Friday, March 15, 2013

MakeMusic This Week

www.makemusic.com

It was a busy week at MakeMusic.

The new pricing schedule for SmartMusic seems to have caused a ruckus with band directors.  Enough so, that the plan is on hold and will probably be revised.  

Hopefully, that moves quickly as the my school is asking what the band fee should be for next year.

We are using SmartMusic everywhere a kid can access the internet.  Including the home computer.  We have been getting a bulk-purchase price.  It is some work, but I think it is worth it.  Subscriptions for everyone!

The cheaper plan (but not nearly as comprehensive) is for the teacher to order enough to cover his practice rooms and send/receive his assignments through SmartMusic Grade Book.  Students do their work at school.

That might be too good a deal for the teacher and student side.  Server space does cost someone money.

So it will be interesting to see how this shakes out. There is a need to cover the costs AND a need to not tick-off the customer. What is the magic price? 

The other thing happening over at MakeMusic is the purchase of the company by LaunchEquity.  MakeMusic is going private.  Hopefully, that just means we can't follow the company as close as we have by watching the quarterly reports.  LaunchEquity is putting some money into the company, so it is hard to believe they would do anything drastic enough to upset the business.  That is probably another reason why the pricing is under review.  Hopefully, they remember that school music programs with big fat budgets aren't exactly commonplace.





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