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I bet you’ve spent more than you think!
In another of my threads, someone talks about what you can do spending ‘a £100 of synths’ or something similar. While I understand the sentiment, I somehow doubt many people here have only spent £100 on synths, let alone all the apps they have to make music.
I’m pretty certain since I got my first iPad in 2014, that I have spent over £2000 on apps. I doubt I’m anywhere near the highest spender here, and to be honest I’m willing to bet that most of us on this forum that have been using an iPad for over one year have spent well over a few hundred pounds.
Add up all the iPad models some of you buy and all the apps and figures for high end hardware synths no longer seem quite so silly imo.
Yes, I’m sure there are a few here that make music, probably only paying a fiver a month for Logic, or even on Garage Band for free, but I’m willing to bet that AAS (app acquisition syndrome) costs many here as much as GAS (gear acquisition syndrome). I’m also willing to bet that some of you lie! Lol
- Not taking into account the iPad (or iPads) purchase (s), what have you spent on music making apps?61 votes
- Nothing. I only use free apps  0.00%
- Less than £100 and maybe a subscription.  1.64%
- Less than £500 and maybe a subscription.21.31%
- Must be over £1000 by now….27.87%
- Damn I’ve easily spent £2000 and I can’t remember half my apps!24.59%
- I’ve been at this longer than most and I lost count after the first few thousand!21.31%
- If my better half even knew that my iOS habit costs more than many cars I would be divorced!  3.28%
Comments
I bought loads of Swam trumpets and always felt kinda grumpy
but used and they sound lush.
Compliments pianoteq.
If you ended up buying all top classical instruments.
It would make all the apps you dont use,worth it, I guess.
But they were on saaaaale !!
Yeah I hear ya……
I’ve not even gone there yet! No doubt I will in time….
No sh*t, but thankfully I no longer suffer from the dreaded insta-buy-app-o-holism
So far I've spent 1820SEK including VAT on Apps & IAPs including the annual Logic sub which all in total translates to roughly $172 USD, that's for 11 purchases. (My goal for this year is to stay well below $400)
On top of that helping out with beta-testing grants some freebies from time to time...
I hope you achieve your goal Sir
Since I got 1st iPhone 15 years ago I’m sure I must be in the over 2k bracket as that’s only £11 a month
Hundred percent. I've easily spent a few thousand on apps, then another good few thousand on ipads, midi controllers including pricier ones like seaboard, mics, audio interfaces, headphones etc. Can be a cheap hobby but definitely possible to spend a lot.
My acoustic guitar, bought over ten years ago in China was an amazing guitar, bought for about £800. I had to think hard about spending that kind of money on a guitar but I got incredible value from it over the years. And I got heavy use from it. Unlike many apps I bought, most of which got a quick twiddle and then got forgotten about. So yes, app expenses can mount up and can quite frankly be a total waste of money and time. Now I feel I'd rather spend less money and energy on new stuff. Tech becomes a great distraction from making music, rather than being an aid, it can become a hindrance.
Yes definitely easier to spread the cost than buying an expensive single piece of hardware. I think this is why some find it easy to mentally justify the cost over spending a few grand all at once on an item, that may well last you just as long. I only say this as I’ve seen a lot of people online baulk at the prices of some of the higher end gear, yet they think the iPad / computer / software route is so much cheaper. Yes, it can be, but it usually isn’t when we look at our long term spends.
That said, be careful of using this insight to justify your spend on hardware. It's like the way people price apps in cups of coffee. Often it's a strategy for actually convincing yourself to spend more rather than less. 😁
As I’ve just posted to another comment, those big one off purchases may seem harder to mentally justify, but we justify our drip feed app habits so easily. So, when I’m thinking hard about one decent and probably expensive hardware synth, it takes me years of weighing up the spend, yet I’ve easily spent more on other purchases and hobbies. While thinking about a big hardware purchase these last few years, I spent just under £4000 on TTRPG books!
I like being surrounded by ‘stuff’, so while I love iOS music making as it’s seemingly cheap in comparison, it’s nice to actually have something physical to show for your money at times. Maybe it’s my age, as younger people seem to find owning nothing but a few tech devices to be easier to handle.
Stuff is nice if you can afford it and have the space, there are a lot of downsides to playing a touch screen rather than interacting with a physical instrument. I like mobility and have neither much space nor money, so I make do with a touch device and a few small midi controllers. I don't have my guitar with me, but miss it.
Possibly, but I’m also aware that life is fleeting and you can’t take it with you. 55, no kids and can often be housebound during times of poor health, so it’s pretty easy to justify when I’ve paid all my bills. I understand that we can over indulge when we don’t need to, but it’s also easy to under sell what a lovely one off life time purchase can do for pleasure in life. It’s about balance. I get as much by sitting by a lake fishing as I would playing a lovely lusting keyboard, but the actual long term costs are pretty much the same in reality.
At the moment my one off cost is set to what I could afford at this time, but I will probably end up spending a little less to buy a few apps now and again and continue to afford my fishing bait and licences. Never all eggs in one basket.
Another point is that I pretty much have as many apps for music making as I will ever need. Like yourself, I don’t buy as many now. I think of app buying as a pleasurable hobby, but I could stop spending any money on apps right now and probably only miss Logic as it’s subscription.
I’m quite good at getting rid of stuff I don’t use. I sold my guitar as quite frankly I’m shite on one. Still want to try a bass and sax one day though lol.
