Are the days of the high priced plugins history?

[mellotronaut]

I still think that prices overall are very high (DAWs included) but we are getting better offers and better low cost options, but not enough...

Allow me to quote myself below:

Of course, we also live in a society that increasingly believes the results of everyone else's work should be free, so that probably affects people's perception of prices as well.

[Tricky-Loops]

People crying that a $179 UDD synth is "expensive" make me laugh. Maybe you've been living in a dream? I've been very poor in my life and I'm sure I never, ever, once considered a sub $200 instrument to be expensive. Somehow even when I was managing a sock store (yes, it's true) I was able to scrape together enough to pay the rent and buy the occasional Digitech Spacestation pedal. I waited tables at a Chevy's to save for a guitar amp. Sure, I never had top-o-the-line gear, but I managed to put together pretty decent rigs at a time when $200 was a lot harder to earn than it is now.

Shame on you for getting used to Blu-ray players coming out of China for $99 from companies who pay their "employees" $1.40 a day. I seriously doubt Urs or any small dev is getting filthy rich on their work even at full price. I gladly pay for Urs's plugs and always think I'm getting the better end of the deal.

You seem to have an other concept of being "poor". I see (too) many people in the United States that need the $200 for food and cannot invest them for a synthesizer. Same thing in other countries, even more.

For an art director, $200 isn't that much, but for a waiter, indeed it is. And for unemployed people it's even out of sight to buy a synthesizer for $200!

[Urs]

Well, poverty is not what we chose to solve, nor anything we're in position to do. I believe that more people have access to instruments and means to express themselves than ever before, including the time to do so. That is what we're doing. We're "democratising" a formely elitist hobby/passion/profession.

If however someone isn't fortunate enough to afford a 200$ piece of gear, let alone the computer to run it, then this would surely be the least of his concerns. If we wanted to change things, we'd grow cheap crops, build cheap housing or something, but I doubt we'd be good at that. In the end, not everyone can do the ultimately ethical thing, but we can pay taxes. Some peeps also need to build seemingly useless things such as instruments. It's all part of a bigger picture and maybe gives those in need a bit of hope (as a lot of music does).

[revo11]

Hats off for not only making amazing plugins, but also giving an intelligent, thoughtful response to an otherwise pointlessly circle-jerky discussion. Take my money already! =)

Well, poverty is not what we chose to solve, nor anything we're in position to do. I believe that more people have access to instruments and means to express themselves than ever before, including the time to do so. That is what we're doing. We're "democratising" a formely elitist hobby/passion/profession.

If however someone isn't fortunate enough to afford a 200$ piece of gear, let alone the computer to run it, then this would surely be the least of his concerns. If we wanted to change things, we'd grow cheap crops, build cheap housing or something, but I doubt we'd be good at that. In the end, not everyone can do the ultimately ethical thing, but we can pay taxes. Some peeps also need to build seemingly useless things such as instruments. It's all part of a bigger picture and maybe gives those in need a bit of hope (as a lot of music does).

[ATS]

Isn't it obvious? Yes, of course. Permanent change in price policies. Everyone is lowering their prices now and have been for a long time.

[Tricky-Loops]

Well, poverty is not what we chose to solve, nor anything we're in position to do. I believe that more people have access to instruments and means to express themselves than ever before, including the time to do so. That is what we're doing. We're "democratising" a formely elitist hobby/passion/profession.

If however someone isn't fortunate enough to afford a 200$ piece of gear, let alone the computer to run it, then this would surely be the least of his concerns. If we wanted to change things, we'd grow cheap crops, build cheap housing or something, but I doubt we'd be good at that. In the end, not everyone can do the ultimately ethical thing, but we can pay taxes. Some peeps also need to build seemingly useless things such as instruments. It's all part of a bigger picture and maybe gives those in need a bit of hope (as a lot of music does).

I think, for the poorer people there are many good (less expensive) synthesizer plugins out there. There are even many (good sounding!) free ones. So I think if someone really wants to make music, nowadays he can do, with less money than ever before.

Still in the 90ies I thought that I will never be able to make my own songs because I couldn't afford a (hardware) synthesizer for thousands of dollars. Because I have no musicians in my family, I'm the only one. It was not until several years ago as I saw that there already were software synthesizer and DAW's and audio editors. It was like an entrance ticket to the world of producers... (Musician I'm since my childhood, but I always wanted to create COMPLETE songs!!)

