Why you shouldn't use free software – a commercial developer's view
IK Multimedia responds to MusicRadar article
Ben Rogerson, Mon 15 Sep 2008, 11:24 am UTC
Following the publication of our 'Top 10 reasons to use free software' article, acclaimed plug-in developer IK Multimedia has got in touch with MusicRadar to point out what it sees as the disadvantages of going down the freeware road.
While the company accepts that "there are many fine and useful freeware products out there," it also feels that users "should think very carefully before relying on these products".
In the interests of balance, we're happy to publish IK's views here, which were sent to us by the company's UK representative Paul Kaufman. We'd love to know what you think, too, so check out the original article, read the responses then have your say in the Comments section below.
IK Multimedia's points
1. Not all commercial plug-in developers (in fact very few) are large organisations, most are actually just a handful of people. Unlike many of the mainstream software developers.
2. Being a commercial developer does not mean that you necessarily lack the passion to develop great products. In fact quite the opposite can be true,as you also have the pressures of just staying in business to motivate you further. Freeware developers don't necessarily have to worry about paying wages, rent, office energy costs, marketing, advertising, exhibitions etc. They can rely on another job to pay the bills and mortgage (or just mum and dad!).
3. Free software is just that, free. Which means that the developer is under no obligation to support his products, maintain them, upgrade them and owes nothing to his users. He can drop a product if he loses interest without a moment's thought. What's even worse, when you think about it, is that he's using his own users as product testers. A freeware developer isn't paying teams of people to test his software under every possible situation that it could be used under so he is relying on the goodwill of users to find any faults or incompatibilities.
4. Most of the plug-in developers that we know of do not in fact charge for maintenance releases, bug fixes and updates. As far as IK is concerned, we only charge users for major releases when they are receiving what is effectively a new product.Even for brand new products, existing customers practically always receive a significantly reduced price.
5. You have no guarantee of quality, reliability, stability or compatibility with freeware. The developer doesn't have to worry about losing customers as they are not paying him in the first place. This means that there is no pressure to do full product testing or ensure a product works with all operating systems and versions of DAWs. If there is a problem, then tough, you have to wait for the developer to be bothered to get around to fixing it, you have no commercial leverage.
It is a constant battle for commercial developers to stay ahead of the latest changes to operating systems, DAWS or hardware many of which are out of our control. Product maintenance is a serious issue that can take up almost as much time as developing new products.
6. Commercial plug-in developers, such as IK, are under huge pressure from several fronts: outright piracy (ie. theft) of our products from cracks, torrent sites or casual swapping between friends; the increasing trend of hardware and DAW manufacturers to bundle many plug-in products in the box with their own packages, thus reducing the motivation to look further afield; and magazines who give away free plug-ins on their cover discs even at the expense of their own advertiser revenues.
User comments (10)
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Whilst there are some great pieces of freeware out there I generally agree that you get what you pay for. I own IK multimedias classik studio reverb plugins and I must say, I have never had an issue with them unlike some of the freeware plugins I have tried
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Just thought of an example of how a music s/w company should operate - Cockos and their Reaper DAW.
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Stuz719 makes a good point - paid for software comes with no real guarantees that it'll work any better than the free stuff.
And I agree with general consensus - give us something better than the free stuff at an affordable price and we'll have a look at it.
Think IK may have been a bit silly here! -
IMO, that's the essence of our days: almost everybody can develop hi-quality software since, for example, they can find a lot of resources on the net about DSP. Should they be blamed for that? Or shouldn't commercial software houses cope with this new challenge and offer more bang for the buck, more peculiar features, more quality? As IK said, they have a whole bunch of professional developers!
That's just a new virtuous circle!
Even by using just commercial software, aren't we amateur musicians able to make music whose incredibly hi-q sound was impossible to get just a few years ago? Should hardware manufacturers complain they can't sell their $100.000 SSL consoles to us? Should "real" acts complain about us? If it's the case I'm able to make better music than theirs (and maybe I also give it away for free) they have just to consider if they are worthless musicians. -
This article made me chuckle. If you have a good (!) product, people will buy it, regardless of the price tag.
