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Absolutely true.

And that fact can fit in to a marketing strategy where the trio of pianos offered includes one very good one. If you find that it is receiving rave reviews you may very well decide to pay the $350 just to get the "good" one.

Always remember, it takes a lot of financial investment to bring these products to market. If there is no payoff for them when they get it right, they will not be motivated to keep striving for better.

As they say ... It takes money to buy good whiskey.

Yeah, business is business? Rope in as many as you can on the package through hype and those really interested in one piano but don't mind the package cost (and those that want the whole package of course), then make them available individually later. Crude suggestion but understandable.

What I don't get is why software pianos in general aren't sold via download. Is it really an issue to download 60 GB of data these days? Not to me it isn't. Could probably even lower that with good compression and then unzip during installation. And on top of that, dare I say it, that same download could be used as a limited time demo.

Many are. Vienna Imperial, Galaxy's The Giant, Vintage D, Galaxy II pianos, Native Instruments Alicia's Keyes, 8dio 1928 Legacy Grand, all Imperfect Samples pianos, Soundiron's Emotional Piano, CineSamples Piano in Blue, all Absolute Pianos, Pianoteq, TruePianos, all Sampletekk pianos, to name several.

Gig: Many of us have reliable high-speed internet access, and this make it reasonable to accept multi-gigabyte downloads. I do.

But many people do not have such access. Perhaps sellers don't want to exclude any potential customers by insisting on downloads?

"Insisting" would not be necessary. Just an option.

I believe some do that now.

I would think that the benefits of a download would far outweigh the downsides. Especially if you're convinced you have a great product, a demo would do wonders. This works for the whole software industry, why not for some creators of piano libraries?

And don't get me started on iLok. I have one, but I also have so many usb devices that I'm constantly struggling as it is and don't need the audacity that is copy protection through such a horrible dongle method (that only punishes the paying customer anyway). Not to mention the horrors of setting that thing up and put actual licenses on it. I'm almost certain that this hurts sales more than what is saved through preventing piracy.

Create a great product and treat your customers well. The secret to success. It works every time!

I frequently hear this on other boards:
How can you be certain? None of us have access to information to support that.

Also, the reverse seems fairly certain. They surely know that the sales lost to piracy of unprotected software must be greater than the sales lost to people unwilling to deal with an Ilok. It this were not the case, it would make no economic sense to require an Ilok!

By that logic, 80% of software out there would rely on iLok. But that's not the case. It's used on very, very few applications. I'm not talking about DRM in general (although I'd have to say more about that as well), just this dongle bit.

About DRM in general (very OT, but if anyone is interested). I'm also a bit of gamer. The game industry is probably the biggest target of software piracy. In my humble opinion, as far as people in that industry are concerned, there are those that get it and those that don't. Here's one who does (again, strictly IMO):

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danieln...uth-is-it-doesnt-work-cd-projekt-on-drm/

with the power of laptop or even tablet these days I believe more people will run their VST through those device, but it only provides a very limited number of USB ports..... which makes me think that iLok (or other device that uses a USB port) is not the way to go for future VSTs.... I do have a iLok myself but it doesn't bother me much because I'm using a desktop.

Actually I'm very interested in the Italian grand of the True Keys myself but I won't spend that much to pay for the others that I don't "want".....

I use a USB hub with my laptop for my iLok and eLicenser.

If any of you are at the NAMM show you can come visit us in the MOTU booth (Hall A - Booth 6410). I know some of the nuance is lost due to volume, but we have some Focal Twin 6's and a set of 7506's you can listen through.

I look forward to meeting some of you in person.

Hello VILabs,
As you propose, i will really appreciate if you may send me the midi files of yours demos.

By advance, thank you

(PS: Few days ago, i had already ask for the demo by email, but you certainly do not receive it)