Reply To: Musio 1 perpetual license $125.16 JRRShop

[Peter DeLegge]

On Teebacca said

Best deal in the biz

I look at it like this, Cinesamples and 8Dio / Soundpaint are greatly bringing down prices for high quality, sample libraries to a fraction of their historical prices. I really want to see these developers succeed in doing this, because of its impact on making these tools more accessible for musicians all around the world, many of whom found the prices of similar libraries far beyond what they could afford.

And this is super important to me. Going back years ago, I would give small developers a limited amount of free consulting if they would provide free sample libraries to people I identified at KVR. I basically leveraged my notoriety in the marketing profession at the time to give developers I love advice in exchange for doing good.

I was refusing NFRs at the time (I was employed at global brands then; these days, I couldn’t afford to do that anymore; and I didn’t want to let the world know I was helping a bunch of devs for free back then). Very candidly, it made me feel connected to music again after a repetitive stress injury forever ended my ability to perform as a musician. I shared this story at Cakewalk Forum and the MusicSoftwareDeals guy basically called me a liar. Greg S. can confirm that. I ended up doing paid consulting for him, but I started out as a Orange Tree Samples superfan not asking for any payment, but I wanted him to give low-income musicians in exchange for my consulting. I found Greg and I shared very similar values and ideals.

Now, I look at what these two companies — Cinesamples / Musio and 8Dio / SoundPaint are doing — and both companies have been attacked by the same competitor/forum owner who has been on a mission to try to see them fail in lowering prices for their category. They’re, of course, not lowering prices for altruistic reasons, they see a huge market opportunity, and they’re right. If they succeed, it will certainly lower the prices for high-end sample libraries and make them more accessible, and it will result in more competitors bringing down their prices. These are market disruptors. But it’s not like the effects plugin world where Waves led the way in bringing down prices and most of their competitors followed. Most of the high end (deep or detailed sample library) developers have not brought down prices to be in line with Musio and 8Dio. I know that a lot of their competitors do because it means sample libraries’ profit margins will be significantly less. Sample developers will need to sell much higher volumes to make the same profit. But with the market’s growth, I think the potential is there, and it’s a great time for this to occur. Indie sample developers who are savvy can adjust prices and win more market share. I hope that is what will come, because it will be fantastic for hobbyists, semi-pro, student musicians and any musician on a modest budget.

The flipside? If these two players were to fail, it would send a message to the rest of the market to keep prices high. Consequently, I believe it’s in our own best interests — and I’m speaking to those on a limited budget who aren’t heavy-hitter pros — to support the sample developers who are bringing prices down.

PSA over!

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

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