What roo said.
Its an odd business strategy, but a clever one. Reaper is a fully functional DAW that hangs with sonar, cubase, logic, protools, and is even better in some ways (worse in others, but the same can be said for all of them). A huge advantage is its small size, comparatively tiny system footprint and tremendous speed. Its hands down the fastest DAW, and probably the most stable as well.
But
Theres always a but
Their distribution and pricing makes many look down on it. They assume its inferior or inadequate. I've even seen people make the idiot assumption that its basic sound reproduction is inferior because of its low cost (all DAWs sound identical). So they likely loose some custom because of their price point and peoples price-connected expectations. So, they lose a snob market.
On the other hand, as roo says, how many people try it out, use it for free and then go 'its only £26, I should pay the people that made the tools I'm using/I'm getting sick of this waiting screen/it would be good at 20 times the price/whatever'? Its probably WAY more people.
There will inevitably be people that use it indefinitely without paying the lisence fee. The technical term for those people is 'shitebags'.
But the strategy is very clever. I'll wager that the number of people that try it then pay for it, even if its after months or years, is greater by *far* than the number that would pay the ~ £400 it *should* cost were its worth calibrated by the price of similarly capable DAWs.
In a market where there are 3 options:
Option A: make a good product and charge several hundred quid for it and copy protect the hell out of it
Option B: similar price but dongled
Option C: even more expensive and tied to hardware as the dongle
They went for option D: great product, very low price, free distribution, pay on the honour system. Its a clever and brave option.
