www.makemkv.com

I've been a user of this program for years, and I've probably ripped 10-20 blu-ray discs. Probably closer to ten. It's just for when my library has a BD and I want to watch it later and not keep others from checking it out basically. Anyway - I want to support the developer. But $50 is really high, and I suspect I'm not alone in saying that I'd probably never pay $50. But I'd pay $10 and would have done it years ago. I think if the price is reasonable he'd get not just 5x the number of purchasers but 10-20x. And make a lot more money for this great software.

Am I alone in thinking that?

And if you make the program too cheap, people feel no "pain" at the thought of pirating it, because it has "so little value". Ask ANY shareware author you can still find.

If the program isn't worth $50 to you, continue down the path your currently are, and live with changing the beta key out every couple of months.

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

It's been probably two or three years since I purchased and I'd bet I don't use it nearly as much as most people on here. It's one of two programs I've opened up my wallet for since I made my HTPC 5 years ago, and I have a couple of coworkers that agree. $50 for a simple, fast, flexible, and cross-platform program that's been ridiculously useful is a fantastic bargain.

I don't doubt it's a good value for those who use it. I'm just saying that $50 is a serious sum of money. I'd guess in the last decade, I have bought a handful of software programs. I buy Turbotax every year, I bought Willmaker, and I bought a few versions of Corel VideoStudio. I've never spent more than $29 on any of these. $50 is just past that threshold of "screw it, I'll pay that right now!!" and I can't help but think I'm not alone. If it were $10, $20, even $30, it's a doddle and people will pay it. $50 has everyone slamming on the brakes. It's a mental thing - price anchoring they call it - but $50 is more than I'm going to spend. If the owner decides to run a special for $19.95 he'll have my money today. I don't see how me never paying him $50 is better than me paying him $20 2 years ago. I'm no economist but ....

And as for pirating, I think we'd agree that the MORE expensive a title is, the more it's pirated. Not the other way around. There are thousands of copies of every version of Photoshop and Illustrator and every high-end video editing and music editing software on the pirate ships. Less common are APKs for $0.99 apps.

Anyway, do what you want, just my two cents. I want to give you $20 for the software if you'll accept that. If you decide to run a special for a registration code, hit me up

Actually, sorry Woodstock, but don't hackers pirate EXPENSIVE software, the cheap stuff they wouldn't bother with, I'd have thought. And actually I agree with the OP. If it was less more people would buy. To be honest I have had so many issues trying to copy blu rays since the last upgrade, I wouldn't even consider until it is fixed. Even had trouble copying a DVD title that another program handled no problem at all.

KennedysGirl wrote:If it was less more people would buy.

And if it was more, Mike could by more BDs/drives to test. So?

Except that raising the price would be unlikely to increase sales, in fact likely the opposite. Especially when the product is unreliable.

And "unreliable" is relative. In over 500 disks this year, the "failures" have been related to damaged disks, so my anecdotal evidence is that you are wrong on that count.

BUT that's just MY evidence, and not yours. I do not know what is causing the failures you've experienced.

Now, everyone wants to throw math at this. Let's do that.

Assumptions: Cutting the price from $50 to $10 will result in more sales.

Well, to match current revenue, that means at least 5 times as many people have to register. But, 5 times the people means 5 times the support. And 5 times the fees from the payment processor. So net return is DOWN at "only" 5 times the registrations.

Let's say there are 5 times as many people who lose their registrations, and Mike has to spend a couple of hours each week looking them up. How much is his time worth? It's not free.

You are correct that there are price point considerations on both sides.

The original poster has done "15-20 disks" in several years. I do that at one sitting after a release of a few anime series (they all like to come out on Tuesdays for some reason). I might come home from the local store with that many disks from their $5 and $8 movie bins. NOT having to deal with the hassle of the free version is far more valuable to me than the original poster. And it is not a significant portion of my entertainment budget, considering that some anime series packs exceed $50 (Sword Art Online is $40/DVD, $50/BD, and is at 9 released disks so far).

But, someone who ONLY purchases from those store bargain bins, or buys used disks, because that's what they can afford? Certainly they're not going to use a program like this a lot. Of course, they would also struggle to purchase the storage media needed to have the ripped video available. Even $10 might not be worth the hassle.... $5, maybe. Or $2... yeah, at $2 it would be worth it.

Of course, all of this is moot. Mike set his pricing on HIS expenses and expectations. Our arguing about it doesn't change HIS economic equation.

So it all comes down to mental masturbation on our parts...

Woodstock wrote:Assumptions: Cutting the price from $50 to $10 will result in more sales.

Well, to match current revenue, that means at least 5 times as many people have to register. But, 5 times the people means 5 times the support. And 5 times the fees from the payment processor. So net return is DOWN at "only" 5 times the registrations.

Let's say there are 5 times as many people who lose their registrations, and Mike has to spend a couple of hours each week looking them up. How much is his time worth? It's not free.

This is the only question I think needs to be answered: Is $10 better than $0? I don't know anyone who would shell out $50 for this. I think nearly everyone I know would pay $10 for a piece of software they used more than once. So maybe it's not 5x. Maybe it's 50x more people would register the program if it were $10. This isn't a bottle of wine where a high price raises revenue because people infer value from higher cost. The anchor is set at $0 as it's free software. So asking $50 as a donation (the only amount you can donate) is seriously high compared to $0. The average donation to the Red Cross or a political candidate is something like $10. People do it without thinking twice. $50? People start thinking about their mortgage payment... their car payment... etc.

As I said before - how is a user paying nothing, ever, better than that user having paid $10 or $20 years ago?

wantonsoup wrote:I think nearly everyone I know would pay $10 for a piece of software they used more than once.

Tens of thousands of smartphones app developers would beg to differ. And before you go on with some weird projections of your own, why not grab an economics book and read up on price theory?

Chetwood wrote:

wantonsoup wrote:I think nearly everyone I know would pay $10 for a piece of software they used more than once.

Tens of thousands of smartphones app developers would beg to differ. And before you go on with some weird projections of your own, why not grab an economics book and read up on price theory?

Millions of app developers making millions per day would disagree with you, my friend. Anyway, do as you wish. I'm trying to help the owner out. BTW I majored in economics (albeit without graduating). I read studies about the shareware revolution of the 80's and 90's, which is pretty much what we're dealing with here. People freely gave small amounts for software but companies asking for large amounts to register often went out of business.

Let's see here, over 10,000 forum members but so far only 2 are beating the $10 drum.

It's a moot point....the majority of the people who use this app are ripping discs they don't own, so they'll keep using the "free" version as long as it's available.

Lovely Rita wrote:the majority of the people who use this app are ripping discs they don't own

Says who?

Nothing more than my personal opinion based on many years in ripping forums.