We launched the first version of Simplify Media last summer. For the past year, we’ve experienced smooth growth, but all of that changed dramatically less than 4 days ago when our application debuted in the Apple App Store. Our (aggressive) target was to have 100,000 downloads in 30 days. Instead we reached that goal in about 30 hours. As of last night, we had 205,909 downloads.
The overwhelming response has caused us to experience some growing pains:
Infrastructure: We discovered two problems with our servers (one Friday and another last night) that forced us to scramble. That meant many of you couldn’t connect for a period of time.
Product: We learned that two of our features, album art on the iPhone and password reset, weren’t scalable, so we disabled these. If you have forgotten your password, email us from the address associated with your screen name.
Support systems: We found out that our email provider enforces a hard limit on the number of email we can send per day.
Now we face a dilemma. According to the “free for the first 100,000″ plan we announced, we should be charging for new downloads. However, we are not confident that we can deliver a user experience that meets our expectations (and yours) until we work out a few more kinks. As a result, we’ve decided to remain free for a while longer as we make improvements. In return, we ask for your continued patience as we work through the growing pains.
A final note: to stay ahead of the curve, we are schedule a maintenance window on 8/19 from 9:00 -9:30a Pacific, that’s tomorrow.
Wow! Simplify Media is now in the Top 5 list of free applications in the App Store, and we’ve had more people download our software and create an account in the past day than have so in any month in the company’s history. We’re overwhelmed by your interest in accessing all of your music wherever you are and all of the support you’ve shown for our product.
Unfortunately, we developed a server-related problem overnight. After you log in with our account server, your computer contacts one of our connection servers to rendezvous with the other computers on your Media List. Overnight, the connection servers have been slower than normal to return responses, especially for new computers coming online, and, as a result, many of you have been experiencing delays. Typically these will manifest as errors suggesting that the software is still scanning or still connecting. We are working hard to correct this, and we expect the situation to stabilize over the next few hours. I’ll keep updating this post until this issue is behind us.
1:16p update: It looks like things have been stable for the past 90 minutes. We have futher improvements planned and we will continue to watch this closely. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.
5/17 8:48p: After a great weekend and lots more growth, we’ve had to do some unplanned maintenance on our account server. As a result, it is not possible to create a new account or log in if you weren’t already connected. We hope to have it complete in an hour. I’ll update status here.
5/17 9:49p: And we’re back. Sorry for those who experience login trouble, and apologies for our growing pains. We’ll have more to say on this tomorrow.
In December, we released the first version of Simplify Media mobile. Today, we are pleased to announce that Simplify Media is available for for the iPhone and iPod Touch through the Apple App Store. The app is live in Europe and it should be in all stores within the next few hours.
Key features
Access all of your home music
and playlists
Install our small application on your home computer and connect to your entire collection over WiFi, EDGE and 3G with Simplify Media for the iPhone.
Browse by artist, album, song or genre
Speed through long lists with A-Z jump navigation — or Shuffle any selection.
Enjoy music from up to 30 friends
On the desktop, friends’ music appears in iTunes, Winamp or Rhythmbox. On the iPhone, their libraries are accessible whenever their computers are online
View cover art during playback
and stop worrying about music format. Simplify Media supports MP3, AAC, WMA and Apple Lossless files and Mac, PC and Linux computers.
Review artist bios from last.fm
You can also go back and browse without interrupting the music and, unlike web solutions, when one song ends the next one start automatically.
Sing along with lyrics from lyrics wiki
Simplify Media is safe, secure and easy to install.
Pricing
To thank everyone who has supported us over the past year, the App Store application is free for the first 100,000 people who download it. After the first 100,000, the price for new iPhone and iPod Touch users will be $3.99. However, the current desktop versions for Mac, PC and Linux will remain free for everyone.