Yes definitely, I'm not trying to talk you out of buying your gear, just an observation!
Yes, fair observations. I appreciate people’s general ideas and observations on here. If someone gets too personal or they are obviously just shite posting, I’m in a decent enough place to just ignore them. I really do like reading about other people’s experiences with gear though. I find the different approaches people take to enjoying this hobby interesting. Besides, if you tried to talk me out of spending money you would fail lol
Wow so 2/3 have spent thousands!i guess I really am in the minority as I suspected - I spent about $200 and no subs (and I don’t include gear), this was a cool interesting poll !!
Hahaha that’s funny
@Gavinski
Just going back to your comment about others comparing apps to the price of a coffee. I really can never understand why anyone would spend that much money on a coffee! Each to their own lol.
I’m going to do a new poll with slightly cheaper but still great hardware synths….will be interesting to see if it gets more love lol
Well done! Nice to see someone with a bit of wallet control lol. Gotta ask though, how long have you been using iOS?
@Fruitbat1919 Technically I began exploring iOS in 2020 for metal purposes but found it very limited: initial buys to Cubasis , Auria pro, synthmaster 1, a few free synths and apps, and a lot of IAA apps (like DPP and drum session and x drummer) - and gave up
Then I picked it up again 2 years ago BUT for your polls sake within those two years I spent 85%+ of what I spent from 2020-2022, if that helps quantify your results somehow
Also it’s not just wallet control, it’s spousal control hahaha
(No seriously tho, I have to watch what I spend with 3 kids and I also only buy what I know I can manage or use and I don’t lie to myself - luckily Cubasis offers almost everything I need with the HALIon and Neo fm and waves bundle ; I have a dozen extra midi or audio fx, a dozen drum apps, and a dozen synths now , and I have more than I’ll be ever able to use even on one track lol)
My wife had a miscarriage and we consider that it was not meant to be. If we had have had children, my life and the house would look so different. I happy with just the grandkids now as they go home and don’t cost us too much lol. Thanks for commenting.
I voted for 2000 bucks, but, it’s more, way more…
On the other hand, it’s a period of 16 years spending money on Appstore, so, the annual costs isn’t a thing that breaks my bank account…
To compare - I’ve spent $80000 on cars since then, or, $35000 on Apple hardware since 2008, or, other hardware and instrument around $20000 since 2008…
The list can go on - since 2012 me and my wife have put $150000 in living costs (interest, heating, electricity, insurances etc..)..
So, 2000-3000 bucks on apps over this period is peanutmoney (for us) - no big deal - I love my apps!!!
I pretty much just go off gift cards now but yah those crazy developer anniversary sales can still get me. But yah spent waaaay more back in the headphone jack / commuter days. Had many many coffee fuelled early morning impulse buys while dashing out the door for the train.
Yep spending always needs looking at in perspective of one’s own budget etc. We should all enjoy a ‘little’ spend now and again
Yes, that FOMO that leads to ‘just one more compressor!’ Even now I’m fighting the oooo a new lo fi app, that I really don’t need lol
Hehe FOMO and FOCH (fear of commuter hell), dangerous combination!
I voted "Damn I’ve easily spent £2000 and I can’t remember half my apps!" I think I easily spent over $1000 on Korg alone (Gadget, its IAPs, Module Pro and its IAPs, other Gadget-compatible apps and those IAPs, you get thr idea). Not counting most of the other hosts (except N-Track Studio), those IAPs, synths, romplers, etc. Definitely over $2000 since 2011 on music apps (defunct and maintained).
Cool topic.
I've spent around 200€ buying apps in total and started in the end of 2022. Some other apps are on my wishlist, so it'll go for a 100 more I guess.
My synthboard setup is more powerful, fits in a suitcase, and is still cheaper than hardware.
The cost of controllers + audio interface + ipad is around 1000€ new. The ipad mini 5 is getting old so it'll be an other investment of course...
One thing to not omit is the time spent to make everything stable and smooth, but that's the game ahah.
I guess i'm the one who said that in the other thread (?)
First of all, i'm on above $USD1.000 in apps, easily! And i don't have any regret about it (well, some apps yes, totally innecesary G.A.S), but that wasn't the OG topic. Even tho, would be fun to do a thread about it (your $100 iOS studio or best synths/apps por $100)
I'm not judging about how much money you want to spend in a Synth, if you can afford it and have space....go for it.
If i could one day afford one of my fav. synths or bass/drums/guitar or studio equipment i would totally go for it (again, if i have the money and space). But atm is totally difficult to do it, specially when you don't have easy access to those kind of equipment.
I, like others, maybe....have some reduced space (btw, my living room is my "studio") and personally, my budget for equipment is almost $0 right now, so.... i'm spending around $10-$15 month around apps as "buying soft studio equipment".
At the end, we all here just want to make some sounds in our free time, with tons of space/money/synths or maybe in a park with an iPhone....
That's all. Hope you find the best machine/synth around for your studio!
pd: sorry about my non native english, regards from Chile.
Yep, I didn't see your comment as being judgemental. It's that I quite often see comments online about the relative costs of one thing over another and firmly believe many of us often misjudge or are flat out in denial regarding the cost of software music making over hardware, hence this thread.
I do know I'm lucky to have such an understanding wife - I have fishing tackle in the dining room along with our DVD collection and some of my TTRPG books. I have Vinyl, CDs, more books and music gear in the living room. I probably spent more on drinking, smoking and partying when I was young though lol