Reply To: Mike Patti Back as Musio CEO

[LinkedMusicians]

I find Chris Hazel very likable and am sorry to see him go. Interesting that they touch on subscriptions and emphasize that people want perpetual licenses. Mike publicly shared that he’s contemplating bringing third-party developers on board the Musio platform.

We also have an answer that there will absolutely not be a Musio 2 anytime soon, if at all. One of the employees stated that they are “Getting ready to record some new stuff.” So based on that, and Mike’s response, they won’t be releasing a giant Musio 2 collection similar to Musio 1 any time soon. Mike mentioned that there won’t be a giant bunch of instruments getting released soon, which seemed obvious to me based on the company’s financial situation, not being great (orchestral libraries can be very expensive to record). I think that’s fine.

As a Musio customer, I’d be very interested in new new individual Musio libraries, as Mike talked about as the future for the business. I never expected a giant Musio 2 collection to be released. It never seemed even slightly realistic. I think it would be consistent for Musio to price those libraries lower than typical Kontakt libraries. I’m sure it won’t surprise anyone that Musio’s closest competitor is SoundPaint. At the price for both Musio and SoundPaint being far more affordable than anything else on the market of similar quality, I think it’s a win for musicians / composers. If anyone was starting out composing, I would recommend they explore both Musio 1 Perpetual License and SoundPaint. There are amazing libraries for both, a bunch of no-brainers, IMO.

While, as a consultant who has advised 8Dio/SoundPaint, I realize that it’s no surprise that my opinions will be suspect (hey, to be candid, I would be pretty cynical about a paid consultant giving an opinion having too much bias, so I’m not offended; to those who know me IRL, they’re aware that I can mantain a high level of objectivity on this stuff, separating my stategic advice from my personal opinions as a musician), but here’s my personal take. I LOVE a lot of Musio sample libraries. They’re gorgeous. But it doesn’t change the fact that I also LOVE a lot of SoundPaint libraries. But, for me, while I very much am very glad I have libraries from both of these developers, one giant edge that SoundPaint has is their plugin is leaps and bounds beyond that of Musio. Now, I’m not writing that as a consultant (even more, I am friends with 8Dio’s CEO), do the free Musio 1 trial — that’s how I started — and I bet you’ll be blown away at how great the libraries are. Then install the SoundPaint plugin and their free libraries. With SoundPaint, you have tons of presets, effects, and a playground and programmability and ease of use that far surpasses that of Musio’s very basic sampler plugin at this time. Musio doesn’t have preset capability yet. I am really eager for them to add that, and, of course, built-in, high quality effects.

I really want to see both Musio and SoundPaint succeed. I think these two products/ecosystems are the best thing that has ever happened for home-based studio users on a budget. I can enthusiastically recommend both of them. I am rooting for the success of both developers. Unfortunately, both have been the subject of vicious attacks from Mike Greene / VI-Control. I have known Mike for more than a decade. Mike passionately tried to persuade me not to consult to 8Dio, because he has such venom for them, as he sees them and Cinesamples as destroying the sample development industry by pricing their libraries so low that it is too difficult to make a decent profit selling small quantities of licenses. While it’s not a shock for a competitor to have those feelings, it’s the vicious, and ethically problematic tactics he has taken — including amplifying false attacks that he knows to be false (and privately acknowledged that to me) — that make this so problematic. Plus the fact that he has the largest composing community in the industry. For anyone wondering, I didn’t create LinkedMusicians to compete with Greene. I created it as an alternative to the toxicity of online forums and social media overall, but it was my conversations directly with Mike Greene — that I brought in 8Dio’s CEO on — that inspired this community. Yes, it really wasn’t Cakewalk Forums. They just provided an opportunity to act on what I had long be considering. But make no mistake, Greene’s attacks on these two companies are significant and certainly do cause them financial harm. A social media analysis of his 40+ page thread attack on 8Dio makes clear that it spread to the major social media platforms and the other major forums and has lead to a fair amount of consumers who believe the lies they read in that thread are true. When I find the time, I will be publishing an article on the situation with the facts.

DISCLOSURE: I have done paid consulting to a number of Musio competitors, including 8Dio/SoundPaint.

CURATED BEST FREE LISTS: Kontakt Libraries, Sample Libraries, Virtual Synths, Effects
POWERSEARCH TOOLS: Synth Presets, Loops & Sound FX, Gear Reviews 
FREE TOOLS: Mixing Problem Solver, Songwriter's Toolbox, QuickGuides, Scale, Mode & Chord Finder
READ/WATCH: Mag Articles / Podcasts, Audio Production & Songwriter's Dictionaries

1