aidan o driscoll Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 (edited) Got this email this morning from https://www.wusik.com The email content is at that link above, front page. the gist is: "The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented challenges for people around the world, and the music industry has not been immune to its effects. Sales of virtual plugin instruments and synthesizers on Wusik.com have seen a significant decline since the pandemic began. This decline has had a profound impact on my ability to sustain and grow the business .. .. I need your support. My goal is to raise at least $1,000 per month on Patreon. This financial support will not only help me maintain the existing projects and plugins but also enable me to invest in the growth of Wusik.com." It is interesting and def seeing it here in Ireland ( major center for all the biggest tech companies in the world - Dublin Silicon Docks etc ) .. all these tech companies are aggressively downsizing staff wise. So much empty office space in Dublin now, there are moves to convert it to private use converted to appartments etc. Recently saw that EPIC announced a good few 100 layoffs. One thing covid period did is see a certain irrational exuberence in the tech industry who for some reason went off on huge recruitment spree's and now, having employed too many, are cutting just as fast. I imagine Wusik and other plugin developers at the smaller end of the market are suffering with this cost of living squeeze going on globally where discretionary cash is what gets hit first, especially in the hobbiest end of things I have a feeling WUSIK is not the only biz of its kind finding it tough now ( I can put my hands up and say I am finding the going tough particularly since early 2023 ), I imagine more will surface in 2024 Edited October 6, 2023 by aidan o driscoll 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralfrobert Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 Good, he should close shop... and stop spamming. Seriously, it's a business, and if it finally does not work anymore, I am happy to see this one erased from the map. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audioschmaudio Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 I feel sorry for him but I think his aggressive begging drove more people away from his business than the pandemic. The first thing I read about Wusik was that he spams people. That was before I even knew anything about his plugins and what kept me from buying from him thereafter. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
satya Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 Send him to MrBeast 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralfrobert Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 5 minutes ago, audioschmaudio said: I feel sorry for him but I think his aggressive begging drove more people away from his business than the pandemic. The first thing I read about Wusik was that he spams people. That was before I even knew anything about his plugins and what kept me from buying from him thereafter. And products that are bug temples. Plus I get the same functionality better from other vendors. Plus I don't like it when people are using their personal problems for marketing inferior products. Won't buy in there in any way. Just look at Airwindows. The guy has his demons, too, but acts in a way so you like him, his plugins, his great videos and the whole act. This is a different world. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulo Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yan Filiatrault Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 He’s been asking for years 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 (edited) I've seen small developers who clearly don't manage their businesses very well from what is easily observable attempt to scapegoat piracy, competitors, partners, the economy, staff and now the pandemic for poor sales. It's clear this developer is in denial about his business' quality problems and its reputation for problematic plugins. He's been doing these kind of pleas for charity long before the pandemic. There are lots of worthy causes that can desperately use our help. I can recommend some. I advise one pro bono that provides mobility equipment at no cost to low income families with children with disabilities that can use your help if you want to help someone else; they are a very wothy cause and there are many very worhy charities helping those in need that can really use our help. But I don't think supporting a for profit business as if it's a charity when you can find a mebtion of them always results in people sharing their bad experiences they've had with their plugins and support. Wusik clearly has a less than stellar reputation. Consequently, I don't think treating a for profit business as a charity is a wise use of funds and I don't think it will fix the true underlying causes of the poor sales. Edited October 6, 2023 by PavlovsCat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kreveta Puket Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 (edited) oki at first wusik made shi...t crashes plugins.... never work good, second - milions of spams after xxx email from me to stop spamning, after month free of spam again and now this.. hope they find better thinks to do... and they want 1000usd on patreon for what? omg... if it will be super indie developer or have some uniqe vst Like Vital , which is superb or valhalla supermassive ? etc or kontakt libraries , or indie one men Ipad synths groovebox developer, which are sometimes so much uniqe like Bram Bos Hilda, Mark Watt - he made Spacecraft granular synth, Samplr from Marcos Alonso maybe i will be send somethink , but for all his fails... i have no words.. he has banned from kvr for spams too... Edited October 6, 2023 by Kreveta Puket 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No Free Beats Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 Spaming is one thing, but Scamming is another. I fell victim not once but twice to buying into his "group buys". The kind that he promised some yet to be released products at a good price. Both times he never delivered all the final products, by the time the products were made, if they made it that far. The link to the group buy download page stopped working. This was before you could create an account on the site. The reciept was also crafted in such a way to where it didn't describe what products you were to get, it just said you purchased "group buy" so it's hard to even prove the scam.......... never again am I doing business there. 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CSistine Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 2 hours ago, PavlovsCat said: I've seen small big developers who clearly don't manage their businesses very well from what is easily observable attempt to scapegoat piracy, competitors, partners, the economy, staff and now the pandemic for poor sales. It's clear this developer is in denial about his business' quality problems and its reputation for problematic plugins. Are you talking about IKM ? ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmokeyJ628 Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 He has been told numerous times, but he seems to refuse to understand: Make a solid product and continue to improve on it and develop it before you announce some new project. He seems to think that announcing new potential future projects ("pre-orders") is the way to get an influx of cash, but for most customers that only works once before you lose their business forever. Particularly with a boatload of abandoned, half-working projects in the wake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyleyR Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 I've also been a victim of this guy's business practices including receiving incessant spam, despite multiple removal requests. On a professional level, the way this guy behaves and presents himself, his company, and responds to questions and/or criticisms online are terrible. Always plays the victim and constantly brings up his health issues as excuses. He was banned from KVR and used to have posting abilities on /r/audioproductiondeals but that was removed. On /r/vsti he was given a temporary ban for violating the subreddit's policies, then he used an alt account to continue doing what he was banned for which resulted in a permanent ban. Being limited on Reddit and banned from KVR are not good for marketing. I don't think his business woes are as a result of covid. More likely, he has upset his past customers for a variety of reasons including spam. Any potential customers doing some google searching would quickly realize they would be better to spend their money elsewhere. It's almost like actions have consequences. The chickens have come home to roost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Walton Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 VST sales exploded during the pandemic. Not sure what rock he is living under. Yes, things are now on a massive downturn - but of all the business that were doing well during the actual pandemic period - plugin makers were one of them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyleyR Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Brian Walton said: VST sales exploded during the pandemic. Not sure what rock he is living under. Yes, things are now on a massive downturn - but of all the business that were doing well during the actual pandemic period - plugin makers were one of them. That's what I was wondering too. I had a ton of spare time on my hands and bought boatloads of audio libraries and VSTs during the lockdown. I have to think I wasn't unique. What about others here? More or fewer purchases during and after the lockdowns? Edited October 6, 2023 by WyleyRabbit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralfrobert Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 1 minute ago, WyleyRabbit said: That's what I was wondering too. I had a ton of spare time on my hands and bought boatloads of audio libraries and VSTs during the lockdown. I have to think I wasn't unique. What about others here? More or fewer purchases during and after the lockdowns? More purchases for me. Many good freebies, too. Some very good deals like Black Rooster or Ableton. On the other hand, I've moved on , consolidated a lot and sold many of the products off again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 15 minutes ago, WyleyRabbit said: That's what I was wondering too. I had a ton of spare time on my hands and bought boatloads of audio libraries and VSTs during the lockdown. I have to think I wasn't unique. What about others here? More or fewer purchases during and after the lockdowns? Your right. Every developer I've given advice to that I keep in touch with to some degree, maybe two dozen, as well as a research study on the industry, saw sales spkied significantly for DAW related purchases during the pandemic. Just as with your personal experience, people were stuck in their homes and it gave them something to do. Personally, I started attempting try to play music again during the lockdown, as I stopped around 20 years prior due to a repetitive stress injury resulting in severe tendinitis that stopped from being able to perform publicly as a musician. So it resulted in dramatically more purchases for me. I didn't even have a serious dedicated DAW computer until 2020 since my previous one's hard drive died around 10 years prior. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magic Russ Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 24 minutes ago, WyleyRabbit said: I've also been a victim of this guy's business practices including receiving incessant spam, despite multiple removal requests. On a professional level, the way this guy behaves and presents himself, his company, and responds to questions and/or criticisms online are terrible. Always plays the victim and constantly brings up his health issues as excuses. He was banned from KVR and used to have posting abilities on /r/audioproductiondeals but that was removed. On /r/vsti he was given a temporary ban for violating the subreddit's policies, then he used an alt account to continue doing what he was banned for which resulted in a permanent ban. Being limited on Reddit and banned from KVR are not good for marketing. I don't think his business woes are as a result of covid. More likely, he has upset his past customers for a variety of reasons including spam. Any potential customers doing some google searching would quickly realize they would be better to spend their money elsewhere. It's almost like actions have consequences. The chickens have come home to roost. I wouldn't go as far as calling myself a victim of his business products. I bought into a few group buys and thought it was fair value for the time. You also have to remember that pre financial-crisis there weren't that many players and even things like Dimension Pro had an MSRP of $359 at the time. So a $39 group buy seemed like a steal. And until he ported to 64 bit everything worked fairly well. There's always been drama, but in the early days a lot of it was brushed aside because he had a decent product at a decent price. His issues got worse as well as the products. Wusik will fail primarily because his products have not been able to keep up with the market. Even if William Kafelz hadn't poisoned his brand with his behavior, he would still be having many of the problems he is having. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wookiee Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 Not really the platform for other suppliers to bring their woes to. This forum is for the benefit of Cakewalk software uses to bring legitimate deals to their attention. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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