What Do You Think?

For talk and support relating specifically to Puppy derivatives
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Announcer
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What Do You Think?

#1 Post by Announcer »

I deleted the poll, too few responses.

There is now a Studio 13.37 forum at LinuxQuestions.org:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... -13-37-99/
Last edited by Announcer on Sun 12 Aug 2012, 22:42, edited 8 times in total.

ciento
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#2 Post by ciento »

Mansions are built brick by brick, and youtube is a great hod-carrier.
I read where one win user a few days back had watched your new video, and was quite impressed.

I would snag a bargain used laptop, install Studio1337, make accounts
for email, Native Instruments, and IK Multimedia, install the free
versions of Guitar Rig 5 and Amplitube Custom Shop 3.8, register
them to the email account, add the freeware ampsims from guitarampmodeling.com

Turnkey virtual guitar setup. Tack on some profit for the boss.
Live laptop performance is a very common forum topic this year.
Ebay/misc Forum Marketplace/Craigslist, Sales table at County Fairs,
which often have loads of touring bands on the podium

Linux, in addition to the genious and generous, also seems to be flypaper for deadbeats, troublemakers, and elitists, not a good pond to fish in for $customers$ Windoze users will at least recognize
a good achievement, and slap the plastic. They are well versed in the strengths and weaknesses of the OS they use.

For a turnkey synth setup, Native Instruments Absynth, Massive, FM8,
and Reaktor (with its giant entourage of User Library instruments)
are all headliners, and run in 30 minutes sessions. Add a copy of
CM Magazine/dvd, with its studio collection installed, with some freeware synth legends like Synth1, Oatmeal, TyrellN6, Bazille, Zebralette, Rez 2.0,
String Theory 1.5, SQ8L, MinimogueLUXUS, Superwave P8, and it's
a sonic powerhouse. Again, you could hoover some older keyboards
known to have aftertouch and poly-aftertouch, edit: pressure sensitive, realistic velocity curbes, to bundle, as these
abilities are missed in the new low-end plastic.

A few hours ago, I was in
the keyboard room at guitar center where an affluent oriental
family was eagerly demoing the +$2000 offerings, and nothing I heard
could not be crafted by the above mentioned apps. (I took some delight
in punching the Korg M50 keys from across the room, as it was inadvertently hooked up to the distant $2000 range keyboard amp. They buzzed excitedly, not knowing how those sounds just
:twisted: magically occurred :twisted:

Got my first camcorder this week, so I plead Sgt. Schultz when it comes
to video, but if you can get a reliable end to end video production workflow,
smart phone and tablet users in orders of magnitude, are looking for easy ways to produce video.

Home/business 24/7 bluetooth security video record/remote monitoring?

Kindle Fire, BlackBerry Playbook, and Raspberry Pi need some LEET.

Rakarrack with touchscreen? Guitar/synth mounted 'Studio Pi' computer?

The great philosopher, Johnathan Fogarty once said,
'Keep on Chooglin', so, no, don't quit. Keep inventing, learning,
and knowing the market.
Last edited by ciento on Sun 24 Jun 2012, 21:17, edited 1 time in total.

ciento
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#3 Post by ciento »

:) There is a dev at another forum, who is
'tuned for drama', for lack of better words, emotion just flies at him
from all angles, and he takes things very personally. His products and
presentation have at times needed some attention, but his prices
reflect that. It is a great challenge to press on and conquer, when
victory appears to be out of reach. But nothing else is satisfying. 8)

I would suggest a poll, voting on the validity of polls, but a little late to the party.
In general, we all are best served by playing to our strengths,
rather than the weaknesses, and malice of others. It is a wealthy
man, who knows both friend and foe :wink:

Adagio

#4 Post by Adagio »

Heavy. :shock:

shariebeth
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#5 Post by shariebeth »

You pulled your poll down already?
I think you just answered your own question in your original post with the poll.
(The one about reacting too hastily and shooting yourself in your own foot, albeit I paraphrased a bit :P )

Give people time to see it, then to ponder it, then to offer a thought-out opinion. I read it but as I have no background in selling my own work, I had nothing of value to offer you. Also I am a bit torn on the appropriateness of selling linux, although selling your services could be a better route to go.

