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My App Attic Is Getting Full
As an apartment-dwelling hoarder, finding quite a bit of value in having a “virtual attic” of sorts. It’s for all sorts of things which “might be useful some day” but, for whatever reason, aren’t part of your daily life. This thing you got from a sale thinking it might come in handy, that elaborate piece which would require a lot of effort to make work, those bits and pieces you’ve collected but would require something else to work, those things which stopped working and make you nostalgic, the stuff you bought based on peer-pressure but you find out that you’re not exactly like your peers...
There’s also “off-site storage” for your digital life which includes pretty much the same stuff, but you put there the items which are too bulky or too likely to come to your active setup.
To me, a significant part of my devices’ home screens is taken up by a kind of “app attic”. Those apps which sounded cool at the time but end up not filling my needs. Those things which are “aspirational”, to me, as it would be nice to develop some skills. Sales are often an occasion to try an app. But many of those end up in the attic.
At this point, got 62 apps on my iPhone which are in those categories. Just put them together, for fun and convenience.
The off-site storage, in my mind, would be my App Store account. Got dozens upon dozens of apps in there which “don’t fit me anymore”, have become obsolete, took too much space on my device, or were simply crappy from the start.
Many of those apps were recommended by someone, somewhere (especially here on the AB forum), but they don’t fit my approach.
Something which is less fun with all these unused apps is that they required some effort and in several cases money before going into my attic or off-site storage. In terms of effort, it’s fairly difficult to get an idea of how an app really works until you give it a solid try. The problem is somewhat alleviated by videos and it’s been easy to avoid some apps after watching a demo (especially by someone outside the organizations developing them). Some threads on this forum also help when it becomes clear that something isn’t right for me. But the App Store itself doesn’t make it easier.
And, as we all know too well, App Store sales are final. There’s no trial period and very little recourse in terms of getting a refund. Also, you can’t sell an app to somebody else.
So my nagging feeling is that even an inexpensive app which comes highly recommended might not be worth the trouble. In some ways, the attic is a reminder that my devices already hold way too much junk, already. A feeling which @u0421793 might echo.
And it’s not necessarily that these apps are crap. Many of them are probably pretty useful, for someone who takes the time to appropriate them. But my ever-expanding list of active apps is already full of those apps which do fit my flow, my approach to musicking (drink!).
Surely, some of you just delete those apps you don’t use regularly. But chances are that there are others who keep apps on their devices in case they might become handy some day, no?
What’s in your app attic, if you have one? If you don’t keep the apps you do use on a regular basis, what are your thoughts about those unused apps?
Comments
I only expect about a 50% return on money laid out for apps. About half will be binned shortly after purchase. The ones that survive on my iPad are then laid out in order of preference in their separate groups- starting at the top left. Some of the apps that are left are there purely because I feel that one day I might be able to work out how to use them- after about five attempts- they are then relegated if it is not happening.
Come to think of it now... it's actually closer to about 20%. I only use about this amount with any regularity of all the apps I have purchased.
One way to put it is that the cost of an app (in effort and, if paid, money) is about five times what you would expect.
People keep talking about how inexpensive iOS apps are and how easy to use many of them are. Also, there was a time when developers were “yelling at us” for hesitating before buying a 2$ app after buying an expensive device. In our world, it’s often a comparison between the price of some hardware synth when it was released and the cost of an app emulating its sounds.
But there really is a set of things to consider, here. If someone who never had an iOS device comes to the App Store for the first time and decides to build their musicking setup, they should be warned that it’s not as easy or cheap as it sounds.
Maybe John from MusicAppBlog could write something about this.
It’s also an issue for developers, of course. The market for musicking apps is rather crowded. Apple does little to help the best ones emerge and the review system isn’t very helpful. Also, the lack of trial periods means that app buyers can easily grow frustrated after a bad experience.
Your attitude, @robosardine, is certainly the sanest one. But it’s a bit hard for me to think of things in this way.
glug glug
I waste a lot of money technically, but I always feel it's worth it, cause the next synth could really click with me. Either way, I learn something new from each one, even though I could make do with just the two Moogs.
I don't feel like I'm wasting money on effects, since I already know they'll get sparing use.
Don't forget that it's often fun to figure out functionality. Many people spend huge amounts of money to keep them selves occupied. We can do both, being productive and have fun on top of that support the ecosystem we operate in. Brilliant!
Buying apps has replaced buying mags and CD's for me. At best a few hours tittilation on a Friday night for a fiver, or essential tool for more. At worst bug filled piece of uselessness that gets deleted, and sinking feeling I've wasted my cash.
No room for slackers on this iPad.
The way I look at it...just spend those couple dollars. Developers should be supported, because who knows what they'll come up with next. It might also inspire them to create more and expand apps. Now I agree I have a couple apps that were crap from the jump, and don't fit into my description above. But like I said...support creativity, spend those couple dollars! I've bought 2 apps and an IAP this morning and havent even had breakfast!
It's true- you can buy about three iOS synths for less than the cost of the shipping of a single hardware synth.