So, compared to the past, $179 for a synthesizer is a favorable price...

[Lotuzia]

Prices of good software are incredibly low atm, because the legit market stays as thin as it was, the overall market is saturated with both payware and freeware, and the more exposed parts of global industry, like leasure-holydays industry, are dangerously flirting with a deflationist circle.

There's no reason that this cycle will abruptly stop, except if the whole economy should get better suddenly.

Some companies still make better than others, more companies will just stop or vanish, or get quiet because their owners will take day jobs when they used to be able to make a living from their work, most big software companies are going the HW way if they have the necessary financial surface and global visibility. Thats it

[Urs]

Well, I don't know. We don't see any effect of the global economy, of market saturation or anything on our sales structure. We have surprisingly constant sales month to month, which vary about +/- 5% and sometimes spike +50% when there's a new release. It has been like this for the past 9 years with only a single exception: Once I tried not to use Google Adwords for three months and sales collapsed. I'll never make that mistake again.

Sometimes we get a cluster of license transfer requests, like 5 in a week. That's probably an indirect effect of the economy, but it doesn't have a significant effect on sales otherwise.

We're crossrelating sales, adverstisement costs, currency shifts, license transfers, product news and all that in about 20 statistical diagrams. Nothing hints at a recipe or a need for major change. Everything hints at "keep doing what you do".

Hence I also think that if we did x-mas sales or the likes, we might "disturb" our nice little comfort of consistent sales. But as i said in the beginning, well, I don't know.

[zerocrossing]

For an art director, $200 isn't that much, but for a waiter, indeed it is. And for unemployed people it's even out of sight to buy a synthesizer for $200!

Not buying it. If you're on KVR and have a computer that can run a DAW and plug in you are not poor.

[zerocrossing]

If however someone isn't fortunate enough to afford a 200$ piece of gear, let alone the computer to run it, then this would surely be the least of his concerns.

And while I'm applauding you, I'll point out that you also offer free instruments. FREE. Both Zebralette and Tripplecheese are excellent. So Urs, can't you make your free instruments a bit cheaper? Couldn't you send a few deutschmarks to everyone who downloads Zebralette?

[Krakatau]

Not buying it. If you're on KVR and have a computer that can run a DAW and plug in you are not poor.

indeed...

...By comparison, you're still fortunate to own a P4 and a pair of speakers or a just little notebook (and earphones), of similar generation if you live in Burkina Faso

But if you could afford this, there's a bunch of free plugs and free host you might find in the net if you can afford a few hours of connexion in a cyber-center (don't think of a personal connexion) All you'd need then is to learn how to handle them correctly

On that ground i really appreciate a DAW like MuLab free for instance, a rare host that is (still) conceived to run on older Computers and OS

[Uncle E]

There is no "average income" in Germany of 2,700€, that's nonsense.

Total money earned by legal aged German citizens / number of legal aged German citizens = average income of legal aged German citizens

Maths.

[Mushy Mushy]

There is no "average income" in Germany of 2,700€, that's nonsense.

Total money earned by legal aged German citizens / number of legal aged German citizens = average income of legal aged German citizens

Maths.

€2,700? The country couldn't survive. If this was the average income in say India it would still be low, but more believable. Germany though! No way.

[jsp1979]

There is no "average income" in Germany of 2,700€, that's nonsense.

Total money earned by legal aged German citizens / number of legal aged German citizens = average income of legal aged German citizens

Maths.

€2,700? The country couldn't survive. If this was the average income in say India it would still be low, but more believable. Germany though! No way.

Perhaps that's "per month" average salary...or per week...or per hour...

It was never really quantified.

[Mushy Mushy]

There is no "average income" in Germany of 2,700€, that's nonsense.

Total money earned by legal aged German citizens / number of legal aged German citizens = average income of legal aged German citizens

Maths.

€2,700? The country couldn't survive. If this was the average income in say India it would still be low, but more believable. Germany though! No way.

Perhaps that's "per month" average salary...or per week...or per hour...

It was never really quantified.

Oh ok, yes my bad. Month sounds reasonable.