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Announcer
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#6 Post by Announcer »

Thanks for the responses.

Thing is, I'm at the point where I have to decide whether to spend more money on this, in the form of advertising.

shariebeth
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Location: Florida

#7 Post by shariebeth »

If this is truly what you love doing and you truly want this venture to be a success, and you can see yourself living and breathing this career, then yes it is worth giving it everything you've got, whatever that may be.

If it's a half-assed project and you only wanted to do it because you thought it would be easy and instant money with minimal effort, and you really could care less either way (especially if something "better" or "easier" came along), then I'd say no it isn't worth it.

ciento
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#8 Post by ciento »

Announcer wrote:Thanks for the responses.

Thing is, I'm at the point where I have to decide whether to spend more money on this, in the form of advertising.
Time is on your side. Money can be saved, while the product is
improved, or new products developed. Developing a trusted presence
in an established musicians 'scene' will help. Local word-of-mouth
easily gets on the net, with unforseen potential.

A positive web presence at sites where people have, and spend money,
at the pro and serious hobbyist level, takes time, (which has its own pricing)
so making life better for the folks at HarmonyCentral, kvr, musicradar,
reaper, gearslutz etc ( a little omnipotence would go a long way :lol: )
forms a line of people happy to see your next input. Might take a thick skin,
since linux and especially puppy/slackware versions are lightly understood,
and 'ubuntu roadkill' disaster victims often proclaim the failings they
endured, before a hasty retreat.

Preparing an article, with accompanying demo videos, might get
you a review in the pages of ComputerMusicMagazine. Around 80% of their
monthly dvd apps work in linux, so showing their 'CM Fuzz' distorting both ZebraCM and a linux stalwart zynaddsubfx, then the whole getting modulated by rakarrack, should fit their tutorial content model.

Tim Cant is a boss at the mag, his writings indicate some intelligent life form inhabits his corpse. I sometimes wish I could see myself in
a mirror :wink:

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Announcer
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#9 Post by Announcer »

I'll try a demo run of heavy (for me) advertising on Facebook, and figure out how many sales I get compared to how much I spent. If on the margins my losses are higher than revenues, and still no exposure, we'll see then.

ciento
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#10 Post by ciento »

Does facebook have any criteria to focus ads at musicians?
If not, advertising at a gear related site where you set up a forum,
might get more results.
Cheers

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mikeslr
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Advertising No - Youtube Yes

#11 Post by mikeslr »

Dear Announcer:

You've spent time, energy and money developing a fine product. If the price is right, people who know of its existence and can see its value in their own lives will buy it. Trying to sell an "open source" product is a challenge. Pricing: it should be high enough to provide you with a profit, but low enough to attract both those who couldn't slap together something similar and those who could but place a greater value on their time.
I don't know about anyone else, but I always assume that everyone else goes about solving a problem the same way I do. So what would I do if I were looking for a operating system providing a multimedia studio out of the box. I'd google. And chances are that I wouldn't remember to turn off "ad-blocking." What would turn up are essays, and Youtube Vids. The essays I'd read are those which turned up when I added the term "review" in my search field. But if pictures are worth a thousand words, how much more are moving pictures worth? Especially those which show me how to accomplish my objective?
Advertising: I practiced Bankruptcy Law for 30 years. When I first started, I took out sizable adds in all the phone books covering the geographic areas from which I reasonably expected potential clients. By the third year I realized that a quarter of my gross revenue was being used to pay for advertising. I reduced my adds to a couple of lines: my name, address, phone number, the key word "Bankruptcy", and the key word "inexpensive." In speaking to potential clients (those who hadn't yet paid me a dime) I followed "The Golden Rule." My gross revenue went down. My net profit went up. And after a while, since I asked, I realized that a great many of my clients found me through "word of mouth."
I've viewed two vids on youtube. I assume their objective is to create excitement, buzz. That's not a bad start, 'though I found the background music too harsh/distracting. (Personal preference?). Included were "teasers" of some applications provided. Which might be OK if your intended customers already know of the capabilities of those applications. Chances are, however, that those who know those applications' capabilities also know how to obtain them without having to pay you. So I'd suggest that your most likely customers would be Windows refugees: those who want to avoid the big bucks associated with commercial windows programs and willing to pay a premium for not having to learn everything about Linux to just to accomplish specific tasks.
So let me suggest the following: a series of Youtube vids (obtain video-cam & adequate lighting if necessary) highlighting the use of specific applications on Studio to accomplish (a) tasks which noobs are likely to want to accomplish but would find daunting without guidance and (b) tasks which even the initiated would find complex. Soothing/serious background music, if any. But with voice overs: i.e., a tutorial. A vid's title would be something like "Doing xyz with Audacity on Studio." The overall concept is "product placement" with Studio being the product.
I don't know enough about what restrictions, if any, Youtube has, but I noticed that following the two vids I found on youtube, although you provided the address of your website, the address wasn't clickable.