These sorts of discussions remind me of our inherent biological imperatives operating within the context of a technological culture versus instincts which largely evolved in a culture of hunter gathers.
For some, the threat of starvation, disease, accidents, spousal abuse, and tribal warfare have been replaced by the need to reflect upon having too many music apps which are not consistent with our self actualized musicking identity. To see these changes as progress may be debatable but they certainly do represent a decoupling from our external environment. Unchecked, this sort of decoupling may eventually lead to our collective demise as the degree to which the side effects of our manufactured world view interfere with our ability to recognize and respond to essential biological needs.
Reflecting upon our perception of the efficiency of our music app purchases relative to their utility may be directly proportional to our ability to establish meaningful personal relationships and reflects the broader trend of substituting relationships with people for relationships with things. Our self esteem takes a hit when we believe we should have been able to resist the urge to buy yet another app which will not meet our needs, expectations, and fails to complete us.
We can avoid our fear of death through the preservation of apps in our attic. Our home screen full of folders with mummified apps we drag out and touch from time to time to remind us of how useless they were just so we can put off the feelings their deletion from our devices may invoke-- this in turn may explain why Apple's decision to only support 64 bit apps in iOS 11 has hit so many so deeply.
Or not.
I smell a troll. Rare in these parts
Nice!
Could probably say something similar. Never really was into magazines. Stopped buying CDs a long while ago. But there’s something about the “cheap thrill” of rummaging through used CD bins and getting something potentially interesting. Probably spent more on recordings than on apps, come to think of it. And musicking apps aren’t just about listening. They encourage active participation.
In what sense?
The learning aspect is actually very important. And some apps really help. The latest example is Ripplemaker by our friend @brambos. Even if someone doesn’t end up doing much with the synth, the learning potential is pretty big.
Same here. Will probably get into audio FX more in the future, but the embedded ones tend to suffice, in my current workflow.
Yeah, it’s part of the fun of iOS musicking. @u0421793 does insist on how it can decrease creativity, but the exploration is pretty neat and wouldn’t happen in the same way on other platforms.
At the same time, some apps take so much work to get through that it feels overwhelming. That’s a significant part of my attic: the “aspirational” part of me thinks that it should be nice to invest time to get into Jasuto, SunVox, or zMors Modular. But the instant gratification of so many other apps is too tempting. Besides, my big, convoluted patches/scripts tend to run on the desktop (Pure Data, Sonic Pi, Processing, ChucK, SuperCollider...).
Especially true with those small indie developers who haunt these parts and impress us with their responsiveness. The instabuy argument is easier to make with @sonosaurus, @JohannesD, or @brambos than with Korg, Yamaha, or Roland.
Perhaps sadly enough, though, Korg still managed to get a relatively big chunk of money from me (in relative terms). In terms of supporting them and inspiring them to create things which might suit me, it’s not a very efficient use of my money. Yet, for some reason, some of their apps really connected with me.
Glad you’re joining the drinking game! ;-)
Did you forget to mention Maslow by name?
I'm not sure about the drinking game, but Maslow's work certainly has been an influence. While I almost certainly have engaged in overstating the case, I count myself among those who acquire more apps than they can reasonably justify based upon music creation. Sadly I must also admit to frequently finding it easier to express myself with touch devices than trying to touch other people.
Basically there's limited space, particularly now I've started using video apps as well, so space-hungry shirkers such as iMPCPro get booted off.
Being old, I was a music fan before the internet, so the only way to hear the music I liked was to buy it on CD or vinyl (or tape John Peel, Mixing It etc. for random radio gems). As a grown up, I became '£40 man' - a genre that bought a couple of mags (Word, Mojo, The Wire, etc.) and CD's on a Saturday shopping trip. Some weeks a t-shirt might be added, while the Mrs did proper shopping.
I rarely buy CD's now - I've collected thousands over the years so have all the classics, and listen to new stuff via the web. And I don't have time for loads of mags since I'm doing things like this instead - still get The Wire but it takes me three months to get through it.
I don't have £40 a week to spend on frivolousness now, but certainly a Friday fiver app can fill the void.
Another, only vaguely-related, rationalization/value is my brain and the exercise it gets trying to understand bits of these many apps I find hard. Same with poetry actually. I am concerned about the desiccation upstairs so objects that make the synapses fire are welcome...
It gets ever more complicated, I find. Now there seems to be umpteen ways of doing things, via a large number of apps: put ElasticDrums through Turnado, or something else, record into AudioShare via AUM, or Audiobus, or into Auria....or something else. Export it as a loop into Egoist, or Blocs, or Launchpad, or Gadget, or KRFT and sequence it along with....
Etc. Etc.
I remember in the old days when I played iMS20 at the same time as DM1, and that was it.
Well yes, so many spices on the rack one can lose sight of the intended meal, but, to butcher (sic) the food metaphor further, I am getting to the point where I know there's little excuse, I have the tools or workarounds I need and my conscience is thinking first yes, but what the hell do you want to cook today. The shininess is wearing off (LOOK ANOTHER LITTLE EIGHT BARS OF LOVELY MUMMY!) and the writer is slowly coming back to the fore...
