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Companies that offer a money back guarantee

Alchemedia

Decomposer
Sample libraries are expensive and most companies offer no demos or guarantees. Most people won't buy a synth without demoing it first, so why do sample library developers expect us to purchase their expensive software based upon their YouTube marketing videos or paid influencer reviews? It's nearly impossible to know whether a library suits your needs until you actually try it. I have a great deal of respect for companies that have the integrity to offer a guarantee such as Realitone. I thought it might be good idea to create a list of companies that offer a guarantee. Perhaps it might encourage more companies to do so.
 
Realitone & VSL is a start.
Some companies offer a stripped-down version which is perhaps the next best thing.
 
Some companies do demos, some do resales, some do both, some do neither, some do one or more with transfer fees. In order from best to worst, here are some of my thoughts. I'll just mention some of the big players I've bought from. Again.....just the major players that I've dealt with.

1
. VSL Can demo (14 days) and resell....with a moderate fee....expensive libraries....although, I've loved every lib I've bought outright or bought from demo...and I never wanted to resell. They are that good. Lately there have been some very good sales to take the edge of the higher prices. I've spent more money at VSL then any other developer. No regrets.

2. Bestservice. No demo, but resell with moderate fee. Again, never wanted to sell anything I bought from them. I've spent the 4th most money here. No regrets

3. Native Instruments. No demo, but resell with no fee. I don't like NI very much, but for reasons other than what you are inquiring.

4. Cinematic Studio Series. No demo, no resell, but products of consistent immaculate quality and very good pricing. I've spent the 2nd most money here. No regrets

5. Soundiron. No demo, but can resell for moderate to high (NKS libs) fee. Difficult to get more than 30% of initial purchase back if you bought at full price. Great company....top notch customer service. I'm not a fan of their company direction, but that's just me.

6. 8Dio. No demo, no resell, but crazy good sales if your can wait. Flash sale prices will usually dull the pain of a questionable buy, but there is the odd stinker that hurts if you didn't wait until a real good sale....and some still hurt even with a good sale....but those are very rare. Love 8Dio overall. I've spent the 3rd most money here. No major regrets.

7. Strezov Sampling. No demo, no resell, expensive but with decent sales. Very good quality control...great updates (free too) and probably wouldn't want to give back any of their libraries anyway, but I would never pay full price for any of them.

8. Project Sam. No demo, but can resell once. Prices are up there, but great quality. No regrets

9. Audiobro. No demo no resell, but generally pretty good quality with fair pricing. Very good with keeping products updated. It pains me to put Audiobro at 9. because I like them as a company and Audiobro Genesis is the only Flawless library out there., but......at the end of the day.....no regrets.

10. Orchestral Tools. No resell, no demo....expensive libraries. Some libraries are cream of the crop, but there are a few stinkers too...stinkers are rare, but most of their libraries are quite expensive. Sales are rare but there have been some good ones.

11. Spitfire Audio. No resell, no demo....overpriced on most libraries. At least 2 stinkers for every winner. Many libs get abandoned (few or no updates). Quality control gets a C-. Sales are nothing special. The company is in love with themselves. Regrets.

My own personal conclusion from being at VI Control for 2 1/2 years is that there are more 'buyers regrets' from Spitfire Audio here then any other VI company. If you are concerned about jumping in the deep end head first and drowing....then my list is a pretty safe bet.
 
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Soniccouture's Terms:
"Refunds on the grounds of subjective unsuitability of the product, or due to malfunction of 3rd party host software or the user's hardware will not be granted. Where a product is deemed unsuitable by the customer an exchange for a product of equivalent value will be offered."
 
I believe VSL can offer refunds because of their USB protection, but that puts off a lot of people, myself included. I don't own any of their products because it takes a few weeks to arrive, which really kills the creativity.
11. Spitfire Audio. No resell, no demo....overpriced on most libraries. At least 2 stinkers for every winner. Many libs get abandoned (few or no updates). Quality control gets a C-. Sales are nothing special. The company is in love with themselves. Regrets.

