{"id":42785,"date":"2024-04-08T13:12:30","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T17:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=42785"},"modified":"2024-04-08T13:12:30","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T17:12:30","slug":"voice-dream-reader-switches-to-subscriptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/04\/08\/voice-dream-reader-switches-to-subscriptions\/","title":{"rendered":"Voice Dream Reader Switches to Subscriptions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mosen.org\/voicedream\/\">Jonathan Mosen<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mosen.org\/voicedream\/\">\n<p>Unfortunately, the relationship between Voice Dream Reader&rsquo;s new owners and its engaged user base got off to a rocky start. Members of the online blind community did not find out about the sale of Voice Dream Reader last year from either the buyer or the seller. Instead, they found out because an indie developer who offers a product that competes in some ways with Voice Dream Reader discovered a new subscription option in a just-released build of Voice Dream Reader. He, not anyone associated with the app, broke the news to the blind community that subscriptions were on the way.<\/p>\n<p>When a developer moves from a one-off purchase model to a subscription-based model, it is always controversial, even if said company makes great efforts to communicate it thoroughly. When you add an unpopular change, the departure of a popular indie developer, and nonexistent communication together, those ingredients add up to an inevitable firestorm. In the absence of information to the contrary, existing customers were concerned that they were about to be charged.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>When a developer publishes an app in the App Store, they must comply with Apple&rsquo;s App Review Guidelines. [&#8230;] There is no wiggle room here. By taking away primary functionality users already paid for, such as adding new material to the Library, Voice Dream Reader does not comply with the Guidelines. [&#8230;] Voice Dream Reader&rsquo;s release notes make no mention of the subscription being forced on people who paid for the app already if they want to retain the functionality they paid for, and I suspect this has simply flown under Apple&rsquo;s radar.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/sixcolors.com\/link\/2024\/04\/another-app-switches-to-a-subscription-model\/\">Shelly Brisbin<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/sixcolors.com\/link\/2024\/04\/another-app-switches-to-a-subscription-model\/\">\n<p>The move comes from the app&rsquo;s new owner, Applause Group, which bought the app in 2023 from original developer Winston Chen. Part of the backlash results from the planned $79 per year price tag (discounted to $59 until at least May 1, when the subscription becomes mandatory), but a bigger issue for longtime users is that Applause Group will effectively disable the older version of the app.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.voicedream.com\/subscription-pricing-update\/\">Applause Group<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.voicedream.com\/subscription-pricing-update\/\">\n<p>Your feedback, along with the impactful stories shared about Voice Dream being a pivotal part of your daily lives, has led us to reverse this change.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>We will continue to provide access to the app&rsquo;s existing features at no additional cost.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/20\/productivity-apps-and-subscription-pricing\/\">Productivity Apps and Subscription Pricing<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jonathan Mosen: Unfortunately, the relationship between Voice Dream Reader&rsquo;s new owners and its engaged user base got off to a rocky start. Members of the online blind community did not find out about the sale of Voice Dream Reader last year from either the buyer or the seller. Instead, they found out because an indie [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2024-04-08T17:12:33Z","apple_news_api_id":"f874c803-66f6-459e-8646-73ace6d6d55d","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2024-04-08T17:12:33Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/A-HTIA2b2RZ6GRnOs5tbVXQ","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[930,66,91,1421,101,31,2321,26,30,32,2385,787,2575],"class_list":["post-42785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-accessibility","tag-acquisition","tag-appstore","tag-app-subscriptions","tag-business","tag-ios","tag-ios-17","tag-iosapp","tag-mac","tag-macapp","tag-macos-14-sonoma","tag-speech-recognition","tag-voice-dream-reader"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42786,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42785\/revisions\/42786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}