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

[lastmachine]

Soif, what specific type of input do you want? For a question like "what do you think about the site?", the answer is easy: It's Great!

Are you looking at trimming the site, doing away with some features? I think Levon's idea is outstanding. since you are a .org, does that mean you're already non-profit (or not-for-profit)? If not, Maybe you could still get Apple to kick--show them the type of A) problem-solving, to allow people to do what they want on the most stupendous platform in the world, and B) outright shameless Mac Evangelism that goes on on this site.

Look at the old MkLinux model--Apple provided at least blessing, source code and developer tools, and maybe some dough into the mix. What they got out of it was Open Source collaborative development of what became Darwin. What we got out of it was use of Linux on Macs back in 1996 or so. Apple has been open to "friendly" deals, no matter how ferocious they get about some things (Garamond & colorful Apple logo placement, &c).

Other developers might be persuaded as well.

Are you looking at soliciting donations? I'll pay, yes, sir. In True Macintosh Community fashion, I believe a Noblesse Obligee system would suffice--If you're feeling flush, kick some dough. Get your name listed on the MacMusic LoveFest. Listing amounts would be crass, I suppose, but perhaps saying that MacMusic is "Grateful" for these contributions, and "Amazed" at these other ones. Or no such thing. Well, it's a rough idea. Credit Card, PayPal, Kagi, etc... Lots of options.

Perhaps collect a bunch of advice and product reviews, rumors and such, and press it all into a book. There are many options for publishing from e-pub (which is almost a money-loser, but works right away), to print-on-demand through online sites (better than e-pub, but less timely), to "regular", books sitting on shelves (potentially most lucrative, but most time-consuming). Some paper booksellers will work with print-on-demand.
Think about the experience collected to date. It should be an easy matter to gain releases from posters (if even necessary), and if anybody gets sticky, well, it's all in the public domain, can be read by anybody, and passed up once again as good advice, with a release (if even necessary).
All proceeds go to maintaining the site.

I humbly offer my services in editing (I'm damned good). There is enough talent associated here to turn out a profitable book.
Some topics:
Hardware overview: which changes all the time, but over the sales life of the book, many people will be using old computers (older than the publishing date=covered in the book), and with the significant investment Apple has made in changing things lately, they'll likely want to stand for a while on what works.
Software overview: Likewise.
Pitfalls: Lots of these on the site (Yeah, don't use OMS and FreeMIDI together...)
Step-by-steps: How-to's for going from platform to platform, and SW to SW.
Set-ups: Depending on what the reader wants to do, some recommended set-ups, from a bare-necessities approach, then adding various optional capabilities--rough prices for "packages" and individual components.

Anyway, there are certainly enough subject matter experts around this site. Anybody ought to be willing to contribute experience and a bit of time to sifting through a thread or two.
You could set up a small page for this project; threads for sorting, proposed chapters, sorted threads (info culled and dressed), edited works, graphics, chapter drafts and a completed draft. Team-member login, to keep the thing under wraps (and copyright protection).

Some suggestions.

Hawk (lastmachine)