MyFonts and families

24

Comments

  • Max Phillips
    Max Phillips Posts: 474
    Volume may spike for those who cut prices, but I'm not sure it is sustainable. Continually pumping out promotions in which the discount is central seems a poor way to build a reputation.

    Sure, but I wasn't talking about 90% discounts or massive grab-bag bundles. Those are obviously pernicious. I was talking about gradual long-term shifts in the 'normal' undiscounted price of basic licenses, as per my example. I don't think there's anything sacred about $40-$50/style. If somewhat lower prices expand the market and increase volume long-term, it may actually be better for everyone, or at least no worse.

    I'm also not saying the market will expand and everything will be fine. Just that we should look at prices in context.
  • Stephen Coles
    Stephen Coles Posts: 1,007
    True. More analysis would need to be done, but from what I can tell at a glance the average unit price is lower mostly due to very cheap families and bundles, not a $5 difference in style price. 
  • Max Phillips
    Max Phillips Posts: 474
    …from what I can tell at a glance the average unit price is lower mostly due to very cheap families and bundles,…
    I wish you were wrong, but I'd bet you're right.

  • Marc Oxborrow
    Marc Oxborrow Posts: 220
    Beaufort Stencil would be pretty hot ...
  • Niche.
    Niche. Posts: 86
    Coming from the perspective of someone that is much younger and less experienced I believe the ability to make a "trendy" font family is far easier than it was years ago. You can easily download the software and find tutorials ect. BUT, these trendy types like handmade and scripts are concurrent with design trends and that's why they are so cheap because cheaply made = cheaply sold. Hell with the knowledge I have gained in the last 6 months I could easy go on illustrator and use a cool stroke effect and create a trendy "font" in a weekend or 2. But I believe good type still concours and when you put the time in — the appreciation will come. I think those packs of fonts (I get emails all the time from creative market and other sources) are just a collection of half throw alway typefaces and half trends that will never go anywhere. This strives young designers to create something that is far better and will last for a lot longer. The trend of "handmade" will go away as soon as Nexa Rust is no longer around (soon I hope) 
  • Botio Nikoltchev
    Botio Nikoltchev Posts: 31
    edited February 2017
    Selling one style for 55 Cent and that for more then 40 days! I don´t know wich marketing moron at Monotype/MyFonts came with this brillant idea. But one is sure, its killing the market.

    Daily revenues of HotNewFonts this week are between 30$ and 50$...

  • Vassil Kateliev
    Vassil Kateliev Posts: 56
    @Botio Nikoltchev... oh my I just checked, that's nuts...
  • Paulo Goode
    Paulo Goode Posts: 16
    @Botio Nikoltchev the pricing is set by the foundry, not by Monotype/MyFonts.
  • Yªssin Bªggªr
    Yªssin Bªggªr Posts: 73
    Botio Nikoltchev said:

    Daily revenues of HotNewFonts this week are between 30$ and 50$...
    You know that because of Ropa Mix Pro?
    How high has it been on the list? I would imagine the top 5 generate a lot more than the rest… One style of Taguzane is 180$ so that would at least be the minimum no?

    The prices are definitly crazy. Interesting that FF Din is still able to sell at 95$.
  • Michael Jarboe
    Michael Jarboe Posts: 265
    Why does FF Din have that particular price? It is significantly higher than other FF releases.
  • Botio Nikoltchev
    Botio Nikoltchev Posts: 31
    edited February 2017
    @ ybaggar  I know that because I had two releases the last months. The last one Quasimoda was in the top 5. Of course there are outstanding projects like Tazugne Gothic, wich has other pricing, but they are an exception.
    — Tazugane is made by Kobasyashi, wich is a influencing factor (it was the same with Between in October)
    — It is maybe the first Japanese font made by designers wich have a very good understanding for Latin type design. That means all the Glyphs that origins from the Latin are extremely well done. And there are a lot of them. At all the quality is very good I saw the source files...
    — The whole marketing machine from Monotype is working for this project.
    — there are very little fonts like it on the market

    FF Din is also a design classic. FF Din is one of the best expanded fonts from the FF library. It is an FF, so you have a very good and mighty marketing from Font Font.

