Are sample libraries too expensive?

I think they are more affordable than ever. Also, there is a terrific amount of free content out that there some of us would have killed for 20 years ago. This question obviously varies depending on the age of the forum member and whether they are a pro, amateur, hobbyist, etc.

The fact is that these libraries take time and countless hours to produce. Musicians have to be paid, recording spaces have to be rented, etc. For every Spitfire, there are dozens if not hundreds more indie developers who have small teams. They have to recoup their costs somehow otherwise they go out of business.

Broadway Big Band is for sure too expensive

No I don’t.

No, I remember how much I paid for all the East West stuff back in the day, it's so much cheaper now!

I think the prices nowadays are great, especially if you can hold off for a sale.

It all depends on how much they bring

Generally speaking, no. Knowing the sheer amount of work that goes into developing them, I think they're pretty reasonable for the most part.

Not at all, especially when you consider everything that has to go into them, especially the string libraries given number of players. The only problem with the price is when we can't hold back and have to buy 17 different string libraries. We make it expensive, not the sample library makers.

If you buy smart e.g. sales, Black Friday etc, along with knowing what you need to compose with, so you don’t just “G.A.S. collect”.

Then what you have left at your disposal to create convincing orchestral and cinematic music with such powerful tools…then no, sample libraries are not too expensive.

No. Not at all.

Professionals know how much work goes into making these libraries.
Professionals know that you can barely hire one professional musician for one session for the same price as many of the best sound libraries.

Amateurs/hobbyists that use all this stuff may not fully understand what it really takes to CREATE all of the tools that they are able to use for next to nothing.

Really....most of the sound libraries cost next to nothing compared to what they offer in return.

I think so. I feel that Kontakt Player libraries have an artificially high price, which is primarily stemming from the NI fee… Besides Kontakt Player, I do acknowledge the cost involved in making sample libraries in general, but I do really feel that when 10 year old libraries are still priced more or less the same as they have always been, that is not reflective of price decreases of other software in general.

I tend to think about it a bit differently in terms of aspiring home composers versus hollywood blockbuster composers and affordability. Expensive sample libraries are always feel cheap to the latter and are always feel expensive to the former. Also, home composers aren't all rich and aren't all broke. Like hollywood blockbuster composers, rich home composers will find expensive sample libraries as peanuts. Broke home composers will find both cheap and expensive libraries as expensive. Broke home composers will never value or understand the fact that these sample libraries were recorded by hiring expensive musicians and maybe that's why most of them take the piracy route claiming that they're poor composers and they also have the right to access these sounds as rich composers.

So, there are really lots of variables. I, personally, tend to think about it as they're the sounds I use to make blockbuster music, be it a trailer or scoring music. And because they're the sounds to make blockbuster music, they don't have to be cheap but they are. Besides hiring musicians, the sample developer also considers the fact that his/her product will be at the hands of a professional composer who knows how to use it and earn thousands of income in return using these sounds. I really believe that developers also value their products by measuring the success of a composer using their sounds.

If I am going to blame expensive libraries, I would blame synth developers who sell their synth packs expensive. No hiring musicians here! just their synth programming expertise. But luckily, they're not so many.

I think libraries are super cheap, these days. In the early eighties, I paid $3,000 (the equivalent of around $10,000 today) for the Denny Jaeger violin library. Just violins.

For Professionals, no.

For hobbyists, for sure.

Both are important to sample developers, which is why there is a sales-culture.

Compared to recording at Abbey Road? No

CineSamples, VSL and OT without sales? Absolutely too expensive. The rest are more reasonable in comparison.

Agree ..OT is too expensive

Counter question: do YouTubers always look so depressed in order to catch the attention of the audience?

I'm confused at the price of a product here and there, on both ends. Some seem way too low-price for their value and some seem to be a bit much.

Generally, for the past 5-7 years? I'm amazed the average price isn't higher.

That said, I'm not sure the trend of some recent "high" prices or price increases for old products will sustain given how hard many industries have been hit. Sure, these developers are feeling that pain themselves, but many prospective buyers have been laid off from their primary/secondary jobs or are facing inflation without their own compensation being increased.

Just about everything seems more expensive than a few years ago (insurance, services, food), yet I'm making about the same amount of money. The brunt of inflation ends with people like me, with few above me absorbing it.