--- 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@guylewis.com 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