How to sell
a plugin you made
The plugin working on your machine is the easy half. This is the other half, and the reason most good plugins never get sold.
Short answer
What does it take to sell an audio plugin you built yourself?
Four things: an installer signed so macOS and Windows will run it, a way to issue and check licences, a store that takes the payment, and a route for shipping updates to people who already bought. Pook is building all four into its publishing side. That side is not open yet, and this page is what it will cover when it is.
One — an installer people can actually run
A plugin folder on your machine is not a product. What a customer needs is an installer that puts the right files in the right places for their platform, and that their operating system will let them open.
That second part is the wall. macOS refuses to run software from an unidentified developer, so the installer has to be signed with an Apple Developer certificate and then notarized — uploaded to Apple, scanned, and stamped. Windows behaves similarly through SmartScreen, which distrusts anything without an established signing reputation. Pro Tools adds a third: Avid will not load an AAX plugin that has not been signed through their developer programme.
None of this is difficult in the sense of being interesting. It is difficult in the sense of being three separate accounts, three sets of paperwork, and a build that has to be repeated for two platforms every time you fix anything.
Two — licensing
Once someone has paid, the plugin has to know they paid. The traditional answers are serial numbers, licence files, or an iLok dongle, and every one of them generates support mail: lost keys, a new laptop, a rebuilt machine, a customer who bought it twice by accident.
The approach Pook is building avoids keys entirely. A customer unlocks the plugin with the email address they bought it with and a one-time code, and can move it between their own machines without asking you. You will set how many machines a licence covers.
Three — a store
Pook will not be taking the payment, and will not be taking a cut of it. You sell through your own store — Gumroad, LemonSqueezy, Paddle or Stripe — and the money goes where you already have it going.
What connects the two is the purchase event: someone buys on your store, and a licence gets issued to that email automatically. That link is the part being built.
Four — updates and the long tail
Shipping is not the end. You will find a bug, or want to add the thing you thought of afterwards, and every customer needs the fix without you emailing them installers.
The intended shape is that you rebuild from your source and your existing customers get a one-click update prompt the next time they open the plugin. Rebuilds will not be metered.
What it will cost
Two separate things. A builder — Pook Fx, Pook Instrument or Pook Studio — is a one-time purchase and is what makes the plugin. A publisher plan will be what releases it, and those are monthly.
There will also be a one-time Giveaway option for putting out a single free plugin under the Pook name, for the case where you want to release something without running a business around it.
None of the publishing plans is open to buy yet. The plans and their limits are laid out on the publish page, and you can put your name down there to hear when they open.
What stays yours
The plugin, and the customers. The source is yours, the brand on the installer will be yours, and the relationship with the person who bought it is yours. Pook’s intention is to charge for the plan and take nothing from the sale.
Step by step
- Finish the pluginBuild it with your coding agent until it does what you want, and use it on real work first.
- Give it a name and a faceA standalone plugin needs its own name, its own interface and its own artwork — the parts that make it a product rather than a patch.
- Build a signed installerProduce signed, notarized installers for macOS and Windows carrying VST3, AU and AAX, so the plugin opens on a customer machine without a security warning.
- Connect a store and issue licencesPoint your own store at the licensing system so a purchase issues a licence to the buyer’s email automatically.
- Ship updatesRebuild from your source when you fix something, and let existing customers update in one click.
More questions, answered
Not yet. The publishing side — signed branded installers, licensing and the publisher dashboard — is being built and is not open to buy. You can build and keep plugins now, and share them with other Pook users; the publish page has the plans and a way to be told when they open.
The intention is no — the signing and notarization are meant to be handled for you, including AAX for Pro Tools. Bringing your own Avid account will be an option for anyone who wants their plugin signed entirely under their own name.
You do. The source is written on your machine, in the clear, and stays yours. Pook is the toolchain and the licence platform, not a co-owner or a publisher in the label sense.
That is what the Giveaway option will be for: a one-time purchase that releases a single free plugin under the Pook name, without a monthly plan behind it. It sits on top of a builder you already own.
Keep reading
Try it on something of your own.
Pook is free to download and free for 21 days, every feature, no card. Bring your own coding agent and hear the first version in a few minutes.