On my website, I offer more than 20 free products including plugins and sample packs. But are they really free? Not really. Here's why.

Plugin development costs money. I need to buy the most popular DAWs and I need a Windows PC and a Mac computer to test my plugins. They all cost money with a few exceptions (Cakewalk being one). I recently bought a Mac mini M1 computer with Logic Pro, it costs me close to 1800$ in Canadian money.
Search and development cost money. In order to create new plugins, I need to search to find new ideas and concepts. For example, the development of my standard UI that I re-use in different projects took me 3 weeks of research. During this time, I had to feed myself, pay for electricity, and so on.
Time isn't free unless you live in your mother's house, and even then it'll most likely cost something.
Sample pack development costs money. I need to search for interesting hardware instruments to sample, buy them, make sure they work as intended, and sample them using the best recording equipment I can afford.
Websites aren't free. Domain name and bandwidth cost money, a % of each sale I get goes toward paying for them.
The best plugins for audio engineers, as you probably know, aren't free and must-have tools like iZotope RX 9 are quite expensive. RX 9 is magic though, for audio repairing I'm endlessly amazed by what it does.
Furniture: when you buy and use a lot of gear, you need the furniture because they won't float in the air by themselves.

I could go on and on but I'm sure you get the point.

When you see something free online, keep in mind that there's much more that goes into it than it looks. Free valuable products are actually worth real money.

One of the reasons I can offer so many "free" plugins for everyone to enjoy is because a generous minority donates.

I'm thankful for them and you should be too. :)

Have a great end of the week!

PS: If you haven't filled it out yet, my 2022 SampleScience Survey is still running. Fill it out and get a 25% discount code that can be applied to any 2$+ products in my catalog. Hint: the discount code can also be applied to bundles.

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