    Dont get me wrong. I`m not talking about "Monotype the evil monopolist" I work for the company already several years and there are a lot of projects, that are really great and only possible because of such global company and big structure.


    But I think the decision for such price dumping and sending every day newsletters for promotions is wrong. Its formally killing the smaller foundrys.
  • Botio Nikoltchev
    Botio Nikoltchev Posts: 31
    edited February 2017
    Paulo Goode So you are telling me that there are no markt trends supported by MyFonts etc., that are pushing the foundrys to get lower with the prices? 
  • Paulo Goode
    Paulo Goode Posts: 16
    I stand by what I said, the foundries set the prices. It is easy to see what best sellers’ price ranges are, I don't think MyFonts are putting any pressure on anyone to set low prices. Not in my experience anyway. 

    I believe the bundles have been set up to compete with/offer an alternative to the growing popularity of bundle sites that offer X number of font families, with each family priced at around a dollar. The people who buy these are the small design studios, the freelancers, students, those experimenting with creative pursuits at home, etc. They do not have a budget to spend hundreds of dollars on a font family like Gotham, so they pick up a copy of maybe Quasimoda in a font bundle and they have a good alternative – plus their client is happy and they have more funds to put towards everyday concerns such as rent, food, etc.

    This market is large and is not going to go away, so maybe we should work with it and offer products to suit that market? I actually believe it introduces people to paying for fonts rather than using free fonts or downloading them from pirate sites. If it encourages newcomers to pay for our work, that's a good thing, right? 
  • Botio Nikoltchev
    Botio Nikoltchev Posts: 31
    edited February 2017
    I am also a small foundry and a freelancer. And also like to be "happy to have more funds to put towards everyday concerns such as rent, food, etc."! So how exactly are you offering to work on "products that suit that market"? A Latin Extended Font with 8-11 weights plus Italics is minimum 3 months work. And thats actually a quick and dirty job.
    Making lower prices to reduce illegal downloads and     illegal use of fonts... come on...

    And nope Quasimoda is not a copy of Gotham. I think the pricing I made for it is quite fair also for small studios. But sorry I can´t live from prices like 50 cent for one style, wich means 25 cent royalties.

    The market is not going away, but it can change like the photo market or the music market (what is actually happening) and that does not seem so good.
  • Paulo Goode
    Paulo Goode Posts: 16
    I have some strategies that I am working on. One of which is to offer fonts that are not selling well as part of a bundle deal to gain some exposure. In fact, your own Quasimoda was part of the same deal – that's why I mentioned it. I also did not say it was a copy of Gotham, I said it was a “good alternative”.
  • Botio Nikoltchev
    Botio Nikoltchev Posts: 31
    edited February 2017
    Paulo, I tried the bundle deal with exactly the same purpose. I dont think it has a positive influence on the daily sales, traffic on my website etc.. Do you noticed a better sales or another positive on your font from the bundle?

    For me offering one or more styles for free works better.

    Sorry, I get you wrong about Gotham vs. Quasimoda ;)))



      
  • Paulo Goode
    Paulo Goode Posts: 16
    @Botio Nikoltchev – we are going off topic ;) But I think the benefits come when the fonts are seen in use and that triggers enquiries, sales and recognition. I am an amateur/novice/hobbyist font designer trying to learn the craft and establish myself, I am happy to receive *something* for the sale of my work. My experience with bundles has not been good so far, but I am open to the challenge of making it work well for me. Clearly, it works well for many others.
  • Yªssin Bªggªr
    Yªssin Bªggªr Posts: 73
    edited February 2017
    @Botio Nikoltchev
    I wasn't asking why Taguzane was so high. I was wondering if the 30-50$/day for "hot new fonts" was realistic for fonts in the top5-10. If one style of Taguzane is 180$, and it's at the top of the list, I would expect it is selling a few daily or at least weekly, hence generating more than 50$ a day. And since it's #4, that means #1 generates even more.
    That is, of course, if my understanding of "hot new fonts" is correct.

