Loopy Pro: Create music, your way.
What is Loopy Pro? — Loopy Pro is a powerful, flexible, and intuitive live looper, sampler, clip launcher and DAW for iPhone and iPad. At its core, it allows you to record and layer sounds in real-time to create complex musical arrangements. But it doesn’t stop there—Loopy Pro offers advanced tools to customize your workflow, build dynamic performance setups, and create a seamless connection between instruments, effects, and external gear.
Use it for live looping, sequencing, arranging, mixing, and much more. Whether you're a live performer, a producer, or just experimenting with sound, Loopy Pro helps you take control of your creative process.
Download on the App StoreLoopy Pro is your all-in-one musical toolkit. Try it for free today.
Are IAP trial versions of audio unit effects helpful?
I want an easy way to let users try our plugins before they buy them. Apple recommends using in app purchase to do this but I see few developers getting on board with that. Is there a reason why IAP trials don’t work well for audio units?
Edit: I saw someone complaining about Sugar Bytes free trial system several months ago and I can’t remember what the complaint was. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to try before they buy. (Who wouldn’t like that?) The problem was something to do with it being inconvenient to use IAP as the method of implementing a try before you buy system. I ask this question because I am trying to convince Apple support that they should have a try-before-you-buy option added to the App Store so devs can allow feee trials without needing to implement in app purchases.
So my question is not about “do you like to try before you buy?” My question is “is IAP an appropriate way to implement try-before-you-buy?”
Comments
seems to work ok for sugar bytes... especially useful if they are very complex apps like theirs that a user needs to really delve into to see if it works for them.
Is there an example of this option? TAQS.im World Synth offers a 3 day trial before an Apple subscription fee is charged. I tried it and cancelled the subscription and the instruments
stopped working after 3 days. I like it but I'm not sure it would work for purchases.
I will probably buy the TAQS.im subscription when I get hungry for more ethnic instruments and rhythms.
I think they're helpful. 7/10 times I usually buy the app I've demoed.
Not many, but a few devs off the top of my head that do trials in one way or another:
RRS, OOO
Korg (iap sound packs have 1 week trial)
James Milton (Poly 2)
Markus Sigg (Thafknar)
Sugarbytes
Each dev has a different method of either limiting features, AUv3 capability, saving, time limits etc. I'd personally love to see more developers allow trials on their apps. Downloaded and bought a lot of apps I've only used once or twice.
I find videos of apps by the developers and musicians to be sufficient for me to decide whether I want to buy an app or not. To be perfectly honest, I think a trial IAP might lead to fewer sales as I’d be more likely to try it out and move onto other things rather than buying it. Introductory offers or sales can push me off the fence. If it’s an app I really like, I’ll just buy it and the videos are enough for me to know that.
I agree with @Paulinko // videos seem to be defining reason why I’ll explore the app more. Plus need to have an option to have Auv3 unlocked so it can be tested in AUM etc
If the app is great, it will lead to more sales. Sugar Bytes have faith in their product, as they should. For apps that aren't so great, people will try and then move on. I firmly believe people should have the right to try though.
I usually check out videos from Doug and Gavinski rather than trial apps, so for me it wouldn’t be so useful.
Agreed. I love the sugar bytes trial concept and I’ve bought almost all their apps but was very thankful to try a couple i was not sure about that lead to me knowing it was not right for me. At the end of the day saving that money made me appreciate them more , knowing they weren’t just going to take my money like it or not.
It shows the company is confident in their product and cares about their customers.
A great app is going to sell and a free trial won’t hurt the sales IMO. Sure you may lose a sale or two but you gain loyalty and long term happy customers
This!
RRS model is fair in my opinion. You can test all the functionalities for a limited period (5 minutes or so). And you can re-test as often as you need to. If after n trials you are not convinced, just delete the app. If you are convinced, then you will most probably buy it.
