This app replaces the functality of two dedicated hardware boxes that Indian Classical musicians use - one for tanpura and one for tabla. Both these boxes cost anywhere from $100 - $200 EACH, so many Indian classical musicians are more than happy to pay $25 for an app that lets them replace both boxes plus provides extra functionality such as presets, tap tempo, much better sound and a lot more.
Since this really is a nich app the potential audience is not as big as say for a guitar app (or some other more mainstream app).
7 comments:
It is still very expensive compared to almost every other instrument app. There are alternatives with similar sounds - such as Thumbjam - that one can get for a much more reasonable price.
Oh please, you are hugely misinformed... the post is 100 percent accurate, Indian musicians are absolutely raving about this and it is a fabulous application. Thumbjam is great for fun, but cannot touch iTabla Pro, cannot TOUCH it for what it does--provide truly professional and multi-purpose tabla accompaniment.
Costs a little more because, as was explained to you, the economy of scale is far much worse than almost every other instrument application.
You want all their work to be given away? Do you know why Fillet Mignon costs more than Carl's Jr? Why Prada costs more than Calvin Klein?
The choice is yours, as always, but for the price of a couple extra beers or some bad CD you shouldn't have got anyway, the mighty iTabla Pro earned itself on DAY ONE, let alone over the course of a lifetime as the price drops to pennies or less per usage. Think about that as you fork over $50 to your cable company--EVERY MONTH--to watch them stream other peoples content of putrid reality shows, edited old movies and propaganda news coverage.
Money talks and the other thing walks.
What are you talking about?
Name me a few more instrument apps that are as expensive as this one.
Your app might be good for accompaniment practice but for most of the sort of people reading this site the aim from a lot of apps is different. It is more to get an app that allows one to use the sound of the instrument in an electronic composition and for that purpose Thumbjam is a much better option. As for musicians raving about your app - well maybe they do. On the other hand, speaking as someone who plays a traditional instrument myself, I don't think an iphone app is something I would describe as professional in a traditional music setting. In a modern setting, perhaps but traditional?
I don't begrudge you the profits from the sale at such a high price. For some people the particular settings might be exactly what they need and it might be worth it for them but don't kid yourself that there are no other equally involved musical apps available at a much lower price.
@Sigmund
Thumbjam, as awesome as it is, is not way comparable to ItablaPro, they're both completely different product.
As for the site:
What is PalmSounds about?
The blog has up to date news and opinion about new mobile music making apps and hardware on the iPhone, iPad, Android and other platforms including Palm, Windows Mobile and anything else that can be used to make music on the go.
You seem to have reduced the site's mission some to your own purposes.
As for the application, nothing else does what it does, not remotely close. I bought it because I wanted what it does, exactly what it does, with strikingly fine features and superb sound reproduction.
As for professional accompaniment, of course I meant in a mobile setting. I'm not bucking to tour with Shankar on the back of it.
There are 62 glowing, often in-depth, unanimous, but for one, five-star reviews on iTunes. Read them to learn how perfectly this application suits the needs of certain musical players. By the way, I have no stake in the company and know nothing about them.
Most apps that go for $8 or $10 are toys compared to this, or are good but ultimately limited or for other types of purpose. Beyond this, life's too short to count pennies. I'd rather have one top quality dress shirt than three Viet Nam specials from Macy's. I have one killer guitar and a backup, not three or five decent ones. I also don't fall into comparison traps. Don't give a damn what the next guy is doing. Each purchase I make is based on overall value compared to market competition. The market here is mobile Tabla applications--NOT every mobile application that dings and dongs for .99 or 3.99. We all know most of those are just goofs.
I admit I hesitated for several weeks, Tabla will always be a sideshow for me, but the reviews were undeniable and I thought it would be killer fun to do some jamming to a Pro Tabla application.
I was right.
Within moments I had no regrets, and no other reviewer has either.
If there was something a little less belled and whistled at half the price, I still would have taken this one. The features are just really well thought out and executed. I look for that.
If I was reduced to counting pennies, maybe a different story. I pissed away $17 on Computer Music's application special. Enjoyed it, but it's already shelved. Compare the lifetime value to this application, which after a hundred uses, will be running me under a quarter a pop. Bubblegum money.
We all blow the incremental difference in the price of iTabla Pro vs. a Reactable--an entirely different thing anyway--on useless one offs all the time. The cost is the difference between a meal out and a salad using your fridge's leftovers. The difference between a six-pack at home with the game vs. the neighborhood pub... on and on and on.
Most other applications have competition for what they do, this drives price down--and all of them have a bigger shot at marketshare, which really drives price down. Most people don't even consider getting this. That's why a really specialized art book goes for $60 or $100, while a more popular type one might go for $30 or $40. People generally don't bitch about that. They understand the law of supply and demand, economy of scale. Basic capitalism.
You take your development costs, market research, proof of concept, and set as low a price point as you and your market can bear.
There are applications that go for $99 and some in the hundreds, not music, but that's not the point. The point is, does it deliver. The reviews of iTabla Pro are unanimous: it DELIVERS.
Trust me, nobody goes into the mobile Tabla space looking to gouge suckers for a few bucks. In this economy?!?! Moreover, if it wasn't working out for them, they'd be dropping the price or having those hokey "half off" days to move units to recoup losses like at least half the clowns in the space.
Anyway, good luck to you and your music. If you haven't bitten by Christmas, and I remember, I'll gift it to you...
...but you gotta come back here and provide an honest report.
Sigmund, I'm sorry, but I tend to agree with Big Dog. However, if you still think iTabla is too pricey, go out and buy a copy of "Journey in Satchidananda" by the late great Alice Coltrane (yes that's right, wife of John), which heavily features a real tampura. After you have floated back down to earth, work out that you've just paid half of what iTabla costs, then that should cushion the blow a bit! :) iTablaPro is a bargain.
I tell you what, here's a link to that LP....
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/journey-in-satchidananda/id28110360
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OK, OK, you've convinced me - at least that it is seen as worth the cost by a particular niche market.
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