Sometime in the next 24 hours Simplify Media will be available for download for the iPhone and iPod Touch from the Apple App Store. When that happens, we will update the website, our blog and all who have asked for notification. However, I wanted to thank the 100 people who helped us to beta test the official version for their detailed input. Here are some of the nice things you sent us in email:
Mike: Let me be the first to say congrats.. Peter: Seems to work perfect. Great with the artist info and lyrics… … This is really a fantastic app!! Nicholas: Installation was smooth, sync was smooth, playback was smooth Joe: All of the web based solutions are less than ideal since you can only play 1 song at a time. Simplify changes all of that!! Tres: I continue to be surprised at the performance over my slow EDGE network and everything is working as expected. David: I love that I can now search by artist and then album, that is a huge addition. Stephen: I’ve been testing the Beta and it really works well. Sage: After a few days playing with the app I can tell you that your app is by far better than anything out there working on edge network. Scott: This app should be part of the core iPhone software Leonel: Excellent works great. Carlos: Thank you again for such great application! Trey: can’t wait for it to get on the app store!!!!!! James: Possibly the Daddy of all Apps. Ole: When you see this popping up in the App Store - get it! And if you don’t have an iPhone yet, this is a very good reason to get one.
The application isn’t perfect yet, and there are two items many of you mentioned we plan to address soon. First is album art and lyrics truncation - sometimes they don’t load completely and we are not yet sure why. Second, we don’t let you know when libraries are still syncing. Some files are available for playback but we should tell you that more are on the way.
As our testers discovered, the best thing to do is to let Simplify Media build its index for a while after your initial install. After that, most information is cached for fast startup.
Finally, you offered many suggestions for future features, including search, last.fm scrobbling, iPhone chat and invites, improved UI, and video. We’re going to be busy the rest of the summer and fall.
It seems that last week’s desktop upgrade and the switch to our new account server cluster has gone smoothly. However, there are two issues that I wanted to make sure that you were aware of.
1) some Mac users on OS X 10.5.3 have reported connectivity problems. We aren’t sure what is causing it, but we can confirm that an OS update to 10.5.4 solves the problem.
2) the mail module for our new account server has taken a few naps yesterday and today. If you experience any difficulty requesting a new password, drop us an email and we will get you going again.
Finally, we are on track for the iPhone release at the end of this week. More details tomorrow.
We are removing the “beta” label from Simplify Media and transitioning to 1.0. Thanks are in order to the more than 100,000 people on Mac, PC, Linux and iPhone who have helped us test and improve Simplify Media. We are fortunate to have so many supportive users and we remain grateful for all of your encouragement.
Simplify Media will continue to be free for Windows, Mac and Linux. In addition to bug fixes, here are some enhancements associated with build 1043:
Support for Ubuntu 8.04. 1043 will run on other distributions in server-only mode but, for the full experience on Rhythmbox, Hardy Heron is now required.
More scalable infrastructure. We had been using Openfire as our account management and messaging server, and for better performance and clustering and we are switching to ejabberd.
Simpler installation. We’ve created a Troubleshooting application that runs basic diagnostic tests and recommends solutions.
Better support for iPhone. Apple has approved our iPhone app, and we will be making it available in about a week in the App Store. To show our appreciation to all of our early users, the App Store version will be free for the first 100,000 people to download it. For people who download it after that, the cost will be $3.99. (The desktop version will remain free for everyone.) In our next blog post we’ll talk about some of the features of the App Store version.
Because of the change in our XMPP server to provide improved scalability, build 1043 will be a required update for all desktop users and it will be available this evening. One note: from 5:30 until 6p (Pacific) it will not be possible to create a new account or invite others as we will be migrating account servers. We apologize for any inconvenience.
VentureBeat reports that there are now 1,000 applications in the Apple App Store. Simplify Media isn’t one of them yet, but our export documentation has been verified and we are officially “in review.”
While we wait for approval, we’ve decided to use “ad hoc” distribution to create a small beta program for people with 2.0 firmware. The jailbreak version of our app (downloaded more than 200,000 times!) was an invaluable learning experience for us. However, for 2.0 we are introducing EDGE and 3G support, so we are very interested in your impressions. The beta is limited to 100 people (an Apple rule).
Yesterday, we sent the application to folks who had emailed us with 2.0 questions, but we have about 40 spots left. To reserve space, send your device ID to support at simplifymedia dot com. In iTunes, with your phone docked, you have to click on serial number to see your UDID and then type the long string, a bit of a pain. Fortunately, there is an application in the App Store that makes it much easier to get your information. The app, written by Erica from TUAW, is called Ad Hoc Helper and it is under Utilities. We’ll then build using your UDID and send you the required provisioning and .app files.
7/31 update: Our Beta program is now full, and we’ve just distributed the latest build to everyone who sent in their UDID. Thank you again for the interest and the assistance.
