I usually don't say much about piracy. In fact, I don't think many developers comment on it - other than in very general terms. But today I want to give you an overview of what piracy means to a smaller software developer like Nucleus SoundLab.
This past Friday, April 23rd, nucleus-soundlab.com recorded its highest-ever number of unique visitors in a 24-hour period - over 3000 visitors. How incredible! My first thought was that we hit an amazing traffic milestone and I couldn't have been happier. As I examined that statistic, I found it rather odd, considering there were less than five product sales that day, as well as a small number of newsletter signups. Consider that prior to April 23rd, approximately 15% of visitors signed up for our newsletter, whereas on the 23rd only 3.7% decided to sign up. So if these visitors weren't downloading our free products, or purchasing our commercial offerings, what were they doing?
The answer to that is listening to MP3s and watching videos. But those actions will normally result in sales, because our demo material is frankly very good. However almost none of these visitors purchased. I investigated further, and found out that a Chinese website was sending many of these customers to our site. Since the site is in Chinese, its extremely hard for non-Chinese users to navigate. Nevertheless I managed to search the site for 'Nucleus SoundLab' and came upon a forum post offering many of our products for free download - as well as a direct link to some webpages on our site. As best as I can tell, all these visitors came to our site from the Chinese pirate page, for the sole reason of listening to MP3s and watching videos to see if our products were worth pirating.
Now, this isn't the first time I've discovered our products available illegally. So I'm not totally heartbroken or anything - this is a universal problem in the digital age that won't be disappearing any time soon. I'm a realist. But this event on the 23rd really hit home. There is absolutely nothing I can do legally to fight back against sites like this in jurisdictions like China. Its a very helpless feeling to not even be able to block users from the piracy site from browsing nucleus-soundlab.com. Obviously the brick-and-mortar comparison is not exact, but imagine if thousands of people descended on Best Buy, in order to research which TV to steal from them after the store closed.
I understand that the vast majority of these pirates wouldn't purchase our products regardless. But I do not accept the proposition that none of them would purchase - or that these people are too poor to purchase any software. Let's face it, anyone who can afford a computer fast enough for computer music is not a pauper. If even one-percent of these pirates would have purchased something instead of copying it, that could totally change the business outlook of Nucleus SoundLab. That money could literally be the difference between whether we have enough resources to develop a new product or not.
Realistically, all I can do is hope that there are enough honest customers out there to support my business. So far, that has been true. And I do the absolute most I can to support my honest customers in return - none of our products have copy protection of any kind, and I am available almost 24/7 to help with any support problems personally. That's all I can do. I'm not going to start to protect Viral Outbreak via an iLok dongle or whatever, but I understand why companies go that route! Its very, very difficult to see piracy happen before your eyes.
So I just wrote this to give you an inside look into what piracy looks like from my perspective. For those of you who are visiting this site for the express purpose of gauging whether our products are worth a pirate download or not - please just understand there is a human being on the other side of nucleus-soundlab.com that wakes up every day, and works on fresh new sound-design for your music full-time. There is no corporate structure here at nucleus-soundlab. No nebulous accounting write-offs based on piracy estimates. It is just my personal passion for audio and music that sustains this business - along with your honesty and support. For those of you who support us now or in the past - thank you so much! I am working harder than ever to produce products that will inspire you and your music. Thanks everyone for reading and have a great day!
Comments
However, people pirating your stuff is also great marketing. Pirates are often the types of people who spend a ton of time on forums talking about things, and they may be likely to recommend your products, pirated or not. The more people hear Nucleus Soundlab, the more they will remember to check you out when they are in the market. Also, better google search placement as well.
I think the fact that you are a small business with a name and personality clearly visible and available to customers really helps you in the ratio of people who will steal to those that buy because they want to support the little guy.
I know exactly where you are coming from. I have had my web site designs stolen and while not exact, it is similar. I always pay for my music, refills and videos.
Frankly the thought of me screwing over an artist because of my mistrust of corporations is revolting. People are hiding behind that as a justification. A misguided one at that. It is unfortunate because soon enough it wont be worth the artists energy to try and make a living doing this.
The music/software industry is broken. Let's not exacerbate the problem tho.
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