Consider iPhone and Android apps for monetization

[casey]

I think the site lends itself well to android and iOS apps. I think the apps could be relatively expensive, since users already get to try the music and see if they like it, so they'll know what they're getting. I think $5-$30 would probably be a good range to consider pricing the apps at. I think I would very happily pay $30 for it.

Brian Eno's album Reflection is available as a $30 iPhone app, and it's just one album.

[alexbainter]

Thanks @casey. The truth is I've been avoiding creating native apps since it triples the amount of development I'd have to do. Instead, the site is a Progressive Web App, so depending on the browser and OS, it not only works offline, but can even be installed to behave like a native app. While the best experience is on Chrome Desktop/Android right now, iOS users can open it up in Safari, tap the "Share" button, and press "Add to Home Screen."

Here's a screenshot from my Android phone where I installed it with Chrome:

And here it is running as a standalone app on my Linux laptop (installed with Chrome):

In both cases, it runs in a separate window (it's not just a shortcut) and feels like a native app. I expect support for PWAs will improve over time, and I really believe in the web as a software platform. And I'm very patient. I'm confident PWAs will gain popularity as browser support improves. From a development perspective, building one web app instead of three or more separate apps (web, Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, macOS) is so much cheaper. Obviously this doesn't work for every app, but I think it's perfect for Generative.fm. This way, I can use the time I would spend building native apps to improve the site and get better and making new music generators -- the latter of which is my true focus.

In the meantime, I do need to find a way to communicate that the app works offline, and that you can add it to the home screen in iOS. Chrome users on Desktop/Android already get an "Install" button at the top of the site which opens a prompt: I'm basically just waiting for other browsers to catch up to where Chrome Desktop/Android is at, and I'm okay with that.

It means a lot that you'd be willing to pay for it. I'm really happy with my current model of releasing the app for free and publicly sharing the hosting costs and my earnings on Patreon. I basically just put it out, said "here's what it costs for this site to exist," and opened up channels so people could help pay if they wanted. Users have all the information and can decide for themselves what the site is worth and how much, if any, I should profit from it. Patrons have more than covered the hosting costs (see "Goals") the last couple months and I expect this will continue. A few folks have donated through PayPal as well; overall, I think I've earned a bit more than I've spent hosting the site, which is awesome. As the gap between Patreon income and hosting costs grows, I can start exploring ways to use that extra money to improve the site, like covering extra costs associated with user accounts or server-side streaming.

If my goal was to make as much money as possible from the site, there are a lot of ways I could do that, all of which would mean some sort of useful functionality was locked behind a paywall. But honestly, I'm much more interested in generating attention than money, and I'm just kind of having fun building it at this point.

[alexbainter]

Sorry, I know that was way too long of an answer...

[casey]

Your answer was definitely not too long! I appreciate all the detail and background info.

I just sent you a donation via paypal. Thank you for the care and work that you've put into generative.fm so far!

I totally sympathize with native apps being a giant hassle. (And, personally, I refuse to learn anything that isn't an open language or framework, which is another reason to dislike them.)

One avenue which might be worth pursuing is some kind of tool that bundles a progressive web app into native apps for each app store.

I didn't search too much, but I did find this: https://www.pwabuilder.com

I put in https://generative.fm, and it looks like it already scores very highly, and just needs a few extra things, like a "short_name" property. I don't know if it's any good though, and how annoying it is to keep a published app up-to-date.

Aside from just being convenient, users (including me!) are already sort of "trained" to pay for them. Buying an app is totally normal for me, whereas I don't personally use Patreon. Also, I think that ambient noise/music apps are popular, so you might get users via app store searches, even if they don't know about the site.

Also, so you know a little bit more about your audience: I use generative.fm as background music for coding (which I suspect is a popular use!) but I also use it as background music for Twitch streams and YouTube videos. It's really ideal for that. It doesn't drown out my voice or other sounds, it doesn't have transitions which might be distracting from the content, it lasts as long as I want a video to be, and it won't generate copyright strikes against my channel. Streamers generally have trouble finding good background music, so definitely consider them as a potential target audience.

[alexbainter]

Wow, thank you!

I think the Google Play store will soon start allowing web APKs too, and I'm paying attention to that.

You raise a good point that users might discover Generative.fm through the app stores, I hadn't considered that.

[casey]

You bet! Generative.fm is super sweet, I'm very happy to contribute a little bit to show my appreciation.

[lucasdavila86]

@metalex9 hey! you can publish your PWA as a TWA (trusted web app) on the google play store. I've managed myself to do it following this article. You will need to "package" the PWA but it's really straight-forward.

EDIT: Official Google documentation

[zeroCoder1]

I will make this app for free and put it for free on App Store. If it’s okay with you. I would just need the APIs

[DonaldTsang]

@casey This is a cultural movement, it should not cost money for people to share the experience. But thanks for the donations!

@metalex9 What about using React Native or Vue Native to build apps for both iOS and Android?