Old 04-29-2018, 12:06 PM   #1
clepsydrae
Human being with feelings
 
clepsydrae's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 3,409
Default OT: viability of plugin development as a side business

Hi -- sorry to OT, here, but I wanted to solicit reaper forum users' opinions on this and it seemed like the best subforum for it. Please ignore/delete/move if this is out of line.

I've been a programmer for a long time, but mostly Java and other OS-independent stuff. I have little-to-no experience with bare-metal type coding (C, C++, etc.)

I've been toying with the idea of producing a couple simple VSTs -- analysis/scope type plugins, and I'm trying to get an idea of what the market for that kind of thing would be and how dumb an idea it might be to try.

I think my ideas are novel enough to be salable -- that is, I'm not just making another spectrum analyzer. But they are simple enough to not command a high price. I'm thinking of a "$5 for commercial use" type of arrangement. Maybe $10, max.

I'm guessing I would have to spend like a month or so getting up to speed on coding VSTs (probably via JUCE). And then a month implementing them, since I'm sure I'll stumble a lot along the way.

My impression is that there is not a gigantic market for esoteric audio analysis plugins: is this correct? Meaning, I'm not going to be making any kind of reasonable wage for the time I put in to something like that, am I?

Assuming the plugin works, and is useful to professional mixers/mastering engineers, and that some high schooler doesn't implement a superior free version 5 minutes after I release mine, it seems maybe over-optimistic to hope for like 500 sales in a year. Does that sound correct?

If that's correct, my impression is that I should start this project if I want to develop more serious plugins in the future, but not if I want to make anything more than a pittance on this project, given the time it would require of me?

Said another way: is the market for audio plugins more or less swamped? :-)

Thanks for any perspectives!
clepsydrae is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-29-2018, 01:34 PM   #2
Xenakios
Human being with feelings
 
Xenakios's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Oulu, Finland
Posts: 8,062
Default

Sadly the market is as far as I can tell completely saturated. People won't necessarily bother to download and test even free plugins anymore! (In large numbers, of course a few thousand people always will...)

But of course if your product brings something significantly different to the table, you might break through. If you suspect the product is going to be mainly useful for serious professionals, maybe you might want to try pricing it higher...

The WDL forum might have been more appropriate for this as it's also the IPlug forum and thus more oriented towards standard audio processing plugins implemented as VST/AU :

https://forum.cockos.com/forumdisplay.php?f=32
__________________
I am no longer part of the REAPER community. Please don't contact me with any REAPER-related issues.
Xenakios is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-29-2018, 02:03 PM   #3
azslow3
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: Heidelberg, Germany
Posts: 797
Default

If I am forced to look for a new job... music production industry is going to be the last place to check.
Its a lot of fun and the process is "creative". If that is your major driving force, that can work. Doing something in that area just for money can be frustrating.

On one side, there are >>1000s of "home studios". But will they buy YOUR plug-in, even in case it is technically the best for the purpose? 99.9% of them are unable to judge (tss... they will never agree with that...), so they prefer the "safe side", giving money to "known" producers (even in case that is just a label). Or using something for free. As the last resort, they will look for "bargain" ads. "$150 value, just for $5 today!".

For "serious commercial" people $5 is not something to consider. "One man support... cheap... my business should not have such dependency". When I have tried to convince one person that my free(!) plug-in is the perfect solution for his problem, and I have got such reply for the first time, I was a bit shocked. In the mean time I understand the reason.

When I divide the real price of my creatures (time spend*my regular salary) by the number of downloads and then add local (EU) taxes to the result, hmm... well... I will have hard time to find a single customer ready to pay such price
azslow3 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-29-2018, 02:21 PM   #4
mschnell
Human being with feelings
 
mschnell's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Krefeld, Germany
Posts: 14,687
Default

I do suppose there are opportunities to be payed for doing audio software on request for very dedicated purposes potential client might have in mind. Reaper might be very helpful on that behalf.

But trying to collect money for stuff you do for a yet unknown group of potential clients seems rather hard, unless you com up with a really brilliant idea, and even then somebody might stand up and offer a similar product with enhanced usability and/or for a lesser price.

-Michael
mschnell is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 02:15 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.