Have you talked to these users about why they are doing this? $19.99/yr seems insanely cheap, somehow I find it hard to believe anyone semi-serious about sharing their music wouldn't want to pay it.
Here's how I deal with users who steal
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Re: Here's how I deal with users who steal
#22Why not just keep the first $19.99 of revenue if they haven't paid up front? If they are making money they can afford it.
Or why not give them the option to pay as well as offering the scholarship option, but noting that with the Scholarship account, their first $x9.99 will be withheld? If it's not successful for them, it costs them nothing up front.
Little bit like how your can start tertiary study in Australia for free, but incur a HECS debt that begins to get paid once you're earning money.
Re: Here's how I deal with users who steal
#23Interesting that the "scholarship" (free) plan isn't mentioned on the homepage. It seems you have to try and steal the product before being offered the free plan. I also like the subtle dig, "if you can't afford it." I've certainly pirated things myself. If iTunes asked me, "We noticed you've pirated The Walking Dead. If you can't afford $3, click here to get it for free." By reframing it as charity I might be shamed…
What if someone can afford it, but isn't willing to? To me that means the price is too high, so maybe also let them set their own price?
It's $20 for a chance to greatly simplify selling your music. If someone doesn't see value in that, leave them to submit everything manually IMO. Can't get dragged down by tightarses.
Re: Here's how I deal with users who steal
#24This is the sort of thing that sounds reasonably nice and we all wish we could do. However it stops working really fast. I also have a web service and we used to let people get away with this sort of stuff. First year it worked. Second year, the amount of fraud was impacting bottom line and some of this users turned out to be the ones that used "support" the most. So we started banning bad users and blocking their su…
Could you simply consider forums/support as a non-free upgrade?
Re: Here's how I deal with users who steal
#25This is the sort of thing that sounds reasonably nice and we all wish we could do. However it stops working really fast. I also have a web service and we used to let people get away with this sort of stuff. First year it worked. Second year, the amount of fraud was impacting bottom line and some of this users turned out to be the ones that used "support" the most. So we started banning bad users and blocking their su…
I like the way he approached the problem with the "scholarships" its really clever. But I want to agree with you, as word gets out that its easy to receive the product for free your going to have a large portion of your user base free riding off of the paying ones. Then it comes down to at what point do you continue providing the service when its not profitable to do so.
Re: Here's how I deal with users who steal
#26You could probably write something interesting with a Spokeo, LinkedIn or Klout API that would give a pretty solid idea of whether or not you're dealing with someone broke or just trying to not ante up.
Great idea though! Nothing wrong with a little Shaming!
Re: Here's how I deal with users who steal
#27Interesting that the "scholarship" (free) plan isn't mentioned on the homepage. It seems you have to try and steal the product before being offered the free plan. I also like the subtle dig, "if you can't afford it." I've certainly pirated things myself. If iTunes asked me, "We noticed you've pirated The Walking Dead. If you can't afford $3, click here to get it for free." By reframing it as charity I might be shamed…
What if someone can afford it, but isn't willing to? To me that means the price is too high, so maybe also let them set their own price?
If someone can afford a product, but isn't willing to, then they should look elsewhere for the value provided by the product, or live without it.
That's embedded in the definition of a market--sellers get to choose the price, buyers get to choose whether or not to buy.
Re: Here's how I deal with users who steal
#28Since I am a little lazy, can someone explain to me why this service is necessary. Does apple not allow musicians to upload their music to itunes?
Re: Here's how I deal with users who steal
#29God is perfectly just. You have to get persecuted to be blessed. Highs and lows balance.
Joseph in the Bible was accused of rape falsely. He went to prison for seven years. Then, he ran Egypt for like seven years.
Bring it on.
Re: Here's how I deal with users who steal
#30What a smug blog post.