Reply To: Rhythmic Robot Holiday Sale – Up to 50% off Kontakt instruments

[LinkedMusicians]

On jude77 said

The first paragraph was definitely a bit of sunshine on an otherwise cold, gray and rainy day.  I realize that most small developers probably work on a shoestring budget, so I try to support them whenever I can.  Tone Empire comes immediately to mind.  I had to deal with him a year or so ago and he was just a super guy.  Very patient and determined to solve my problem.

On the other hand, the information in paragraph two was something I had suspected for a long time.  I remember a post of yours on the old CW forum where you revealed that a massive number of “reviewers” on Youtube are actually being compensated in some way for a positive review.  I know this is naive on my part, but I was honestly surprised and the news that forums like VI-Control were manipulating posts was a true shock as well!  You need to write an expose so clods like me can be more cautious when relying on forums/social media for actual reviews.

I truly appreciate what you do!

It would probably blow your mind to learn that even the guys who post deals — like one who used to post here — regularly get free NFRs from the developers they post about as well as cash from some of them (and the retailers). I tried to persuade the former frequent poster here to disclose that as legally (in the US from a regulatory perspective) it’s supposed to be disclosed — he refused. Basically, he ignored every request I ever made. I don’t know if you caught it, but I did get one developer, Andrew Fly to acknowledge that he gives that individual free products in exchange for his posts. Do not — for a second  — think that Andrew is alone in that. The difference is, I’ve gotten to be friends with Andew, and I suspected that he is one of the only developers who would be honest about this stuff.

People think that everyone posting is doing so for fun. But some people are doing so for cash and prizes. Right now, there are only a handful of us posting, and i feel very confident that we don’t have anyone engaging in those practices. Because I own the site, I am starting to get a bunch of developers who are sending me NFRs. and I have some friends who I have received NFRs from for a long time. I always tell developers who send me libraries or plugins that I’m not interested in being an influencer and I won’t praise anything I don’t sincerely like. I’ve probably received a dozen NFRs since starting LinkedMusicians — largely from retailers trying to get me to try new sample libraries and plugins. I always tell them, just like when I had a marketing publication, I would be sent more than 100 books in a year, and I would write about one of two of them. When publicists got upset with me, I would fire back stuff like, “I could to a write up on the book and tell people that I don’t think it’s worth reading, that it really doesn’t offer anything valuable. so don’t waste your money. If you like, I can publish that?” No publicist ever wanted me to publish that! So I only wrote about books I could honestly recommend.

If I write about my personal experience with a sample library or plugin, it’s generally because (1) I genuinely love it or (2) I genuinely don’t think it’s very good and I think it would be helpful for our community if I shared what I’ve learned.

Now, I’ve given advice to a bunch of sample library developers and I’ve only ever shared my opinions as a user on a handful of them. One thing I will share about me, if I know a developer and we really like each other, and I don’t love their sample libraries or plugins, I simply won’t discuss them. In cases like Steven Slate drums — I gave Steven a consultation years ago. We really hit it off. I think his drum libraries are a good fit for musicians who produce high energy rock. But I don’t think they’re a great fit for me. Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m not wired to be insincere or give false praise.

In any event, all of this is why I’ve designed LinkedMusicians so that it has the best of what other forums have BUT doesn’t allow for the manipulation of members that has become common in these forums as they’re taking in a lot of money and the truth is, when there’s a lot of money to be made, ethical compromise is commonplace.

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