When should I give up on this, and work on something else?
Initial post: https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/need-advice-i-just-launched-i-dont-know-what-to-do-next-thinking-about-giving-up-e2ae240dcb
Changes since then: I ended up getting a job for a year. Then, an iOS hardware exploit was discovered which affects everything released before the iPhone XS. It was like God came down and gave me a second chance. So I quit to work on this.
I'm currently in the process of rewriting EQE to have a better UI, and include the last.fm ability in the app (the thing that killed it before was, even though it was primarily an iOS app, the only way you could see other people's scrobbles was on https://eqe.fm/feed)
Basically my question is.... when do I give up? I already spent a year of my life on this and nothing came of it. It cannot be overstated how extremely, stupidly lucky I am that iOS hardware exploit fell from the heavens. Without it, that year would have been a complete waste of my time. iOS jailbreaking was dead, and now it looks like it will last another few years.
I don't want to dump another year of my life into this and have it not pan out again.
You want to build a music community but you're limiting yourself to such a minuscule percentage of the iPhone population, it makes no sense to me. I would drop the jailbreak requirement and build a regular app distributed through Apple, even if it means building a completely different music app (that still bundles your last.fm clone).
Below you also write:
A Last.FM clone would not work on the iOS app store. The idea is that it hooks into every app on your phone. So it keeps a record of stuff you listen to on Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, Apple Music, Tidal, Hype Machine, etc. Having all of this restricted to a single app would neuter the product, I don't think it would gain any traction.
That ^ is why I am thinking of dropping this project entirely, and simply building something else, targeting a different market. Maybe just a regular music app with an EQ.
Sorry, I misspoke. I meant to say "user-friendly jailbreak tool"
What is the actual product you're making?
It seems like you're making two different products for two different markets (that have a little bit of overlap).
How many current users do you have?
6000 weekly active users.
I'm trying to build a community of music/audio enthusiasts. First step is the EQ, second step is the last.FM alternative, third step will be some type of music locker service like Plex or Google Music.
I'm not directly jumping to the third step because, since I'm bootstrapping, I don't really have the bandwidth to maintain a production mass storage server, nor can I really experiment with PMF without suffering huge losses. The idea is to slowly build up the business with the EQ (charging users upfront) and the Last.FM clone (some small monthly fee), then hopefully by then I'll have enough cash flow to hire someone to maintain the server.
I would look at it as two different products targeting the same market. iOS jailbreak users like to tinker and experiment so if I bundle steps 1 and 2 into the same product, both will see a decent amount of use. It's kind of like the network effect.
Once I reach step 3 I will also bundle the EQ and Last.FM alternative with it, so at that point I'd have one product, with steps 1 and 2 merely being features.
It's kind of all over the place but again since I'm bootstrapping I can't just go 100MPH from the get go. The EQ, I would say, has product-market fit, but the Last.FM alternative does not yet. Once the Last.FM alternative has PMF then I'll switch gears to the music locker.
I'll edit this post with the # of users, I haven't calculated it in a while. Last time I checked it was at least a few thousand actives per week, and this is before the hardware exploit. After the hardware exploit is released it could easily 5x.
Three different problems for three different audiences. Let's forget about the storage one for now.
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You need to decide on your market first and figure out what those users want.
If you're focusing on jailbreak users for a last.fm solution, you're handicapping yourself.
Can you make a lastfm solution that doesn't require a jailbroken phone? Then you can seed that community with your current user base.
What % of your users is publishing to the live feed?
Then your issue is how do you package and market that information nicely on the web to inspire other people to download your app.
If you answer those first two questions, I can help you plan this out if you'd like