Subsonic 4.8 relased

[Aethies]

I agree with another poster charging a continuous fee for the product IS going overboard. A one time fee was fine but charging someone over and over again is straight up RETARDED! I guess there are other options as Sockso is completely free. Only problem with that is updates are few and far between but at least its COMPLETELY free. I'm not against someone getting paid for there work but I'm not going to keep paying continuously for life. NO software is worth that, NONE! These are the types of software I avoid and purchase another product as I refuse to be nickeled and dimed to death. Granted I have a forever license but for new comers I will be suggesting Sockso over Subsonic due to the new pricing scheme.

I have been a long time subsonic user, for about 3-4 years now. I have tried a lot of other "personal music" streaming software. None... NONE come even CLOSE to the awesome features of Subsonic. I have books, videos, music and tv shows... all on one server. Are there issues? Sure. Can you work around them? You bet. A little tech knowledge and you are on your way.
To sit and bash the developer for "nickle and diming" people is absurd, giving how involved with the project he is (you can look through the posts and if someone has an issue that no one can figure out, he steps in).

Just my .02 cents

[leorivas]

Respectfully, I am a bit uncomfortable with this new licensing scheme. Let's be realistic, It will pretty much discourage new users to get attached to a monthly/yearly payment 'license-contract'. I have been developing a linux appliance with subsonic because I love it, but I'll have to look for alternatives. My own users will not want to stick to a periodic payment to use the premium features (unfortunately though, I have no way of knowing how many of them actually paid subsonic donations from my appliance, but has been downloaded more than 600 times already in less than a year). You are invited to check it out, It is still in v4.7 though. http://susestudio.com/a/PfEzPn/home-media-server

A nice thing to benefit Sindre & Co. for his/their hard work anyway, would be to still have some option for a one-time-only paid license, with no strings attached, as it was before, let's say $50 or so, something reasonable (or maybe simply removing the $10 and $15 donation options, and keeping the higher ones, to somehow 'force' users to donate more).
On the other hand, keep in mind that even $1 a month 'subscription' sort of gives users the right of complaining and demanding for support/fixing/solutions/features. Maybe is the right direction to move to the next stage, but like this, it does not look like an open source/free project any more.

Regards
LeoRivas

[rezsbc]

Great work!!

[gatorglory]

New: Re-import playlists if file timestamp has changed.

Hi all,

I was wondering about this feature. The playlists are stored on the filesystem, and my interpretation of this was that if I modified a playlist directly (thus updating the timestamp), that it would be automatically imported. That doesn't seem to be happening on my installation (CentOS 5.9 + Tomcat 5.5.23 + Standalone WAR version of Subsonic). Does this feature work for anyone else? Am I incorrectly interpreting the functionality?

Thanks as always for the hard work Sindre!

[parakiten]

I will not upgrade my server 4.6 before automatically updating files works. When I transfer files to my Subsonic folder I can see the files immediately on my Android device

[HippopoKiboko]

The download function still not working...
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1424&start=15#p56725

[staticsyphon]

I registered an account JUST to say to the developer:

The new payment requirement is GREAT! I know even with this new pricing model you're still not receiving a fraction of what you deserve for this project.

Thank you for your hard, quality work on this software. I'm a developer and systems engineer myself, I work on both paid and non-paid projects, I know that the time I've invested in community projects for free does not even compare to a fraction of what you've spent on, not only developing this, but also maintaining an outstanding level of quality (just look at the other options out there... lawl).

I feel like a lot of people who are in favor of "open source" or just free stuff in general don't understand the commitment required to build a fantastic product like this AND keep it above-standards. Granted, at first glance the "monthly" subscription feels a bit icky to me with all the new web / SaaS services popping up, but I would simply take an annual license and be done with it. Also, this is only for the premium version, the standard works great!

In any case, I think you should be charging a way higher minimum. I don't believe there is really any software that can compare / compete with the feature set of Subsonic, but if there were how much do you think a for-profit company would be charging!? However, I do appreciate that you're practically giving it way to us and am sorry for the users who are crying about (what seems like) an issue based solely on the moral or principle of charging money!!! lollerplex!?!!?

In the spirit of being constructive / positive: Maybe alternative compensation methods can be devised or implemented for the people having issues of purity. For example, something like "If you spend 100 hours doing language translations, you get a free premium license". This would at the least give some perspective on what it's like to get paid for open source / non-profit projects.

Thanks again for the awesome software and great work, keep it up!

[nuke235]

Not really sure why everyone is complaining about the new licensing that subsonic has undergone.

Those of us that paid for a license years ago should not complain and yet I have seen a few that have found something to cry about.

As for new users that have to pay the $1 per month premium fee, why are you complaining? Its $1 per month, 12 bucks a year, < 4 cents a day.
The ads are minimal text that have no annoying sounds or popups. And like many users I feel that subsonic has great benefited its users with the time and quality work that has gone into it. Seriously Great work Sindre!

