Expansions Hot 💯!

Peter Harris

As a cerified Expansion addict, I've always been curious about how successful they have been relative to each other in terms of popularity. While I understand you probably can't release actual sales figures (though I'd be super fun if you did), it'd be very interesting to see it historically and/or in an ongoing ranking on the site or blog or community to see trends.

For example, it would be fun when something like Satin Looks was released to see it climbing up the list week after week. Or how a new video from Barry or Beau or Jef or Knock or DDS spikes the numbers. Or whether a new post by someone about an older expansion can move the trend. Etc.

Maybe in a ranked list like the Billboard Top 100? As a former-ish marketing/advertising professional myself, I know from experience you could have all kinds of fun with this in terms of community engagement and outreach. And frankly it's just plain fun too, adding a little gamification element to the whole thing.

And BTW before anyone gets their knickers in a knot again because you think that producing expansions is somehow slowing down product fixes and updates, that is just ridiculous. They are a really valuable source of ongoing revenue for companies like Akai and Native Instruments and Novation and Modal that is what allows them to continue developing grand products with multi-year development timelines and it does that in a way that can be outsourced to industry producers like Snipe and MSX without using any of the development team internally. And for users like me the excitement of new expansions helps maintain enthusiasm for a product that might naturally wane in the face of new gear inevitably coming to market. The alternative is that companies like Behringer that have to rely on inexpensive niche $100 synth clones (which are still cool, I'm not saying otherwise) to fund the development of more revolutionary stuff like my cherished Maschine+.

Matt_NI

Do you work for Splice Peter? 🤣 😂

Peter Harris

No. Why do you ask?

Matt_NI

Only joking since you're asking for sales figures ;)

I don't know where the team would stand on sharing the best sellers but it does sound like that's something we'll probably keep to ourselves. It's a tough market out there 😅

Peter Harris

I see. Oh well. The classic push/pull between sales and marketing.

I guess I'll just have to get a job at Native Instruments if I want to satisfy my curiosity!

I guess I better keep my fingers crossed that our Expansion Mixtape idea is such a hit that they want an extra marketing-and-creative-saavy person in the LA office. (hint-hint...) 😉

D-One

I'd love to know numbers too, of Expansions, specific HW owners, mac VS windows users, KK vs Maschine, etc... NI is too old-fashioned to ever do that tho.

Splice actually has a Top 100 chart packs ranking: https://splice.com/sounds/charts/packs , tons of other popular sample pack websites have them aswell.

Matt was just joking but Splice reportedly had 2.5 million users a couple of years ago, probably a lot more now, I don't think they need NI or anyone else to know the trends... I'd say it's the other way around actually.

It's so easy to know the popular production trends for anyone paying attention and involved in the production communities... Some packs are so impactful you can hear them all over the billboard charts a few months after release, and of course on SoundCloud, Beatstars, etc... We are at a time where a gigantic amount of producers are actually looking for the popular most used sounds instead of unique ones, a bit sad but true at least in popular genres.

Kubrak

I also think it might be interesting. Does not mean to give away exact numbers. For expansions TOP10 for each gender and TOP10 from all genders. And the same for last several months. There is hundred or so expansions, pretty hard to choose. Or just mark those TOP10 with a star (or any other symbol), so that one knows it is among TOP10 without revealing which position exactly.

Also Mac vs, Win vs, Mac+Win users percentage would be interesting. But I guess, it could reveal, on longer time scale, things, NI does not want.

Percivale

I was looking at the expansion packs today, some going for 29.99 some 49.99 so a gauge of their popularity maybe?

basehead617

expansions are awesome - you can ignore the ‘genre’ they are labeled as, it’s just sounds.

as someone who always buys them on release though i do wish there was a way to get them discounted. it sucks to have them discounted later or show up in komplete bundles, not really rewarding volume buyers and repeat customers..

Matt_NI

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/12141#Comment_12141

Yes, I was obviously kidding with the Splice thing but I think it's a bit different over there. We do have quite a fair bit of expansions but it's nothing compare to the thousands sound packs you see on Splice. Our model isn't the same since we only have our own content and there's isn't that much to choose from when you go by genres. I'm also wondering if perhaps doing these types of best sellers could create an unhealthy competition across the catalog. We work with external partners as Peter pointed out and I'm not sure how they would feel if some were highlighted but not others.

Now, the fun bit - which one you think is the most popular all time ?

Peter Harris

I'd guess Crate Cuts.

D-One

@Matt_NI said:

Now, the fun bit - which one you think is the most popular all time ?

Whoever guesses it first wins a free expansion? 🤣

Hard to say since a lot of them came for free with HW/SW purchases so that would inflate the numbers by a lot. I'd say either an older hip-hop one or one of the few that have an artist name tied to it, like Khalil's.

Schmapps1

I’d say Aquarius Earth. That one still to this day makes everybody’s top 5 list in terms of Hip Hop expansions!

Peter Harris

My backup guess is that it might be something like Sierra Grove that was included with many M+ purchases.

Well @Matt_NI? Are you going to let us know who if anyone was correct or were you just teasing us? 😉

Kubrak

Transistor Punch?

Matt_NI

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/12683#Comment_12683

I'm still not seeing it listed here 😉