Another company goes 64-bit only

[Aloysius]

#resist

[swatwork]

Piracy is most rampant on older 32-bit platforms like Windows XP. If you don't support 32-bit you lose 1% of your market and 90% of pirates.

...

If nobody is distributing the warez because 90% of users require 32-bit, you have just eliminated 90% of the trackers and 90% of the sources to provide the bandwidth needed to run something like a bittorrent network.

As far as I know 64-bit plugins can be cracked just as easily as 32-bit versions since copy protection schemes don't depend on the 'bitness' of the software in question. And I seriously doubt the people who use cracks are restricting themselves to old versions of Windows such as XP.

[aciddose]

How "easy" something is to crack makes no difference, so long as it isn't impossible someone will be there to do it if there is enough demand and interest to make it worth their while. Copy protection isn't an issue here: even (truly secure: most aren't) dongle protection can be defeated with enough effort unless the code is so littered with it as to be completely impractical to crack in any reasonable time frame.

The issue is distribution. If nobody is around to distribute the works except licensed distributors who sell to paying customers, it means it becomes difficult or impossible to find other sources. Especially in music software the niche is so small it's very rare to get a copy from a friend or similar as it is with games where the market is close to 100% of teenage males for example.

While obviously people who pirate the latest most CPU intensive software are running 64-bit, that isn't true for people looking for less CPU intensive stuff. Even if they own 64-bit hardware there are fools who believe there is some genuine benefit to running 32-bit software on 64-bit hardware. This foolishness is then passed down to people who justify running decade (or more!) old hardware based upon the misconceived notion it is actually faster than a modern CPU (which is in fact probably 10x or more faster than their old 32-bit hardware, even more if running the 64-bit version.)

Every software company will go full 64-bit eventually because at some point there will be nobody with 32-bit hardware who is still a customer. That day happened years ago for lots of companies and many of them haven't realized it yet... but they will. 32-bit's days are numbered whether you have insane 32-bit religious fervor or not.

[aciddose]

And I seriously doubt the people who use cracks are restricting themselves to old versions of Windows such as XP.

You seriously doubt the people with no money in third-world counties who run torrent trackers outside the reach of laws in first-world countries can't afford to buy the latest more expensive hardware? Or maybe you doubt that the people who feel put at risk by laws which authorize severe penalties in excess of 1000s of times the value of the software licenses for distributing or even "making available means and materials associated with the distribution of" are also living in dirt-poor third-world nations, or perhaps are unemployed with nothing to lose?

Why? Did you fall on your head? Oh yeah...

[aciddose]

As far as I know ... old versions of Windows such as XP (or 7 or 8).

As far as I know ... Windows 10 deletes certain software automatically.

[aciddose]

[tenshin111]

Especially in music software the niche is so small it's very rare to get a copy from a friend or similar as it is with games where the market is close to 100% of teenage males for example.

Another "study" pulled out of your a$$? What's coming next?

[toonertik]

Steinberg wont sell me a floppy disc copy of Cubase that works on my Atari STe, the swines.

Now that is just plain mean>>
They hook you in to their system and then don't give the updates for your machine...
What ever next?

[aciddose]

[swatwork]

Why? Did you fall on your head? Oh yeah...

Well, I think somebody did

Nothing you've written in response to my comment makes any sense. I've clearly hit some nerve here so I'll just say this - if you really believe the 'market' for cracked software is mostly composed of '32-bit-only diehards' who will give up and go away once 64-bit becomes the only game in town then I think you're going to be disappointed.

There are many good reasons for abandoning 32-bit systems but defeating piracy is sadly not one of them.

[aciddose]

There are many good reasons for abandoning 32-bit systems but defeating piracy is sadly not one of them.

Another "study" pulled out of your a$$? What's coming next?

[VariKusBrainZ]

Bitards unite

[swatwork]

#methirtytoo

[gas pump]

https://www.exponentialaudio.com/latest ... octtExFyUk

64-bit only
As announced at the beginning of 2017, we've now discontinued updates of the 32-bit form of our plugins. If you're still running a 32-bit DAW, please consider updating or replacing it so that you can take advantage of the newest features and fixes from Exponential Audio.

It's only a matter of months to a year or two before they all do. It's a waste of time supporting a decade old system's compatibility. From a business standpoint, it's not very cost effective. Especially in an age of software price wars, which means eventually lower annual returns for most companies and a shrinking payroll.

You can expect to see smaller companies working in niche audio areas and less about broad range audio support. The dropping prices of hardware also makes the software development side of things shrink. We're already seeing large, medium and small companies, selling off, closing the doors or going bankrupt.

I guess it all comes down to how much you're banking on for the future of the "music business".

[whyterabbyt]

It's only a matter of months to a year or two before they all do.

Unlikely. 13 years into the availability of 64-bit DAWs, the number of companies producing -only- 64-bit plugins hasnt even reached double figures.