Good luck,

mikeslr

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Tman
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#12 Post by Tman »

It would be a shame to throw away all the work you have put into the project.

But perhaps some cost-cutting measures are in order.
If making the custom USB sticks are expensive, then maybe you should just use non-customized USB sticks...at least until the demand for it justifies the cost. For me, it's nice to have fancy packaging, but the quality and uselfullness of the final product is what really matters.

I notice a lot of YouTube do-it-yourself artists use Apple software for music mixing. Perhaps adding a MAC theme might help with making it look less foreign?

Also, you could sell an even cheaper version, by selling a downloadable disc image...Maybe give them a unique password via email and allow them to download it 3 or 4 times max. (In case they get a bad download or they lose it somehow).

Yes, it's difficult to make money on linux software, but it doesn't mean it can't be done. In the end the choice is yours whether you think the project is worth it or not.

Good Luck.

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Announcer
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#13 Post by Announcer »

Thanks for the input.

I'm wondering if I should increase the price. Check out this product:

http://indamixx.com/

He's selling a digital download of his Linux-based studio distro for $199. It doesn't come with half as many features, and is a weaker technology.

Maybe setting a high price point makes sense, until economies of scale are possible.

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Tman
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#14 Post by Tman »

Announcer wrote: I'm wondering if I should increase the price. Check out this product:
You can try, but to be honest, I don't think that strategy will work until your product is more widely known. My strategy would be to offer it at a low price, to get it to as many interested people as possible, and then once you've built a solid reputation for the product, increase the price slowly.

But, you never know...if you jack up the price to something ridiculous, maybe some people out there will think "Oooh that's quite expensive; it's gotta be good !"

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greengeek
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#15 Post by greengeek »

History is littered with examples of excellent products, skills, or technologies that never made it successfully in the public eye.

Often this is because "Joe public" is not ready for it, and therefore unable to correctly assess real value.

On the other hand, some inventors or distributors of a given product fail to offer adequate support for their product and thereby annoy their customers.

When customers are in need of support, it is best for an inventor / distributor to do everything possible to help, and never leave a question unanswered. Otherwise you just join the ranks of talented geniuses who can't / don't / won't follow through.

Leet is filled with genius. Sadly, a one man team is inadequate when it comes to satisfying the needs of the user.

If I had one tip to offer any developer / inventor / distributor it would be this: put together a team of disparate individuals with different genders, different personalities, and different cultures, and let them understand the product and do the marketing for you. Women are especially valuable for this purpose - they can talk the hind leg of a donkey and seem to possess the ability to motivate customers even when the customers are not initially interested.

Inventors can't sell anything. They need real humans to do the selling / marketing.

A perfect example of an amazing inventor who got screwed over is Tesla:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla

mini-jaguar
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#16 Post by mini-jaguar »

One thing I could never figure out from your web site (it could be somewhere but I never found it) is what size your USB sticks are. It may be important, so if someone gets one, they could put a couple of songs or videos on there.

I would say at least 8 giga is good, 16 or 32 even better, although 32 is probably not cost effective to sell.

Another problem is people are going to stick to what they know: they refuse to use Linux, and would even rather fork out tons of money to get software they know, even if there are identical or almost identical equivalents.

Most people I know avoid Linux like the plague, and some would even much prefer pirated software.

I even know that lots of people refuse to use Gimp, and it's available for all major platforms.

