Dear Muso users,
With your help and feedback Muso is becoming better and better, and many of you have told me so - please keep up the encouragement.
Last month showed encouraging signs with record sales totalling around £75 - not quite enough to give up my day job just yet! However, to-date this month I have sold exactly zero licences, either full or annual. I hope this isn't linked with the move of activity from the LMS forum's "Muso Support Thread" to this hosted forum. We do need to get the word out there and keep Muso's development visible to the Squeezebox community. It's partly my hobby yes and I enjoy it, but I'd rather tell the wife that time invested on working evenings and weekends isn't totally fruitless.
The other community that may find Muso interesting is the Classical music community, even if it's just to catalogue music rather than play it. Nothing else I have come across can catalogue and display classical music so effectively. I've plugged it myself occasionally on the talkclassical.com forums but I don't think anyone there has actually tried it in earnest.
So any chance you get please plug it in any forums that you frequent, or if anyone has ideas on how to achieve higher sales, or just to spread the word, please post them here. The holy grail I suppose is redevelopment to a true platform-independent server/browser-based solution, but I've not even had the time to start working on that yet, so it's some way off, I'd rather attract more users first to fund that development and to make it worthwhile.
Getting the word out there
Re: Getting the word out there
I already left some unashamed plugs on some jazz groups on Facebook.
Re: Getting the word out there
Get a Facebook page up and running RIGHT NOW! That is HUGE advertising that you're missing out on.
Re: Getting the word out there
By the way, I've started posting about muso on a board I frequent as well. Believe me, I will do everything I can to ensure you keep development alive on this project. It really is my one and only music manager and nothing else out there (and I've pretty much tried them all!) gives me the same amount of control like muso does. It's just superb and is a pleasure to work with.
Keep up the excellent work.
Keep up the excellent work.
Re: Getting the word out there
I can create a page and Like it from my personal profile (and I can ask you all to do the same) but I can't see that going "viral" as they say now. I can create a facebook ad, but that can be costly, and who looks at facebook ads anyway?!Morbeas wrote:Get a Facebook page up and running RIGHT NOW! That is HUGE advertising that you're missing out on.
Re: Getting the word out there
I'll certainly do what I can! It may well be that moving the discussion from the LMS forum has affected things - that is how I found out about Muso in the first instance. However, IMHO, to move Muso beyond a purely hobby activity does require a bit of investment in marketing, which you may or may not wish to make. I think that Muso is a truly outstanding product, in particular for people like me who have quite large classical collections which we have decided to rip to hard disc (largely to be able to find what we want and not have shelf-loads of ugly CDs) but have then become disheartened by the inability of 99.99% of the software to give me on screen what I had on the shelf.
I think that it would be very wise to initially target the classical music market. I think that the product is now sufficiently robust and feature-rich to do this (but see further comments below). I would suggest a number of approaches.
1. Combining the web page, wiki etc. into one web site. Add a few more screenshots and feature descriptions. Think about SEO optimisation by adding further classical (and jazz) music stuff (see also 5 below). Consider advertising/ Google ads, but only as part of a co-ordinated marketing campaign.
2. Approach the major classical music magazines for a product review in their sections devoted to on-line music. I take the BBC Music Magazine, which has a regular section for this. See also http://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/fo ... wirelessly.
3. Look at Muso as part of a broader solution(s). Consider particularly what the classical music lover needs to implement. For example, I use dBpoweramp for ripping, mp3tag for tagging, and LMS for playing. However, I suspect that my hifi set-up is at the low end of the scale. Consider alliances with other component providers (including hardware) - e.g. dBpoweramp is bundled with CD-ripping NAS boxes. To expand attractiveness in this, Muso may need a bit of development to slot into the UPNP world. You only need to look at the clumsiness of the software that Linn provide (admittedly freely) to realise the potential here.
4. The other feature that I think would add to attractiveness is a remote app. I generally use the squeezebox app on my ipod touch (I find it easier to use than iPeng), and this is fine for seeing what is playing, but not very good for database viewing and useless for sleevenotes. What is needed is an app that connects to the Muso database and provides a simplified browser and "now playing". However, I think this can wait as there are at least semi-workable solutions.
5. To add value to all of this, I would suggest that there should be a guide for the classical music lover on how to get their prized collection captured and managed. I have been doing quite a bit of work on this, but obviously there is more than one solution. My (current) solution is the software listed in (3) including a tagging convention and some macro actions I have written in mp3tag. This takes much of the pain out of the process and places Muso at the heart of the system. I am happy to try and write this up for the benefit of others, if you want to put it on the wiki somewhere. Having "value-added" content like this will also help with SEO. I can also look to placing it elsewhere to drive traffic to Muso.
