I would agree - there are two business models that apply here. Sell high
and rely on a few sales and sell low ( still making a profit of course! )
and sell in volume.

I would be more than happy to "speculate" on a $49.95 CD without hearing
anything more than some MP3 demos and knowing that it might have something
applicable to my work.

I would certainly balk at paying more than $100 unless it had received
stellar _independent_ reviews first. There are some excellent companies out
there ( thanks Bolder! ) but for most of them, there is just no chance for a
satisfactory level of comsumer education.

My best purchase in terms of "signal to noise ratio" has been the DataBecker
SoundClips library - $40 for eight disks with 10K WAV files - some of them
have been waaaay overused, most of them are crap ( for what I am doing -
YMMV ) but I got a couple hundred megs of excellent useful stuff for my
money and I am a happy camper. http://www.databecker.com/p_soundclips.htm

If you sold through the internet, you would not need fancy packaging. Be
generous with free stuff and leave people wanting a little bit more and
price this reasonably.

Dave

-> -----Original Message-----
-> From: Ray Callahan [mailto:kb4ygo@...]
-> Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2001 9:35 PM
-> To: palermo@...; KL
-> Subject: Re: [KL] A future for sample CD-ROMs for Kurzweils
->
->
-> In response to Tony's comments, I bought Symphony of Voices about a
-> year ago and found it to be of very high quality, but Tony is right
-> about prices. $500 is way too much for the 4 CD-ROM set. I would
-> NEVER do that again. I just can not justify spending over $100 per
-> CD-ROM, no matter how good it is. I believe that if producers of
-> CD-ROMs would bring down their prices to in the $40 to $50
-> range, they
-> would sell so many that they would make much more money. Why is
-> Wal-Mart so successful? Because they sell a ton of stuff at prices
-> lower than the competition---and they are making lots of money. Plus
-> sample sounds take up a lot of memory and you must have some kind of
-> outboard recorder if you plan to use them in music. Add in
-> the time to
-> load large memory sounds and they are pretty much useless in live
-> performance which means that you must record them earlier then play
-> along with them, which is OK, or not use many of the sounds. Just my
-> comments.
->
-> Ray Callahan
-> San Antonio
->
->
-> --- Tony Palermo <Palermo@...> wrote:
-> > Peter Schouten has written recently about the uncertainty
-> of being a
-> > third-party Kurzweil soundware developer. He fears that
-> > Spectrasonics'
-> > decision to stop releasing new sample CDs in Kurzweil
-> format signals
-> > the
-> > demise of the Kurzweil platform as a sample market. I disagree.
-> >
-> > The Kurzweil market isn't dead. It just needs some
-> bolstering. And WE
-> > can do that.
-> >
-> > According to ex-Kurzweil support guru, Larry "Synthbro" Hopkins,
-> > there
-> > are 30,000 Kurzweil K-series instruments out there, world-wide.
-> > That's a
-> > huge potential market--and the key word here is "potential."
-> >
-> > As Kurzweil users, we need to support the *quality* soundware
-> > developers--especially small ones like Mike Martin's Key Solutions,
-> > Dennis Burns's Bolder Sounds and Peter Schouten's Pyramid Sounds.
-> > These
-> > guys have smartly chosen to provide the sounds Kurzweil and
-> > Sweetwater
-> > left out of their ROMblocks and CD-ROMs. It just so happens that
-> > these
-> > three small-timers produce the very sounds the I like
-> most. I want to
-> > see them continue to offer these great sounds and I want them to
-> > thrive.
-> > What are samplers without sounds? It's in OUR interest to look out
-> > for
-> > THEIR interests.
-> >
-> > Support means buying their products and recommending them to other
-> > Kurzweilers. The purpose of this e-mail list is to spread
-> information
-> > around. Let's do that by addressing the CD-ROM buying
-> experience for
-> > Kurzweilers.
-> >
-> > THE GREAT FEAR
-> > The problem with buying sample CD-ROMs is the risk of blowing good
-> > money
-> > on sounds that you haven't heard. Prices vary from $129-$399 for
-> > Kurzweil format CD-ROMs and that price barrier stops many potential
-> > customers from taking ANY chances. All you need is to be
-> burned once
-> > by
-> > a shoddy sound collection or poorly programmed "Kurzweil" disc and
-> > you'll be put off future purchases. We need to be
-> confident that the
-> > sounds will be good and the programs useful.
-> >
-> > HOW DOES IT SOUND?
-> > Of course, one man's "good" sound can often be another's idea of
-> > "lame."
-> > Soundware developers can reduce sound quality fears with MP3 demos
-> > such
-> > as the excellent ones for Pyramid's "Real Rhodes" and other
-> > collections.
-> > These audio demos let the buyer decide if the sounds are to their
-> > liking.
-> >
-> > Whether you're shopping or not, take a few minutes and check out
-> > these
-> > MP3 demos:
-> > http://www.pyramid-sound.com/mp3_demos.htm
-> > http://www.boldersounds.com/mp3.asp
-> > http://members.aol.com/keysolutns/
-> >
-> > SOUNDS GOOD, BUT HOW DOES IT PLAY?
-> > The other questionable area is how well are the K-programs
-> > implemented,
-> > either with useful keymaps and envelopes, or with smart VAST
-> > programming. That'll take reviews, testimonials, and "I
-> got burned by
-> > xxx" postings, here on KurzList.
-> >
-> > Here are some sound reviews worth looking at:
-> > http://sonikmatter.com/reviews/
-> > http://k2users.org/k_revu.htm
-> >
-> > CAN I GET A WITNESS?
-> > For the testimonials and "I got burned by xxx" info, I request that
-> > KurzList members post about both our good, AND bad sample
-> > collections.
-> > Also, please voice your opinions about other collections, such as
-> > Shane
-> > Etter's SoundSubscriptions and Brian Cowell's many free
-> and for-sale
-> > sounds.
-> >
-> > http://members.aol.com/SoundSubs/SOUNDSUBS2.html
-> > http://www.soundengine.com/html/samp/k2000.html
-> >
-> > If enough members rave about "this" collection or trash "that" one,
-> > we
-> > can increase buyer knowledge and confidence--and THIS will
-> translate
-> > into sales. More sales would spur more collections--and THAT would
-> > benefit everybody.
-> >
-> > Let's show Peter and every other Kurzweil developer that there's
-> > still
-> > life in this market. Post today!
-> >
-> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
-> > Tony Palermo - Los Angeles, USA
-> > Palermo@...
-> >
-> > Visit my Kurzweil K2000/K2500 Launch Pad [*** NEW URL ***]
-> > http://www.k2users.org/k_main.htm
-> >
-> >
-> >
-> > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
-> > http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
-> >
-> >
->
->
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