Reply To: Mini Review of Musio, My Pick for Best BF Deal of 2024; $149 Sale Ends Dec 10

[peter]

On Kirean said

Cinesamples just posted on VI Control: https://vi-control.net/community/threads/a-letter-from-cinesamples-musios-chris-hayzel.158743/

Thanks for sharing that. I read every post in the thread. Chris comes across as genuine and his story all adds up. Mike Patti is a talented musician and composter and I know from people who’ve worked with him that his heart was more into composing than making sample libraries, even though he built a superb sample library business in Cinesamples. I think if Musio would have had a better start and perhaps, better funding, it’s a great, disruptive idea. I had posted at the Cakewalk Forum when some folks were eager to go for a lifetime deal that lifetime software deals are most often reflective of a company that has been unable to raise capital conventionally, so doing a lifetime deal means you’re taking on a good degree of risk the company’s lifetime won’t be very long. It seems that Cinesamples was struggling when Musio was launched, which obviously, made for a very rocky start of a new division (I launched a successful division of a mid-sized corporation back in the late 90s where I was in line to be the next CEO before I decided to change course and focus on digital marketing in the Fortune 500). I did think that Chris lacked the experience to lead the business, but he clearly knows how to communicate and appears to be a straight shooter.

As I mentioned before, what do any of us know about any of these small sample developers? It’s usually the reason that I avoid buying sample libraries built in a developer’s proprietary sample player. But the value of Musio was far too good for me to pass on. Using the trial for 30 days made it irresistible just for the strings and pianos alone. I found/find them inspiring. That said, I still will avoid buying sample libraries from small one or two person developers.

Another takeaway for this communication from Musio’s CEO? Cinesamples commitment to Kontakt looks like toast. Some quick points that Chris made:

• Mike Patti still appears to own the business and is indeed acting as Chairman.
  “Mike Patti decided that he wanted to step back, spend more time with his family, and focus on what he loves: composing music. So in August of this year, he decided to step down as CEO and name me as his successor. I was deeply honored that he trusted me enough to hand me the keys to something that he’s built and fostered for most of his adult life.” 
  
• Chris was surprisingly candid about the company’s financial struggles and current state; that’s a great sign that makes me inclined to believe that he’s telling the truth.  
  We pretty much spent the entire first half of this year making up for the previous season’s deficit, doing everything that we could to get our bearings while continuing to deliver great instruments to you.
• Musio is growing. 
  “And lastly, Musio is growing. Significantly. Just to give you an idea; at the end of May of this year, Musio had around 4,000 active users (across subscription and perpetual). In the last 6 months we’ve more than tripled that number of active users, by the end of December we will have quadrupled it, and we’re just getting started.”
• They’re down to six employees.  That’s enough to keep this business moving forward and being lean will enable them to spend more on developing new libraries.
  “All of this is because of this small, 6-person group of dedicated, passionate, and incredibly skilled people who were determined to push through the challenges of the last year and make shit happen regardless. And it’s the same group of people who are going to make sure that you: our supporters, our users, our community, will continue to see value from the product that you’ve invested in.”
• Musio 2 is projected to be delivered in Q2 2025. 
  “Our ridiculously talented production lead has already planned and started production on Musio 2, and we’re aiming to release the first batch of Musio 2 instruments sometime around Q2 of next year.”
• Chris is promising to deliver on promised new mic positions functionality to Musio customers. That’s great news, because it costs money to have developers work on this, so it shows that they’re not abandoning anything, but improving the software.
  “Our Development team continues to push toward building and implementing new features (including, yes, Mic Positions), all while maintaining a regular cadence of updates and bug fixes to keep Musio running smoothly today. They’ve taken some major steps forward on the Mic Positions front and have a working internal version. They’re currently fine tuning the feature before releasing it into beta, and subsequently the public build. Once Mic Positions are available to the public, the team will be turning their focus to more features and exciting new product developments for next year.”

Now how long before Mike Greene starts attacking Chris? The one factor that could avert that is if Chris starts spending money at VI-Control. But Greene is hyper-obsessed with how Cinesamples, 8Dio and other developers are disrupting the sample world by dramatically lowering pricing. This is the kind of thing — but for larger industries — that I once used to write about and it was because I am fascinated by these stories. I am definitely rooting for Musio and Chris to succeed. They’ve clearly grown their marketshare by a lot by using penetration pricing. The big question is, are they making enough to fund other libraries. My guess is that they will focus on less costly to make sample libraries rather than the big budget ones that was Cinesamples core business. More pianos, guitars, keyboards, vocals, etc. Anyhow, I wish them the best. I do love what they’ve done to date.

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