Today is a big day for us.
While you could have previously signed up and used Tape Trade, the product wasn't really "complete" until now. Having finally secured approval from the Apple App Store, you can now sign up and subscribe on the web or App Store and use Tape Trade from anywhere. we're officially open for business.
We started this thing because Ceschi Ramos was complaining online about how annoying it is to share and listen back to demos and albums in progress. after talking to so many of my other friends who make music, it was obvious that something needed to be made with artists in mind- not studios, not labels. We wanted to solve a simple problem- giving artists the ability to listen and showcase their work in a natural state of listening. This has already expanded to a whole host of other uses- exclusive playlists for Patreon subscribers, producers ipod DJing at an open aux night, private listening parties, basic file transfers, testing out album flow in the car, and on. I'm certain that users will find a ton of other interesting things to do with this.
On the journey to build Tape Trade, we found a lot of other software products in the space. Some I'd consider competitors, but I really believe our approach to the ecosystem sets us apart from everyone else. Other companies have bet that artists aren't enough to support and sustain their platforms. We're thinking the opposite.
Part of our gamble is that we do not have a free tier. You literally have to give us money to use this product, which breaks with tradition and trend of a constant stream of freemium and free-starter apps that permeate the digital environment we all haunt. You need a dollar a month to use Tape Trade. It's not a lot, but it stands for a lot because it means we (the company) get to keep building this product for *all* our users.
Freemium and free to start software models inherently create systems where companies rely on expensive "enterprise" tiers to support a glut of free users at the bottom. This means they are constantly building features and working to attract customers to those higher tiers, which, over time, leads to product-wide enshittification for everyone at every level. (Enshittification is when features and experience are degraded to improve the bottom line and a lot has been written and said about it here.) So in short, a dollar a month is talisman of protection against that. When we build new features, it's going to be with every one of our users in mind, and your sub pays for active improvement for you. We think we've structured the model just right keep this thing moving forward, and we don't owe any money to venture capitalists or rich grandparents, and we think that's pretty cool.
That's enough words for now, I'm going to go listen to a few things some friends sent over.
Tape Trade is for the artists. There's so much more to come.
Matthew, Stephen, & Alex
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