Pricing Model Suggestions
Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2018 7:32 pm
Have seen that the Voltage Modular Software is now offered for $0 in the store - so I assume instead of buying the base bundle for 150$ people can now alternatively pick and choose?
Sounds like an interesting option - for very specific scenarios where only a hand full of modules is needed, otherwise the base bundle is always more attractive. Currently the divergence between the reasonable bundle price and the individual modules price is imho too bizarre though (150$ vs 1600$+ (estimated as 20$*80, not calculated).
Have been brainstorming about options how to get to solutions that might sound viable to both sides:
1) Reduce prices so far that the bundle is a discounted variant of a la carte, not another universe. E.g. (didn't count) let's assume we have 50 trivial bread'n'butter utilities, 20 more elaborated modules and 10 sophisticated filters/oscs/effects in the base bundle, and let's assume the individual modules would cost $1, $5 and $10 in the three complexity classes, then buying the entire base bundle a la carte would cost 50*$1+20*$5+10*$10=$250 - compared to $150 for the bundle. That would imho sound about right. (Having the lowest imaginable price of $0 for the base program maximizes the per-module price that way while still staying in reasonable realms).
2) The initial module prices are as high as they currently are, but get discounted by 0.25% for every dollar already spent on the store, down to a minimum of $1 per module. So if you have already spent $400 any additional module is $1 from there on. That way people still pay CA and the external devs good money for their work - but with a reasonable upper bound regarding TCO. That would additionally increase the incentive for devs to write outstanding modules - the very first modules each and everybody buys would be the ones that bring most money.
3) like 2., but the discount increases faster, by 1% per dollar spent, so the $1 per module level would already be reached after $100. But each month the discount would go down by 10% again. So on average people would spend about $120+ per year to stay "up to date".
4) Base price of $300 for VM + Module Designer, yearly upgrades for about $100. People can upload self-made modules, but not ask for money - everything in the library can be downloaded by all owners (so it's essentially a user library like for Reaktor&Co that over time will be the reason why you want to buy into the system, but not make money per module).
I personally would prefer option 4 by a huge margin - but might also be able to live with 1-3.
Sounds like an interesting option - for very specific scenarios where only a hand full of modules is needed, otherwise the base bundle is always more attractive. Currently the divergence between the reasonable bundle price and the individual modules price is imho too bizarre though (150$ vs 1600$+ (estimated as 20$*80, not calculated).
Have been brainstorming about options how to get to solutions that might sound viable to both sides:
1) Reduce prices so far that the bundle is a discounted variant of a la carte, not another universe. E.g. (didn't count) let's assume we have 50 trivial bread'n'butter utilities, 20 more elaborated modules and 10 sophisticated filters/oscs/effects in the base bundle, and let's assume the individual modules would cost $1, $5 and $10 in the three complexity classes, then buying the entire base bundle a la carte would cost 50*$1+20*$5+10*$10=$250 - compared to $150 for the bundle. That would imho sound about right. (Having the lowest imaginable price of $0 for the base program maximizes the per-module price that way while still staying in reasonable realms).
2) The initial module prices are as high as they currently are, but get discounted by 0.25% for every dollar already spent on the store, down to a minimum of $1 per module. So if you have already spent $400 any additional module is $1 from there on. That way people still pay CA and the external devs good money for their work - but with a reasonable upper bound regarding TCO. That would additionally increase the incentive for devs to write outstanding modules - the very first modules each and everybody buys would be the ones that bring most money.
3) like 2., but the discount increases faster, by 1% per dollar spent, so the $1 per module level would already be reached after $100. But each month the discount would go down by 10% again. So on average people would spend about $120+ per year to stay "up to date".
4) Base price of $300 for VM + Module Designer, yearly upgrades for about $100. People can upload self-made modules, but not ask for money - everything in the library can be downloaded by all owners (so it's essentially a user library like for Reaktor&Co that over time will be the reason why you want to buy into the system, but not make money per module).
I personally would prefer option 4 by a huge margin - but might also be able to live with 1-3.