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PA Black Friday Weekends


cclarry

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We are indeed entering the final phase of the year, which is always the busy sales season. Traditionally "all Fridays in November are black" at PA, but this year November even has 5 Fridays!

We will start the madness that is Black Friday with our Week 1 Offer, which will be a very special offer for the MEGA Bundle Annual plan. In my mind this plan is the most affordable way of having permanent access to ALL our current tools and toys. It is also easily the perfect solution for all of you who may be tired of chasing plugin deals every week.

Are you already a monthly subscriber and are thinking about committing for a year and switching to the annual plan? If so, do it now! Well, in 12 hours from now... the yearly savings you can get from this upcoming MEGA offer will easily be worth it. Stay tuned, we're launching our 1st Black Friday offer of the year at midnight today (California time, PST).

BF Weeks 2-5 will have more traditional offers for those of you who prefer buying a few plugins once in a while rather than subscribing to the big bundle. We'll have lots of great deals for all our best selling plugins for you during Black Friday - and even more offers during the upcoming XMAS sales. The prices will not change within this quarter btw, so if you see something you like at a price you like, you can go ahead, knowing this very plugin will not be sold cheaper just a few days later!

The one thing we will not discount is the monthly plan for the subscription bundles. We have thousands of satisfied users for that bundle, and the only way to save even more is to commit to an annual plan.

Another topic to address is the upcoming loyalty voucher codes.

Traditionally we are not sending out any loyalty vouchers in December, so the November vouchers will be the last ones of that type to go out this year. All future loyalty vouchers will have a minimum order value attached to them, as we are seeing way too many people (ab-)using them in ways that they were never intended for. We see users selling them, trading them, using multiple vouchers from various users in one account within a month, etc. Obviously, this is something we cannot accept.

We want our loyal customers to get some of their dream plugins at really affordable pricing, but we are not in the business of giving away multiple free plugins each month to users tricking the system. So, while all our future loyalty vouchers will of course still be worth every Cent they represent, they will be tied to a certain minimum spend in the future. The minimum spend for the popular $25 loyalty voucher for example will be $32, so you can even still use them to activate 2 or more used licenses you may buy somewhere, or for any $39.99 deal and more. We imagine this won't be the most popular decision we are presenting here, but we hope you will understand.

What else? Well, one thing I get asked about on social media and at trade shows (I love meeting you guys at AES and NAMM shows) all the time is upcoming releases. Yes, we have plenty of them planned! The two that are planned for 2019 still are the new Dear Reality dearVR Pro major update (FREE for all existing users and for all MEGA Bundle subscribers!), and the Lindell Vintage Neve TMT console emulation!

The dearVR Pro is scheduled to be out within roughly a week now, and the Lindell Vintage TMT Console should be out before the end of the year as well. Let's hope final testing goes fine for Lindell and the PA beta test group. So far things look very promising.

The new TMT console emulation by Lindell will be the first time Brainworx is officially licensing the patent-pending TMT concept to a 3rd party, and I am excited to share this new plugin with you all very soon. It definitely adds a different flavor to the line of PA console emulations.

Will the new Lindell plugin be included in the MEGA Bundle for FREE / at no extra cost? Yes, it will. We'll also have great intro offers for the new plugins, even during the promotional season.

Then, one weird thing happened last week, and I want to share it with you as a side note: for the first time ever we have released a product that I decided we won't actively promote like all the other launches we do! It's the "forever license" version of the MEGA Bundle.

In general I am super proud of this collection of currently 108 plugins from almost 30 brands with a total list price value of more than $17,500.00 (let that sink in!). But, even at the way reduced bundle price of "just" $6,999.99 I just don't feel like proposing to anybody to really go out and simply buy that bundle. Why? Because unlike the subscription bundles, which offer you future additions or updates at no extra cost, this perpetual MEGA bundle is just NOT the best deal out there in my mind. And I want as many people as possible to be able to get onboard with our best deal. This is why we created the subscription bundles in the first place. So, for those who have asked about it, you can buy it now. But I'd rather ask you to get a $24.99 subscription or our annual plan instead!