My own personal conclusion from being at VI Control for 2 1/2 years is that there are more 'buyers regrets' from Spitfire Audio here then any other VI company. If you are concerned about jumping in the deep end head first and drowing....then my list is a pretty safe bet.
Interested to know what 'stinkers' you're referring to...most of the SA libraries I own I consider classics: SCS, OACE, Tundra, Kepler, Symphonics Evos....Paul's walkthroughs are very transparent and the 'I'm very excited today' is endearing, only Troels has more infectious enthusiasm for their products IMO. They also have videos of how the library is used with a real composition. They deserve to love themselves, I love them for making such ground breaking products.

It's difficult with torrenting to offer refunds. But encouraging reselling, even with a small fee, might be a good idea. Thanks for the list @Toecutter
 
Some companies do demos, some do resales, some do both, some do neither, some do one or more with transfer fees. In order from best to worst, here are some of my thoughts. I'll just mention some of the big players I've bought from. Again.....just the major players that I've dealt with.

1
. VSL Can demo (14 days) and resell....with a moderate fee....expensive libraries....although, I've loved every lib I've bought outright or bought from demo...and I never wanted to resell. They are that good. Lately there have been some very good sales to take the edge of the higher prices. I've spent more money at VSL then any other developer. No regrets.

2. Bestservice. No demo, but resell with moderate fee. Again, never wanted to sell anything I bought from them. I've spent the 4th most money here. No regrets

3. Native Instruments. No demo, but resell with no fee. I don't like NI very much, but for reasons other than what you are inquiring.

4. Cinematic Studio Series. No demo, no resell, but products of consistent immaculate quality and very good pricing. I've spent the 2nd most money here. No regrets

5. Soundiron. No demo, but can resell for moderate to high (NKS libs) fee. Difficult to get more than 30% of initial purchase back if you bought at full price. Great company....top notch customer service. I'm not a fan of their company direction, but that's just me.

6. 8Dio. No demo, no resell, but crazy good sales if your can wait. Flash sale prices will usually dull the pain of a questionable buy, but there is the odd stinker that hurts if you didn't wait until a real good sale....and some still hurt even with a good sale....but those are very rare. Love 8Dio overall. I've spent the 3rd most money here. No major regrets.

7. Strezov Sampling. No demo, no resell, expensive but with decent sales. Very good quality control...great updates (free too) and probably wouldn't want to give back any of their libraries anyway, but I would never pay full price for any of them.

8. Project Sam. No demo, but can resell once. Prices are up there, but great quality. No regrets

9. Audiobro. No demo no resell, but generally pretty good quality with fair pricing. Very good with keeping products updated. It pains me to put Audiobro at 9. because I like them as a company and Audiobro Genesis is the only Flawless library out there., but......at the end of the day.....no regrets.

10. Orchestral Tools. No resell, no demo....expensive libraries. Some libraries are cream of the crop, but there are a few stinkers too...stinkers are rare, but most of their libraries are quite expensive. Sales are rare but there have been some good ones.

11. Spitfire Audio. No resell, no demo....overpriced on most libraries. At least 2 stinkers for every winner. Many libs get abandoned (few or no updates). Quality control gets a C-. Sales are nothing special. The company is in love with themselves. Regrets.

My own personal conclusion from being at VI Control for 2 1/2 years is that there are more 'buyers regrets' from Spitfire Audio here then any other VI company. If you are concerned about jumping in the deep end head first and drowing....then my list is a pretty safe bet.
Awesome, thanks.

I am a newbie in the orchestral sampling world, but I definitely intend to go in the direction you point (VSL mostly).

I do not like companies that do not allow resale. We consumers are going to be spending each day more and more on software of all kinds, and must not let companies not allow us to resell it. Some companies do allow resale, so no excuse for the others.

I am a guitarist and come from a a pop-rock background, and I learnt what GAS is buying guitars. I got to have more than 20! Madness. I have since then sold most of them. Now I am happier, more productive (as a musician, I mean), and I get to know better how to use the 3/4 guitars that I kept.

So, yes: GAS control plus smart buying is good advice, in my opinion. And, if you buy from a company that does not allow resale, at least try the product out first, or simply get it so cheap that it doesn´t matter (I bought two weeks ago 8Dio´s Anthology plus Adagios for 43€ in total; at that price, for how good it sounds, it really doesn´t matter).