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Announcer
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#17 Post by Announcer »

greengeek wrote:a one man team is inadequate when it comes to satisfying the needs of the user ... a team ... women ... need real humans to do the selling / marketing...
Could use a lot of things. A mailroom, for example. Do you think I like driving halfway across town to mail one usb stick to somebody, that I will actually lose money on? But I do it.

I suspect it's all been a foolish exercise, trying to create an open source-based product aimed at regular people / musicians. But it's a business built on the highest principles, and it would have been cool if it worked out.
Last edited by Announcer on Thu 19 Jul 2012, 07:28, edited 1 time in total.

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greengeek
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#18 Post by greengeek »

Announcer wrote:I suspect it's all been a foolish exercise, trying to create an open source-based product aimed at regular people / musicians. But it's a business built on the highest principles, and it would have been cool if it worked out.
The product is genius. And the hours involved in it's development are easily recognised by those who understand the breadth of what has been achieved. I also commend you for persisting with the product, even though you are not getting commercial returns from it (yet).

HOWEVER - the marketplace is fickle. Joe Public does not generally attach the correct sense of value to any particular product. People buy what they PERCEIVE gives them what they want - they don't spend their money on the basis of real value.

In my experience getting commercial returns involves tapping into a "mass-market" - whether they understand the value of the product or not.
So - a question - has your product come to the attention of the mass market yet? I guess not. But what if you could trigger the enthusiasm of a large group of people who understood how this product could benefit them.

Let me give an example - your product would be welcomed amongst primary and secondary school students who would gain creative encouragement from being able to record, modify, produce and publish their preferred form of audio entertainment. But do they know about the product?? Is it possible for you to try and tap into the education market by contacting a local school or music teacher and offering a couple of sticks to selected students and encouraging them to thrash the capabilities of the product, and see what they can do?

Once it is in the hands of motivated and interested students they will be begging their parents to buy it for them. (and so will their friends..) At the price you have been asking the price barrier is very low and I would expect you would get sales.

There is a downside though - you have to be able to offer support. This is hard / impossible for a one man band. And it is the reason why this Murga forum has been so valuable for Puppy users - the collective conciousness solves problems more easily than a single developer can.

So would you see yourself as being able to work with other interested parties to offer a support network for this undoubtedly excellent product?

ciento
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#19 Post by ciento »

mini-jaguar wrote: Most people I know avoid Linux like the plague, and some would even much prefer pirated software.

I even know that lots of people refuse to use Gimp, and it's available for all major platforms.
From the price, you know its not a big stick. You would want
to use your hard disk as the recording destination in most cases.

You really might enjoy upgrading the people you hang with.
Windows ideologues :shock: pirates :( gimpaphobes :P

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greengeek
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#20 Post by greengeek »

greengeek wrote: your product would be welcomed amongst primary and secondary school students who would gain creative encouragement from being able to record, modify, produce and publish their preferred form of audio entertainment.
On re-reading my post I realise it might sound as if I am down-playing your product as being suitable only for young people - but that is not what I meant. I was just suggesting that tech products often become accepted first by young people, then become popular as word gets around. And young people are a significant target market as they grow into the Music / film / entertainment industry.

Take the Ipod / iphone / ipad as examples - they have huge appeal to a massive market - and that market appeal started with young people who liked the functions that these devices put into their hands.

I would suggest that one good way to get market traction might be to offer a couple of sticks free to a school as I suggested, and ask for feedback so that they have an opportunity to get a dialog going with you so that they get to grips with the functionality. Once they have started to enjoy what they can achieve, I am sure you will sell other sticks, and probably also have an opportunity to sell either your time (for tuition/coaching) or pdf tutorials etc. The profit from the software may then in fact be only a small part of the equation. (eg: 1 stick +$25, 1 stick + 2hr tuition = $90)

As the product becomes popular you would be able to step back from the tuition as the students then started to teach and prompt each other. The product and process then achieves a "critical mass" that snowballs. I imagine that a single college would have a large catchment of potential customers.

I just think the after-sale support is very important in the early stages. If you can try to answer every question that customers raise, they will have confidence that the product is worth spending time on. I hope you don't give up - the product is great.

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