In partial reply to Tyler, David Bailey wrote, in part:
I know that for a book to become a best-seller it has to be sold
to which I would note the following anecdote. Part of my income is derived from small package delivery, and earlier this year, one of the small packages I was called upon to deliver was a "screening print" a copy of of a motion picture to be released some weeks later, of which an advance showing is arranged for members of the press, so that they will presumably write or way good things about it, and encourage people to purchase tickets to see it. On this particular occasion, I was engaged on Monday, to deliver the screening print on Wednesday, for a film that was to be released for public viewing a couple of weeks beyond that. Now, as it happened, on the Tuesday intervenient between the day I was engaged, and the day the delivery was to be made, I was in a supermarket, and saw, on display a novelization of the screenplay, on the cover of which was boldly emblazoned a banner proclaiming that the story was of "The Hit Movie". This before any critic had even seen any version of the film (media screenings are typically arranged on the same day all over the country), and probably before a single ticket had been sold. Keeping in mind the production cycles involved, the decision to label the film a "hit" had to have been made weeks, if not months before that! My point is, for a book to _be_ a best seller, it must be sold; for a book--or notation software package--to be marketed as a best seller it need not be.
When I walk into a supermarket, clothing store, bookstore, computer store, I know that anything I see when I walk in the door is placed there because the manufacturer PAID to get it placed there. Quality of product has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Quality of the product may or may not have anything to do with it, and the manufacturer, or marketer may, or may not have paid for product placement. The fact is, that in retail merchandising, the placement of items depends first and foremost upon what the merchant wishes to sell. There are certainly premium locations within the retail environment, and merchants do exploit the fact that these are premium locations, soliciting, or accepting payments from vendors to guarantee placement in premium locations, but I would submit that payments from the manufacturer are not the most important consideration in product placement.
My only point in bringing up the product placement at jwpepper, a place more music educators I know of would go looking for music products rather than a computer store, has nothing to do with quality. I know Finale is the superior product in many areas, it's my program of choice when I get an engraving project. I want it to succeed and to gain back market share it has lost to Sibelius.
Purchase of either Sibelius or Finale is a sufficiently important, and costly proposition, that I doubt very seriously that the placement of the product on any website has much overall impact on the sales. I suspect for most people the decision to purchase, and the decision of where, to purchase are separate. Those contemplating purchase of a package gather information about the competing packages from a variety of sources, including the booths at such trade shows as the various music educator's associations, and reviews in trade journals, and are least influenced on the decision of which to buy by whether one package of the other is on any particular website. Only when the decision has been made to purchase one of the other, will palcement on a website may be a factor in whether to purchase the product selected from one vendor, from another.
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