How to increase your success of your VST or Plugin Effect

DSP, Plugin and Host development discussion.
RELATED
PRODUCTS

Post

Dear Mr Marketing Guy noise_2015,

It's is difficult to know what level of musicianship you have, or how familiar you are with this world of audio plugins, hosts, companies and promotions, but looking at your join date, three years ago, and 5 posts in that time, I would have to guess, not much?

Do you work in the audio DAW/plugin domain? I'm going to have to guess not as you're talking to Aleksey, one of the longest surviving lone developers on KVR, with a 16 year track record of success. If his marketing strategies were no good, I think he'd know about it by now!

All musicians/artists/producers who use computers to make music do it in different ways, and all those users consume products in different ways for different reasons. Some are unfamiliar with the different products and their purpose, while others know exactly what all these tools do and how to use them. Some folks LOVE to watch a video demonstrating the basic functionality, others just want to read the manual and don't care for any promotional content. Some people want presets to flick through and mildly tweak, others never touch a preset and will always want to start from scratch.

My point it, it is impossible to say to audio plugin/DAW developers "if you don't market your products like this, you'll never experience your potential penetration" - all these companies (from the largest like Waves or NI to the smallest like Aleksey or AirWindows) understand their customer base better than you do. I'd be sure of that. And if you believe you can do better than what they already do, demonstrate it! Do a video of the type you are recommending, and see if you can influence the developers to follow your lead when it comes to their marketing tactics.

I mean, ok, from a consumers' perspective, I can see that videos targeted for the (for example 3) different calibre of artists (noob, mostly-know-what's-going-on and consummate-professionals) would be a useful resource for consumers of all levels. And there are some companies who create 'introduction/demonstration' videos alongside 'the product in use' videos; perhaps you haven't seen those.

But there is no expected standard of resources a plugin company should deliver before their product hits the shelves. They don't all have the time and resources, and often don't see the need because they've already looked at how often the videos were seen, and decided that their customers prefer a number of short audio clips demonstrating the difference between presets, or no video just a 30-day no-functional-limit demo so people can download and make up their own minds.

When do you plan on doing your perfect new plugin video which satisfies every level of customer ability?

Post

One: Not video! Takes too much time to produce!

I'm more of a lurker than a poster, but: I spent too much time as a teenager in an University Electronic Music studios (don't know why there were no students there so I'd go there Sat morning and stay till midnite, I did this for years so I guess it was a different world back then, '76-78?) working with huge Arp 2500s, Buchlas, EMSs, and a Roland System 100 which was too much fun (you could do a whole piece -- with sections!). Worked as an Assistant Engineer for a big commercial studio for a while. Got out of the electronic music thing when I realized girls thought I was wierd (note: it wasn't the music). After playing in many bands I started back into recording with Studio Vision AV, then Cubase (pre-plugins), and now Cubase 9.5. I've worked with the amazing Eric Ratz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Ratz (Juno's up the wazoo) and the legendary Nick Blagona https://nickblagona.com/, played in The Parkdale Hookers, and for the past 5 years been hosting the Song Talk Radio Podcast https://songtalk.ca (we talk about the craft of songwriting, not the inspiration), so I have a little bit of background.

I don't have any clients in the plugin domain (how they do what they do is amazing), but I'd be open to working with them!

I advocate for my clients' clients - it's hard for any company to clearly perceive their own process and how people perceive them from the outside -- which is why companies hire marketing folks (admittedly, not all marketing folks are created equal) to help them communicate better with their targets.

I just know that I (and along with everyone I asked at various meetings I've been to) have loaded up a plugin and tried to figure out what it does (i.e.find value - enough value to click on "Buy"). Very often, I haven't been able to figure it out and went on to the next one.

The goal is to get a Plugin Tryer into being a Plugin Buyer, I can't think of a simpler, more cost effective way. Why leave money on the table?

Post

Marketing guys as far as I understand often forget about competition. When everyone does the same thing, you end up where you all started. Diversity is the key to success, there's no single "take it to the bank" way to succeed on the market.
Image

Post

Diversity is our strength.
Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

Post

Aloysius wrote: Thu Oct 18, 2018 7:49 pm Diversity is our strength.
As long as it sounds ‘analogue’ hey? :hihi:

Post

:hihi:
Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

Post

Learning from the BYOME thread, release a plugin that everyone wants but cant afford.
Thats a match to touchpaper
lol
Amazon: why not use an alternative

Post

"The goal is to get a Plugin Tryer into being a Plugin Buyer.." that statement makes me shudder. Marketing psychology 101.. This isn't selling nappies to mothers; we are artists looking for tools to sculpt our emotion through the medium of audio.

It sounds like you've been music-ing for a long time, so you know what's like to create a process, which suits you, to enable you to make purchasing decisions. The actual companies have a few options with regard to the user previewing the item prior to purchase,

- time limited
- functionally limited
- noise every x seconds
- or any combination of the above

and some give no option(!) just a no-quibble money back. As much as we complain about these limits, we all work within them to ensure the thing we buy is the thing we want. To have only received from your colleagues the over-riding idea that you've no idea what the benefits of a plugin are prior to loading it up and twiddling knobs could well highlight the difference between artists (as most folks here are) and the paid-for producers/engineers you know.