It's not because it's freeware that it's no good or you won't get support. As a matter of fact I've had faster and more personal/nicer responses from freeware devs than commercial ones...
The really should have phrased their point of view differently here.
@ korellia...I do like to believe that a plugin is built to have a longer life span than a game and that does justify a higher price imho. -
1 is meaningless - "We're a small company, so you should buy from us." So?
2 is also meaningless. The fact that you like your job is not a motivation for me to buy your products.
3 - If your investment is 0, you probably won't be too annoyed if it isn't supported. You haven't lost anything. More annoying is when you shell out large sums of money for a product and get no support, which is usually the case.
4. Most freeware developers don't charge for updates, either, duh.
5. You have no guarantee of quality, reliability, stability or compatibility with paid programs either, the difference is if you don't like it, you're screwed. If you don't like freeware, delete it and find another. I once bought a commercial DAW, hated the workflow, and was out my money, nothing I could do.
6. Everybody's under pressure, that's the world we live in. Try being a professional musician - there's always somebody willing to do it for free, too. And those who do it for free have good day jobs, with which they can afford to pay for expensive programs to put on their top-of-the-line computers, so their demos have more polish than the real musicians, who have to eat. The only way to compete, is to compete, and put out a product so much better than the free stuff that there's no comparison! Bring it on, I say! Also, those magazines giving away programs on the cover disk are doing so through deals worked out with the owners, it's not like their stealing them! Just like musicians putting free songs on the net, in hopes it will encourage listeners to buy the rest. -
The issue here is value. Sure there are some caveats to free software, but that doesn't mean it has no value. In fact, some of the best software in the world is not only free, but is open source (the various flavors of Linux, Open Office, etc.).
I personally use a mix of free software and commercial software. I purchased Ableton Suite because not only did I find it intuitive to use, but because of the great "built-ins." Customers want value and if you can't give it to them, they will look somewhere else. In some places business competition is encouraged. -
When software companies start charging reasonable prices I will use them. When you consider gaming companies charge no more than $50 or so for their software and the hours it takes to produce them is usually ten times longer. It seems to me they over charge. I am starting to see a few plugin companies starting to charge around $50 for their plugins but there are only a few and the ones that are aren't really that great.
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So points 1, 2 and 6 are arguing "if you don't use commercial software we won't be there in the long run", whilst points 3, 4 and 5 are arguing that "you can't rely on free developers to be there in the long run"? How amusingly ironic... I fear that IK Multimedia haven't entirely thought their position through.
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"You have no guarantee of quality, reliability, stability or compatibility with freeware"
Evidently IK Mutimedia haven't read their own license agreement, which states:
"EXCEPT AS STATED ABOVE, IK MULTIMEDIA MAKES NO OTHER WARRANTY, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THIS PRODUCT. IK MULTIMEDIA DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTY THAT THE SOFTWARE IS FIT FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY SHALL BE LIMITED TO A NINETY (90) DAY DURATION OF THIS LIMITED EXPRESS WARRANTY AND IS OTHERWISE EXPRESSLY AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMED. IK MULTIMEDIA SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES, EVEN IF IK MULTIMEDIA IS ADVISED OF OR AWARE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THIS MEANS THAT IK MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTION SRL SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR THE LOSS OF PROFITS OR REVENUES, OR FOR DAMAGES OR COSTS AS A RESULT OF LOSS OF TIME, DATA OR USE OF THE SOFTWARE, OR FROM ANY OTHER CAUSE EXCEPT THE ACTUAL COST OF THE PRODUCT. IN NO EVENT SHALL IK MULTIMEDIA LIABILITY EXCEED THE PURCHASE PRICE OF THIS PRODUCT."
It sounds like they're trying to justify some of their prices, to me...
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greeny132
10 weeks ago.