Amplitube 5 for $29.99 and POSSIBLY GET IN IK’S GROUP BUY

[LinkedMusicians]

NOTICE: Plugin Boutique has now put up the following copy on the product page:
“Important note: This product does not qualify for the IK Multimedia Group Buy. You will not be eligible for further free plugins upon purchase.” Consequently, unless we hear something else from @peter-ik, my best guess is that PB’s statement is correct.

@jeffdrawscomics has just confirmed that if you buy Amplitube 5 from Plugin Boutique (see the link below) you will qualify for the IK Group Buy and get 49 IK plug ins and/or sample libraries for free.

Now, I own Amplitube 5 and find it’s excellent. Getting it for $29.99 is a crazy good deal, IMO. But then getting 49 additional free IK products is a ridiculously great deal. I’ve seriously been contemplating buying it at this price just to get in on the Group Buy.

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/2-Effects/18-Amp-Simulator/12669-AmpliTube-5?a_aid=66fd59ee09bb9

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[LinkedMusicians]

As I wrote above in the updated post, @jeffdrawscomics has confirmed that the above Plugin Boutique Amplitube 5 deal for $29.99 qualifies for the IK Group Buy. Thanks for updating us, Jeff, it’s very appreciated!

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[dsteinschneider]

I got in at the $99 level. My last purchase was Total Studio 2 Max so I used up all my slots buying T-Racks 6 products, Pianoverse, Tonex Collections, Modo Bass guitars not included in base product, a few Modo Drums, ARC X, The Resonator and some other odds and ends.

This deal gets you in at the $199 level – is there anything between $99-199 of interest that would not have been in my drop down from the $99 level?

[swijaya]

So this disclaimer on the page itself is incorrect, thus can be disregarded?

I find it strange then, why did they put such an uninviting clause, when on the contrary they should be saying the opposite, to encourage more sales.

[LinkedMusicians]

On swijaya said

So this disclaimer on the page itself is incorrect, thus can be disregarded?

I find it strange then, why did they put such an uninviting clause, when on the contrary they should be saying the opposite, to encourage more sales.

Ah, I wonder if that’s new. @jeffdrawscomics, did you see that disclaimer prior to making your purchase? I don’t recall seeing that. This story gets more complex. My GUESS has been that Bedroom Producers Blog started promoting this as qualifying for the Group Buy when IK already made clear that it did not, but it caused so much confusion that IK decided to let those customers in anyhow so that they wouldn’t blame and resent IK. That’s a total guess. But Peter’s (IK) communication that this DOES NOT qualify was clear on page one of LM’s IK Group Buy thread and yet people have been able to get in the GB with the purchase.

If I’m going to be super candid — Bedroom Producers Blog is going for an all-out cash grab. They reach a large audience, and at that rate, there’s a lot of money to be made from affiliate commissions, so they’re looking to make as much money as possible (a small community like LM doesn’t have the traffic to generate a good deal of commissions from affiliate programs; BPB has a lot of traffic and does generate a lot of money). But that puts IK in a bad position, because if they don’t honor this deal and what BPB has been promoting, people who bought the deal, which is fantastic even without the GB, are going to be angry at the IK brand. I really don’t think BPB is operating in the most ethical manner, considering their reach how easily they could have reached out to IK. If I were managing the affiliate program they were a part of, I would be having a talk with them about ethics (okay, I realize that A LOT of marketers don’t care about ethics, but stuff like this also hurts brands long term; I have more thoughts on the whole management of this and how all of this confusion could have been avoided, but I realize that most of you don’t care! Haha).

Consequently, after seeing that message I’m again going to modify the original post in this thread and urge people to hit pause until we get an official message from @peter-ik or anyone else who officially represents IK.

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[jeffdrawscomics]

The disclaimer must be new. I did not see that at plugin boutique when I bought the deal.

1

[dsteinschneider]

I bought the PB AT5 for $29 for our studio account. The main difference going in at $199 was T-Racks Pro instead of T-Racks which I think mostly eliminates the need for slots for TR6 items

1

[dsteinschneider]

BTW, I figured out that when you click “Submit” to just keep refreshing that page until it goes through – you don’t lose the slot and the product will get added to the account

[LinkedMusicians]

Well, whatever the deal is whether this qualifies or not the $29.99 Amplitube deal ends tonight (Oct 31), and it’s a great guitar amp and pedal sim that is a steal at that price, even without the group buy.

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[swijaya]

IMO IK’s Peter deliberately doesn’t want to say anything about it, to avoid worsening things.

I believe those who bought before the disclaimer, got in (whether by a system glitch or else), but after the disclaimer, IK definitely have a stronger position not to let the buyer get in, or revoke it (if somehow the system automatically slip them in).

[LinkedMusicians]

On swijaya said

IMO IK’s Peter deliberately doesn’t want to say anything about it, to avoid worsening things.

I believe those who bought before the disclaimer, got in (whether by a system glitch or else), but after the disclaimer, IK definitely have a stronger position not to let the buyer get in, or revoke it (if somehow the system automatically slip them in).

Granted, Peter is a friend. But before Peter and I met at KVR more than 20 years ago, I believe that Peter knew my publication and writing on marketing strategy (I’m pretty sure the CEO of the tech company he worked at recommended my publication to his employees). I have a long career in the field, as a marketing manager and director before founding a business of my own. Peter is a marketing manager, and you can be certain that decisions on these areas, especially at a smaller company like IK (yes, they’re big in this industry, but they’re technically a small business )are made by a VP or C-level and the marketing manager is more involved in the interactions directly with the public, which can be challenging in times like this. I think IK is an ethical company and Peter is an ethical person. My guess is that IK probably bent over backwards after seeing a lot of customers were confused and then after BPB started hyping up the situation to cash in out it (make as much affiliate commissions as possible, right or wrong), putting IK into a very uncomfortable decision.

I realize that may come across as an apologist for IK. I’m not. I’m a pragmatist. I think IK should have done this disclaimer much earlier — in fact, I posted that recommendation at LM before the disclaimer went up. But again, IK is a small company with a lot of stuff happening. On a technical / legal and even on an ethical level, as IK clearly had stated on their site that a minimum purchase of $49 — or $49.99 is required to qualify for the Group Buy — they certainly don’t have a legal obligation to allow people who purchased the $29.99 deal into the GB. The reason they still had likely done it is likely because of their concern that these customers would resent the IK brand if they were refused entry in the GB. That is the reason, if I were leading marketing for IK, I would likely say, “Even though these people technically don’t qualify, we’ll let them in the Group Buy anyhow, so they don’t resent the brand after this experience and hopefully they’ll have great feelings about our brand for doing this.” Again, being completely candid, the ethics problem in this scenario is with BPB, which did the wrong thing in order to make more affiliate cash for itself. BPB has a relatively good traffic number for this industry, and even though a single purchase using their affiliate link might generate, say $4 each, they  could easily have generated thousands of dollars in affiliate commissions based on their blog’s traffic and that clearly guided their activity, not good ethics.

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