I've been designing and building audio software and hardware components for musicians since I was a teenager. VST plugins to start, then moved on to digital guitar effects and now Eurorack synth modules. I've also built custom midi controllers, traditional guitar pedals, you name it, I've designed and built it.
I have absolutely no doubt that I could build a small, semi-successful company around these products, that would turn over 200-300k per year, with a nice profit margin. In fact, I've made quite detailed business models which make me very confident in that.
My problem, however, is that I am extremely well employed (like probably many other readers here :) and that just won't compete with my current paycheck; which also comes with job security, low stress, and vacation days (I'm on the UK). These ideas would also be very difficult or impossible to grow into million dollar+ annual sales, as they are targeted at very niche audiences.
So I've been stuck in this half-way place, where I have a bunch of products, mostly finished, even polished (and I work on this stuff because I LOVE doing it, that's the only reason), and every time I have to make a decision whether to open source it and give it away or try to monetise it. So far, it's all gone the open source way, but I have a couple of projects I'm holding back because I think I might be able to sell them to another company for a decent amount.
Thinking about all those meta/alphabet/twitter employees being let go these days, I wouldn't be surprised if we're about to see an explosion in cool, scrappy tech startups, from people who've been in my situation, and decided to use this as an opportunity to build their little dream startup - I hope so!
As long as you're not unhappy with your day job, that's great. If you are unhappy, then you have a passion project/domain that you already have good progress in.
It's easy to give advice, so I'll give some. Make a 6 month plan toward quitting your day job (reducing financial burdens, winding down unnecessary expenses, generally preparing for no income). Make some potential plans for how you might fill your days with regard to your audio work. If you don't do this step, you may find yourself feeling lost or aimless and consequently not as happy as you would have expected.
But here's the best part, I think: start using some of your free time to go to conferences and shows where audio tech is a feature. Show some of your stuff, or at least talk to others about it. Where this could lead is vast and somewhat unpredictable, but it might be a lot of fun and it likely could lead to something solid.
Meanwhile, focus on one or two of your projects and try to get them polished enough to setup a storefront and promote (assuming you're not already doing this).
Maybe it never reaches your current job income, but it might get close enough that you decide it was worth it. And if not, there will always be more jobs waiting.
There was a time when I questioned decisions like Amazon hiring[1] 50k tech workers along with Google, FB and other tech giants, because I did not understand their value to the company, when it seemed like they do not absolutely 'need' that level of tech workers.
Now I think I do:
1. Those engineers will less likely to upend the apple cart by inventing something that could disrupt business
2. Those engineers will be kept away from competition, where they could do something to help competition
Those tech workers are sufficiently happy that leaving is typically not an optimal choice.
FWIW, I am just typing aloud. So please correct me if you see a flaw in that reasoning.
on hardware my understanding is that industry is the closest thing we now have to the computer boom before personal computers. Off the shelf products sold by retailers are pretty poor and not cheap with acceptable margin, often get hacked by demanding users on fixed budgets. High performance stuff requires actual hardware expertise and artisan craft, very expensive, low volume, made to order, and the margin is probably close to minimum wage. It's an industry thats run on passion, my pessimistic take is guitar insurance is likely much easier and far more lucrative.
I’ve always been interested in writing VSTs, but haven’t really known where to start (I also need a motivating idea for one, but I’m sure that would come.) Do you have any resources that you would recommend for an experienced programmer and composer?
VST 2 was not so hard as you would imagine to get started. They are just a dll with a well defined interface. Sadly 2 is now deprecated by Steinberg but probably available. Don't know about VST 3.
However ... getting deep into DSP is another thing!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the market for musicians’ audio software and hardware is underdocumented. Despite this outstanding explosion (especially software), I fail to find "insiders" or dedicated open communities writing articles or books on the business side. You mostly hear the musical side because that's what the audience wants at kvr or SOS...
Don't you think this will give people like you (especially those not well connected) more granular insight to take the decisions they are hesitant about?
Personally. I'm just curious. I've been using VSTs for 20 years, and I find this power fascinating. So, I'm intrigued by all the human and market dynamics behind the scenes that make it possible.
Sadly, in our current system, less economic growth = less money is given to musicians = less money musicians give to tool creators. This may not even be a linear chain, so the effect get a whole worse at the end point (if you know what I mean)
Definitely agree there's not much in the way of going from idea to business. I'd love to read this sort of thing too.
There's a little bit of this on the Valhalla blog[1] IIRC (great reading if you're into DSP tech). You might also find pieces of insight by looking at some of the hackaday posts or by looking at some of the DIY Synth groups on facebook etc. There's definitely some interesting stories there of Kickstarters that over-promise and under-deliver (late/buggy/etc), ISLA Kordbot[2] springs to mind as an example that was a long wait, as well as some darlings like the Oxi One[3]. Perhaps reading Kickstarter comments and the associated forum posts could be a viable strategy for getting more into this field.
I think you have to go to industry events like NAMM and so forth. You’re not going to find experts just giving away their knowledge on the Internet openly
Same thing with medical tech, energy tech, etc.
Web and to some extent games are a lot more open (and larger) than most fields
I decided to launch products several times (alone or with 1-2 friends) and, while I got some decent passive revenue, I was able to reach 250k per year profit only once - and not forever, that opportunity actually dried up completely.
My startup on which we poured 3 years of work by 10 people, failed to ever earn back the money spent on it.
I think you are underestimating how hard it is to sell and how fleeting can success be.
Fascinating! Every time I read articles or papers on advances in ML I always daydream about their application to guitar tone, synth and sound design. I wonder how long until I can analyze a song section as input that allows me to play that exact tone/synth?
Ozone has an analysis section in one of their apps/ plug-ins. Sorry, cant link but you/ the app listen to a section of music and the software sets itself up to recreate that eq.
What you seem to be actually describing, though, is listening to a section of music and re-creating a single instrument tone within that(?). Them's called your ears, or some software can do a poor rendition of it. But every note change/ background change would be confusing.
Having said that, some software has come close, but i bet the 3 letter guys (and the ntsb)have access to the best equipment (to mainly isolate voices).
Do you think that if you went through the process of creating a $200k/year company that you might pick up on something else that could also make $200k/yr, be it a new product or a way to expand your current one?
I've been designing and building audio software and hardware components for musicians since I was a teenager. VST plugins to start, then moved on to digital guitar effects and now Eurorack synth modules. I've also built custom midi controllers, traditional guitar pedals, you name it, I've designed and built it.
I have absolutely no doubt that I could build a small, semi-successful company around these products, that would turn over 200-300k per year, with a nice profit margin. In fact, I've made quite detailed business models which make me very confident in that.
My problem, however, is that I am extremely well employed (like probably many other readers here :) and that just won't compete with my current paycheck; which also comes with job security, low stress, and vacation days (I'm on the UK). These ideas would also be very difficult or impossible to grow into million dollar+ annual sales, as they are targeted at very niche audiences.
So I've been stuck in this half-way place, where I have a bunch of products, mostly finished, even polished (and I work on this stuff because I LOVE doing it, that's the only reason), and every time I have to make a decision whether to open source it and give it away or try to monetise it. So far, it's all gone the open source way, but I have a couple of projects I'm holding back because I think I might be able to sell them to another company for a decent amount.
Thinking about all those meta/alphabet/twitter employees being let go these days, I wouldn't be surprised if we're about to see an explosion in cool, scrappy tech startups, from people who've been in my situation, and decided to use this as an opportunity to build their little dream startup - I hope so!