Free Music Pack!
by Ray Gebhardt · 08/29/2007 (8:10 pm) · 8 comments
Nool Music Pack 1 is now free! You can use it in any kind of game, demo or multimedia production you want. You just have to credit me in your product and let me know what product you are using it in. Of course you can give me a free copy of your product if you want, but it's not a requirement in any way, so don't feel obligated to do so. You can send me an email at ray@noolness.com in order to tell me about your new product using my pack, or to request music to be made on a contract basis.
Click here to get your free music pack today!
Have a nice memorial day weekend if you celebrate it.
About the author
#2
08/30/2007 (12:15 am)
I hope you don't feel too bad Ray. :) 
#3
08/30/2007 (5:01 am)
Don't worry Ray, I think this move should change your fortunes, freebies are usual a great way of getting future conversions! ;)
#4
In my opinion, going by my website's traffic statistics and a bit of intuition my pack had a few problems. The first problem is that there is no market for what I was producing. An indie music pack that is stylized for retro or casual games targets a small portion of what is already a very small indie developer market. If the market for a product is extremely small, it's going to be very hard to sell your product.
The second issue was one of price. Even though fifty dollars is a reasonable price for what I was offering, very few people would be willing to pay for it unless they *really* needed it. Going by my web statistics most of the people that listened to the previews went to the product page for the music pack. Actually close to 100% of the people that listened to the previews actually went to product page for the pack. I thought that was pretty amazing, because that meant that almost everyone that listened to the pack had at least some interest in buying it. On the other hand once people got to the product page they just left this site. This is a pretty good indication that the product was priced too high.
I am guessing that the majority of content packs are impulse buys from "indie developers" that make games for a hobby. Fifty dollars would be much too high for them to pay just for a music pack. Art packs can sell for around that price or higher because art can be used instantly as a major part of a game. For example the Adam pack can give a hobbyist instant access to the main character model for their game. Something like the Tim Aste content packs gives hobbyists buildings they can drop into Torque and walk around in instantly.
Now I could have just reduced the price of the pack dramatically, but it wasn't really worth the work to do the taxes and such if I sold it for lets say ten dollars. In the end I released the pack for free because making it free was way more beneficial than lowering the price. If I sold twenty packs at ten dollars a piece, after taxes and paying my accountant I would get pretty close to zero dollars for the pack. In the process I would waste a lot of time making sure the taxes get paid properly, and far fewer people would have access to the pack. I think offering the pack for free is better for everyone.
08/30/2007 (6:42 am)
I don't feel bad at all actually. Although I didn't sell any copies I learned a lot. Now I know what is required to take a product from start to completion. In the process it forced me to upgrade my website, learn a bit more about how to analyze web traffic, and other interesting things.In my opinion, going by my website's traffic statistics and a bit of intuition my pack had a few problems. The first problem is that there is no market for what I was producing. An indie music pack that is stylized for retro or casual games targets a small portion of what is already a very small indie developer market. If the market for a product is extremely small, it's going to be very hard to sell your product.
The second issue was one of price. Even though fifty dollars is a reasonable price for what I was offering, very few people would be willing to pay for it unless they *really* needed it. Going by my web statistics most of the people that listened to the previews went to the product page for the music pack. Actually close to 100% of the people that listened to the previews actually went to product page for the pack. I thought that was pretty amazing, because that meant that almost everyone that listened to the pack had at least some interest in buying it. On the other hand once people got to the product page they just left this site. This is a pretty good indication that the product was priced too high.
I am guessing that the majority of content packs are impulse buys from "indie developers" that make games for a hobby. Fifty dollars would be much too high for them to pay just for a music pack. Art packs can sell for around that price or higher because art can be used instantly as a major part of a game. For example the Adam pack can give a hobbyist instant access to the main character model for their game. Something like the Tim Aste content packs gives hobbyists buildings they can drop into Torque and walk around in instantly.
Now I could have just reduced the price of the pack dramatically, but it wasn't really worth the work to do the taxes and such if I sold it for lets say ten dollars. In the end I released the pack for free because making it free was way more beneficial than lowering the price. If I sold twenty packs at ten dollars a piece, after taxes and paying my accountant I would get pretty close to zero dollars for the pack. In the process I would waste a lot of time making sure the taxes get paid properly, and far fewer people would have access to the pack. I think offering the pack for free is better for everyone.
#5
08/30/2007 (7:00 am)
Very generous. Thank you. 
#7
08/30/2007 (8:19 am)
cool - thanks man! I will use all your music in BRAVE - will save me so much time. Very C64 of you ;-) I love it.
#8
08/30/2007 (8:41 am)
Nice assessment Ray, hopefully we can all learn from your expericence :-P 
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