6 ms·

The price tag really reflects that the music industry is the poorest of all creative industries (aka video, photo, 3D and web). When i think about all the geniu

• deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
• calinet6 13y ago
  As with many of Apple's recent price drops (OSX, iWork, etc. etc.) I think it's a highly strategic and intentional move, not reflective of the greater market, but showing that Apple is enabling the larger success of their brand by enabling more people to purchase and use these pro apps at a lower price point. Plus, it will sell Macs, both laptops and Mac Pros. Smart.
  • gamegod 13y ago
    This strategy benefits Apple, but screws over independent software developers/vendors. Look at the top 10 apps in the Mac App Store. That list is always dominated by Apple's applications like Logic and iWork because of this pricing strategy. Nobody else can afford to sell a DAW for $200 and make money. IMHO it's some kind of anti-competitiveness but I don't know if there's a term for it. Maybe it's just a fact of life when Apple owns and controls the entire software/hardware ecosystem.
    • snom380 13y ago
      Of course others can afford it. Whether they want to is another matter, but other companies like Propellerheads make lots of money selling software in the same price range. Also, don't forget that most of the Apple Pro Apps came about because pretty much none of the creative market vendors were initially on board with OSX, that only happened later when they saw OSX grow.
    • dorkrawk 13y ago
      That's not totally true. I've heard from several professional musicians who use Reaper ( http://www.reaper.fm/ http://www.reaper.fm/ ) and it sells for $225.
      • owlmusic 13y ago
        Reaper also has the excellent discounted license for $60 which covers a lot of musicians who would otherwise be forced by the singular license of Reason / Logic Pro / Ableton Live.
    • kolya3 13y ago
      Both Ableton and Reason are over $400 and tons of musicians still choose those over Logic. For many, price is not the only consideration when picking a DAW and there are plenty of developers selling mere VSTs, not even DAWs, at $200/pop.
    • chucknelson 13y ago
      I would argue that having the type of professional software that only companies like Apple can develop, available at an affordable price, is a great win for consumers. Companies will find ways to compete. Just look at the $30-$50 apps that emulate stripped down versions of Photoshop (Acorn, Pixelmator) - yeah, they aren't near the full feature set of PS, but they get 90% of us what we need and for way less money. I'm sure audio apps already have some of this going on in the market.
    • freyr 13y ago
      Are the existing DAWs really hurting since Apple dropped their price? Live, Pro Tools, Reason, etc. seem to be doing well. Are many independent developers really in the business of creating DAWs anyway? There seem to be far more developing instrument/effect plugins. The more people that use DAWs, the larger the market for plugins becomes. The net effect for independent developers could be positive. Besides, if independent developers cannot find a way to compete, perhaps they should reconsider their business. It's not like they're competing with Microsoft's monopoly in the 80s and 90s. There are many other platforms (some much more popular than Apple desktop) on which they can develop, and Apple won't compete with them there. That's still a huge potential market share.
    • acomjean 13y ago
      Requires: OS X v10.8.4 or later Lots of people will need a new mac for this. I know I can't run it on my Mac Pro 1,1
      • scrumper 13y ago
        There is a way to get Mountain Lion on your MP, which is I think the only reason you can't have LPX. It looks a tad tricky (and it's not recommended if your 1,1 is in any way connected to your ability to earn money) but you can do it by mucking about with hard drives and the installer images. Kicks off here: http://9to5mac.com/2012/07/23/mountain-lion-installed-on-a-macpro11-heres-how-to-do-it/ http://9to5mac.com/2012/07/23/mountain-lion-installed-on-a-m...
        • acomjean 13y ago
          Thanks, I'll check that out.
    • sjwright 13y ago
      > That list is always dominated by Apple's applications I haven't looked, but I bet the Microsoft equivalent is (will be?) dominated by their apps, like the Office suite. It's not unfair, it's just the reality of such markets. A supermarket's home brand would probably also be the most successful brand in their stores, too.
  • ctdonath 13y ago
    Plus, it will sell Macs, both laptops and Mac Pros. Smart. Plus? No, _first_. Apple is a hardware company. They sell computers. Their software, while excellent and profitable, IMO exists only to sell more hardware. All companies have a core competency & purpose. Everything else must feed that core; a product may be excellent on its own, but must still support the core. Deviate from that core, badness happens. Logic Pro is awesome on its own, but was created to give a niche a reason to buy into the Apple ecosystem, buy hardware, and buy more hardware.
• bpicolo 13y ago
  Well, with Photoshop you don't really have competition. There are a lot of players in the music editing business. Competition = lower prices.
  • wtvanhest 13y ago
    As someone that doesn't own any apple products, do you recommend any decent alternatives? [ADDED] Thanks for adding those, I was looking at them after I wrote my question. Its kind of hard to know which is a solid option from the reviews and what I'm seeing online.
    • cageface 13y ago
      There are plenty of alternatives to Logic. Check out Cubase, Ableton Live, Studio One, Sonar, Reason, Reaper etc.
      • joeblau 13y ago
        You just gonna leave out Pro Tools :).
        • diggum 13y ago
          And Audition? ::)
  • bwy 13y ago
    GIMP isn't bad.
    • nkozyra 13y ago
      It isn't bad. It also isn't Photoshop.
