Comments on: Torrent a Live Pack for the Weekend; Could Donationware Work?

By: gwenhwyfaer

gwenhwyfaer — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:24:12 +0000

(er, make that “wouldn’t” and read quotes around ‘industry’)

By: gwenhwyfaer

gwenhwyfaer — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:23:08 +0000

Quoth Tom Davenport: “if it’s so cheap… people woudln’t be arsed to crack and torrent it“.

And yet there’s a crack out there for Reaper – which proves nothing so much as that the whole w4r3z industry is the product of severe testosterone poisoning; one must presume that the whole thing will go away when a cure is found for male adolescence.

By: dan lukas

dan lukas — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:23:57 +0000

i tried most of the togeo packs out. for me, i found most of the presets to be too numerous and too similar for me to get much use out of them.

By: Togeo Studios

Togeo Studios — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:18:18 +0000

Micro-payments would be the best answer, but I do understand the problems with such a system.

Google Bank? lol…like they need more money.

By: Paul Davis

Paul Davis — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:11:28 +0000

@Tom Davenport: so-called “micro-payment” schemes have been the dream of the commercial internet for at least 10 years. Nobody has figured out a workable system for such payments, and some people now contend that the system would not work for non-technical reasons. It appears unlikely that this is going to emerge in the near future – there are many powerful and different forces stacked against it.

Apple’s AppStore works because you already have an account with them. Without that key step, it would be just as cumbersome as most other online payment schemes.

By: Tom Davenport

Tom Davenport — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:52:19 +0000

I was going to mention the GleetchLab example too. His software is worth the new â‚¬10 model.

Instead of donationware, try charging $1. If there can be a system which is perhaps quicker than Paypal, then surely at least 1% of these tens of thousands of previous downloaders will be happy to pay.

I think of the iPhone AppStore. Because it’s an instant ‘BUY NOW’ button, it’s very easy to do it, whereas even the quick Paypal takes a screen or two too long for me to bother sometimes. Maybe an idea for you web developers out there, make the internet have a faster ‘buy now’ system.

Also, if it’s so cheap ($1-3) then people wouldn’t be arsed to crack and torrent it.

By: Justin

Justin — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 17:09:49 +0000

I think if developers step it up one level from ‘donationware’, by making it so that people are obligated (though not forced by any technological means) to pay, makes it several orders of magnitude more effective.

We’ve been doing just that with REAPER, and are pretty happy with the results.

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 14:17:52 +0000

Thanks, Togeo. Yep, Wired’s story on free and Chris Anderson’s writing have, at least, raised the visibility of the issue. But I think some of the challenges of working out the actual practicalities get lost in that story — which is fine; it’s a first step. But the actual future of business is a matter of sorting out those details. It’ll be interesting to see how that pans out.

By: Togeo Studios

Togeo Studios — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 04:26:51 +0000

Thanks for the article Peter and we are not sure if it will work either. But we felt that it was worthwhile to at least try. Your article gave us a bump in traffic (thanks), which I traced back here. I do believe that there is and will be a shift in music marketing and marketing in general that has a large part to do with free products as the basis.

By: erik

erik — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 01:42:39 +0000

Wired recently did a article on “Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business”. I think they might be right. Nevertheless, nice work.