BLOG: The true value of free music software

Why MusicRadar published its controversial 'Top 10' list

Ben Rogerson, Mon 22 Sep 2008, 3:43 pm UTC

The article first appeared in a Computer Music Freeware Special.

When MusicRadar published the Top 10 reasons to use free music software, we honestly didn't except it to spark off a major debate.

However, last week, that's exactly what happened: Paul Kaufman from commercial developer IK Multimedia responded with his thoughts, then the issues he raised were discussed on MusicRadar, Create Digital Music and Analog Industries.

I'm all in favour of people having their say, but I just wanted to clarify a couple of points.

Firstly, although the original article was explicitly designed to extol the merits of free software – many musicians still don't know how good much of it is – the intention was never to imply that it's inherently better than the products you have to pay for.

This clearly isn't the case – take a look through MusicRadar's review archives and you'll see countless commercial DAWs, plug-ins and other apps being heartily recommended. But the fact is that many of the freebie offerings also have value, and they deserve to be recognised.

Secondly, I have a message for commercial software developers – free software can be your friend. On the one hand, you can release free, cutdown versions that should encourage punters to invest in your full products at a later date (particularly if you offer reasonably-priced upgrades), while on the other, free software gives people who can't afford your tools a legitimate alternative.

If would-be computer musicians are living impecuniously, surely it's better that they use software that's genuinely free than seek out cracks of applications that they should be paying for?

Ultimately, though, I don't think it's true that musicians make a conscious decision to use either free or commercial software. Most will buy their core tools – for many of the reasons that IK picked out in its response to MusicRadar – then supplement these with some of the best freebies.

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User comments (2)

danmar

16 weeks ago.

Hey Elvis2, if it's all just ones and zeros why don't you write your own software. And maybe give it away. Elvis2 is you typical blockhead who thinks that software is invisible therefore worthless. Makes you wonder why he has a computer huh? And how it manages to work....
The problem with the original article is that it was written by an idiot. The writer was reaching a mile out to come up with 10 reasons why freeware is good. Anyway, the quality of the comments gives a good example of the targeted audience.

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Elvis2

Tue 23 Sep 2008, 5:08 am UTC

Its all just ones and zeros isnt it?
I have a really hard time justifying spending a lot of money on software, im an old school type of person i guess, i like things i can physically grab on to, guitars, amplifiers etc, i would much rather buy another guitar than spend the same amount of money or more on software, especially software that i might then find myself not using.
I still buy cds and dvds although i could probably download stolen copies of everything off the internet, i like the idea of getting a product i can physically hold in my hand as opposed to a mp3/avi file that just sits there in my computer until i delete it, i live in iceland and if you think music software is expensive where you live you should see the prices over here, they are just ridiculous.
Heres a probably stupid idea, lets say i wanted to buy Abelton Live, the current version is um version 7 i think, its really expensive but version 4 or so probably has all the features i need, why not make that version available for a lot less than say version 7? instead of paying 400 pounds or whatever for version 7 if i could get version 4 for 50 pounds or something i might actually consider buying it.. just a thought..

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