It's very simple - boycott those who are asking whatever you regard as too much for their software. If enough people do this, their sales will collapse, and they will have to reduce prices. With no turnover, or very little turnover, they won't be able to continue as a business, unless they increase turnover, and we all know the best way to do that is to reduce prices.
Right now, (April 2025), Synthmaster 3 is available for $39.20, if you use the SatyaTunes coupon, third post down on this thread on KVRAudio:
https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9066917&hilit=synthmaster#p9066917
Bulent (the creator of Synthmaster 3) said on KVR that sales had been disappointing, and that was why he had been bringing the price down since releasing Synthmaster 3 last year. It's now a no brainer for me, I've been putting off buying it for a month or so, but now the price is so tempting I think I'll have to buy it.
The same goes for all other software - if enough people stop buying it, the developers will have to reduce their prices.
I would love to post this on KVR, but you can imagine the hate I would receive for daring to suggest such a thing. Apparently, we should all be 'supporting the developers' no matter how much they are charging for their VSTs...

 

The whole point of Try Before Buy is so we can adequately test products before purchasing them. Why is this important? Because for 30+ years "bad developers" have been ripping people off in numerous ways. It doesn't really have much to do with the prices.

Example: Recently someone posted some plugins, selling for well over $300 for the bundle, made in Synth Edit. In 2025.

Dan Worrall proving Harrison Mixbus people using "stock" code which they claim is modeled accurately upon expensive hardware.

 

I understand the feeling of thinking something is too expensive for you right now, but I think your mind is a bit in the wrong place.

Supporting the devs doesn't mean you should just fork over $200 just because you want to keep them going. You fork over $200 because you want the product and can pay for it. If you can't pay for it, you wait for a sale. It's really that simple.

 

I came here to say just about that (minus the personal jab).

For context: I'm a musician, but I've been on the other side of the fence as well. I used to work for one such "software publisher," as Product Manager. I specified software and hardware products (hardware as part of a team - I'm no engineer).

One day, a coworker asked me, since I was on a business trip in Asia, to bring him back some normally very expensive software CD-ROMs (for his side business as Bed & Breakfast owner). You could back then go to a tech mall most anywhere in Asia (maybe not Japan and Korea) and find any software for $1-$5. While I was looking for the whole suite of what he had asked for, I saw CD-ROMs for my own company's latest software suite of products, complete with drivers and manuals (that I and said coworker had written) for $5.

The irony of us looking for another company's products and stumbling upon our own did not escape me. I bought our own software then, for $5 - partly out of curiosity, partly as a trophy to wave around back at the offices. Which I did, to the founder of the company even. We all had a good laugh about it actually - my Bed & Breakfast owner coworker especially - because our software was highly specialized, and we wished "good luck" (the founder's words) to anyone who tried to run it in a professional context without 1) reading our painstakingly written manuals, and 2) without support (not unlike Reaper, we offered a smorgasbord of dizzying customization options).

Ultimately, and I say this with kindness and compassion, as someone who started out in music with an old piano, used Rhodes, new SH-101, and recycled two-track tape recorder, what a company charges for their products will keep fluctuating. The prices of software and hardware alike have dramatically decreased over the years (software) and decades (hardware).

Bitching about prices online isn't going to change anything in the real world (ask Avid and Waves), but just as technology will keep evolving, so will prices (think Microphones, Speakers and Audio interfaces - in terms of quality and affordability).

And then there are all the "holiday" sales - and promotional wars - that companies have been waging since even before the pandemic. If $9.99 or $19 or $29 for a plugin is too pricey for you, may I kindly and compassionately recommend you check out (and learn to use to their utmost potential) the stock plugins of your DAW. My default Bus EQ, Verb, and Chorus are stock Logic plugins. They're as professional grade in comparison to most other plugins as a Honda and Toyota are next to a BMW or Benz: no frills, not luxurious, no bragging rights, but they will get you from A to Z quite reliably, and without the price tag.

Stock plugins mate. Also: need to sample, need to pitch up or down, need a ROMpler, need a synth, need three synths? Your DAW's got you. So I don't understant this post about software prices really. Must be a generational thing. - there's so much available so cheap now.

 

As far as I've seen in the last couple of years the prices of software has gone down quite a bit as they struggle to make ends meet. My email is full of 50-70-80 or even 90% discounts. The world is in trouble already, no need for more trouble. The big question is where is this going?

 

There is some dreadful software with high prices and then there are some great free software. I have never fully understood what the price depends on. How much is "the right price" for a piece of software?

 

I propose 500 DM because instead of a bug in the software it's on the currency instead.

 

By this point, I think many of them just price match their plugins with the ones they copied everything else from. They try to charge whatever the market will bear. Some offer realistic pricing, but those aren't who you might ask this question about.

 

My Deutche Mark post was as absurd, as is the OP's idea to collectively punish all software developers even if they aren't the ones overcharging. I for instance own all of Tokyo Dawn Labs plugins (minus their disk matering lathe software) because they are all awesome and are very reasonably priced. They are used on every one of my songs. Same goes for Klanghelm, it doesn't get any better, only different, and at like 24 bucks a plugin it to me was a no brainer to show support. The MJUC gives you three vastly different models, a Mu, an 1176 style and clean.

I'm protesting the protest.

 

According to your logic, @Steve Jones, software manufacturers don't have the same rights as other businesses. You even publicly call for a boycott to drive down prices or drive companies into bankruptcy. What others lose is your profit.

Don't do it, otherwise someone will eventually report you and the matter will end up in the hands of the prosecutor.
I clearly distance myself from @Steve Jones' post and do not support your call for a boycott.

 

Hello, i represent Interpol, working in collaboration with every law enforcement agency in the world. I have gained the knowledge of this "blog post" calling for the un-authorized, immoral, and ILLEGAL boycotting of plugin developers until they lower prices. Due to the criminal nature of this post, including but not limited to racketeering, market manipulation, blackmail & coercion, price gouging, theft, and disorderly conduct, i am forced to prosecute all persons involved in this discussion to the furthest possible extent of the law. Minimum sentences vary depending on country of residence, but most sentences will carry a prison term of up to 20 years, as well as a fine of $100,000 US.

If you would like to reach a settlement and enter a plea bargain, you can forfeit all of your plugin licenses to my agency, as well as paying a nominal fee of $100 per plugin. Thank you for your cooperation.

 

Ironically, it was Steve Jones who was credited with stealing all the original instruments and other gear used by the Sex Pistols.

 

Waves plugins are bad since they reduced their prices.
The subjective part of price making in markets where perception plays a big role is way higher then in other markets.