    Trying to make a living from fonts on myfonts looks more and more like a loosing battle (except for the few designers that have managed to establish themselves with bestsellers some years ago). What I hear from designers still on myfonts is not encouraging. Selling fonts for 5$ is just crazy to me. It completely devalues the work and the image of a designer/foundry, and becomes a pure mathematical game of volume, like selling off-brand tea in a supermarket… how to trick the system with free styles, discounts and whatever. Once everybody plays the same game and applies those tricks, everybody's lost.
    If you want to make 2000$ a month – which is not enough if you are independent in a western country and you have to pay health insurance and save for retirement – at 5$ a font, you need to sell 400 fonts a month. It's just not going to happen. Especially not in a long-term scenario.

    It is clear that MT is not building a system for how to best allow small designers to survive, they are in a big volume game… if that crushes small designers but generates more revenue for them, they will do it. After all, they have a big library of classics of which people are creating derivatives, why should they support the derivatives more than their own catalogue?

    Bundles are not for "freelancers and small design studios". I know a lot of them, and none buys bundles, they probably don't even know what it is. Hobbyists, and maybe small designers from non-western countries who can't put 50$ in a font is more realistic. Now the question you should ask yourself is: is this the target clientele I should aim for? But if your typefaces are made in a few months, probably it is difficult to aim at a better clientele.

    Given the amount of new type designers there is no easy way. But with todays climate and possibilities, there are better options to make a living with type.
  • Yªssin Bªggªr
    Yªssin Bªggªr Posts: 73
    That FF Din is a design classic is not the point. What it shows you, is that there are enough clients ready to spend 95$ for one font to keep Din at the top of the actual bestsellers for months. It tells you that people have enough money and are ready to spend it for a good product.
  • Botio Nikoltchev
    Botio Nikoltchev Posts: 31
    I think Hot New Fonts is based on the Total Revenue. But I absolutely agree with you for the rest.
  • Botio Nikoltchev
    Botio Nikoltchev Posts: 31
    edited February 2017
    ybaggar, I made my point quite clear why in my opinion people spent $95 for FF Din. And nobody says that people are not ready to pay enough for a good product. The question is under wich circumstances are they doing it.
    And when we both agree on that, that people are ready to pay enough, it seems to me that the marketing strategy of MF in the last year is wrong.
    I am not sure what s your point. If FF Din is constantly sold for $95, means everything is fine and we dont have to care about falling prices?
  • Jens Kutilek
    Jens Kutilek Posts: 364
    Michael Jarboe said:
    Why does FF Din have that particular price? It is significantly higher than other FF releases.
    I think the MyFonts prices for FF DIN are actually a mistake. As you can see, the OT and Pro version have the same price.

    On FontShop.com the price for one style of FF DIN OT is €59, which is quite standard for FontFonts. The FF DIN Pro styles are more expensive at €85 (which probably is equal to MyFonts’ $95), but then it has a vastly more extensive character set than the OT version, including Latin Extended, Greek, Cyrillic, Vietnamese with a total of 1,643 glyphs.

    The MyFonts "DIN Complete Family Pack" makes no sense at all, as it contains both the OT and the Pro versions of the fonts.
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,891
    edited February 2017
    Jens Kutilek said:

    The MyFonts "DIN Complete Family Pack" makes no sense at all, as it contains both the OT and the Pro versions of the fonts.
    That makes perfectly good sense to me. For anybody who has to work or collaborate with others, whether a designer or an output service, the “others” could have either version. So having both versions could be handy.

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