How does the "Popular Instruments, Modules and Bundles" category work?

[ChR_is]

I am very confused by the store tbh. I always assumed that the "Popular Instruments, Modules and Bundles" shown at the top of the discover page are measured by sales for the respective time frame (mostly because free products don't show up there). but i am having a hard time believing that the newly released preset packs "Retro Waves for Elka-X" and "Snow Angel for Mercury-6" outsold every ca and third party dev produce in the "All Time" category literally hours after their release. and especially during the ongoing 2023 module celebration sale anyway. i took this screenshot even before the marketing email was sent out:

CA_Store_PresetPacks.png (959.78 KiB) Viewed 8520 times

so my question is, what are the actual metrics for showing up in the "Popular Instruments, Modules and Bundles" highlight reel on the store's discover page?

[Steve W]

I think "popular," "trending," and single words like that are shorter than "We think you might like" and other similar phrases.

Seriously though, it could be that the Sound Packs inherit popularity from the Instruments themselves. Based on third-party tutorials, review videos and interviews, both Elka-X and Mercury-6 have been getting a lot of attention and seem to be popular Instruments.

[cherryaudio Robert]

The featured products shown on that page are based on a mix of data from traffic, sales, and featured selections made by Marketing (me). It's not a real-time Sales chart. The purpose of the section is to promote products from Cherry Audio as well as the developer community, which is also reflected in our newsletter and social media channels. You're welcome to contact me by email (I think you have my address) if you have further questions or issues with marketing activities, or submit a ticket that will get forwarded to me.

[ChR_is]

The featured products shown on that page are based on a mix of data from traffic, sales, and featured selections made by Marketing (me).

The list is called "Popular Instruments, Modules and Bundles". how do you get to decide what's popular?
also, if traffic is a factor, why are there never any free products on these lists?

[woau]

Yeah the 'Popular' should be called 'Featured', now it seems like its based on consumer choices but its based on (CA) developer choices.

I guess the 'Essential' List is the same thing, just another different name for (CA) developer list to push sales.

Not very transparent and slightly manipulative

[cherryaudio Robert]

Since we're now moving into accusations of misbehavior, here's the final word on the subject. And then I am closing the thread.

Feedback received and understood. We will consider changing how this section is labeled, when we don't have quite so much going on. It would require a change to the store backend and template, and we don't do that lightly or often.

For those who think this section should be based purely on metrics of sales: be careful what you wish for. Frankly, that would result in all 3rd party modules disappearing off the list. We don't need another section that contains nothing but official Cherry Audio releases, and our metrics are our business, as is the website. Developers who are curious as to how their own products are performing have access to that data, and they know that. But that section is not going to change to reflect some sort of competitive chart or contest in which developers can try to guess how their sales are in comparison to other products, other developers, or Cherry Audio.

There are many effective ways for developers to spend their time and effort marketing their products and increasing their sales/installs: YouTube, social media, a dedicated website, demos, documentation, and participation in forums, including their own sections here. We do our best to augment those efforts to a wider audience as time allows, and will continue to do so in the ways we determine are the most effective and balanced.