RE: AW: elec gtr setup - to simplify

[Jeff Larson <jeff.larson@sailpoint.com>]

> But money spent on software is always an expense, never an investment.

That's true if we're only thinking about buying a commodity that can
be sold on eBay in a few years.

The software business is different than the hardware business
primarily because it is easy to create and evolve software over time.

A piece of software is almost always valueless after five years
because it has been replaced with something the market thinks is
better.  No one pines for that old copy of Word Perfect or Cakewalk
because they suck compared to what is available now.

What you have "invested" in by buying software is keeping the
developers interested enough to make new things that better meet your
needs.  If we all stop buying software just because we can't sell it
on eBay five years from now, what will happen is that developers will
stop making things and that copy of Sonar 7 will be actually be worth
something in 5 years because nothing came along to replace it.

The choice is yours.  If you're happy with what you bought and you want
it to have value in the future then stop buying new things.

I think it is also helpful to make a distinction between software
that is "feature focused" and software that is "algorithm focused".

Feature focused software includes things like DAWs, delay plugins, and
loopers.  There really isn't a lot of super-secret intellectual
property in them.  Lots of people can make these if they have the time
and desire.  The game here is to pile features on as fast as possible
to stay ahead of the competition.  Old versions become worthless
very quickly because everyone either upgrades or switches brands.

Algorithm focused software includes things like Melodyne, amp modelers,
pitch shifters and synths.  These contain some very complicated 
mathematical
algorithms that fewer people understand how to design.  There are different
approaches that result in qualitative differences between products that
make people prefer one to another beyond just their feature set.
These evolve more slowly and keep their value longer.

If hypothetically someone absolutely nails an amp model, then it
will continue to have value until someone does it better.  But
in the current state of development, someone usually does do it
better in a few years.  Eventually maybe we'll reach a state
where it is pointless to go on, innovation will stop and values
will stabilize.

Jeff