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Tell HN: Stripe killed my music locker service, so I'm open sourcing it

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Re: Tell HN: Stripe killed my music locker service, so I'm open sourcing it

#51
post #19

Did you have a Stripe account manager? If so, get them on the case – they know you and can advocate for the business and explain the product internally. At the very least they might be able to give you a much more detailed explanation of which precise features are causing issue and how you could resolve those things. If not, why? Payments are a core part of any SaaS business, and it's important to have trust with imp…

I don't. My MRR is $5 currently, peaked at around $40. I'm far too small for Stripe to care about me. I was running this as a passion project. I'm not sure how to even get an account manager (does it just happen if you become big enough to matter?)

Some companies will proactively reach out, others need to be reached out to. It's possible this is too small, but then again many pre-revenue startups will get this sort of treatment so it's not just about money.

The thing to remember is that Stripe (or your cloud provider, or your email sending provider, or any other SaaS) get something out of that relationship – they get a sales channel, they can trust you more, they can lock you into their services, they can show you more of their value – these sorts of companies basically want these relationships. The fact you can sign up with a credit card and never talk to anyone is sort of just to appease devs that don't want to talk to anyone, it's not how they make money in the B2B market (it's a bit different for B2C or B2B-ish services like Squarespace).

This project sounds pretty neat, and I could see it appealing to the audiophile market. I know people who would be interested.

But, I'm sorry to say, it sounds like Stripe cancelling your service wasn't the biggest issue, but that the service never found its market. Looking at the site I couldn't tell what it was or who it was for, and it looked a bit dodgy. Copy like "we're not google. we won't kill the site" (said twice) makes it sound like a hobby rather than a company, and even if that's true, it's not going to go over well for marketing. Also, it's sadly somewhat ironic given that the service has indeed gone. I totally see the vibe you were going for, but I think that vibe is one that typically maxes out at a handful of friends using it.

Re: Tell HN: Stripe killed my music locker service, so I'm open sourcing it

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not?

How many people use bitcoin for daily purchases today? How many want to use bitcoin for daily purchases ? How many people CAN use bitcoin for daily purchases ?

The actual questions you should ask in this situation are:

How many people who use bitcoin would use this product? How many want to use this product and don't know how to use bitcoin? How many people CAN use bitcoin for THIS purchases?

We're never going to switch to bitcoin for daily purchases but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be an option for people.

Re: Tell HN: Stripe killed my music locker service, so I'm open sourcing it

#53

This is why we bitcoin

No. Bitcoin will not help you here. At all.

It will help if you have a way to turn bitcoin into your preferred currency and vice versa. It's an option, not a complete replacement.

Re: Tell HN: Stripe killed my music locker service, so I'm open sourcing it

#54
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't. My MRR is $5 currently, peaked at around $40. I'm far too small for Stripe to care about me. I was running this as a passion project. I'm not sure how to even get an account manager (does it just happen if you become big enough to matter?)

Some companies will proactively reach out, others need to be reached out to. It's possible this is too small, but then again many pre-revenue startups will get this sort of treatment so it's not just about money. The thing to remember is that Stripe (or your cloud provider, or your email sending provider, or any other SaaS) get something out of that relationship – they get a sales channel, they can trust you more, th…

Thanks, I agree... it was never intended to be a "real company", which was ultimately to my detriment. The irony of killing it hurts, so I'll probably just leave it up for the existing users, and (hopefully) find some other payment processor. It only costs me a few dollars per month to host it, so I am not super worried about the money, but it's a huge motivation killer to be ousted from Stripe. I was happy with keeping it "indie and scrappy" and only friends using it, and I went through a lot of pains to make it so the architecture was always break-even, but I never expected my payment processor to bail on me.

Re: Tell HN: Stripe killed my music locker service, so I'm open sourcing it

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many people use bitcoin for daily purchases today? How many want to use bitcoin for daily purchases ? How many people CAN use bitcoin for daily purchases ?

