EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

--- In exs-users@yahoogroups.com, Nick Batzdorf <recording@...> wrote:
 >
 > Sorry to be a curmudgeon, but to me this is just plain wrong.
 >
 > If I were Redmatica, no way would I stage a group buy on Keymap. I've
 > been working for years on a brilliant and unique program that
 > threatens to revolutionize sample library development. Why should I
 > lower the price? I can't raise it again after a group buy, in fact
 > it's already a problem that people have been trained to expect group
 > buys with bargain basement prices before they buy anything.
 >
 > Of course it's nice to get ridiculously cheap prices, but if we want
 > to have great software, we need to pay for it.
 >
 > Now, lest anyone think I'm a hypocrite, we did run a group buy for VI
 > mag on the Logic list. But that wasn't anything that's going to hurt
 > the industry by lowering the prices to the point that magazines can't
 > survive. So it's not that I'm against normal capitalistic processes
 > or that I don't see the other side, just that I want great software
 > to continue to be developed.

Posted by: "guy lewis" guypersonal@...   cosmicbeach
Sat Oct 20, 2007 9:19 am (PST)


> Hi Nick, I will look up the word 'curmudgeon' later,

It means grumpy, stubborn, a grouch :)

>  but I think there are a number of ways I
> personally would justify this:
>
> 1) market penetration

[snip]

> 2) a volume buy from an accountany perspective has resulted from no  
> direct marketing
> campaign which can be a significant part of the unit cost of a  
> product (Im speaking very
> generally here since that is so dependent on your actual market)
> 3) more money, money you wouldnt get if you didnt do the group buy,  
> and what is the
> additional cost? some time allocated to it by your product manager,  
> possibly no sales
> commission either... maybe....

[snip]

I forget whether I posted this here, but a developer friend of mine  
likens group buys to fishing with dynamite: sure you catch a lot of  
fish, but the reef is gone forever.

And that's exactly what we're seeing here - "Ooh, a great new  
program. And I'm not going to buy it! I'm going to see if there's a  
group buy so I can have it for a fraction of its value." Andrea isn't  
a "market penetration" combatant, he's an extremely talented guy who  
deserves to be paid for his company's extraordinary efforts. This  
isn't a mass-market product, it's something only an enthusiast who  
wants to advance the art would produce.

Come on, he only wants a poxy $249 for Keymap, or an additional $130  
for everything they make! If it's not worth that, then we may as well  
just forget it - we're only going to see music software development  
from large companies that subsidize it to help sell other things.  
(And I'm not just talking about Apple.)

If you want Keymap - and anyone who makes their own sample libraries  
probably does - then consider the money an investment in Redmatica's  
software development and stop waiting for a group buy.



Nick Batzdorf, editor/publisher
Virtual Instruments Magazine
www.Virtualinstrumentsmag.com
1-877 VImagzn (846-2496)
+1818/905-9101, cell 590-9101