Thanks again, Robert-G.
 
Some companies do allow resale, so no excuse for the others.
Well, it's not quite that simple. Resales mean license transfers, and a license transfer requires a software system plus the resources to oversee it. Not every developer, especially a smaller one, is financially equipped to invest in such a system.

But another aspect that's often overlooked is how easy it is to abuse companies who offer resales. In many cases, one can buy a library, install it, sell it, but then continue to use the library in violation of the EULA. I believe this is one of the main reasons some developers simply don't allow license transfers. If the world were perfect and honor system were flawless, I'm sure every developer would allow resales.

I do not like companies that do not allow resale.
I have nothing against companies that don't allow resales, but it greatly influences whether I buy from them or buy from a competitor. When Spitfire ran their recent sale, I had Studio Woodwinds Pro in my cart while perusing demos and weighing the pros and cons. Then I suddenly remembered... oh yeah, Spitfire doesn't allow resales... and just like that, I deleted it from my cart and moved on. But Spitfire, like 8Dio, Cinematic Samples and others, chooses to lose those sales. It's their prerogative.
 
I have nothing against companies that don't allow resales, but it greatly influences whether I buy from them or buy from a competitor. When Spitfire ran their recent sale, I had Studio Woodwinds Pro in my cart while perusing demos and weighing the pros and cons. Then I suddenly remembered... oh yeah, Spitfire doesn't allow resales... and just like that, I deleted it from my cart and moved on. But Spitfire, like 8Dio, Cinematic Samples and others, chooses to lose those sales. It's their prerogative.
Absolutely. I meant the same but you said it better. :)

Well, it's not quite that simple. Resales mean license transfers, and a license transfer requires a software system plus the resources to oversee it. Not every developer, especially a smaller one, is financially equipped to invest in such a system.

But another aspect that's often overlooked is how easy it is to abuse companies who offer resales. In many cases, one can buy a library, install it, sell it, but then continue to use the library in violation of the EULA. I believe this is one of the main reasons some developers simply don't allow license transfers. If the world were perfect and honor system were flawless, I'm sure every developer would allow resales.

Here I disagree. I think in most cases this is just an excuse, and it is not my problem anyway.

If developers need to buy some software to allow resales, they should go ahead and buy it, and then include its cost in their prices. It is the fair thing to do and I am sure it is not that difficult anyway.
 
If developers need to buy some software to allow resales, they should go ahead and buy it, and then include its cost in their prices. It is the fair thing to do and I am sure it is not that difficult anyway.
It sounds like a good solution on paper, but when you factor in the cost plus the resources needed to provide support for the additional services, it's not universally practical for every small developer. Like when you take your car to a small, independent auto repair shop, you can't expect them to have a trained automatic transmission specialist on staff. It would be convenient if every shop had one, but it's just not practical.

The only fair thing a developer needs to do is make it obviously clear that they don't allow resales so that consumers can make informed decisions. Developers need to do a better job of this; too many of them bury their no-resale policy in EULA mouseprint. It really ought to be in bold lettering next to the "Add to Cart" button.
 
It sounds like a good solution on paper, but when you factor in the cost plus the resources needed to provide support for the additional services, it's not universally practical for every small developer. Like when you take your car to a small, independent auto repair shop, you can't expect them to have a trained automatic transmission specialist on staff. It would be convenient if every shop had one, but it's just not practical.

The only fair thing a developer needs to do is make it obviously clear that they don't allow resales so that consumers can make informed decisions. Developers need to do a better job of this; too many of them bury their no-resale policy in EULA mouseprint. It really ought to be in bold lettering next to the "Add to Cart" button.

After all the hard work that has to be making a top library (hall, musicians, plenty of mics, editing, software, marketing, etc) I refuse to believe that the only thing that remains impossible is to transfer its ownership (or license, if you prefer).

If there is a cost they should charge a fee. As simple as that.
 
Yes a lot of these arguments don't hold up when you point out the developers of various sizes who allow license transfers. I do understand non-Kontakt-Player libraries being tough to deal with though.
 
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