State of Independent Audio Plugin Companies – Help Shape the 2025 Survey

Audio Plugins
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Back in 2018, Nick ran the Independent Audio Plugin Developer Report. It gave the community a valuable snapshot of how developers were building, selling, and distributing their plugins.

We (Moonbase) would like to pick this up again for 2025, with the ambition of making it a recurring resource for the community. Unlike the JUCE user survey, which dives into technical tools and workflows, this survey will focus specifically on the business side of being an independent developer — things like sales, marketing, pricing, distribution, and overall challenges of running a plugin business.

Before we finalize the questions, we’d love your input:
– What business challenges do you think should be covered?
– What data would be most useful for you to benchmark your business against?

Our aim is to make this as useful as possible for the community, and we’ll share the results openly once the survey is complete.

7 Likes
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Business challenges: pivoting previously free plugins toward a payment model. Gaining brand recognition in the crowded plugin market. Dealing with sandbox policies across the plugin formats.

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Thank you for your input @ibisum. The brand recognition challenge especially feels core for many companies.