Next HISE Developer Hang
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@CyberGen said in Next HISE Developer Hang:
What kind of tools do you release?
Sample libraries, and one effect so far.
Which ones have sold well, and which haven’t?
People seem to like my Celtic instruments.
How many units has your top-selling product sold?
Of my HISE based instruments, Emerald Flute is my top seller with 1419 sold. I think my best seller overall is my Kontakt based uilleann pipes library, but that's over 10 years old so it's got a good run on my HISE stuff.
Worst seller is El Mariachi, but I just released that. I'm always thinking of sale numbers over the long term.
My most downloaded instrument is Bell & Bone (10535) but that's a freebie.
What pitfalls would you warn against?
Don't expect people who download your free stuff will want your paid products, some people just like free stuff.
I imagine most companies are one-person operations, but do you hire help occasionally?
I hire musicians, studios and graphic designers. I have occasionally hired audio editors but I much prefer to do it myself. I do all my own scripting so have never hired a scripter but I do sometimes hire developers to write little applications for me, or I pay them to enhance existing applications with features I want - usually these are tools for audio editing.
What other tools (besides HISE) do you rely on in your workflow to release a product?
Ardour, Audacity, Musescore, Signet, Loris, SoX, ffmpeg, Proxmox, shell scripts, Inkscape, GIMP, and the usual compilers and packaging tools.
Which services and fees do you pay monthly or yearly to keep things running?
Webhosting, I was using Vultr but switched to Cloudways a few weeks ago - it's similar to the control I get with Vultr but they handle the server admin.
Domains: I use Namecheap.
I use Bunny for CDN and for file hosting - much cheaper than S3.
Private email, I just switched to FastMail.
Marketing/Transactional emails, I was using Mautic + Amazon SES but I switched recently to FluentCRM + Amazon SES
Various WordPress plugins.
What kind of copy protection do you use, if any?
I don't restrict copies or use DRM but I use a license system to restrict who can download what from my server.
Do you release for mobile platforms?
Nope
What DAWs do you prioritize or release for?
Reaper, Cubase, FL Studio, Pro-Tools, Logic, Ableton
What back-end servers do you use?
If you mean for my website then I'm running Apache, previously I was using Open Lite Speed.
What is your pricing model: one-time purchase, subscription, or something else?
One time purchase. If I had a lot of products with regular updates I might consider subscription, but I would be having to supply new content every month for me to consider it a good idea for users.
How do you advertise? Do you create your own ads or pay "content creators"?
Facebook, email marketing, VI Control banners, YouTube:
Which platforms have yielded the best results, and which ones have been a waste of money?
In my experience FB is good for growing a mailing list but not great for making money.
VI Control banners don't bring in a lot either but you get some exposure. Posting in the commercial announcements forum is much better I think.
Email marketing is by far the most cost effective way to bring in money but you don't really get new customers from it. My last email brought in directly 140 Euros, not a lot but it cost me pennies so the ROI is great. I also get a lot of follow up sales from each email, especially if it's for a sale or includes a coupon.
YouTube is a good way to reach a target audience for free, either you need to grow your channel or get someone else to promote your stuff, I try to do both.
If you have a referral program for customers that can also be good, but most customers won't use it.
I also post on other sites like Reddit, KVR, and audiopluginguy
Libre Wave - Freedom respecting instruments and effects
My Patreon - HISE tutorials
YouTube Channel - Public HISE tutorials -
@d-healey This is really helpful info David. Much appreciated. Thanks.
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@clevername27 said in Next HISE Developer Hang:
@CyberGen Few developers would disclose this information.
True, though I believe it benefits us all. Tho more we share the better. If there is enough interest, maybe we could conduct it using an anonymous form—a developer-sourced audio tool market study? Just a thought.
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@CyberGen said in Next HISE Developer Hang:
- What kind of tools do you release?
Currently Sample Libraries and effects, tho I have a couple of developers licensing functionality from me, and Im thinking about expanding that into a "proper" product set - examples: an in-plugin download/install system (that @clevername27 has kindly mentioned here before), a file based authorisation system, a macro system, a tag based preset system etc.
- Which ones have sold well, and which haven’t?
Well like David I started out in the kontakt world and some of those products are 10+ years old so they have the highest numbers. Generally I cant see much difference between sample libraries and effects in terms of sales numbers - but it all price dependent
- How many units has your top-selling product sold?
Grief I have no ide maybe a coupe of thousand over a looong period, like David the free stuff gets down loaded a LOT
- What pitfalls would you warn against?
Know your market/customers. I would say its a bad bad bad idea to think you will sell nearly anything if its just from your own web presence - so get as many distribution deals as you can, and get your pricing right.
- I imagine most companies are one-person operations, but do you hire help occasionally?
VERY occasionally - I used to hire a graphic designer - but now its all vector based so I do everything in-house.
- What other tools (besides HISE) do you rely on in your workflow to release a product?
Gimp, Inkscape, Sublime Text, Bulk Rename Utility, Audient, Python, NI Kontakt, NI Creator Tools, auval, pluginval
- Which services and fees do you pay monthly or yearly to keep things running?
Just the web presence and online download/storage
- What kind of copy protection do you use, if any?
I use every type - none, file/number based and call-home it depends on who the distributor is and the type of product
- Do you release for mobile platforms?
No.
- What DAWs do you prioritize or release for?
Well first it HAS to work on Reaper, then I look at the problem children FL Studio and Logic then everything else Cubase, Live etc.
- What back-end servers do you use?
I use pCloud for storage
- What is your pricing model: one-time purchase, subscription, or something else?
One time purchase.
- How do you advertise? Do you create your own ads or pay "content creators"?
I dont. I leave that to the distributors, however the email list is a must.
- Which platforms have yielded the best results, and which ones have been a waste of money?
cant say
I'm looking forward to the meet.
Sorry I wont be there...
HISE Development for hire.
www.channelrobot.com -
@Lindon said in Next HISE Developer Hang:
I imagine most companies are one-person operations, but do you hire help occasionally?
VERY occasionally - I used to hire a graphic designer - but now its all vector based so I do everything in-house.What about that time you hired me and I had to wear that clown suit? You said I'd be entertaining children. Not entertaining TO children.
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@Lindon said in Next HISE Developer Hang:
I imagine most companies are one-person operations, but do you hire help occasionally?
VERY occasionally - I used to hire a graphic designer - but now its all vector based so I do everything in-house.Also, I forgot to ask for any money.
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@clevername27 said in Next HISE Developer Hang:
@Lindon said in Next HISE Developer Hang:
I imagine most companies are one-person operations, but do you hire help occasionally?
VERY occasionally - I used to hire a graphic designer - but now its all vector based so I do everything in-house.What about that time you hired me and I had to wear that clown suit? You said I'd be entertaining children. Not entertaining TO children.
well that didnt really work out did it? - esp. as you insisted to coming on stage to THAT song by Sufjan Stevens.....
HISE Development for hire.
www.channelrobot.com -
@clevername27 can you repost the link and time for the meeting here?
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@HISEnberg 2 hours from now
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Will there be any interest in something related to Faust integration ? I can possibly participate next meeting if you guys have some questions I can prepare answers for.
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@sletz
Sounds great! :-)
