# Lowest price/Biggest sales season



## JEPA (Dec 10, 2018)

I am a newbie in marketing  . I've been watching the market's behaviour this year and would like to get confirmed, corrected, enhanced, complemented on this information, so that i can plan next year's acquisitions/investment. I thank your help in advance.

Sample Libraries/Audio plugins:

Back to school (March) - *medium*
Summer (June-August) - *big one*
Back to school (September) - *medium*
Black Friday (November) - *BIGGEST in the universe *
Winter (end November - start of January) - *medium*
Christmas (till 25 December) - *big one*
Other sales?? - *small*
Hardware?

Courses/books?


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## dzilizzi (Dec 10, 2018)

this has been a weird year with the NI NKS sales. Also, a number of companies had anniversary sales that probably won't happen again for a few years. It usually slows down a bit after New Years until the summer sales start.


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## dzilizzi (Dec 10, 2018)

Probably should ask, are there any other big companies that use Kontakt where most of their products aren't NKS compatible yet? There may be more of these sales coming.


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## whiskers (Dec 10, 2018)

dzilizzi said:


> Probably should ask, are there any other big companies that use Kontakt where most of their products aren't NKS compatible yet? There may be more of these sales coming.


8dio I think?


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## dzilizzi (Dec 10, 2018)

whiskers said:


> 8dio I think?


No, 8Dio is not a Kontakt library. They would have to change everything. E-sessions might be one. But I have most of their stuff. Maybe Heavyocity?


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## whiskers (Dec 10, 2018)

dzilizzi said:


> No, 8Dio is not a Kontakt library. They would have to change everything. E-sessions might be one. But I have most of their stuff. Maybe Heavyocity?


Maybe we're thinking of different things or I misunderstand the definition of kontakt libraries. I use kontakt file browser to use 8dio libs. How are you thinking of them?


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## Land of Missing Parts (Dec 10, 2018)

dzilizzi said:


> No, 8Dio is not a Kontakt library. They would have to change everything. E-sessions might be one. But I have most of their stuff. Maybe Heavyocity?


Did I miss Spitfire? Or maybe they are moving toward their own player.


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## dzilizzi (Dec 10, 2018)

whiskers said:


> Maybe we're thinking of different things or I misunderstand the definition of kontakt libraries. I use kontakt file browser to use 8dio libs. How are you thinking of them?


A Kontakt library shows up in the library tab and is registered through Native Access. Most of the 8dio, Soundiron, and Impact Soundworks products only show up in the file tab. I'm not sure they are NKS compatible in the files. I could be wrong though. 

Spitfire would qualify, but they are slowly moving to their own player.


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## whiskers (Dec 10, 2018)

dzilizzi said:


> A Kontakt library shows up in the library tab and is registered through Native Access. Most of the 8dio, Soundiron, and Impact Soundworks products only show up in the file tab. I'm not sure they are NKS compatible in the files. I could be wrong though.
> 
> Spitfire would qualify, but they are slowly moving to their own player.


Right I would still call that a kontakt library though. I thought you were just asking for libraries that would work in kontact that were not NKS.


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## dzilizzi (Dec 10, 2018)

whiskers said:


> Right I would still call that a kontakt library though. I thought you were just asking for libraries that would work in kontact that were not NKS.


I know what you mean. I'm just using NI's term.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Dec 10, 2018)

Virtual Instruments don't have to work in Kontakt in order to have NKS. For example, VSTs like all the AAS instruments, Rob Papen's Go2, the Arturia V Collection, and Waves Grand Rhapsody piano aren't Kontakt but do work in Komplete Kontrol with full NKS capability. 

But they aren't registered through Native Access and they aren't seen in the Kontakt Library Tab.

So any company could go NKS and go on sale through NI someday. I would love to see Omnisphere or IK's Syntronik get NKS.


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## Ben H (Dec 10, 2018)

@dzilizzi You are conflating Kontakt Player libraries and NKS. They are two very different things.


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## dzilizzi (Dec 10, 2018)

Good to know. I am not a Kontakt expert. So far all the NKS sales have been ones that show up in the library tab. Additionally, all of my Sonokinetic and Sonicouture libraries were updated to have serial numbers that put them in the library tab. Prior to that, most of the less expensive and free vi's were only in the file tab. So I assumed it required an NI serial number registered in NA. 

Personally, I would love if Omnisphere went NKS sale.


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## JEPA (Dec 10, 2018)

Interesting discussion... should i change the name of the thread?


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## Reid Rosefelt (Dec 11, 2018)

JEPA said:


> I am a newbie in marketing  . I've been watching the market's behaviour this year and would like to get confirmed, corrected, enhanced, complemented on this information, so that i can plan next year's acquisitions/investment. I thank your help in advance.
> 
> Sample Libraries/Audio plugins:
> 
> ...


