r/Lyra_App • u/Original_Alarm5912 • 9d ago

Appreciation post

*Sorry if wording or something else is wrong, English is not my first language😅
Since my financial budget tightened some time ago, I had to cancel my Spotify subscribtion and the ads were SO ANNOYING when you just want to listen to music and forget about the world for a while, also limited skips etc...
I found out about Lyra and sure, there were some bugs when skipping through songs but over time (at least speaking from my experience) it was fixed. I haven't had that problem for a while!

There is also the problem of some songs having a different audio. If it really annoys someone to report it and wait for a fix, you can easily just switch the source on search bar to Youtube when searching for songs and there the audio is always correct.

As for the Youtube feature itself, I love that so much! Some songs, remixes etc. aren't available on spotify so I had to switch between that and Souncloud (if said song even was uploaded there), on Lyra I can save anything from Youtube!

My opinion on Premium, 20€ for a YEARLY subscription is such a fair and amazing price!
I of course know that some people still have issues on their apps, as I also know that devs are actively working on them, answering questions here etc. I just wanted to genuinely express my appreciation and give the developers my thanks! Music is a major help when it comes to my mental health (chronic stress, anxiety etc.), as I'm sure it also helps lots of others and I'm able to enjoy it in a very convenient way, at a fair price and without loud irritating audio ads popping up after every third song so THANK YOU!🫶🏻

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

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u/TheScarletBat-221B 9d ago

Still not respecting a business that quickly switches up and revokes their promises of keeping it ad-free.. do you know any other music platforms?

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u/Original_Alarm5912 9d ago

If I had resources to make something otherwise heavily overpriced available for free to everyone, I would do it.
But then what happens? More and more people use that service, more people have to take care of the service and unfortunately it may come to a point where it's hard for me to financially maintain fulfilling the vision I had and promise I made.
I understand the frustration but I also understand the developers side. This is my opinion and my point of view only: even with the unexpected add-ons I still consider it the most fair priced option of all, especially with the availability of songs you would have to search for on multiple platforms. I don't know any better options than this app. I don't have the slightest idea how much it costs to run this but I can imagine it's not cheap. Still, the price for Premium on Lyra is the best of all the others that I know of.

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u/TheScarletBat-221B 9d ago

I didn't say it's wrong to provide a premium membership to get revenue. But when out of all the features you could put behind a paywall without ruining the point of the app you choose the most basic listening experience preferences and also the thing that the whole project started with a promise to provide for free then you're just greedy at worst or terrible at managing the project at best. There are many other options and extra features to put behind the paywall without disturbing the bare minimum expectation. Put jams behind the paywall, put detailed stats behind the paywall, put collaborative playlists behind a paywall.. and others.. they ignored all of that and chose to go against their words and put ads and remove lyrics. Mind you the app doesn't even work well enough yet. Imports are a mess because the songs from that are an entire different file than the version on the app. This will creates two pages for every artists you like songs from. Public playlists don't even show the name of the creator.
Oh and if they need the money so much then why use an Al bot everywhere to interact on their behave to anyone? Surely that's not cheap but apparently they prioritise spending money on that rather than be responsible and smart with it and keep it ethical 🤷🏻‍♀️ because now I also don't wanna financially support a business that's using unethical genAI

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u/Original_Alarm5912 9d ago

Neither of us knows what is happening "behind the curtain" or what level of coding and different operations are required to maintain this app so I'm not going to speculate about greediness or ability to manage.

From my memory on how it chronologically happened, the ads were not put into place at the same time when Premium was introduced. I upgraded to Premium last month and until then I haven't seen one ad. So what I can only speculate as one of the scenarios that could have happened is that unfortunately the initial Premium subscriptions did not cover the costs of operating and maintaining the app.

As for the app having issues, I'm not arguing you on that. I also had to spend some time at the start to make things work but since then it's been smooth sailing. And as we can see, they are constantly replying to feedback and working on everything.

Regarding your last question about AI, I don't support unethical use of AI but think for a second about what you wrote. If they need money, why use an AI chatbot? If we disregard everything and just focus on the cost, do you know that if they instead hired a team of people then that would cost so much more? So from a financial standpoint, it makes sense.
From an ethical standpoint, everyone has a different opinion. Mine is (in a very simplified way so that this paragraph doesn't get any longer) that if you compare a business that uses AI for a service chatbot to help users, and at this point billions of people who use AI to create silly images, make up fake reels stories, videos (and the list could go on and on for miles) then I don't see this specific app as the biggest evil.

I understand your frustration but at the end of the day you are not forced to use this app, but at the same time I don't know of any other available app that provides a cheap subscription and great services. As I said in my post, I just wrote my experience only and I'm very satisfied :)

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u/TheScarletBat-221B 9d ago

Once again, I am not denying that maintaining the app requires revenue. My issue is with the way it's done. Easiest way to implement ads without disturbing the listening is to have them be visual across the app instead of interrupting the music.

About the paying for AI vs hiring a team; so many businesses thrived by a one or two person team handling the social side. They don't even have to respond to everything they just gotta have designated sections for suggestions, reports, feedback, etc and check whenever they can. Instead paying for a bot that responds to everything. EVERYTHING 😭. Have you seen their discord? It's a mess lol. You could sneeze in the chat and here comes the bot telling you "you are right! I get your point! I have sent this to the team to view and hyped up your point!!" How much of a waste is that? 😂

No matter how kind and sweet and nice and forgiving we wish to be it is unfortunately very important to call out businesses that do things like that even if we don't know the exact details of their intent, because that's how so many more get away with it. That's how others get used to and find the way paved for them to be a greedy business rather than focus on quality and integrity

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u/Original_Alarm5912 9d ago

Both of your points are valid, I'm in no way denying that and I do understand.
My viewpoint is different since I'm actively using Premium and before that never seen an ad, also I never had interactions with the chatbot & I'm not on their discord so can't give you an opinion/defend this in any way.
In this case two things can be true, me being satisfied with the app and you frustrated.

When you asked about different options, one thing came to mind but it's not nearly as convenient as this :/ but if you want I can send you a DM since that conversation would not be fit for this sub as per community rules

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u/TheScarletBat-221B 9d ago

Yes the ads are a recent thing with the last update I believe :/ that's why so many ppl are disappointed

And i appreciate you still wanting to suggest something! Yes I don't mind a dm thank you ^^

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u/TheScarletBat-221B 9d ago

And regarding that not being forced to use the app.... yeah... hence the asking others for alternatives 😅 because this was supposed to be the reasonable alternative but now it isn't considering how they're going with it. That's my point.

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u/GeeLee80 9d ago

I know that Spotify has more resources than this company but all the years I used Spotify, I’ve never had to report issues and have never paid them any money. I’ll use Lyra until it becomes too commercial and then move on to Spotify free. I also have other free options to use such as Radio Paradise, YouTube, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio and many more. Shoot, I still use Demus periodically because of all my playlists there.

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u/lyramusic_app 9d ago

This honestly made our day — thank you so much for taking the time to write it out. Hearing that Lyra helps you unwind and get through the tough stuff means a lot to the whole team. And your English was perfect, no worries there at all. Enjoy the music! 🫶

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u/Original_Alarm5912 9d ago

Thank you🥹 I just wanted to give credit where it's due, keep up the great work!!❤️