So what were the same folks who downloaded Audio Hijack doing on versions 1.5 or older at the end of the 15 day trial period? Download it again?
It’s great that they were able to see higher revenues and take the company forward, but I’m wondering if there were additional features that were only on the paid version and not on trial version which helped with retention and growth.
Why do we need a paid app to record audio from the system? Surely it's a small enough job for a small utility/script? This seems very Mac ecosystem to me.
I can’t remember exactly when I started using Audio Hijack, but it might have been from that very first release with the free-trial bug, as I used it to record streaming radio programs beginning around 2002 or 2003. I still use it now. In fact, it’s running on my Mac at this very moment, capturing a live stream from BBC Radio 3.
There aren’t many other applications I have used for so long and with as much satisfaction as Audio Hijack.
What always happens with me is that I'll install the plugin, activate its trial ( as part of the installation process in my mind), then completely forget to get around to testing it until the trial is up.
I know it kind of falls under "user error," but I really wish these plugins had a metered trial period. Like 8 hours of actual usage instead of starting the clock from the time of activation.
I love Audio Hijack, and I do use Loopback and SoundSource as well. Windows users love to complain about the fact that we have to pay for this stuff, but forget to mention that no amount of money can give you half of the same functionality on their preferred platform.
I guess you can do some of it using a Windows port of JACK Audio or something, but this isn't trivial to get working - and would still pale in comparison. Why it still is so difficult to route audio in Windows is beyond me.
To give a bit of context; I can sit in a Teams meeting using compressors and saturators and whatnot to make the audio better and put any amount of VST plugins in the chain on my own microphone. At the same time I can mix the output from an ambient track from Spotify with audio from liveatc.net and stream the whole thing to an Icecast server while ripping everything to a file.
Trying to do the same thing on Windows will just drive you insane.
Free-trial-based approach to software distribution is not the best. Compared to at least one better alternative, it is:
0) worse when it comes to developer bottom line (if you are being generous, try to provide enough trial time and usable software during trial period, a large chunk of your users will just never pay);
1) worse when it comes to user experience (you are interrupted, you encounter blocked-off functionality, which basically means that upsell is part of core GUI);
2) worse when it comes to developer experience (now you don’t just program one great product, you also have to program into your core GUI the upsell—the various ways in which it becomes restricted while remaining usable);
3) worse when it comes to product improvement (the unhappy user will simply delete the software and you’ll never know what they didn’t like);
4) exactly identical when it comes to honest paying user’s expenses.
No doubt, there are worse options. (One that takes the cake: advertise it as free software, but constantly upsell the “full version” offered on subscription basis.)
What’s that better alternative I’m comparing free trials against, then? Simply offer returns. Buy it, get a license, make your trial period however long you like; don’t like it—request a refund, get money back, get license revoked. What it means is that “tried and not bought” is no longer one of the “happy paths”. As a result, you have a better chance of really understanding what was wrong (if I must ask you for refund, you are in touch with me), and you also exhibit more confidence in your product up front.
I believe App Store in fact works this way. If someone’s thinking about distributing there and feels like the only way to offer a trial is IAP, maybe reconsider: you don’t need that overhead, one fully featured version is enough if your users can already get their money back if they don’t like it. I believe refund process happens automatically for you as a developer, though I’m not sure whether or not the feedback they provided will be forwarded to you. Willing to be corrected.
As I was reading this I was hoping that they had completely disabled the limitations and unexpectedly found alternate routes to sustainable profits, or that people suddenly became more willing to pay when there was less pressure to do so.
But I guess the real bug and its outcome was more in line with the (often disappointing) reality that we all share.
Am I the only one who thinks that describing this as a "bug" sounds a bit off? Most bugs don't come with their own updated alert text. It sounds a bit more like they had planned to switch to a different trial method and enabled it earlier than they expected? Or maybe a "rogue" employee added the feature as an experiment and didn't tell anybody?
Might it simply be that people find the app for a use they have, right now? When it works great and solves your immediate problem, what's a few bucks?
