be set so that your work/hours are paid, AND your users are truly happy.

Anyway, I dont really have any advice to give to anybody, as anyone can rule his/her business as desired. Things work well for us, and I wish the same thing to all other creators.

No, actually he wrote a few month back here that he personally would never pay more then a few bucks for a soundbank. I remember that very well because it impressed me that a sounddeveloper think that way.

[elxsound]

Very wrong! Ever heard of Xenos Soundworks?
http://xenossoundworks.com/

Actually, I remember Xenos declaring in a thread in KVR that he barely get nothing as income per month for his munerous soundbanks. Was it earlier this year, or in 2013, cant remember though.

Finding the right price for a product is probably not so easy. The cursor should be set so that your work/hours are paid, AND your users are truly happy.

Anyway, I dont really have any advice to give to anybody, as anyone can rule his/her business as desired. Things work well for us, and I wish the same thing to all other creators.

No, actually he wrote a few month back here that he personally would never pay more then a few bucks for a soundbank. I remember that very well because it impressed me that a sounddeveloper think that way.

A decision of what one developer would pay for another soundset is not the same thing as refuting a comment about what they take in for purchases.

Anyway, I'd hate for the focus of this thread to turn to one specific sound designer who's already had more than his share of focus throughout the years. I have nothing but respect for him and as always wish him success.

And to Kriminal's post... Sure we can say I'm wrong about that, since what one person considers adequate compensation for their work will differ from another person.

What Lotuzia says is 100% correct and that's relating to finding the balance in pricing between what the creator believes is fair vs. what they think will keep their user base happy. That's true of anything commercial and no it's absolutely not easy for a great number of reasons.

Anyway, my main point was the simpler one... Buy it if it's worth it to you, and keep it moving if it's not. In the end, there's no better way to let someone know if a product is priced appropriately than by how many sales they actually receive.

[valerian_777]

A decision of what one developer would pay for another soundset is not the same thing as refuting a comment about what they take in for purchases.

Somehow it's not straight. You can't say you have not really an income (with your low prices) and in the same moment you saying that you are not willing to pay more then that low sum to other devs.

I personally think anyway that he didn't said that, maybe Lotuzia confused the persons Xenos with Xenox? It makes no sense to me that Xenos said both.

[elxsound]

A decision of what one developer would pay for another soundset is not the same thing as refuting a comment about what they take in for purchases.

Somehow it's not straight. You can't say you have not really an income (with your low prices) and in the same moment you saying that you are not willing to pay more then that low sum to other devs.

I personally think anyway that he don't said that, maybe Lotuzia confused the persons Xenos with Xenox? It makes no sense to me that Xenos said both.

Why not? What a person chooses to buy says absolutely nothing about a person's finances. All it says is their personal choice.

You could be extremely profitable and make that statement. You could still make that statement even if you weren't. Either way would be a personal preference.

[Lotuzia]

.... maybe Lotuzia confused the persons Xenos with Xenox? It makes no sense to me that Xenos said both.

Its quite possible. Now that you say it, the names are very close

I think its better that I edit my post and replace the name with 'a wellknown sound designer' as you've put doubt in my mind

This doesnt change much my analysis of the situation. Soundbanks can only be a submarket of the synths userbases themselves, ie you'll only sell a fraction of the synth userbase, and I know the sales figures of a lot of synths and soundbanks, besides mine. I'll just remind people that a bestseller synth ( I wont give names now ) had *only* sold something like 3000 copies iirc in the first five years of its existence. And we're talking of a real bestseller and widely spread synth. These would be totally different for lessknown synths. Divide this by the number of soundbanks for each synth, then include the fact that not all people buy soundbanks, and, furthermore, a lot of different soundbanks for a given synth. Then with simple maths one can see that the price equation is not so obvious to solve, because there's unfortunately no mass market scheme to be found ( ie sell a lot more units at a much lower price ) Oh wel, just my 0..02 and going now to edit the post

[Cyforce]

Interesting topic

I think during the last days the "art of looking on a price" has heavily changed - negatively!

Some years ago, it was normal to pay a fair price for a good soundset, like 25-35€. But today, it all moves more and more to an over-spammed market. Where good and creative products going lost in the mass of less-creative or under-value or copied stuff.

Even if some may think a soundset for 15€ is too expensive, because the synth for what the soundset is cost maybe just 50€ (like for example ANA). That`s not a reason to jugde down the creative material and the work behind that product.
Maybe more people should see, that even a soundset for a cheaper synth has the same worktime as for an expensive synth. Or should the sounddesigners raise through that logic now soundsets for hardware synths to 100€?

It`s also sad that good, creative and talented sounddesigners don`t get the attention as some years ago it would be happened. Through as said - over-spammed market... Soundsets with 100 Sylenth presets for 7-10 €. Guys who taking sounds of other sounddesigners and just changing some preset settings slightly and releasing it as their own for half price as the original... Or guys who take just 3-5 soundsets of other sounddesigners, collect a bunch of the containend sounds, rename the patches and sell them as their own.

Additional to this price dumping, stealing, and nearly every week "a new soundlabel" poping up which spams out simple and not really HQ stuff comes also another major issue like warez/file sharing.

Keep all the points in mind, and trust me it`s just a small summary in nice words of the way how the soundmarket is ... and than ask yourself what you would say, if a user ask you as sounddesigner why your soundset with 64 presets cost 17-20 € and that`s too expensive.... after you put 100+ workhours in it to provide creative material, representing your own special touch/facette and giving the users a collection of inspiration and tools for their music?!?

Maybe just sometimes a starbucks coffee less, or some zigarettes during the week, and you can also allow yourself a soundset which is maybe 2-5 € too expensive in your eyes AND quality has a price, and the price also values all the work behind that product - which sometimes a lot of work... in cases, like a sounddesigners don`t just make 128 presets... in a case he makes over 200, but only the 128 best coming into the final set to provide the users the best he could give and create with all his passion, sweat and heartbleed.

[BBFG#]

It's the bloating that makes them undesirable. Ninety presets for EDM and ten for other genres, with only three or four really usable is what kills the price of most of them for me. And no matter how special they advertise themselves above the rest, they still come out as mostly meh and quite redundant. A couple of designers that have commented here are ones I have no use for as I don't even hear three or four sounds in their offerings. To each their own. A prostitute often charges more than the woman that created them though.

[cryophonik]

I'm not a commercial sound designer, but it seems to me that there would be two fundamental schools of thought when pricing a soundbank:

1) price it high and sell less, but with a higher profit margin per unit, or
2) price it low and sell many, but with a lower profit margin per unit.

Once the sound design work has been done and the bank is complete, the sound designer has a virtually unlimited supply of the product to sell, since we're talking about a digital product. Option 1 seems like it would increase the perceived value of the soundbank, but I would think that it would be more prone to piracy, since few people are going to spend big money on soundbanks and it's probably pretty easy to share a soundbank. Option 2 seems like it would be less prone to piracy since it would be more affordable to many people, but more sales equals more time spent dealing with customers, providing customer support, etc. So, there's no right or wrong in my uneducated opinion, but I would think that a commercial sound designer would put a lot of thought into these considerations.