Re: "Parallel music view" - inspiration for LilyPond editors.

[David Kastrup]

James <address@hidden> writes:

> Hello,
>
> On 5 October 2012 02:08, Zenaan Harkness <address@hidden> wrote:
>> Any estimates of the number of "active" users of lilypond? We could
>> arrange feature fundings, with many users, say $20 each makes it
>> eminently feasible - kickstarter for lilypond.. but kickstarter
>> results in I think in 10% or so lost to the middle men, but it could
>> suffice. I'd be happy to pay straight into developers account, if
>> there is a consensus amongst say 100 people to fund a feature.
>> Zenaan
>
> Kickstarter has been discussed before
>
> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-user/2012-02/msg00358.html

Well, the main issue is of course that money is no adequate substitute
for code.  First you need to decide on an editing platform where you
want things to be happening.  For turning money into code, the answer
usually is "a web platform", but then the results are not likely to be
useful except for academic purposes or for web-based music editing
projects.

Actually feasible platforms (like, say, Frescobaldi) have quite specific
requirements and learning curves, so either you need somebody already
involved with the project who has spare _time_ to sell, or you need to
pay all the investment for _making_ somebody acquainted with the
project, easily one or more orders of magnitude more expensive, with
repercussions on the project balance and motivation even if you manage
to get this amount of funding.

I'm getting "crowd-funded" for my work on LilyPond, and it is basically
a full-time arrangement where I don't really have spare resources to
sell but instead spend all my time doing what I consider the best use of
my work for LilyPond.  And since I am quite acquainted with the area I
work on, so far I have managed to convince enough people of the value of
my work to be able to cover my expenses of living, but not more than
that.

While facilities like Kickstarter have a larger audience, I have my
doubts that they will attract enough additional interest to make the
funding of projects feasible where money is turned into actual developer
time not available otherwise.

-- 
David Kastrup