The actual questions you should ask in this situation are: How many people who use bitcoin would use this product? How many want to use this product and don't know how to use bitcoin? How many people CAN use bitcoin for THIS purchases? We're never going to switch to bitcoin for daily purchases but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be an option for people.

Because the answer is that nobody uses Bitcoin for anything legitimate other than speculation, paying off ransomware debts to criminals and just down right scams and fraud.

I am yet to see any viable usecase of this bitcoin mania that is legitimate and doesn’t need tons of energy waste to accomplish its goal.

For almost 15 years of bitcoin it has completely failed and we have no use for it.

So yes, we should never switch to bitcoin for daily purchases (because it fails at that) and we should never switch to an ‘alternative’ like bitcoin if that said alternative is even worse than the current system, which it is.

Re: Tell HN: Stripe killed my music locker service, so I'm open sourcing it

#57
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way is uploading the music you bought to private cloud storage illegal? Google Music asked me to upload songs and I did. Is Google really going to get sued to oblivion? I doubt it.

Depends where you live In the UK its technically illegal to rip a CD to your own PC to back it up, for example, see the recent high court case(s) about it where the government won against Brennan (who make hifi gear which can do this) - no different to this app.

In 2014 the government passed a law making ripping explicitly legal. In 2015 the music industry sued and the High Court ruled that the law was contrary to some EU directive and thus invalid. But I don't know if that law was annulled by the court decision, or if it was merely dormant until we left the EU. The Brennan ripping devices are still on sale. Do you have a link to this case?

Re: Tell HN: Stripe killed my music locker service, so I'm open sourcing it

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the laws should be changed so that freedom of association is properly only a human right, and for corporate persons, instead having it be a privilege that phases out as the corporation grows, and going away entirely for FAANG-sized corporations.

Laws should mandate the federal government operate an electronic money account and transfer capabilities to everyone at all times. Just like the federal government is tasked with issuing cash. If there are illegal activities being done, then that is for the courts to decide (but they still do not get to take away the electronic money account and receiving/sending capability of anyone, just the money assuming convicti…

This is an interesting idea, is there any reason why the government owns the supply of money but they don't own a way to transfer it? Especially with electronic money, why isn't there a government payment processer? It kind of touches on the topic of taxes too, doesn't it?

If the government owned a transaction system and you used that exclusively then they'll know everything you bought and sold. It's already an honour system so it's not like you're eliminating cash or even need to. Paranoid people could continue to use cash and the tax system would work exactly the same for those people. The government transaction system would be a convenience for most of the population.

I'm spitballing here - my comment may not even make sense in context.

Re: Tell HN: Stripe killed my music locker service, so I'm open sourcing it

#59
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not being advertised for or primarily used for copyright infringement.

In what way is uploading the music you bought to private cloud storage illegal? Google Music asked me to upload songs and I did. Is Google really going to get sued to oblivion? I doubt it.

Google Music (fka Google Play Music) have license agreements! e.g. https://www.cmrra.ca/socan-csi-strike-licensing-deal-with-go...

Part of the reason google/youtube are quasi-monopolistic is that they've already been through all of this, they've had the arguments and the lawsuits in various different territories, and they've reached agreements and paid money to deal with the copyright issues.

Re: Tell HN: Stripe killed my music locker service, so I'm open sourcing it

#60
post #16

Instead of closing your service, may I recommend switching to payplug.com ? Started as a small smartup, now bought by a french main bank chain but has english documentation, very clean API, easy to get support, low fees. Easily handle refunds, payment link, payment page integrated or separate, 3D Secure, subscription/recurring payment, etc etc ... Been using them for a few companies the past year and a half, and migr…

> "no bullsh*t about random overnight account closure..."

Is it possible to predict this in advance? Can't these companies just do it any old time they feel like it? There's always a first.

Or is there good regulation in France?

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