At the bottom end of the scale you've got eager young kiddo's with wide, hungry minds and multiple methods of judgement (they're happy to watch 20 minute vids, chat on forums / social media, read blogs) and if it still appeals, get demo or buy. At the other end of the scale you've got experienced producers / engineers who have lived a life in the studio, know exactly what they consider innovative or interesting to their ears and, with that, well developed judgement systems. I don't believe either of these try-ers can be manipulated into being a buyer.

All of the DSP companies have 'characters' - some are friendly and interactive, others are large, inflexible, ominous entities - and the only thing which is similar among them are the things they make; sound generators or sound changers. What I'm trying to say is, as Aloysius and Aleksey have both asserted, diversity is the key to success. Diverse companies for a diverse crowd of artists.

No one method of marketing is going be effective across the whole plugin consumer community, in the same way that not all students will respond to a Barclays advert using funky young rap and dancing girls to sell their banking-wares.

Which leads me on to external resources. Perhaps there _is_ a need for a consolidation of information; a single site with a collection of videos, audio examples, a small list of short processes to run through to demonstrate certain qualities of the plugins. I don't know if similar sites exist in, say, the visual plugin world.. I mean.. are there advertising protocols for FCP plugin releases? I've really no idea. Because there aren't in the audio DSP plugin world.

I'm babbling; apologies.

Post

CinningBao wrote: Thu Oct 18, 2018 9:42 pm
Which leads me on to external resources. Perhaps there _is_ a need for a consolidation of information; a single site with a collection of videos, audio examples, a small list of short processes to run through to demonstrate certain qualities of the plugins.
Er, KVR ??
Amazon: why not use an alternative

Post

Try YouTube
Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

Post

VariKusBrainZ wrote: Thu Oct 18, 2018 10:00 pm
CinningBao wrote: Thu Oct 18, 2018 9:42 pm
Which leads me on to external resources. Perhaps there _is_ a need for a consolidation of information; a single site with a collection of videos, audio examples, a small list of short processes to run through to demonstrate certain qualities of the plugins.
Er, KVR ??
Yeah, I thought someone might pick up on that! I mean, ok, the Products (I'm sure it was called Library once) exists, but it is just an advert really. The user reviews are sparse and vary in quality. And there are countless threads of peoples opinions about audio tools.. it's a shame we don't have an AI engine to scan the threads and work out what the actual general opinion was from the mass of posts. That would be cool. But I _can_ see how a website which offered a consistent, un-biased, fully demonstrative reviews of every-single-plugin-ever (from the last few years or so realistically) could be useful for some people. A growing collection of 'sweet spots' with audio examples, instructions (and maybe presets) could be quite interesting. Finding that person/team could be a challenge though. Subscription or ad-revenue?

The incredible variations in quality of product review are pretty wild out there in the YT land. And some of the reviewers aren't as unbiased as they should be. At least, I suppose, we don't get much of that here. That I know of..

Post

Ok, this has gotten off the simple, super low-work suggestion I made. Literally a small popup on your plugin, with the words

" Thanks for trying out the VST Potato-er Dynamic Poop-Maker. Here's a quick rundown on how to use it
1. Download this short audio file
2. Load it into your DAW and add the Potato-er onto your channel
3. Move the Delflagenator slider down to "4"
4. Notice how the top end is enhanced and sounds like a potato
5. Now, move the Thingmawhatizit slider to 50 - this works with the bottom end and will make it sound less like a potato

This would take less time than it took everyone to write all the text trying to refute it, try it - you'll be happy with the results. What do you have to lose?
Last edited by noise_2015 on Fri Oct 19, 2018 11:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

Post

Aleksey Vaneev wrote: Thu Oct 18, 2018 7:22 pm Marketing guys as far as I understand often forget about competition. When everyone does the same thing, you end up where you all started. Diversity is the key to success, there's no single "take it to the bank" way to succeed on the market.
Please fire any Marketing Company or person who doesn't research the crap out of the competition and the market before starting your project or understands a basic SWOT audit (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats).

There are people who call themselves marketing people who have no business doing so and they give the industry a bad name. There is a lot or graphic designers who call themselves marketers who have no training or background as the industry is different from the old days.

Kinda like everyone calls themselves "producers" ! ;-)
Last edited by noise_2015 on Fri Oct 19, 2018 11:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

Post

noise_2015 wrote: Fri Oct 19, 2018 10:57 am1. Download this short audio file
Every plugin has a type of audio file that is perfect for it, but it may not be my type of audio file.
d o n 't
w a n t
m o r e

Post

noise_2015 wrote: Fri Oct 19, 2018 11:07 am
Aleksey Vaneev wrote: Thu Oct 18, 2018 7:22 pm Marketing guys as far as I understand often forget about competition. When everyone does the same thing, you end up where you all started. Diversity is the key to success, there's no single "take it to the bank" way to succeed on the market.
Please fire any Marketing Company or person who doesn't research the crap out of the competition and the market before starting
...and you said you've actually got no experience within the plugin industry, is that right?
my other modular synth is a bugbrand

Post Reply

Return to “DSP and Plugin Development”