by Finsternis » Thu May 19, 2011 8:00 pm
I'm glad SOMEONE is doing this (hint, hint - looking at MM desktop developers).
I bought a lifetime version of MM and I'm not unhappy I did. It's a pretty good app, and lets me more or less replace iTunes, which was the whole goal. So this rant isn't a complaint about MM as it is. It's just pointing out how much better it could be.
The money I paid for the lifetime MM? I'd pay the same amount again - I'd pay MORE THAN THAT - for an Android player that SYNCED with MM. And I mean "sync",not "dump". Right now MM claims to "sync" with Android devices, but all it really does is dump files. It doesn't do anything I couldn't do myself by dragging and dropping, though admittedly being able to use playlists makes it more efficient. Using the word "sync" is lying, because that implies two-way transfer of information. It implies intelligence. No, what MM does with Android devices is a simple dump, nothing more. And since my desktop MM has no way of knowing what tunes I listened to on my mobile device (just about the only place I listen to music at all anymore), most of the features of MM are useless - at least any that depend on play count, rating, last played date, and so on. All that information is lost.
If the Developers of MM are doing anything except working full time on an Android version of MM that syncs, they're wasting their time. MM is the anti-itunes. Anyone who uses an Apple device uses iTunes, so you won't be selling any copies of MM to them. That means that the crossover between MM and Android users is pretty much 100%. Maybe there are a few hardcore people out there who use Apple devices without iTunes, but they are precious few.
So, look at these three important facts about your market: 1) Almost all MM users who have mobile devices have non-Apple devices. They aren't all Android devices, it's true, but that's the largest percentage and getting bigger fast. 2) People are doing their music listening more and more on mobile devices. The desktop is great for large-scale storage of tunes and for organizing stuff, and fine for listening when you're sitting there using the computer. But admit it - who of us isn't doing more and more listening on a mobile device? On your commute, at work, whatever? I know that I do maybe 10% of my music *listening* sitting at my desktop anymore - when I use MM, I'm mostly doing music *management*. And finally 3) Staggeringly unbelievable, but it's true: in this day and age, when we can beam movies from the sky, transmit streaming video from our phones, and do all kinds of other jaw-dropping things, it seems that the ONLY technology in the world that can do the ASTOUNDING feat of "tell my desktop which songs I played" is Apple. It apparently is just not possible with Android. And that BLOWS ME AWAY. When I bought my Android device, I didn't even think to check that, because it was so simple, so fundamental, so OBVIOUS that it didn't even occur to me that the capability might not exist. Compared to all the other amazing stuff, reporting simple play counts is child's play, right? But no.
MM devs, do yourselves a favor. Sit down and think about where you want to go and what you want MM to be. Do you want to be Just Yet Another Music Player App? A decent one, it's true, but just one in a field of a billion others? Then keep on tinkering with bug fixes or whatever else you're spending your time on. Or would you like to be a KILLER APP, downloaded and used (and BOUGHT) by practically every person who owns an Android device? Would you like to be the FIRST? Would you like every technical news source on the planet to make MM their front-page story? Be the first GOOD media player desktop/mobile combo, the first one that actually syncs and doesn't just dump files. Do you want to make lots of actual money? Then take a look at your market and what it's doing. Which do you think will make you more money - a few more ad buys on some web sites? Or having the FIRST decent desktop/Android music player that syncs metadata and doesn't completely suck ass?
It's your call. May you know the market better than I do, it's certainly possible. I only have the perspective of a consumer. But I know one thing: the "killer app" for Android music players is still out there. None of the existing ones will do it, no matter how popular. The "must-have" Android music app has yet to be written. And you already have 50% of the perfect solution. If you're not working night and day on "Media Monkey Android", then... well, then you have very different priorities than most people I know who spend lots of time writing software to be sold for money.
