If you would calculate an hourly wage for your work in plug-ins, then how much is it?

[soundmodel]

If you would calculate an hourly wage for your work in plug-ins, then how much is it?

[gambero]

There was a pretty famous post about that on the JUCE forum, regarding the standard rates of an audio software developer. If I find it i'll link it here.

[BertKoor]

Greatly depends on where on the globe you are, and for how long you've been in the game, but at least twice as what a hair dresser asks for an hour.
See https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2023/#work-salary for the bigger picture.

[Fender19]

If you would calculate an hourly wage for your work in plug-ins, then how much is it?

I believe the replies above are addressing a going rate for someone working for hire. I think what you may be asking, instead, is what does the pay actually amount to given all the extra time you put in - as an independent developer - addressing customer issues, fixing bugs, testing, issuing updates, bookkeeping, etc., etc. In other words, how much would you make in terms of dollars per hour as your own boss/company?

If that's what you're asking, the answer depends on how good your ideas are; how capable you are and how good you are at business. Some people write plugins as a hobby for no money. Others make a living at it. In my case it's a part time job/supplemental income.

So if you're trying to decide if developing plugins is a worthwhile financial endeavor the only way to know for sure is to give it a try. But beware, as another thread here discusses, the plugin market is very saturated and unless you have some great new idea you may want to stay where you are!

[soundmodel]

Yes, well of course it's a bit relative. A popular developer can make a good amount while someone who just produces another of a thing that already exists maybe not.

[BertKoor]

What's the question behind the question?

Because to be blunt: you did it again. From your posts I read between the lines you have aspirations. But I sense so much doubt...

The question itself is rather pointless imho. Enough to make a decent living! If you can program, you can do that in any industry. DSP is a niche and not in popular demand. You already know all that.

[JustinJ]

But beware, as another thread here discusses, the plugin market is very saturated and unless you have some great new idea you may want to stay where you are!

Really though, which market worth being in isn't classed as saturated somehow? Which are the markets with little competition but huge demand?

A busy market means there are willing buyers in droves. However, in such a market there is little room for mediocrity. You need to learn how to compete, not write it off as a lost cause.

[soundmodel]

But beware, as another thread here discusses, the plugin market is very saturated and unless you have some great new idea you may want to stay where you are!

Really though, which market worth being in isn't classed as saturated somehow? Which are the markets with little competition but huge demand?

A busy market means there are willing buyers in droves. However, in such a market there is little room for mediocrity. You need to learn how to compete, not write it off as a lost cause.

But extreme competition is not useful tbh.

It creates wins for minorities and wastes resources of far more. I.e. if there's a 5% chance of winning, then it's guaranteed that 95% will lose.

I think ideally such situation would lead to faster innovation, but I am more concerned about the issue that it also motivates less ethical means to competition (such as branding over the insides of the product or race to the bottom pricing strategies), because they're easier than true innovations.

So yes, part of the issue is certainly about the probability of getting returns for done work too.

I sometimes speculate about the structure of the markets, because I've noticed in some job searches that it's sometimes very easy to get to the top 5% with credientials that you thought "weren't that special". This implies that a large portion of one's competitors might in fact be less serious than one may think. So it's not about the amount of competition, but also how much of a similar quality there is. If one's product is reasonably novel and priced correctly, then there should be far less risk and saturation.

But the question of the thread was more about what the returns are if we assume that the competition is reasonable.

I also, sort of, speculate that plug-ins aren't always reasonable priced. Is a $249 plug-in necessarily 5 times more work than a $49 plug-in? Sometimes it could also be that the $249 plug-in is in fact 20 or 30 times more work.

What's a healthy risk for a product anyways?

[hugoderwolf]

I also, sort of, speculate that plug-ins aren't always reasonable priced. Is a $249 plug-in necessarily 5 times more work than a $49 plug-in? Sometimes it could also be that the $249 plug-in is in fact 20 or 30 times more work.

That's a weird way of thinking about pricing. Replace "work" with "worth" and you're getting closer. Then understand that something being "worth" an amount of money is not a static or uniform number, and is only second-order linked to the amount of work needed to produce it, especially when you consider the near-zero marginal cost of selling software licenses.

Think of it like this: there are a number of people in a market who demand a product. Each has their own idea of what it would be worth for them to have it. When someone offers a product for a price x, those people who think it's worth more than x will buy it. Those who don't, won't.

In turn, someone offers a product for price x if they assume that the cost of making and selling it (for them, including opportunity cost, this is also highly variable across market participants) is lower than x.

[soundmodel]

I don't know about pricing tbh, but I think a profitable strategy is to possibly price so that it's accessible by different groups.

It's not a weird way to look at it because wage workers are paid by the hour and their buying power can be approximated by the amount of hours. So if someone making $20/hour wants to buy a $249 plug-in, then assuming he/she already pays for all other expenses, then he/she would need to work about 12 hours extra to afford this plug-in. Then the question is about whether he/she values the plug-in so much that he/she will work those 12 hours.

But certainly a real marketing strategy would also need to gauge potential buyers vs actual buyers.

Yes, worth can drive prices over the hourly wage approximation. But then we are also talking about exceptional products to begin with.

I don't think any mixing plug-in is exceptional, because all can be used to make good music.

[FAEDev]

But beware, as another thread here discusses, the plugin market is very saturated and unless you have some great new idea you may want to stay where you are!

Really though, which market worth being in isn't classed as saturated somehow? Which are the markets with little competition but huge demand?

A busy market means there are willing buyers in droves. However, in such a market there is little room for mediocrity. You need to learn how to compete, not write it off as a lost cause.

Honestly there's so much value to add to the plugin market, you shouldn't worry, from simple very simple straight cut plugins that fill holes in existing workflows, to major innovation. there's just so much room to make good plugins. Just careful not to make copypasta for profits, that's where you will fail to the major competitors like Isotope, Fabfilter... no need for another compressor / eq. Do those tiny tidbids that we sometimes need but we don't have...

[resynthesis]

Average developer salary in US is about $130k. If you're a decent coder and you're not getting near that you must be doing it for the love of plugin development.

[Milkman]

Its like the pharmaceutical industry. Just charge whatever you want, and wait to see how far you can go.

Do what Unity is trying to do: charge per instance of your plugin. Want to use your plugin in 10 projects? That is 10x the cost.

$$$PROFIT$$$