Bob Taylor, of Taylor guitars, recently wrote in his magazine about what type of buyers of his guitars he should cater for. While he personally preferred to pay more and get quality, as a business owner, he had to think about whether they should only cater for buyers with similar standards, rather than also making cheaper guitars to appeal to the budget strapped. He still tends towards the former.
SB has to contend with the same issues. However, they have made cheaper, but less capable versions, to cater for those with lesser incomes.
The elephant in the room is Apple, whose iOS app store has contributed to the notion that software should be very cheap. Well, they make 30% of EVERYTHING sold, whereas 99.99% of app writers will NEVER break even. But Apples makes big of how much they paid out! For that 99.99%, they would be better off just getting Lotto tickets – they would probably make more, or at least lose less, and have much more family time.
If one is NOT making money out of making music, don’t EXPECT those making the programs you WANT to use subsidise your unrealistic spending habits. If you cannot afford to buy the things that require a lot of peoples’ time and effort, find something that does cost as much as what you believe YOUR efforts are worth.
We have not yet made money enough off our music to cover our expenses, but we are not stupid enough to think that we can have top end programs at bargain prices, regardless of the distorted thinking that has gripped the software market.