If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you’ll discover that Apple is releasing firmware 2.0 today and the App Store is now live. Simplify Media is not yet available, but it will be soon. For security and privacy, we encrypt our data streams, and that encryption has added a layer of review to our App Store submission. However, we’ve been testing Simplify Media on our devices and we are excited with the performance of this new version.
As we get more information, we’ll share it with you. In the meantime, we hope you have fun exploring the hundreds of applications that are there right now. I haven’t had a chance to check out any games yet, but there are a few applications that I’ve installed that I really like.
AOL Radio - stream CBS radio stations of WiFi and EDGE. I listened to KROQ out of LA on the drive in to work this morning
SportsTap - finally a way to get lots of scores fast. the navigation could be a better; still I’ve been waiting a long time for an app like this
Midomi - indentify songs by speaking lyrics, humming the tune or sampling part of the recording. works best with popular music
Yelp - a great example of a location-aware app. use it to find restaurants and services and access yelp reviews. works best in big US cities
Movies.app - simple but helpful. movie times for a theater new you: fast (once you figure out how to make the zip code keypad disappear)
Remote - from Apple, enter a code in iTunes and you can use your device as a remote control. there is no option for playback on your mobile device, and you only have access to the local library, but it is very slick
Now, if only there was a way to listen to the music I have at home wherever I am…
Since we last expressed our appreciation for all the nice things people write about Simplify Media, some pretty cool things have happened. Gizmodo, lifehacker, MacApper and theAppleBlog reviewed us, and Blender awarded us Best New Way to Make Friends in their Best of 2008 list! Not that we didn’t love Blender before, but we really love them now.
We were also profiled in Micro Hebdo, a popular French PC magazine (above), and given 4 1/2 stars in the current issue of Vous et Votre a large French Mac publication (below). Perhaps most surprisingly, author and technologist Regina Lynn featured us in the "How to Feel Closer When You’re Apart" chapter of her new book, Sexier Sex: Lessons From the Brave New Sexual Frontier. Of course, we bought several copies.
Some other quotes that caught our attention:
Jenny: I have been singing its praises for months and it just keeps getting better and better. Jeffrey: Very, very cool Ole: it really kicks ass Stevan: quick install and ingenious Jsimon: Simplify Media is awesome! Jon: I must admit I love this little app Sachin: a cool way to share music with your friends Murmaider: it’s amazing. never run out of stuff to listen to Applefanbe: If you’re as fond of music as I am … you’ll love it. Digital Teacher: Simplifymedia blew my mind the first time I tried it Cheryl: The iPhone integration is definitely this program’s biggest asset tsegman: I can access all my music without worrying about my iPhone’s 8GB limit Russ: I cannot begin to express how awesome this service is! I’m using it on my Mac and it works as seamlessly as any app I’ve Installed.
We also enjoy getting comments from our international users:
veadar: 自宅のiTunesに入っている曲を会社のiTunesで聞けたり、友達と共有して好きな曲を教えあったりできます ao: Wie damals schon gesagtfragt: Geht’s besser? Ja, jetzt mit Version 1.0! Abraham: Deel je iTunes met wie je maar wil…. Leech: Lo mas groso de todo es que además hay una aplicación para el iPhone, que te permite escuchar lo que quieras de tus amigos o tus maquinas conectadas a internet Maxime: Il y a certains logiciels qui une fois que vous les avez vous ne pouvez plus vous en passer ! Simplify Media fait sans aucun doute partie de ceux là. Lulu: L’essai de partager ma mp3thèque sous MacOS X avec iTunes 7.3.1 avec un ami sur Windows et iTunes 6 s’est avéré très concluant Quantumbox - Es una forma ingeniosa de compartir música entre amigos o entre varios equipos, sean PC o Mac Conveni-ent: ご利用はもちろん無料で、音楽ファイルをどこぞにアップロードする必要もなし
And finally… Amitabh: That’s Freedom, Peace, that’s Nirvana in a nutshell!
We are proud sponsors of a local Little League team called the Giants. One of our co-founders volunteered to coach this year, and the kids have been developing nicely. Rumor has it that the Giants field the most fearsome lineup in the league.
We were thrilled to see the future superstars sporting our name on the back of their uniforms. Kind of makes us feel like we own a pizza joint! We’re going to frame this photo and hang it up next to the soda machine.
Playoffs begin next week, and we wish them the best of luck.