I edited the original question as follows:
I saw someone complaining about Sugar Bytes free trial system several months ago and I can’t remember what the complaint was. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to try before they buy. (Who wouldn’t like that?) The problem was something to do with it being inconvenient to use IAP as the method of implementing a try before you buy system. I ask this question because I am trying to convince Apple support that they should have a try-before-you-buy option added to the App Store so devs can allow feee trials without needing to implement in app purchases.
So my question is not about “do you like to try before you buy?” My question is “is IAP an appropriate way to implement try-before-you-buy?”
That is a more interesting question, I think for the most part they’re fine - the rrs method is great, sugar bytes model is ok but they don’t tend to let you use the au features, which are of primary importance to many here. The general problem of iaps is then that if there’s only a subset of features available to trial, you can end up in a worse place as refunds aren’t possible once you’ve bought them...
I think there are two things that people sometimes with respect to this:
For me, neither of these is a big problem. Trying before you buy would probably have resulted in my buying a number of apps I haven’t purchased.
What does RRS stand for? (Or what is the rrs method?)
@Blue_Mangoo The main gripe regarding Sugarbytes apps is that there is no way to verify & test the AUv3 functionality before purchase.
I think what Imaginando does with LK and DRC is a good middle ground.
IAP to unlock features that can be tested without restrictions for a while.
Korg does 7-day trials on the IAPs in Module.
So yeah, IAP could be a way to implement 'try before you buy'.
Try to avoid 'nag-ware' that reminds the user constantly (like every minute or two) to purchase the IAP.
For 'cheaper' apps (<$9.99) there is no point in trials as it's not a huge 'investment'.
Apps >$29.99 should offer trials but for cheaper apps it's waste of time...
I guess it depends if a developer gets a lot of 'app refunds' it's going to hurt?!
Don't know if it's even possible to ask for a refund when it comes to IAPs?
Every developer does what they feel like doing, customer is king they either get it or they don't
This is what I am talking about. If you are selling an audio unit effect plugin (not an au instrument) then the sugar bytes model doesn’t work at all, right?
Is there any developer using IAP to do free trials of audio unit effects?
These guys do it...
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1514569444
https://redrocksound.ru/products/c609-au/
As Samu said above, Red Rock Studio 👍
What happens when the developer you purchased the IAP from, disappear from the AppStore? A fully functional app will still work after you’ve reinstalled it from a local copy. That is until Apple decides to kneecap users even further by putting a complete stop to that. Anyway one prominent audio dev called it ransom ware.
But they don’t let you try the audio unit. It’s only the standalone app that has a trial.
Last time I checked I was able to load the AUv3 as well, don’t know if they changed it...
If that’s the case then it’s a bummer.
Not that I've ever seen. Not sure how that would work with an effect app.. You should ask Apple support if they can offer an example of this, if thats the method they are suggesting.
Glad to see you are trying to convince them to offer the trial option in the app store.
How did Korg do the 7-day trial thing?
I don’t like the whole IAP thing because of not being able to restore from backup. Videos do the job for me.
That's weird, before you could always trial the AU for 5 mins at a time before needing to reload it. I think that could be a solution for you, though 5 mins is a bit short, I'd suggest 10. Best thing would be if you get Apple to change the whole system, as you mentioned you are trying to do, though it is a long shot I'm sure!
RRS does let you demo the AUv3. That’s how I trialed their Polylvoks filter in Drambo. Tested it with exposed parameter automation, found it did what I needed, purchased it after the 5 minutes timed out.
Fwiw, Red Rock Sound has an app lineup most similar to Blue Mangoos - a lot of fx and mastering tools, mostly AUv3 at that too. The only 2 apps I’ve tested from them I’ve also bought. I couldn’t have made my purchase decision from video demos alone, because my use case for their tools for was very specific.
I didn’t actually try the RSS audio unit. I just assumed you can’t try it because the app ui looks like this:
The second paragraph details the au trial 😁
Huh, they should revise that page. The giant red boxes would imply that the AUv3 is not on trial, but the 'fine print' says the opposite.
I prefer to buy non-IAP apps given the choice. I think IAPs for content works well.
I agree. I don’t like IAP in general. But I think we will consider trying it.