[LAU] [LAD] Linux Audio 2012: Is Linux Audio moving forward?

[Alexandre Prokoudine]

On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 1:51 AM, Patrick Shirkey wrote:

>> Since you are in marketing, you should very well know that a landing
>> page is something that has a call to action button.
>
> Only if you are seeking to sell a specific product.
>
>> What will be the call to action button, Patrick? Where will it lead?
>> How will you handle "shut up and take my money" impulses?
>
> We can provide specific landing pages with that facility. Feel free to
> build one if you want to go down that path.

Let me put it this way. I'm a musician who was drawn by some magic
force to your landing page. I've looked at your pretty pictures or
maybe listened to some music samples. What's my next step? Judging by
what you said the next step for me would be to visit my Facebook page
to see if
any friends uploaded new cat pictures :)

>> Publishing awesome inspiring content is what I'd do. In fact it's what
>> I already do, just in my primary field. Because, you see, I don't
>> believe in a thousand of people pointing their little fluffy blogs at
>> a content that few people deeply care about. We've been there already.
>> It doesn't work all that well.
>>
>
> It works pretty well and we wouldn't be where we are now without it.

And where are we exactly? Lemme see. We get this kind of discussions
every third month or so. Is that a sure sign that we are anywhere? :)

> As a community of people posting information all over the world we can do
> both without a large financial investment required by any one person.
>
> It's the kind of spread and resource that big evil corporations are paying
> very handsomely for and we have it for free.

We don't have it for free :) For instance, the time I'm spending on
this discussion I could be spending on fleshing out another post in
the Showroom section at LGW. And the time I'll spend on fleshing out
that post I could spend on a commissioned project that I won't take,
because there are only 24 hours a day. See? :)

(And the reason Dave hasn't posted anything in this thread is probably
because he's writing another post for some Linux magazine or teaches
someone playing instruments for money as we speak, so he's sure wiser
than me :))

Everything comes at a cost, one way or another.

> IMO the only thing stopping
> us from maximising it is internal resistance against the possibility that
> we might actually have something worthwhile to promote. That is exactly
> what the "competition" wants.

I'm not sure what exactly you mean by placing the word "competition"
into quotes, but we are nowhere near to compete (with few exceptions).

Hence thinking in terms of competition at this point is simply
ridiculous. Sorry, but I had to say that.

> If we as a community keep believing and
> reinforcing the ridiculous notion that we have nothing of value to really
> promote or talk about and we are not moving forward or making any
> significant progress then we are just fulfilling a negative agenda.

Jeez, Patrick, it's not about us believing or not. It's about being
able to show a professional-quality record here and now. And to show
that producing it doesn't take any longer than producing it on Mac or
Windows with proprietary software.

The first question you get when you mention Ardour in a professional
community is "OK, can you show me who's using it and what they do with
it?" I like that you are trying to meet that demand, but I'm not sure
that it's going to work the way you want it to.

So all I'm asking you in this case is a bit of an internal quality
filter when you upload stuff.

> Businesses want to see a serious sales prospect when they back a product.
> They need to know that backing a Linux port is going to make them money.

And for that they need to know how many people are capable of paying
for the software. Which doesn't quite equal to the amount of musicians
who use Linux.

Probably I will never know what made MOTU so angry about Linux, but
I'm quite prepared to believe that some fanatics had called them a big
evil corporation, because they didn't see a market in Linux at the
time. And seeing how often this kind of characteristic turns up even
here, I'd say that part of the community needs a DNA fix.

> Linux Audio is a robust, low latency and scaleable alternative. Nothing
> more or less. It just needs better promotion so that businesses that are
> sitting on the fence can feel the confidence to make their play. If we
> have more businesses using and promoting Linux as a platform for
> multimedia production we will get more users and producers.

That I have no doubt in :)

Alexandre Prokoudine
http://libregraphicsworld.org