Topten Software

aqualatus · Post by **aqualatus** » Fri Feb 10, 2012 1:51 pm

It's been almost two years since Brad last wrote something on this forum.
It's been over a year since he last wrote a blog entry.

Some of you have troubles with Cantabile or need new features. I personally am lucky enough to be 99% satisfied with the software. It's got everything I need and is extremely stable. It's worth every cent I paid for it and I'd recommend it to anyone who has similar needs as I do.

It's just so sad that such a brilliant software seems to have no future! There are hundreds of crappy, useless, or simply badly designed programs out there. And Cantabile - one of my favorite programs ever - got left behind.
It really deserves further development and a commercial success. It looked so good at the time we were switching from v.1.0 to 2.0.

Do not consider it a grudge. It's just my regret over unused potential.

TiUser · Post by **TiUser** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 11:06 pm

I feel the same but I guess Cantabile wasn't a real commercial success... or put it with Brad's words: It never will pay pack the effort put into it. He did it because he had some fun doing it and it was a challenge.

In times where iApps cost just a few bucks people massively underestimate the cost of software development.

I hope for something different but I think we will not see anything like cantabile 3...

pchanez · Post by **pchanez** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:30 am

Honnestly I would agree to pay 5 times the price I paid for this software ...

TiUser · Post by **TiUser** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:30 pm

Well, price discussion is difficult. Even if some guys are willing to pay much more I guess that does not resolve the dilemma.

Even the big music companies do not make their main living from professionals but the many semi pros, enthusiasts or students learning an instrument. So the offers and prices need to be "market compatible".

If something has a price adjusted to the development effort that potential buyers can not afford then this does not help both parties as well.

The key is the number of sold copies. It's hard to adjust the effort for a software like Cantabile when there are just some hundred copies (if at all) are sold and the product needs support because of it's complexity while selling a million copies of a sh*ty iApp for just some bucks will pay the makers (and Apple) a fortune...

pchanez · Post by **pchanez** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 9:15 pm

Then perhaps open source is the way to go...

TiUser · Post by **TiUser** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 10:12 am

It's truely amazing what turns out by open source projects.

But can we expect anything from that for the future? We can hope, that's all...

Behind any open source or freeware software development are real people who work a significant time for nothing. No one can and will do this forever... when looking at this from a commercial standpoint for people who need to make a living from their work.

Economy is very simple - things that do not pay back will be dropped... sadly regardless how great the idea or result technically is.

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 10:52 am

TiUser wrote:Behind any open source or freeware software development are real people who work a significant time for nothing.

And depending on the open source project, there might also be real people who work a significant time for money. Open source is not actually a synonym for 'work done gratis'.

No one can and will do this forever...

Noone can do anything forever. On the other hand, some people have done 'this' all their working lives so far.

when looking at this from a commercial standpoint for people who need to make a living from their work.

Of course, they don't necessarily need to make a living from the open source work itself. And working on open source work doesnt preclude some other means of income.

Economy is very simple - things that do not pay back will be dropped... sadly regardless how great the idea or result technically is.

Except for those things which are not dropped because of economics, of course. In fact, its just as, and possibly more than, likely that commercial projects are the ones which will be droppped on an economic basis. After all economics, really, is the sole motivator for commercial products, not so for open source.

So Im not getting your point, really. None of your comments properly reflect reality, so what are you trying to say?

aqualatus · Post by **aqualatus** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 11:05 am

I hope that Brad at least tried to sell as much copies as it's possible.

I would never expect anyone to work for free! What I say is that it's not enough to develop brilliant software - you have to sell it. TiUser's example of iApps is very good.

Maybe there was something wrong with the marketing approach? Maybe there was some help needed. We don't know the financial results of Cantabile, but we don't know the marketing efforts either.. I know many people who have great products/ideas, but don't know how to sell it.
Maybe Brad needs a business partner - who knows?
Do you think this software's got potential? Maybe I'm wrong, but I guess there are lots of possible applications of Cantabile. The target group should be relatively numerous.

TiUser · Post by **TiUser** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 2:29 pm

whyterabbyt wrote:...
So Im not getting your point, really. None of your comments properly reflect reality, so what are you trying to say?

Probably I was not clear enough and mixed open source with freeware.

Simply spoken no one can make a living from freeware or projects that don't pay back.

That does of course not mean that people have other jobs or income and do freeware for fun or projects for other motivations than major commerce interest - just we should not expect anybody doing this... if anybody does nonetheless - fine!

TiUser · Post by **TiUser** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 2:41 pm

aqualatus wrote:I hope that Brad at least tried to sell as much copies as it's possible.

As far as I know Brad started this project for fun with Cantabile 1.x and I guess he already stretched the "fun" with Cantabile 2.x to it's limits. Considering that it's amazing what he accomplished.

I don't think making money or creating big business with Cantabile was his major goal. He just puts effort into what he likes doing.

One commercial deal I remember was that the maker of the piano instrument he played himself ships a special version of Cantabile to host it now.

Cantabile is IMHO a niche product.

I think using software instruments live still isn't (technically) as easy as using HW keyboards.

With recording and DAW software it might be another story...

JeffB · Post by **JeffB** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:13 am

Excellent news in the blog!

Thanks Brad.

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 12:45 pm

JeffB wrote:Excellent news in the blog!

Thanks Brad.

Like what?

werd · Post by **werd** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:38 pm

Here: http://www.cantabilesoftware.com/blog

pchanez · Post by **pchanez** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:31 pm

What a good news !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

aqualatus · Post by **aqualatus** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:06 am

Wow!!!

Great news!

So good to see you back, Brad!

Topten Software

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The future of Cantabile