You could be subscribed to the MEGA Bundle for roughly 30 years (!), instead of paying for the bundle in one payment. Please, do the math, and think of what will be coming in the next few years!

Can you imagine how many new plugins, services and updates we will release in the next 30 years? I mean, the Plugin Alliance has only been around since 2012, but we have released well over 100 plugins in these 8 years already... and I don't see us slowing down in the future.


Anyway, whether you join the thousands of people who have signed up to the new subscription bundles right away, or whether you prefer to get a "steal deal" once in a while during one of our current or future promotions, the PA team and I really do appreciate your being around.

Thank you for your continued support. I mean it!

Please stay tuned, there are more emails going out in about 12 hours from now!

Lastly, I wanted to invite you all to my new personal facebook page:
NEW! Dirk Ulrich Facebook Page

Best wishes, happy mixing, and have a great holiday season!

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2 hours ago, cclarry said:

All future loyalty vouchers will have a minimum order value attached to them, as we are seeing way too many people (ab-)using them in ways that they were never intended for. We see users selling them, trading them, using multiple vouchers from various users in one account within a month, etc. Obviously, this is something we cannot accept.
 

pretty poor IMO - I don't think I've ever (ab-)used a voucher - and it would be fairly trivial to lock a particular voucher to a specific account to stop the abusing they are accusing their customers of.  It's basically blaming the customer - and certainly doesn't make me feel good about being a PA customer.  I bought the plugs that I did on the deal that was offered at the time - they are retrospectively changing the terms and conditions on that....by all means do that for NEW customers but don't apply that retrospectively.

Fortunately I think I have most of the PA plugs that I want - but if they want me a subscription customer they need to offer me a MUCH better deal, considering most of the stuff I don't have is of very low value.

Also $17,500, c'mon who is he trying to kid - that's assuming we buy the plugs at full price.  Using that method of pricing I have approx £100,000 of waves plugs - anybody want to buy them off me at that price ?

rant off :)

 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, cclarry said:

108 plugins from almost 30 brands with a total list price value of more than $17,500.00

Maybe now... but once upon a time, before subscriptions were available, and before someone got greedy, it was probably more around $6,000 at full price. It only got that way because for some reason, a new line of thought came along that also deemed $300 a good price tag to put on a flanger. Good thing it's a really good flanger… or at least it should be for that much.

Edited by antler
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29 minutes ago, antler said:

a new line of thought came along that also deemed $300 a good price tag to put on a flanger. Good thing it's a really good flanger

Lol yeah not in a million years will that not be a total rip off for that software flanger. That's boutique hardware prices, not for some zeros and ones that's gonna have a resale value of $25 on kvr

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34 minutes ago, cclarry said:

The Vendors use the "Illusion of value" principle.  You price a plugin's retail
at $300.  That way, when you sell at what the price SHOULD BE, on SALE,
at $30, it seems like GREAT VALUE!

Yeah PA's prices have just in general gotten largely out of control imo. From this customer's perspective this perceived value they and others place on their plugs, such as $150 for a single amp, falls dramatically in my eyes when that $150 bassdude can have a resale value of literally $5 lol. Speaking only for myself of course, but respectfully, when I see a lot of these PA prices I perceive a gat dang rip off, not an upper tier product due to the high price tag. Like w/ that Subway footlong, that thing will never be worth more than $5 to me lol. Anyway I gotta get my costume together, Happy Halloween from H.I. McDunnough! 

IMAG1261.jpg

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Not too long ago in a galaxy not far away......IK kicked some ***** in a group buy.

Izotope did not charge users for a Ozone 9 upgrade after it had been out for over 2 months.

Every week Melda has a 50% off.

Waves returns to it's own vomit with the $29 plugins.  Eventide is the copycat.

 

I don't think I need anymore.  

Funny how PA claims ignorance with what buyers were doing.

Also they rarely update plugins.

It does make sense in what they are doing, There needs to be some exchange of money with their vouchers.

