Macmusic, The End Of The Adventure Options

[Francois Déchery]

We may be spoiling your day with the news that has been spoiling ours for quite some time : MacMusic will most probably not be able to continue anymore. Attempts to finance it through advertisements have failed and plans are to close the site in February.

MacMusic in the past...
MacMusic has been thriving for five years thanks to the ongoing dedication of Soif, its founder who was gradually joined by a group of enthusiastic volunteers, known as "the Team".
MacMusic's success -10,000 visits per day - may be forcing the site to close down. The technical and practical means necessary to have a continually accessible and updated tool represent an investment that can no longer be supported, particularly financially speaking. Server, host, contents management, etc. all involve ever growing expenditures of money and time, that are no longer within the team's realm of possibility.

Hopes for the future...
Over the past few weeks, the team has been working on finding a solution that corresponds to the spirit of community underpinning YOUR site. We hope to work out within the next 10 days a proposition that we believe will retain the attention of all those who hope that MacMusic will not just become a good memory...

In this regard we need to know: what do you think about it ?
Your feedback is needed!


The MacMusic Team

[kaboombahchuck]

OK, I have voted!
I was wondering if there might be incentives for an amout given. Say you give $60 a year, perhaps a mac music tee shirt can be obtained. The higher the "gift' the better the incentive. Just an idea.

[Johnny Valium]

Well, I have not voted. 60 Euros are too much! And surely not only for me. What about a 10 Euro donation? Would you accept something like that?! Remember there are not only rich platinum album sh%§&ing producers here

JV

[lepetitmartien]

We know that 60€/$ can be too much for some people (including me in my present situation, believe me), but if enough people are paying each this toll, we can keep the access to the site free. It is meant as a volontary contribution. We are securing the ways paiement could be made, we'll tell you when we'll know how exactly.

The "how much money do we need?" question, I would have liked that someone have asked. I will answer anyway:

We are now just over 8 000 members
We have about 10 000 sessions each day (someone comes and browses, if he comes back later, it's a different session)
Our bandwith needs are multiplied by 5 each year
We are already using the services of a professional server in the USA.

To continue over 2003 we need: (it's in French Francs, it'll be in €/$ at the end, sorry)

- Server 24 000
- Domain names 1 000
- expenses 15 000
- webmaster (Soif) 192 000 (more on this bellow)

subtotal: 232 000 /year which is 35595 €/$

To cover server failures, the next attack from Venus, and the 10% we'll be taxed to have the money

==> about 40 000 €/$ for 2003 (262 382 F)

Why do we need to pay Soif?

Well, he's making right now all the coding that make MM rolling, he monitors the server (even reactivating it every 5 mn like last week end) etc. He payed all the costs until now (25 000 F the last 2 years) and because he's working on MM 26 hours on 24, he doesn't even have time to do his real job (sound designer/engineer). If we want the site to go on next year, Soif must be payed (it'll give him a 1500 €/$ monthly salary which is reasonable) or he'll simply have to work and no MM running then.

Now you have a picture of the budget we face.
If you have any questions?

[wonx]

I'd like to participate in the poll, but come on! Don't force me to vote "I wouldn't give anything" just because I'm not willing to fork out 60 bucks.

[bjkiwi]

I'm with wonx, I would contribute but $60 seems a bit much. I would like 2 vote but there is no appropriate answer for me 2 tick. It would be a shame 2 see macmusic disappear so I hope a solution is found.

[xingu]

Thanks, LPM, for the clarification. Even though it seems a bit much to pay $60 for access to an Internet forum, I voted for it anyway. The difference between it being a voluntary donation and a mandatory requirement is an important distinction.

This site has been instrumental in getting my home studio up and running. I drop by a few times a day, almost exclusively to check out what's new in the forums. There's other decent forums out there (for free), but none quite as comprehensive.

Based on LPM's proposed figures, it would take a $50 donation from 800 people, or less than 10% of the current MacMusic community to reach the goal. Of course, not all of us can afford that (I've spent so much on my gear this year already!) but between those that can contribute smaller amounts and the few generous folks that might be able to offer more, it seems like there's enough users to support keeping this site 'free' and running.

[lepetitmartien]

thanks Xingu, it's always good news for the team to know that we don't work for nothing. It happens that we help, gooooooooooood

At this moment, the contribution of 60$ will be as a volontary contribution. All the forum will be open still. We think about other solutions (if the votes aren't good enough) but it'll be the less painfull and the more user friendly.

People that like the site pay a fee (an annual music newspaper suscription), enough of them, and all the site is still free. If it can not be we'll have to think of other less "true spirit of the net" solution or close the site

And we have only 6 weeks to secure a solution up and running. I understand fully the people who think it's too much (from their wallet vue, I'm in the same situation so…) but a 30$ toll will need more than 1300 member, an even more difficult goal.

We are still trying other tracks so that all the budget won't be supported by members but nothing is sure yet. And we can't survive of hopes only. All the major user driven sharing sites on the web are faced with the same problems (too much traffic, a server to pay for, bandwith etc) and an elegant solution, respectful of members not to simply disappear is not easy to find.

If only we were all billionaires…

[jules]

fine, fine, your justifications sounds reasonable.
But same comment: more variation in the contribution to the site would be appreciated. starting from 20 euros and increasing by 10, or something like that.
And eventually discounts for people who are a bit short on their bank account (I know the justification would be a pain to sort out).

Hi Guys,

Put away your wallets!

I'm the webmaster for AmbitiousLemon.com. We've got plenty of capacity to host the site and we'd be able to do it completely free.

Free for users, free for the administrators of macmusic and even *adfree*.

Why are we offering this? We're dedicated to the mac and feel that Macmusic.org is very important to the Macintosh Community and hell, we can do it, so why not.

Soif, please get in touch with me as soon as possible -- email webmaster@ambitiouslemon.com

Cheers!

[xingu]

Maybe disregard this - looks like ambitiouslemon was writing same time as me - hopefully this pans out

From where I stand, there appears to be a miscommunication. People seem to be using the poll as the end all be all for solution options... As LPM stated:

It is meant as a volontary contribution.

Last I checked, voluntary meant not mandatory. In other words, give what you are comfortable with/can afford, however little that may be if you want to contribute.

Sorry to say, things don't look too bright with just 25 people responding to the poll. Perhaps this is due to the clarity issue on the "60 euro/$ miminum"...

This brings up a hypothetical question: say MacMusic secures the means to collect contributions/donations. Now, suppose only a handful of people contribute and the goal is nowhere near being met. Does MM still go down the tubes and the generous few just lose that money, or can some type of refund system be anticipated?