KVR Audio

Fleer · Post by **Fleer** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 4:04 pm

Most threats are off topic

GrabtharsHammer · Post by **GrabtharsHammer** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 4:14 pm

Fleer wrote:Most threats are off topic

Sh*t, I hate typos.

tsbrim · Post by **tsbrim** » Mon Jan 23, 2017 12:32 am

DrumAddict said:
"ive read that on an composer forum that they closed down due to piracy"

And I say:
Ha, well I guess then that the only way I can get those sounds is to find them elsewhere... What a shame, I was ready to send them my money... Just sayin...

BTW - I am not a pirating musician by any means. I just thought that announcing a special (that involves money to take advantage of) and then destroying the means by which money can be exchanged was a strange move.

I have known about Bela D Media for quite sometime. Never have purchased anything from them but was actually looking forward to purchasing something in the future. Truly amazing sounds and worthy of my dollars.

Hopefully they have a new system that will prevent the piracy of their stuff and they will produce a new product soon so that I can finally make the move and then purchase.

Thank you Bela D for making those amazing sounds and I truly hope that you are successful in your future endeavors.

Aloysius · Post by **Aloysius** » Mon Jan 23, 2017 2:36 am

I bought a lot of stuff off them, some good, some ok. Sometimes great support, at other times, just plain weird. I found the utter paranoia of the people behind the brand to be very off putting. The sudden departure from the scene is not a great surprise to me. Piracy seems to be a fact of life but it's never stopped me from spending money. Other brands seem to be able to thrive, why not Bela D Media? Were they singled out and treated more unfairly than every other company? I'm not into the piracy scene so maybe I missed something of tremendous importance. Anyway ... good luck BDM.

wst3 · Post by **wst3** » Mon Jan 23, 2017 8:49 pm

Where did they go?

My caveat - I own several of their libraries, and find uses for them frequently. Over the course of being a customer I got to know Frank as a friend as well as a provider. I like Frank, I like their products. I have no financial relationship with them other than customer.

But I think that Frank and Bela D Media get some bad press, and some days I've had too much coffee, and I post replies...

With that out of the way, I find the current situation somewhat amusing. There are a couple of facts to which we are all privy - the web site is nothing but a landing page with a nice thank you note, and the Facebook page is inactive.

There are countless possible reasons. Presently neither Frank nor Dawn nor the company are commenting, and I'm respecting that by not contacting him to ask him about it. I did check with a mutual friend and both Frank and Dawn are happy and healthy, no catastrophic accidents, no health issues. So that part is good.

So what other reasons might they have shut down?

Loss of revenue from piracy? (doubtful)
The inherent insult from piracy? (possible)
Another opportunity came along that they couldn't resist? (certainly possible)
Maybe they just grew tired of the business? (a little less likely)

Over the years Frank and I have talked about piracy on several occasions. It bugs him, a lot. It bugs me too, but as a I am not a developer it probably doesn't bug me the same way. I think sometimes it gets to him more than it probably should, but again, I'm not him, and it isn't my place to judge. (At least I try not to!)

It would be silly to say that the money means nothing to them, of course it does. But for them, or for Frank at least, the piracy was a personal slap in the face. He tried numerous things to minimize the piracy, everything from watermarking to offering paying customers little extras. Everything in the developers handbook... including developing a couple of groundbreaking libraries.

To no avail, people kept stealing!

An aside - Frank is a standup guy, and he expressed reservations about charging folks for products they could get for free. Yeah, to me, and probably many here that sounds a little odd, but if you think about it for a moment it makes sense. And I think it says a lot about his character.

Which begs the question why do some small developers thrive? No names, but I am fortunate to know a few of them, and thrive is a relative term. Developing a Kontakt library is a challenge, and it costs money, and each developer looks at the equation differently. But I don't think any of them are spending a lot of time on their 105 foot yachts.

Each one has a different perspective. One developer is able to capture the costs for sampling the libraries, so every sale is pretty much pure profit. Another makes a real effort to focus on the customers and ignore the pirates. A couple have thrown in the towel. And some continue to do what they can to fight the problem, for themselves and others.

Do you know that there are companies that do nothing but monitor the web and issue take-down notices for copyrighted material? I can only hope they do this for the love on intellectual property rights!

I think it is a shame, on a couple of levels, if Bela D is out of business. But it is their business, and they can do with it as they please.

So my suggestion would be respect their privacy, if they make a formal statement take it at face value, and if they don't then don't speculate. Just wish them well in their next chapter. (ok, and hope the next chapter includes more cool libraries<G>)

When the dust has settled I may contact Frank directly, and if he is ok with it I'll pass along whatever I learn. In the meantime I think I'll go write a song... and have another cup of coffee!

SampleScience · Post by **SampleScience** » Fri Feb 03, 2017 2:11 pm

Depending on the company and the products, piracy can have a more or less drastic effect. Some of my products were pirated very early and it did affect the sale drastically. Others were pirated as well but it didn't affect the sales. In my case, my products target different audiences, some audiences are more likely to pirate than others. Dunno why though..

Zombie Queen · Post by **Zombie Queen** » Fri Feb 03, 2017 4:31 pm

wst3 wrote:Do you know that there are companies that do nothing but monitor the web and issue take-down notices for copyrighted material?

Hopeless activity, I tried that when my little thing hit audioz (they linked back to my site, so it popped on stats). Mostly I've been ignored or denied, probably one need backup from pro lawyers to get noticed. And it just keeps re-spawning. I quickly figured it's not worth my time.

Aloysius · Post by **Aloysius** » Fri Feb 03, 2017 5:45 pm

wst3 says he is a friend of Frank from BDM. Maybe he'll have some factual-news to share with us soon.

stefangx · Post by **stefangx** » Fri Feb 03, 2017 6:27 pm

I saw this on twitter:
https://twitter.com/BelaDMedia/status/8 ... 7271037953

Re-connecting with retailers. Site changes. New pricing. Single step downloads. Product updates. Hope to be back online ASAP!

elassi · Post by **elassi** » Fri Feb 03, 2017 6:39 pm

Aloysius wrote:wst3 says he is a friend of Frank from BDM. Maybe he'll have some factual-news to share with us soon.

Really dig your sense of humour.

Aloysius · Post by **Aloysius** » Fri Feb 03, 2017 6:41 pm

wst3 · Post by **wst3** » Sat Feb 04, 2017 11:10 pm

And wst3 returns...

I did hear from Frank, all is well, nothing bad happened. They will be back, just taking some time to gear up.

They will be working with retailers, so I guess we can nix all the conspiracy theories eh?

I'm looking forward to see what they do next!

masterhiggins · Post by **masterhiggins** » Sat Feb 04, 2017 11:30 pm

I'm still wondering where Bronto Scorpio went.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Sat Feb 04, 2017 11:43 pm

wst3 wrote:So what other reasons might they have shut down?

I think the evidence speaks for itself

wst3 · Post by **wst3** » Sat Feb 04, 2017 11:50 pm

masterhiggins wrote:I'm still wondering where Bronto Scorpio went.

That's funny!

Bela D Media - Where did they go?