Since being in a digital era full of software created by talented developers, we’re all given a choice.

A choice to pay and support, or a choice to steal and see the negative spiraling effects of torrenting.

In this article, I want to discuss what happens when you torrent, and how it affects the future of the music industry, in our case.

To create the VSTs we all know and love like Serum, XLN Audio's Addictive Keys, plugins by FabFilter, and many others you can think of take time.

This time is not only dedicated to actually creating the product, but the planning and idea phase, debugging phase, and yes, actually writing the code to create that plugin. (Then there’s the marketing/sales part of the plugin, which is another story.)

Sure, some plugins are extremely expensive (like FabFilter), but their price is justified by probably being the best plugins to use in this industry in terms of workflow compared to others.

When you torrent, you take away monies from these companies which would enable more time on each of these development phases.

Yes, that means new possible features.

And do you know what? They may even treat you better as a customer like free updates if everyone were to purchase the first time. (Just saying..)

At the end of the day, because of torrenting, we as producers are missing out on new features, more time dedicated to the plugin to sift out a better workflow, and less bugs/glitches.

People’s excuse is, “But I don’t make any money from music, so why should I buy the tools?”.

Because stealing is stealing; there’s no way around this one.

You can’t justify this is in any regard.

It comes down to morals, and those torrenting these software developer’s amazing work are hindering the creativeness of this music industry.

You may think it’s not a big deal, but by you not paying for the plugins, the developer’s are not receiving their monies, and therefore not given as much time, as well as motivation, to continue to work on new features towards that old plugin, or a new plugin at all.

Now we as producers are stuck with programs like iLok and eLicensor, where if our computer breaks down with these plugins registered, it’s such a hassle to remove the license and get it re-issued.

I understand this is life, and I understand people will steal, but I want to let you know the cause and effect of your actions if you are torrenting.

And here’s the thing, I have experienced people torrenting from me first hand, and it kind of hurts.

(I used to run SoundPackFlyer.com, a premium sound kit website, and when I saw my products on torrent sites it made me realize the type of industry I am available to..)

This is the music industry where everyone has a major passion but the majority makes little money from their creations. (You can always start taking your music career more seriously..)

Just because your creations are making little money doesn’t give you the right to steal another’s creation and try to prosper off of it and think, “If I start making money, then I’ll buy these plugins.”

In our case, this isn’t an open source world. You have to pay to play.

Rant over.

# GratuiTous