meaning that if someone has a paid mobile app or one that has premium features that need to be paid for, that is considered commercial use and they should support us.
Quesito
otherwise free mobile apps go to...
yes
D4RK-PH0ENiX joined the channel
ruaok
now , the margins on mobile are shit. and mobile apps tend to not make a lot of requests.
Quesito
ok
ruaok
mobile is $10/month or so.
the supporter can choose what amount to support us to. the dollar figures are really only there as differentiators of the different levels.
so, we could have a $50 mobile supporter. totally fine.
Quesito
right
ruaok
bronze is next at $100.
the $100/month support is a bit of a threshold.
Quesito
ok
ruaok
we have two prodominant ways in which our supporters can consume our data.
the VM allows someone to download all the code in a Virtual Machine setup. they can then point their clients to their own setup and make as many requests per second as they would like.
Quesito
do a majority of supporters choose VM?
ruaok
a lot yes.
because the VM also decouples them from us.
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Quesito
makes sense.
ruaok
while we work hard to keep the servers running 100% of the time, we're far from it. 2016 was terrible for us.
now since our servers are in germany, things are much better, but we still have massive improvements to make
still, our stuff could go down.
imagine a scenario where ticketmaster depends on us.
Quesito
ok
and then the servers crash?
ruaok
imagine now if they started selling U2 concert tickets and our shit crashed and it took their shit with it.
Quesito
yeah
ruaok
it is a contrived example that doesn't really apply, but you get the ide.
idea.
the downside to the VM is that it is a stale copy of the data.
we do not give anyone (unless there is a special deal on the table) access to the live data feed unless they are paying us $100/month.
a special deal could be where someone feeds data to us or otherwise gives us something in return.
Quesito
ok
ruaok
this is quite tricky and you should leave those for me to deal with initially.
Quesito
sounds good
ruaok
(they have a history of not panning out so well, so I am more careful with them)
Quesito
ok
ruaok
people like zas who are in charge of keeping servers running want to get things squared away with plenty of time before a new service goes live.
that bring about this common workflow:
1) customer contacts us, signs up as "stealth startup".
2) they work on their product to add MusicBrainz data/support, but while they do this, pay us nothing.
Quesito
yeah
ruaok
3) during this phase we do not give them access to the live data feed.
4) towards the end of this phase, people should come back to use an hammer out final details for support.
Quesito
right
ruaok
5) more on this in a bit, but once we agree, we green light them. A default signup with metabrainz has no access to the live data feed. We can put them into "waiting", which is the
"we're figuring our shit out or are developing stuff" phase.
once they come back, we take them out of waiting and them publish them on our page.
6) if someone pays us less than $100/month, we approve them to be "limited". A limited meb account is different from a limited mb account.
Limited in meb means, "no live data feed"
Stealth start-ups will come to us near their launch date and will want to get access to the live data feed.
I normally suggest 2-3 weeks before launch -- at that point we need to get their legal address into the meb site. that address goes on the invoices we send them.
Quesito
ok
ruaok
and we'll get their logo and a quip about what they do and we publish that on our site.
I normally also tweet from the metabrainz account welcoming them into the fold.
Quesito
right
ruaok
that is the most common workflow for us.
Quesito
ok
ruaok
also, note that access to the API is not restricted right now. anyone can make requests without an API access key.
we're going to change that soon, but you can ignore that for now.
Quesito
ok
ruaok
questions so far?
Quesito
The pending list, is mostly stealth startups that are in the 'developing phase' and/or need to be checked in on?
ruaok
the pending list includes these types:
1) people who have signed up with us and have not been contacted yet.
2) people who have signed up with us and have been contacted, but have not responded yet.
the "Commercial users in the waiting list"
Quesito
I got it.
ruaok
are people who need to be checked up on periodically. but we don't have to deal with that right this second.
Quesito
ok--but perhaps a system for that in future?
ruaok
yes, there is a lot of room for improvement there.