Payment For Priority Development Of New Features?

General Discussion
1

I had a thought today, and decided to “think out loud” here on the forum. I am curious about Renoise development timeframes and costs. Please keep in mind that while I know a bit of programming, I do not understand the timeframes or complexities involved of building on a complex piece of software like Renoise. Specifically, I do not understand what it takes to build a new feature into Renoise.

I am curious to know if it is possible to pay for the development of a new feature of renoise? Specifically, if you look at the cost in terms of man hours, has thought been given to allow someone to “purchase” the development of a new feature - by which I mean pay for the man hours it will take to develop, which will then be done as a priority?

I was thinking of this because my background is in e-commerce, and if a shopping cart software is not compatible with a certain payment gateway, you can often hire the company to build a module or other functionality - for a price.

In the case of renoise, perhaps the userbase could come together to provide funding for additional resources for the development of renoise to help have these features implemented more quickly.

In regards to development costs - I realize that Renoise is 49 Euro, not expensive by any stretch. There are obviously limited resources in terms of staffed developers to put into the project. Right now when a new feature is requested, I believe it is done based upon the number of registered users voting for a feature. This is good, but what about also adding a development cost factor and taking contributions?

For example, if it was determined that it would cost $5,000 worth of developer time to implement the new zoom feature for the advanced timing, and if you were to setup a donations page to work towards this goal, I believe some users may be willing to contribute towards this, which would allow renoise to be developed at a faster rate.

This is just a brainstorm, but Renoise has a very dedicated userbase, and I believe many long term users realize they have gotten more than their $49 worth. So if you were to set something like this up to let users see the costs towards development of new features, and let them contribute towards it - perhaps it could happen more quickly?

Just a thought!

2

boo

3

-1

4

Just an idea, don’t shoot me for thinking out loud!

I think Renoise is great and would just like to see it’s continued development and growth, and tapping a dedicated userbase didn’t seem like the worst idea in the world to me. I really don’t understand the costs or timeframes involved, so really - just an idea, thinking out loud.

5

Do a search in the forums this has been discussed to death, and rejected repeatidly.

Let me start you off with 1 link, of many:

https://forum.renoise.com/t/renoise-tools-on-demand/22279

Good times.

6

I just felt like creating the least popular forum post in March.

7

And on Friday the 13th, of all the days! :)

The general vibe, up to now has been:

  • People grossly underestimate how long software development takes, or how much it costs.
  • The people developing Renoise don’t want to be hostages to obligations.

The current model works because:

  • The user gets a lot for their money
  • The main developer gets the freedom to work the way he wants

It’s a delicate balance. It will be done when it’s ready

8

If someone decides to buy a pianolol, and the renoise team jumps because it’s so much money, I guarantee you a whole whackload of users would jump ship in favor of software more in line with the community’s needs. Currently Renoise holds that status… and I don’t think they should let money take it away.

… and if the Renoise team needed more money to implement features more quickly, I’m sure they could simply raise the price.