What makes you buy or not buy music software / Plugins?

[CrystalWizard]

... what factors influence you?
For me, need is the biggest factor...

...Superiority includes not only sound (which is absolutely essential, but superior in reliability, function, features, price, etc...

I don't need any instrument or FX but i desire (and only have interest in):
Innovative,
Flexible tools
such as Madrona Labs, Dawesome, U-he, new to me Aqueel Aadam, and some others.
Inexpensive is nice but if i can afford them i don't mind paying.
Reliability is a must for many of my tools because i do live gigs where crashes or freezes are not OK. I don't need everything to be 100% though, just my live rig, most importantly my DAW. I don't use new (to me) synths or FX in the live setup.
Most new (and many old) plugins sound fine for my needs.

Another thing for me, is copy protection. In my eyes, the ideal copy protection, which does indeed exist, and is used by several developers, is the kind that is not vendor dependent...

Watching developers (and corporations) get sold, reorganized, or just fold has made me much more interested in c/p that will not take away anything that i have payed for.

Another thing that determines whether I buy from a developer or not, is their customer service and their interaction with the customer. I would much rather buy from a developer that interacts with me if I have a concern—if he tries to help solve my problem. I want to be able to trust a developer when he says something. I want a developer that is open and honest in his business dealings.

I don't buy or download software when it first released. Small developers can't do extensive QC and compatibility tests, larger organizations don't bother to any more it seems. So, if i need help and contact developer support i would like her to respond within 48hrs (unless it's a DAW, then ASAP) and certainly i would expect to trust what she says.

.... ....

Further, developers that take your rightful upgrades away, and only allow you to download the update for a short limited amount of time won’t win any points with me. ...

Oh, BS to that.
Phoning home? BS to that also.