 

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The craziest thing is that they forces you to auth 2 plugins transfer or pay full price fir one .... fuk that 

20 $ for bluechorus transfered  ? Nah ... they will never learn , chaging policies 4 time a year ... Dirk is cool , he s simply killing the resell market and the " i don t need it but for 4€ let s get it " 

basically they done last sale to check , some stuff at 29 some stuff at 39 ...and guess what , we all went 29 with our 25 € vauchers and if the minimum is 32 aka 39 in store since 32 never happens , they tjink yep we will get like a one month sub value out of the sale : wrong ! We re simply not gonna buy , period !!

Edited by Zo
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I still have some upgrades I can buy, although not exactly plugins that I'm eager to get (and not because they are bad plugins but because I already have loads of similar ones). But the GAS makes it hard to simply let a $50 voucher expires so... I ended up buying the Elysia's Phill's Cascade for $49 in the last minutes.

Edited by Sergio
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7 minutes ago, Yan Filiatrault said:

Those asking for free vouchers from others without actually never buying anything must not have helped.

maybe, but if the system allowed it then of course people are going to do it - it would be fairly trivial to lock vouchers to accounts - in fact just add a 'voucher code' to each account.    It's a problem of PA's own making.

The psychology of vouchers are interesting - and the often create a sale where no sale would have happened so don't feel too sorry for PA.

I strongly suspect they want to drive more people to the subscription model - and that's what is driving this

Just MO obviously.

 

 

 

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17 hours ago, Zo said:

they tjink yep we will get like a one month sub value out of the sale : wrong ! We re simply not gonna buy , period !!

Lol man they really pissed off Zo! 

 

20 hours ago, Carlos said:

We all know it's Zo's fault 😂

You know what I'm starting to think this is Zo's fault.. I mean, certainly had nothing to do with it 😎

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The craziest thing is that i told them , i want to use my vaucher !!! lol not somebody else one lol 

 

I'm not pissed off at all ...  i don't like when people give something on one hand take some from you on the other .... and think we're 5 years old dudes ... at least he said "unpopular" , he knows but be like "let's try it anyway and see how it's doing , we will change it later if needed " ....lol it's like a man shitting on a woman , patience and forgivness have limits lol (i know it's extreme as a comparison ) .... anyway i'm really full plugin wise to a degree that some crazy stuff , cheap are released and i don't even dare to get those , MU being an exemple , it sounds better than 50 % of my comps but i don't mind since the other half is solid as f.... !!

 

I 've seen people selling and dealing with their vaucher , if i knew one second it was not working to have several , i would have not tried it and even worst , emailed them to know why it doesn't work lol ... and even worst , as a beta tester that has them as limited NFR for free , trying to buy plugins i use and support someway the devs !!

Edited by Zo
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3 hours ago, Fleer said:

I think they’re just playing us, carrot and stick. 

Idk. It is business, but I don't know that they're playing us so much as they're reacting to what was probably an ill-thought out decision with undesirable results: price the product way beyond its actual value and provide vouchers to lessen the sting of the price. They may not have framed it that way but that was the function afaic, and which has now amounted to a little PR headache because people got a little clever w/ the vouchers, but only within the means allowed for by PA - and now PA doesn't like it but this isn't the customers' fault; just not well implemented by PA and now both PA *and* customer will be unhappy. Great. If Dirk wants to put the kibosh on the resale market he could simply end the license transfer ability, and that could be next. I don't doubt it was at least discussed but decided against or postponed as that probably would've been too hasty, maybe even with irreparable alienation because now I can't ever sell my plugin nor can I buy it resale cheap anymore when I used to be able to do both. In that case it'd have been better to never have had vouchers and license transfer ability to begin with, but I wouldn't be shocked if PA ultimately goes that rout anyway so as to "start over" despite the cat already being out of a bag. It's unfortunate this whole voucher deal should alienate a lot of people from the company, but I'm having a hard time sympathizing because afaic the whole idea of this voucher to begin with only existed to help bring their outlandish prices down... you know, maybe reconsider charging $300 for a *flanger* and this nonsense probably wouldn't be happening lol but that's their prerogative. I mean even Waves got a clue a while back. That's testimony to PA lol. And I ain't subscribing to s#!t. I hate that. 

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