If I have any further ideas, I will let you know. Whether you want to do all or any of this is entirely up to you. My personal interest is in having a solution that works for me, but if I can help others avoid some of the pain and frustration I have suffered until finding Muso then I am very happy to do so.
Finally, I should say that I hardly ever get enthusiastic about a piece of software - I have seen so much come and go over the years - that I have acquired many layers of cynicism. So take heart and hopefully without too much investment "you will find a broad hard-beaten road to [your] house, though it be in the woods".
Mark
I think that it would be very wise to initially target the classical music market. I think that the product is now sufficiently robust and feature-rich to do this (but see further comments below). I would suggest a number of approaches.
1. Combining the web page, wiki etc. into one web site. Add a few more screenshots and feature descriptions. Think about SEO optimisation by adding further classical (and jazz) music stuff (see also 5 below). Consider advertising/ Google ads, but only as part of a co-ordinated marketing campaign.
2. Approach the major classical music magazines for a product review in their sections devoted to on-line music. I take the BBC Music Magazine, which has a regular section for this. See also http://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/fo ... wirelessly.
3. Look at Muso as part of a broader solution(s). Consider particularly what the classical music lover needs to implement. For example, I use dBpoweramp for ripping, mp3tag for tagging, and LMS for playing. However, I suspect that my hifi set-up is at the low end of the scale. Consider alliances with other component providers (including hardware) - e.g. dBpoweramp is bundled with CD-ripping NAS boxes. To expand attractiveness in this, Muso may need a bit of development to slot into the UPNP world. You only need to look at the clumsiness of the software that Linn provide (admittedly freely) to realise the potential here.
4. The other feature that I think would add to attractiveness is a remote app. I generally use the squeezebox app on my ipod touch (I find it easier to use than iPeng), and this is fine for seeing what is playing, but not very good for database viewing and useless for sleevenotes. What is needed is an app that connects to the Muso database and provides a simplified browser and "now playing". However, I think this can wait as there are at least semi-workable solutions.
5. To add value to all of this, I would suggest that there should be a guide for the classical music lover on how to get their prized collection captured and managed. I have been doing quite a bit of work on this, but obviously there is more than one solution. My (current) solution is the software listed in (3) including a tagging convention and some macro actions I have written in mp3tag. This takes much of the pain out of the process and places Muso at the heart of the system. I am happy to try and write this up for the benefit of others, if you want to put it on the wiki somewhere. Having "value-added" content like this will also help with SEO. I can also look to placing it elsewhere to drive traffic to Muso.
If I have any further ideas, I will let you know. Whether you want to do all or any of this is entirely up to you. My personal interest is in having a solution that works for me, but if I can help others avoid some of the pain and frustration I have suffered until finding Muso then I am very happy to do so.
Finally, I should say that I hardly ever get enthusiastic about a piece of software - I have seen so much come and go over the years - that I have acquired many layers of cynicism. So take heart and hopefully without too much investment "you will find a broad hard-beaten road to [your] house, though it be in the woods".
Mark
Re: Getting the word out there
Thanks Mark, that's all useful input. I'd be happy if you wanted to add a page to the Wiki on your approach to managing classical music - I've sent an account activation to your email address registered on this forum. There's no rush, but this would be useful.
I'll explore your other suggestions too.
I'll explore your other suggestions too.
Re: Getting the word out there
I've made a start on the wiki page on metadata. I've done it as a discussion page for now. PLEASE NOTE IT IS INCOMPLETE and not fully checked. The intention is that I may use this elsewhere, if it is useful, which might spread the word. It also serves as my documentation and guard against forgetfulness. I'm very happy to receive any constructive criticism. If it's any use, I'll continue when I get more time. See http://musoware.com/wiki/index.php?titl ... ic_Support
Re: Getting the word out there
Many thanks, looks good.
Re: Getting the word out there
Dear Jezbo,
In my opinion - what you need to do, is to make an iPhone App version of Muso (and/or an Android App). Even if version 1.0 only works while the users is within his/her home WLAN, it's on the mobile platform that the future is won. And as you know, getting a dollar or two for every download is easy.
Meanwhile, I'm spreading the word as much as I can....
Viking
In my opinion - what you need to do, is to make an iPhone App version of Muso (and/or an Android App). Even if version 1.0 only works while the users is within his/her home WLAN, it's on the mobile platform that the future is won. And as you know, getting a dollar or two for every download is easy.
Meanwhile, I'm spreading the word as much as I can....
Viking