Just to point out that subsonic is FREE and OPEN SOURCE software.
Most open source projects as big and as good as something like subsonic generally have NUMEROUS developers.
Subsonic, aside from its community offering up tweaks, is all developed by Sindre.

I don't know about the rest of you but I'm donating again to show my thanks.

[stozher]

Hi Sindre, please add missing close div tag to left.jsp (at code below in the commented from me part):

Code: Select all

<h2 class="bgcolor1"><fmt:message key="left.playlists"/></h2>
<div id="playlistWrapper" style='padding-left:0.5em'>
    <div id="playlists"></div>
    <div id="playlistOverflow" style="display:none"></div>
<!--
    <div style="padding-top: 0.3em"/>
        <div id="showAllPlaylists" style="display: none"><a href="javascript:noop()" onclick="showAllPlaylists()"><fmt:message key="left.showallplaylists"/></a></div>
        <div><a href="javascript:noop()" onclick="createEmptyPlaylist()"><fmt:message key="left.createplaylist"/></a></div>
        <div><a href="importPlaylist.view" target="main"><fmt:message key="left.importplaylist"/></a></div>
    </div>
-->
</div>

[leorivas]

Not really sure why everyone is complaining about the new licensing that subsonic has undergone.

I still think a lifetime license payment option is missing or else, subsonic losses competitivity against other similar products. Other media server software have this option, like Serviio or Plex, to name just two. I think a monthly/yearly payment on any credit card account is discouraging against a lifetime license.

Just imagine the following scenario: Some guy asks you to implement a media server appliance project for some company/hotel/restaurant/cafe/whatever. To evaluate the cost of the project, you already know that several products offer the near same functionality as Subsonic does, but it is a lot easier to sell a project for a fixed price, the customer will always prefer to pay a single lifetime license and forget about it, than stick with a monthly/yearly payment afterwards (no matter the price, who wants strings attached if there is a lifetime option?).

So, if the customer is you, what do you prefer? an appliance with Plex server for a lifetime $74.99 license, or Serviio for $25, or the equivalent using Subsonic time limited license? it makes no sense! $74.99=~6 years Subsonic, and $25=~2 years Subsonic!! If you love Subsonic as I do, I would offer the $120 longest option... but then, it is the most expensive, and it would last 'only' 10 years. As the products are similar, the manager may discard the time limited license, or else, you need to offer some extraordinary added value to keep competitive.

I still think a lifetime license option is missing, and should be added. The price is for you to decide.
Regards

[bwb1981]

I donated money a year or so back to get the premium benefits. If I upgrade to the newest version ( 4.8 ) will I have to sign up to a Subsonic Premium account? Or will I be grandfathered in?

[gurutech]

All existing licenses will be "grandfathered" in. No need to sign up for the monthly or yearly plan.

[br0ken1128]

I am grandfathered but I still don't like the new pricing scheme.. most other similar software packages don't charge you a recurring fee.. I don't see the logic in that decision, there's no way I would have used Subsonic if that were the case when I discovered it.. my money would have stayed in my pocket or went to something else.

I still use subsonic, I have few complaints with the actual system except it doesn't provide access control to certain folders.. I have my server up simply for sharing some of my content with friends and family.. but for my own personal use I mainly now use Playon Media Server .. a one time license fee gives you a pretty robust system with plugin support.. I can watch live streaming video with plugins ( I'll be watching a dexter live stream tonight with use of a plugin ) .. it also has an excellent roku app for it.. the fact it doesn't support a web interface where I can create accounts for people is the reason I still use Subsonic at this point.

I think Subsonic will reign supreme if they...

1. Drop the idea of a monthly fee
2. Add support for user groups and the ability to restrict access to folders based on group
3. Update the interface to get rid of iframes, it's horrible.
4. Some kind of plugin system?

I've been a loyal user for a few years now.. those things would keep me as one

[roversub]

2. Add support for user groups and the ability to restrict access to folders based on group
3. Update the interface to get rid of iframes, it's horrible.

I don't mind the annual fee. This software is great, and I would pay $100/year for a "Pro" version... IF the GUI was substantially improved.

- No iFrames
- Show more metadata - let us customize the data display to include other metadata or custom metadata
- Add a more conventional row-columns (iTunes-like) meta navigator.
- Add ability to dictate File/Folder structure - something other than Artist/Album.

[configX]

I'm on the pro-fee side. I'll gladly pay the more than reasonable fee to support this project. The developer(s) need to be compensated for their hard work so that they can continue to improve Subsonic and keep the servers running.

HOWEVER, like others have stated, the UI needs some love. It's 2013 now...why is there still iFrames? I hope that with the new annual fee, the devs can allocate more time and effort towards this project.