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Show HN: Tape It – iOS recording app for musicians

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Re: Show HN: Tape It – iOS recording app for musicians

#93
post #89
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High quality stereo recording is only available in our premium subscription (20$/year). The subscription comes with a one month free trial, which should give you some time to try it and see if you like it :)

> High quality stereo recording is only available in our premium subscription (20$/year). Is this the world you want to live in?

Do you expect them to provide it for free?

Re: Show HN: Tape It – iOS recording app for musicians

#94
post #32

With how many musicians use voice memos on iOS, this hits the right niche--somewhere between voice memos and garage band.

As mentioned, Apple launched an app just for that, Music Memos, and it was a great idea but fairly niche and not updated much over the nearly five years it was out. Apple discontinued it in December 2020.

Fun (well, maybe not fun, but interesting) fact: when Apple was doing press briefings for the app, they managed to get me a quote from now-disgraced musical artist Ryan Adams (who was in the middle of a career renaissance of sorts after his acclaimed cover album of Taylor Swift’s acclaimed 1989), in part because they knew I was a big fan of his. It just feels awkward nearly six years later, but at the time, Apple was leaning really hard on the respected establishment community of musicians to push the app.

It’s a shame it never seemed to have much life or uptick after its release because as a 1.0/MVP it was really good. And with just a few more features, it could hack been an insanely useful app for lots of musicians who naturally use Voice Memos to capture lyrics or riffs or other content.

Alas.

Re: Show HN: Tape It – iOS recording app for musicians

#95
post #83
post #32

With how many musicians use voice memos on iOS, this hits the right niche--somewhere between voice memos and garage band.

Interestingly, apple at one point made an app just like this called "Music Memos" but dropped it pretty soon. I think it has been partly rolled into garageband.

"Music Memos" was the perfect 'recording snippet app' for me. I honestly think they let a diamond in the rough escape them. The tempo detection and ability to overlay basic drum / bass backing was brilliant.

Re: Show HN: Tape It – iOS recording app for musicians

#96
Thanks for entering this space. One thing I would love for you to add is the concept of "Folders" (or projects / songs / whatever you want to call it).

Here is the point: Sometimes I will record 14 different versions of a lick, chord progression, etc for a song idea. Typically its over the course of several days.

It does me no good to have 14 different files date named XX-YY-ZZZZ, etc. What I want is to group those into "Ideas / Songs / Projects"

So should have

"Song Idea 1"

  - 09-27-21 14:24

  - 09-25-21 11:24

  - 09-23-21 10:42

  - 09-23-21 09:17
etc

Re: Show HN: Tape It – iOS recording app for musicians

#97
post #96

Thanks for entering this space. One thing I would love for you to add is the concept of "Folders" (or projects / songs / whatever you want to call it). Here is the point: Sometimes I will record 14 different versions of a lick, chord progression, etc for a song idea. Typically its over the course of several days. It does me no good to have 14 different files date named XX-YY-ZZZZ, etc. What I want is to group those i…

That is definitely on our todo list. The next update will introduce mixtapes, which are basically playlists (unlike folders, a tape can be in several mixtapes).

We‘re also thinking a lot about how we can further group things, like projects/ideas - exactly how you mention it. It‘s gonna take a few design iterations, but it‘ll definitely come :-).

Re: Show HN: Tape It – iOS recording app for musicians

#98

This looks brilliant, I've been recording scraps of music with voice memos for years and I've been missing exactly the features you have. Great work! I'd love a way to import my existing voice memo library into Tape It!

Glad you like it :).

Regarding import: Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t provide access to the Voice Memos library. If you have a suggestion on how to overcome that (in a way that passes the App Store review), please let us know. We’d be super grateful.

Re: Show HN: Tape It – iOS recording app for musicians

#99
I love this!

My one request that would enable me to recommend this to my musician friends is an export feature, along with a promise of adequate notice before a shutdown of the app, to allow people to export their recordings in a worst-case scenario.

The one thing that may keep musicians using Apple Voice Memos despite your app seeming much better is that they often make a lot of recordings, and losing them all would be unimaginably tragic.

Re: Show HN: Tape It – iOS recording app for musicians

#100
Based on the comments, it looks like you’ve picked a good problem to solve. And as you’ve discovered, building a product is only part of the work, getting it noticed is just as important.

I have a few suggestions to consider:

- As the musical community is very relationship driven I would prioritize sharing and virality over advertising for discovery. Make it easy to send files to friends and you have a built in promotion.

- To get it in their hands and raise awareness, go where your customers are. Open mic nights, music stores, gigs, meetup, reddit. Talk to people, ask questions about how they record themselves. Post a few flyers on bulletin boards.

- Try to get featured on some music blogs, podcasts, or youtube channels that have a built in audience.

Hope that sparks some ideas. Best of luck!

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