That is a genuine issue, and it's not supposed to be your problem. As a UX designer (who happens to be a dev) I'm concerned with the rampant proliferation of standards and protocols we're bombarded with. For a tiny niche-market like iOS music it's silly that we have AUv3, IAA, AB3, Link, CoreMidi, Virtual Midi, BTLEMidi, AB Midi, Midi Clock, Wist, Midi CC, AU parameters, Audioshare, Audiocopy, itunes filesharing, etc. Etc. Some weeding is in order, because this doesn't help anyone. It's discombulating for users and impossible to support properly for developers.
Not even on Windows are things so confusing, and that says a lot
My musical output - which was pretty impressive quantity wise - has dropped to almost nothing at all over the last few months. Partly I think because I haven't been buying many apps this year (and I usually knock out a few tracks with the new shiny), but also due to the amount of time it now takes me to work out what the hell I'm going to use, which leads nicely to:
Definitely. Up until six months ago I'd got as far as loading up a bunch of apps in AUM and recording the resulting, horrible jam, which I'd fiddle about a bit with in Auria. Now Link and MIDI (I can't even think about AB3 at this point) has kicked in with multiple ways of triggering everything, and even Gadget now can take audio chunks for further chopping, slicing, dicing and stewing it all up. And Blocs, and KRFT, and and and and
So now, when I think about having a little jam session the first half an hour is spent trying to work out what I'm going to use, and in what sequence. By which time I've lost interest and started watching old Faust videos on YouTube.
The thing is there's now all this POTENTIAL. Sometimes limitations help keep you focused on the creative task in hand, rather than multiple options for making it even better. The personal panic of 'what if I'm missing something...what if I don't pick the right apps!!!'
Or maybe I'm just getting lazy.
But if you fancied making a killer MIDI sequencer @brambos that worked as easily as your Ripplemaker one, that might solve all of my problems.
Ah, nice! A lot of devs (who don’t typically understand UX and/or confuse it with UI) tend to blame everything on users.
It reminds me of the first line in Walt Mossberg’s first tech-focused column. As Mossberg has just retired, there were a lot of retrospectives about this.
(Quoted by the Waltercation himself in his last column.)
Would strongly echo the sentiment. Even those who think the problem is always in the user would do well to start understanding what experience users are going through. After all, even if the problem is with the user, it remains a problem.
Agreed to a large extent. In a way, it says a lot about the iOS musicking market. It’s flourishing, but it’s not mature, yet.
Part of the fault is with Apple. If CoreMIDI filled everyone’s needs, several of the other standards and protocols wouldn’t be needed. Then there’s the fact that third party developers have yet to really sit down and sort out the situation (or, at least, that process isn’t finished). Having worked with someone on an ISO board and being quite interested with the W3C, can tell that reaching consensus about standards is a long and difficult process. But it’s very valuable.
In some cases, the consensual solution emerges more organically and relatively quickly. In this sense, HTML5 is pretty much “a win”. It’s not perfect but it became quite optimal a solution for a lot of use cases. Not only was it eventually adopted as an official, international standard by the W3C, but it makes for a useful case study in how standards are made. Plus, it helped many of us bypass the mess that Flash had become.
So, it’s quite possible that one standard will emerge as a winner, at some point. Would be easier if it came from Apple, but it could come from other players. In the list you give, Bram, many things are really gaining traction. Ableton Link is a nice example because it works quite well (at least, in my experience), provides something nobody else was really able to provide, is getting quite a bit of attention from devs, and we really do use it to decide on app purchases. But it’s quite limited in scope.
It does. Still completely unclear as to how things work on Windows, which is an issue as my only laptop is a Lenovo (and the situation isn’t really easier in Ubuntu). But it does sound like things can be clear if you stick to a given setup.
Again, not to really assign blame, but it sounds to me like Apple is the best positioned to solve much of this situation. Not holding my breath. For one thing, haven’t heard anything about improvements to CoreMIDI, IAA, or AUv3 coming out of WWDC. But they’re the ones who control the platform so proper support from them would greatly decrease the need for third-party solutions.
Ok, sure, our little niche is too small for Apple to really care. That’s been a trend across the board, with them, and people in other Pro niches probably feel the same. But there’s more to this than bean counting. Apple’s reputation was largely built on the work of creative people using their products in diverse fields. Logic Pro X and MainStage probably remain as Apple’s best Pro apps (compared to Aperture, Final Cut Pro X, and Motion). But there’s a lot missing on iOS to make for a real pro platform.
Would be much more likely to purchase an iPad Pro if this mess were sorted out.
Consistency, stability, update nag removal and sorting out that bloody rotation bug would do it for me.
great discussion, lots of things i can surely recognize in myself.
what's helped me is i accept the never ending messiness in the (digital) tools i use when i make music. everything is always under construction and nothing is or gets perfect. this, in turn, means i've given up on trying to do something based on a preconceived idea. instead, i'm perpetually inspired to change my working habits, even my thinking if possible, when ever i'm learning or getting acquainted with a new machine. goes for human relationships, too