In terms of software, I agree that Black Friday is the biggest, followed by Christmas and Summer. But after that, I have no sense that the industry as a whole does Back to School or Winter sales--it's chaos, really, surprise sales going on practically all year round. I think all companies are experimenting with pricing, both how much they will discount and when they do it. I believe they will continue to experiment so it's impossible to predict what will be happening in 2019 and beyond with any precision. Spitfire, for example, is expanding beyond their 3 yearly store-wide sales, but what will they do? I thought I got a great deal on "Tundra" at Christmas last year, but then they flash sold it half price. 

But the trend definitely is that if you are patient and don't pay full price when something comes out, you may get a huge discount. But it's as unknowable as the stock market. What looks like a great deal today may be even cheaper next month. 

*Courses* - In my experience, most go on sale when everything else does. And many also go on based on their own clock--every few months.

I don't buy much hardware, so I don't have an informed opinion in that area.


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## tokatila (Dec 11, 2018)

I actually think that the December is somewhat better than Black Friday nowadays. Maybe not so many sales, but bigger discounts. E.g. Plugin Alliance, 8Dio, Sonokinetic, Spitfire's Wish List...


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## JCDC (Dec 13, 2018)

tokatila said:


> I actually think that the December is somewhat better than Black Friday nowadays. Maybe not so many sales, but bigger discounts. E.g. Plugin Alliance, 8Dio, Sonokinetic, Spitfire's Wish List...


Hi!

Any news on December sales! Need some new libraries


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## dzilizzi (Dec 13, 2018)

Well, if you think about it, Black Friday started out as an after Thanksgiving sale and most of these companies aren't from the US. So Christmas sales make more sense.


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## Fever Phoenix (Dec 18, 2018)

dzilizzi said:


> A Kontakt library shows up in the library tab and is registered through Native Access. Most of the 8dio, Soundiron, and Impact Soundworks products only show up in the file tab. I'm not sure they are NKS compatible in the files. I could be wrong though.
> 
> Spitfire would qualify, but they are slowly moving to their own player.


Soundiron had an NKS-Sale at NI last year, Heavyocity had one, Sonokinetic, now OT, from the top of my head, these are recent NKS Sales I can remember


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## Fever Phoenix (Dec 18, 2018)

tokatila said:


> I actually think that the December is somewhat better than Black Friday nowadays. Maybe not so many sales, but bigger discounts. E.g. Plugin Alliance, 8Dio, Sonokinetic, Spitfire's Wish List...




agreed big time!


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## gpax (Dec 18, 2018)

Not to take away from discussing seasonal sales, but in deciphering these NKS promos:

The Native Instruments NKS promotions should not be seen as part of any seasonal sales patterns, as these are contractual and subsidized (by NI), as events to help advance NKS support by third-party developers. Still, these promo prices are very compelling, even as you never know when it will happen.

But in contexts if/when a developer adopts this standard, NI has been running these promotions to subsidize that developers sales (and licensing fees). 

Hence, the recent juxtaposition of Orchestral Tools having its own (surprise) Black Friday sale, and then the collaborative NKS promotion, were really two different entities, neither of which anyone saw coming (except that some recent OT releases quietly integrated NKS support prior to the NI promotion). Note that the OT products offered in the respective sales did not overlap. 

For those newer members: any third-party library which shows up in Kontakt’s library is technically “licensed” for Kontakt; the monicker of it being a “Kontakt Player” library also means a developer has paid a license to run their product in a pared down version of Kontakt - without the user having to buy the full version of Kontakt. For Kontakt owners, that library provides the convenience of showing up in the Library browser tab. 

But essentially, it could be argued that Kontakt owners pay what I jokingly call a Kontakt tax, as the license fees are passed on. 

Hence, the reason you will see “requires full version” from some developers, is that they do not wish to deal with licensing their wares to NI.

Which is not to be confused with NKS integration (Komplete Kontrol software and hardware like S and A series keyboards, Maschine), which, in terms of Kontakt, are nevertheless predicated on licensed libraries at this point - if that developer supports this. The irony being that some non-Kontakt developers can (and do) participate in making their plugins NKS ready, though as I’ve noted with East West, with very limited functional integration. 

As I recall, 8Dio did license a “Player” library years ago, but then reversed course. You browse to load their patches the old-fashioned way. But I wouldn’t look for them to be a part of any NKS promotion soon, as they aren’t presently integrated as player/tabbed libraries in Kontakt.

In terms of anticipating the next NKS promotion, Cinesamples stands out for me as one developer still not onboard with NKS, even as their libraries are licensed. Just saying....


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