Need advice. I just launched. I don't know what to do next. Thinking about giving up
In 2014 I made a tweak for Cydia called EqualizerEverywhere, which I sold for $3. Over the past 3 years I grossed about $20,000 on it. Lots of feature requests over the years as well.
I figured this was pretty good validation for an actual "legit" product. So, in 2016, I started to work on it.
I put about 6 months of work into this "update" when I realized that there was a pretty big market opportunity for a LastFM alternative. I was subscribed to /r/lastfm at the time and noticed a lot of people requesting an alternative. So I figured "hey, might as well do that too". So I started work on a web backend as well.
I put about year of work into this, in total. I just launched on Friday (eqe.fm). Here's the reaction I got:
Now, people tend to like the update to the equalizer itself. But I gave that away for free in hopes it would onboard people onto eqe.fm. Which seems to have worked somewhat, but it's not nearly enough to actually generate any sort of revenue.
The thing that really surprised me is the reaction I got on /r/lastfm. People seem to just outright hate it. No words of encouragement, no "this looks cool, I'd like to use this, please port it to my platform", nothing. What really throws me for a loop is the positive reaction wilt.fm got just 10 months ago. Unfortunately that site is down now so you can't see for yourself, but I made sure that my site was on feature parity with that. But for some reason I got ripped to shreds? I don't understand.
Now I'm sitting here, not sure what to do next. I put a year of effort into this and have made no money on this. Half of me says this was a stupid idea and I should just stop. But the other half says that the product is unfinished; I do have validation from my jailbreak users. But that's it.
Does anyone have any advice? Do I keep working on this, or cut my losses? I have been staring at this for way too long. I cannot see the forest for the trees anymore.
Putting your project out there is a little bit like putting yourself out there and asking someone out. If one person (or subreddit) isn't into it, all that means is that particular person or group wasn't into what you presented, in the way it was presented, at that particular time. It doesn't mean that what you're offering isn't good, or valuable.
I wouldn't give up. You just did the equivalent of asking the best looking person (largest, most relevant subreddits) out at the bar. You got shot down, it feels pretty bad, but that doesn't mean you should go home and give up on finding love (or customers).
Instead, take a look at all the aspects of what you've tried so far, learn from it, act to improve it. Where did you stumble, reach a little too far too soon, and also take a look at the people you're pitching to. Maybe, just like dating, you're looking in the wrong place at the wrong people, or even just trying at the wrong time.
Don't give up! You've spent a year making this and almost no time marketing it yet. You've got to get to know them for a while before they'll buy you a ring :)
Hi, I think you should work a lot more on UI/UX.
I'm not sure what eqe.fm is about, after looking at it for a few minutes. That should be addressed, for new users.
Comparing it to last.fm, I can navigate artists, for example. Can the user do that in eqe.fm? (should be clear).
I think, this was the first interaction with real users, and you still have a long road ahead. Is up to you, if you consider pursuing it or cutting your losses.
Let me know if you want to talk a little more.
I agree with this. The design is a little lacklustre. My advice would be to find a tool of similar scope (preferably in the same industry) and then basically copy their design/marketing approach.
You really need to be able to communicate the value of your product as quickly as possible. The first reaction I got when the page loaded was that it looked like some forum from 10 years ago.
Yeah, I intentionally made it look like that. I really just don't like the way most sites look. I prefer the way it was 10 years ago. But I guess I just have to compromise here.
Work on their feedback and resubmit in a month. There's some good info in there about being able to use the Music Brains library (API?) For free, that maybe you missed as you haven't replied. So if that's all you got from it (and a bit of a kicking) I think it was well worth posting.
#progress
Thanks for pointing that out. I'll thank that guy.
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This is what I needed to hear. Thank you so much.
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This is probably my favourite post on IH
It's so good I feel like it deserves to be included in the IH newsletter that gets sent out
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