D.I.Y.

Music Creation Software Popularity Index

The ten most popular music creation software products on the Internet, based on recent search engine activity, are:
PRODUCT (INDEX)
1. DigiDesign Pro Tools (11.4)
2. FL Studio (10.1)
3. Steinberg Cubase (7.3)
4. Cakewalk Sonar (6.0)
5. Apple Logic (3.5)
6. Adobe Audition (3.5)
7. Apple GarageBand (3.1)
8. Sony Sound Forge (2.3)
9. Ableton Live (2.0)
10. MOTU Digital Performer (1.9)

This index is based on quarterly Internet search activity on Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN.

Which software do you use and why?

Collectively these 4 search engines represent more than 95 percent of the searches on the Internet. Over 100 search terms are used to construct this index, and 15 music software products are tracked. An annual average of the past four quarters is also included for comparison. The following table shows a complete list of the products tracked as well as the changes in their ranking from the prior quarter:

PRODUCT (RANK CHANGE)   
1. DigiDesign Pro Tools (0)   
2. FL Studio (1)   
3. Steinberg Cubase (-1)   
4. Cakewalk Sonar (0)   
5. Apple Logic (1)   
6. Adobe Audition (-1)   
7. Apple GarageBand (0)   
8. Sony Sound Forge (0)   
9. Ableton Live (0)   
10. MOTU Digital Performer (0)   
11. Sony Acid (0)   
12. Band-in-a-Box (0)   
13. Steinberg Nuendo (2)   
14. Propellerhead Reason (-1)   
15. Steinberg Wavelab (-1)      

Additional details on the results of the Music Software Popularity Index are available at the Digital Music Doctor website here.

Bruce Houghton on 05/12/2009 in D.I.Y. | Permalink | Comments (11)
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11 Comments

  2. I would have guessed FL at the top and Garageband way higher if I were guessing, since those users seem to be the search engine crowd.
    Wonder if you can twist it the other way round: that FL and Garageband have relatively fewer actual users.
    Btw the producers at iBeat use a combination of Reason, Cubase, Live and FL – sometimes Logic pops up.
    In regards to education we’ve used a lot of ProTools, but non of us use it much in private or professionally.

  6. The real question:
    Why hasn’t a developer created an app that will allow us to work with one branded app and also work with another seamlessly and easily? So that you can open Logic files in Cubase, Cubase files in Live!?
    I’m waiting…forever.

  8. I am surprised that Garage Band is at 7. But then I re-read the criteria and based on search engine traffic could mean that more people are asking “How the hell do I do this” on most of the other programs. I use Garage Band for everything, except on my album “Mama Loose”, the producer used Logic Pro with a lot of high quality plug-ins for the final production. I love the “vocal/live performance” setting in Garage Band and I used it for all my song sketching and editing. I am a little frustrated with the poor guitar options. If I can figure out better guitar options, I may just try my own release next time.

  9. This is all really a matter of personal preference, I guess. I record mostly audio with Digidesign Strike for drums and absolutely love it.

  10. I personally prefer fl studio because it’s more easy for me to understand it and to make good sound. I also use Reason 4 where I love the view of the racks.

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