Whereas if you have a full function trial period, it solves your immediate need for free and then you already have this mentality "this functionality should be free". Maybe even uninstall the app, erase all its data, and then register for a new trial period next time you need it etc.
FWIW, Audio Hijack and Loopback are core software for my work setup to process a boom microphone input and make it ready for use with video conferencing/collab software. These two pieces of software are some of the best things I've ever bought for a Mac.
This almost exact thing happened with me with a hiking app I used to make. We had a 7-day trial when you started the app, but we shipped a release that broke this and made all the paid features immediately paywalled. This led to a big increase in sales and we got rid of the trial forever.
It’s possible that our trial might have worked better if it were like modern iOS trials that start charging you after a certain period, but ours just let you use the paid features for 7 days and then lapsed, and it stifled sales. My theory was people urgently needed the paid features (mostly to download maps for a coming trip) so the trial got in the way of them paying right away.
We killed growth too when we had one of these generous trials.
I worked on a (once) popular Saas app :) We were losing customers when I came in. But then started growing again (slowly) when we started shipping a bunch of great things.
But then the owner wanted to get rid of the "free trial" and was adamant we offer a free version. That would boost our growth to an incredible new level he promised. I could see the reasoning. Our free trial still required you give us a credit card up front. We just wouldn't charge you for 30 days. Asking for a credit card has to be bad for growth, right? People want to kick the tires before they become our customers, and there's a lot more of those folks.
So we ditched the collection of credit cards up front and went to a totally free plan. You could upgrade to a paid plan of course.
Growth started tanking again and we never got it back.
One theory was collecting the credit card just got the really eager shoppers and now our growth was from zombie, forgetful, monthly Saas payments. And that's valid of course. But I wonder too, if just asking for a credit card gets you to be more serious too about trying a product. If you have to put in a credit card, you'll probably focus in here for a bit and not sign up for 10 other things the same day to try. And successfully collecting a credit card while someone is in the process of choosing anything, is probably always going to be easier than trying to convince them in 30 days to come back and get into a buyers mindset again. Unless you really are selling something so deeply crippling not to have it again after 30 days.
While the bug is how soon the cutoff occurs and the prompt is shown...
Comparing the dialogs; did the 15-day expiration dialog have a "purchase" button at the time of the bug? (its screenshot in the write-up does not.) Making the purchase easy to initiate with the purchase button seems like something that would increase conversion rate, too.
Unfortunate that some accidental friction was what it took to get users paying for what they over wise clearly found to be a useful product previously.
I definitely prefer a world where being a small software company charging for your product is sustainable. Not everything needs to be ads/SaaS/Mag7 owned/slop...
This website has accessibility issues. My text reader cannot recognize any text. That has never happened to me.
Edit: it seems the iOS “listen to page” functionality works though. Odd.
29 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 64.7 ms ] threadIt’s great that they were able to see higher revenues and take the company forward, but I’m wondering if there were additional features that were only on the paid version and not on trial version which helped with retention and growth.
It's become less so lately, but the Mac ecosystem historically was what computing SHOULD be.
There aren’t many other applications I have used for so long and with as much satisfaction as Audio Hijack.
I know it kind of falls under "user error," but I really wish these plugins had a metered trial period. Like 8 hours of actual usage instead of starting the clock from the time of activation.
I guess you can do some of it using a Windows port of JACK Audio or something, but this isn't trivial to get working - and would still pale in comparison. Why it still is so difficult to route audio in Windows is beyond me.
To give a bit of context; I can sit in a Teams meeting using compressors and saturators and whatnot to make the audio better and put any amount of VST plugins in the chain on my own microphone. At the same time I can mix the output from an ambient track from Spotify with audio from liveatc.net and stream the whole thing to an Icecast server while ripping everything to a file.
Trying to do the same thing on Windows will just drive you insane.
