talvola wrote: > > You are right that having 'someone' from this forum create commercial > plugins for iHeartRadio, etc. may not be possible due to restrictions - > but hopefully enough can be done. Honestly, looking at some of the APIs > (I registered for API Keys on a few sites) - most plugins should really > be pretty much copies of each other for services that are similar - > maybe there is some way to make it work. > For long term survival I personally believe there needs to be some kind of commercial aspect, else the result will be too geeky and the people supporting it will loose interest to support it for free over time. Eventually you end up in a prioritization scenario where you need to decide if you should spend the spare time with your family or support Squeezebox users for free, as long as there are people interested in beta testing and you can add new features that can be enough to keep the interest up, but very few people are prepared to spend their spare time to support users on longer term without some kind of economical compensation. There are exceptions, but they are few and usually something eventually changes in their family or day work situation which changes their priorities.
People who have been part of the community for a long time know that plugin developers have come and gone, with a few exceptions it's mainly those who have some kind of commercial aspect on their work who have stayed on longer terms, especially after Logitech switched to primarily focus on maintenance 1-2 years ago. Previously when Logitech and Slim Devices did more active development, a reason to stay around was that you felt like you were part of a bigger project and you got the chance to get some free beta hardware now and then and influence the direction of the features, most of this was lost 1-2 years after the Logitech acquisition when Logitech decided to go towards a more closed development model and involve the community less in their work. Most third party developers doesn't do the initial development for the money, it's often more related to a need to express creativity, make other people happy or show the potential of something, but to be able to motivate themselves to stay around also for the more boring long term support/maintenance activities some kind of economical compensation really helps a lot. It's also a lot harder to ignore a user who have payed for your work than ignoring someone who needs help with something you have provided for free. Creating a first version of a plugin for the streaming services which have a public API is fairly easy if you have done some perl development, in most cases we are talking about a few days or weeks of work, the boring part comes later when you need to support and maintain it. However, that being said, creating the initial plugin can be really fun and as long as you provide it for free you don't have to feel any obligation to support/maintain it on longer terms, it will still help because it keeps the community active and can give other developers new ideas. I still remember my first plugin announcement almost 7 years ago: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?20533-Announce-Plugins-for-rating-and-quot-smart-quot-playlists-using-SQL talvola wrote: > > I wonder if there are fees involved whether something like Kickstarter > could be used to fund a 'forever' service for Squeezebox owners? > You would likely be considered commercial when discussing with streaming providers, but except for that it might work, the only issue with Kickstarter in particular is that I think it requires the project to have a concrete goal and time frame, so it would probably not be the best solution for continuous maintenance. talvola wrote: > > Honestly - it's actually less about the physical Squeezebox 'box' (I > assume some sort of cheap Linux box could replace it at this point) and > more about a good music service aggregator, which is why I like the > Squeezebox. I bought a new receiver recently that includes AirPlay > support natively. However, I can't make a playlist that includes a few > of my own songs, then a couple streamed from Soundcloud, then easily > switch from radio stations to podcasts, etc. - using an iPhone/iPad - it > all involves continuously switching applications, which is terrible. > I'm definitely willing to pay for a good way to make music easy to use. > > 100% agree, it's all about the features and music listening experience, not about the particular software product or hardware box being used. This also makes me a bit less worried, if users are prepared to pay for something, the market will eventually find a way to provide what people want for a reasonable price, we just need to give it some time and enjoy the music from our Squeezebox while waiting. :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ erland's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97690 _______________________________________________ plugins mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/plugins