    • deadreturns2 13y ago
      I love FOSS but GIMP is ridiculously bad.
• joeblau 13y ago
  Logic has been $200 for a while. Even though Logic uses Audio Unit plugins, I don't think there is really any substitute for physical hardware. You can get this to run a project on the cheap, but it's still going to cost you $1000+ for a good mic and +600+ hardware like compressors, limiters, equalizers, monitors, and mixing boards. Plus you have to get cabling, power conditioners and cases to hold and connect everything. My last "Home Studio" ran me nearly $10,000; Logic was the cheapest thing I had to buy and that's when it was around $700.
  • knowaveragejoe 13y ago
    Unless you plan on making your own vocal or acoustic instrument samples, most of that equipment isn't necessary.
    • joeblau 13y ago
      Yeah then you need real instruments which aren't cheap either. Along with that you need a way to record your instruments to a digital or analog format. Unless your a street performer that's playing drums on old buckets and trash cans and not recording anything, it's going to cost more than the $200 for a DAW. My point is that making music is not as cheap as people think it is.
    • klodolph 13y ago
      Samples? Some of us record audio tracks, we don't use MIDI for everything. For example, if you want to record your band at home, you might have six microphones just to get started (vocals, guitar, bass, snare, kick, and drum overhead). Outboard limiters and microphone preamps are not out of the question. On the other hand, if you do everything with software samplers and synthesizers, then you just need a computer, Logic, and some headphones.
      • VLM 13y ago
        You missed how much it costs... perhaps $500 for pro grade audio per channel. So he's talking about $3K so far. Now you'll argue that a bottom of the barrel high end amateur grade mic might be only $50. But you'll still need cables, probably a preamp, some kind of (expensive) interface box to input 6 audio channels in phase (can't just plug in 3 stereo usb sound adapters... well, usually...). A decent stand or boom is probably $75 for a hunk of metal. Suddenly paying $50 for a cheap mic is false economy if the support infrastructure is setting you back $300... may as well buy a decent $200 class mic... to go with your $200 software. Unless you're solely a vocal group you'll probably need to mic and input instruments. My sister used to play the viola (more or less a big violin). A pro grade mic costs $400. Not a viola with a mic installed. Not a package deal of mic and cable and preamp and all that. No, just the custom designed weirdly mounted mic. Before permanent professional installation of course. This is probably an extreme, obviously its hard to mic a stringed instrument without screwing up the resonance sounds while the musicians face is inches away from the mic. I bet you could mic a brass instrument for a quarter the cost.
• cageface 13y ago
  Apple sells Logic at cut rate prices to help sell their hardware. Other comparable packages cost much more. The music software business is pretty tough, but not as tough as this alone would suggest.
• igorgue 13y ago
  I think it's all about demand, that's why prices are lower, these days demand is a lot more than before, and everything is really accessible. With that being said, it's not cheap if you add other things you have to buy, studio monitors, a fast computer, and good midi keyboard (and that's the minimum for a full in-the-box musician).
  • adw 13y ago
    I reckon you're looking at $1000 including software but excluding the laptop, basically; say $100-150 for decent headphones, $200-250 for monitors, $100 for a workable MIDI controller, $150 for an audio interface (something from M-Audio or Focusrite, say). That leaves around $350-400 for software, a cheap mic, stands, cables etc. (And you'll probably want at least one more controller, whether a Launchpad-style thing, a fader box, or Akai pads.)
• gideon_b 13y ago
  I wouldn't jump to that conclusion, Mac software is priced as bait for Apple hardware. Professional recording equipment is very expensive, and high-end producers have no qualms spending a few grand on Pro Tools plugins. Logic isn't the Photoshop of recording, it's more like Sketch.
  • jolohaga 13y ago
    Photoshop could never inspire me to do anything artistic.
  • cmpxchg8 13y ago
    People use Pro Tools because PT has been the industry standard for years. For tracking and mixing PT11 is pretty good. Some people master using PT, others prefer something like Sequoia. For MIDI work PT is several years behind Cubase, Logic and Ableton. Everybody has their own favorite. I've found Logic to fit my workflow very well and is not any less of a professional tool than the other DAWs I mentioned.
    • debian69 13y ago
      All of these are lightyears behind Mark of the Unicorn Digital Performer for midi work. Logic btw is horrible for external midi or was at least up till version 9. I've lost count the times it mess's up with my virus ti.
• Sephiroth87 13y ago
  Apple stuff is expensive = Bad Apple stuff is cheap = Bad LOGIC!!!
  • ryen 13y ago
    Logic is one of the cheapest (if not the cheapest) of the higher end DAWs out there. Combine that with the amount of plugins and sounds it ships with at that price tag and I think its one of the best options out there.
    • Sephiroth87 13y ago
      I'm not disagreeing with that, but with people that complains Apple stuff is expensive, except when it's not and they still complain for the opposite reason...
      • bsaul 13y ago
        There's a bit of truth in there. But my remark was more general than just apple's product. The audio software industry is extremely poor compared to the difficulty of the algorithmic it has to deal with. It's the only computer tools i know that needs sub 50ms latency all the time, with extremely complex mathematic computations, along with an extremely and intuitive GUI. A proof of that is that android still doesn't have descent audio performance. Yet it is able to do everything else.