- redirect my music (eg Youtube music) to my Apple Homepod
- still play all other audio (eg some podcast or video) on my laptop
but it doesn't work / is buggy / either puts everything in one location or the other
Has anyone here found a good setup to redirect the audio from exactly one app to the Homepod, and keep all the rest on the laptop audio?
0) worse when it comes to developer bottom line (if you are being generous, try to provide enough trial time and usable software during trial period, a large chunk of your users will just never pay);
1) worse when it comes to user experience (you are interrupted, you encounter blocked-off functionality, which basically means that upsell is part of core GUI);
2) worse when it comes to developer experience (now you don’t just program one great product, you also have to program into your core GUI the upsell—the various ways in which it becomes restricted while remaining usable);
3) worse when it comes to product improvement (the unhappy user will simply delete the software and you’ll never know what they didn’t like);
4) exactly identical when it comes to honest paying user’s expenses.
No doubt, there are worse options. (One that takes the cake: advertise it as free software, but constantly upsell the “full version” offered on subscription basis.)
What’s that better alternative I’m comparing free trials against, then? Simply offer returns. Buy it, get a license, make your trial period however long you like; don’t like it—request a refund, get money back, get license revoked. What it means is that “tried and not bought” is no longer one of the “happy paths”. As a result, you have a better chance of really understanding what was wrong (if I must ask you for refund, you are in touch with me), and you also exhibit more confidence in your product up front.
I believe App Store in fact works this way. If someone’s thinking about distributing there and feels like the only way to offer a trial is IAP, maybe reconsider: you don’t need that overhead, one fully featured version is enough if your users can already get their money back if they don’t like it. I believe refund process happens automatically for you as a developer, though I’m not sure whether or not the feedback they provided will be forwarded to you. Willing to be corrected.
But I guess the real bug and its outcome was more in line with the (often disappointing) reality that we all share.
Whereas if you have a full function trial period, it solves your immediate need for free and then you already have this mentality "this functionality should be free". Maybe even uninstall the app, erase all its data, and then register for a new trial period next time you need it etc.
It’s possible that our trial might have worked better if it were like modern iOS trials that start charging you after a certain period, but ours just let you use the paid features for 7 days and then lapsed, and it stifled sales. My theory was people urgently needed the paid features (mostly to download maps for a coming trip) so the trial got in the way of them paying right away.
I worked on a (once) popular Saas app :) We were losing customers when I came in. But then started growing again (slowly) when we started shipping a bunch of great things.
But then the owner wanted to get rid of the "free trial" and was adamant we offer a free version. That would boost our growth to an incredible new level he promised. I could see the reasoning. Our free trial still required you give us a credit card up front. We just wouldn't charge you for 30 days. Asking for a credit card has to be bad for growth, right? People want to kick the tires before they become our customers, and there's a lot more of those folks.
So we ditched the collection of credit cards up front and went to a totally free plan. You could upgrade to a paid plan of course.
Growth started tanking again and we never got it back.
One theory was collecting the credit card just got the really eager shoppers and now our growth was from zombie, forgetful, monthly Saas payments. And that's valid of course. But I wonder too, if just asking for a credit card gets you to be more serious too about trying a product. If you have to put in a credit card, you'll probably focus in here for a bit and not sign up for 10 other things the same day to try. And successfully collecting a credit card while someone is in the process of choosing anything, is probably always going to be easier than trying to convince them in 30 days to come back and get into a buyers mindset again. Unless you really are selling something so deeply crippling not to have it again after 30 days.
I would bet its the "zombie, forgetful, monthly Saas payments" like you're saying, not a decline in actual signup/use
Comparing the dialogs; did the 15-day expiration dialog have a "purchase" button at the time of the bug? (its screenshot in the write-up does not.) Making the purchase easy to initiate with the purchase button seems like something that would increase conversion rate, too.
I definitely prefer a world where being a small software company charging for your product is sustainable. Not everything needs to be ads/SaaS/Mag7 owned/slop...
[0] https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2023/03/24/the-riaa-v-steve-j...