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How you're rewarded for contributions within MIDI Mixer, and what contributions are used for. |
MIDI Mixer's on ongoing passion project that I develop in my spare time. By contributing, you afford you me the time and resources to keep adding cool new features, keep squashing bugs, and keep expanding the ecosystem of plugins and presets that make MIDI Mixer such a powerful tool.
Anyone can contribute using Patreon or Ko-fi without having an account, but it's recommended to make an account to ensure you're automatically rewarded for your generous contribution. Check out how to make an account back on the Accounts Overview page.
There are currently two rewards for contributing that can be seen on the Accounts page in the app itself:
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Lifetime beta access
Early access to develop and preview upcoming features before other users.\ -
Unlimited plugins
****Leverage MIDI Mixer's plugin architecture to integrate with a huge variety of applications.
Lifetime beta access is given for any contribution across any platform, and can be activated by setting the "Release channel" to "Alpha" in the app's settings page. Once set, your app will automatically keep up-to-date with the latest alpha version.
{% hint style="info" %} Alphas often contain fast-paced, experimental changes. For this reason, those release channels are only available if MIDI Mixer has been installed using the standalone installer; not the Microsoft Store version. {% endhint %}
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Unlimited plugins are given to all users with an active monthly subscription, using either Patreon or an in-app subscription (using Stripe). Without access to unlimited plugins, only one plugin can be activated at a time.
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MIDI Mixer is a passion project, but there are still costs involved in maintaining and developing a desktop application safely and securely. Much of the contributions go towards maintaining the current ecosystem. A few examples of this includes:
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Time
I'm a professional software developer during the day, so all MIDI Mixer development is done in my spare time outside of regular office hours. There's so many cool features to add, but time is a hugely limiting factor.\ -
Secure code hosting / building
****MIDI Mixer uses GitHub to host and build code securely. The app itself undergoes a suite of tests both periodically and before every release (even alphas) that check not only functionality but security, performance, and compatibility. Maintaining and running these checks costs money to do; we're already well beyond the free tier.\
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Anonymous analytics tools
****MIDI Mixer collects anonymised analytics and crash reports so that I can fix bugs before you even experience them! The ingress, processing, and temporary storage of these reports costs money, though.\
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Code signing
****Distributing a desktop application requires an Authenticode Digital Signature that can run up to $700 per year. These are certificates that must be bought by a developer to prove to Microsoft that their software is safe. This does also provide some cool features to reassure the user that the app they're installing is directly from me and hasn't been tampered with.\ -
Community feature hosting
****Features like the ability to share profiles, this documentation site, the forums, or the ability to have an account requires servers and services to be developed and maintained. There are more community-based features being planned but these all require consistent attention and the proper funding for hosting and security.
As well as contributing via Patreon or Ko-fi, those with an account can also subscribe in-app. This is a monthly subscription and is treated exactly the same as a Patreon subscription in terms of rewards.
{% hint style="success" %} In-app subscriptions are definitely the easiest way to subscribe, but if you'd like to use PayPal you can use Patreon instead. {% endhint %}
In-app subscriptions use Stripe because of their strong track record with security. You can read more about Security at Stripe.
In addition, your credit card information is never stored or transmitted through any MIDI Mixer servers or even the MIDI Mixer app itself - the secure Stripe checkout that is created routes all data directly to Stripe's servers. I do have access to the last 4 digits of your card to be used for support requests, but I cannot access your full card information - only Stripe handles that data.
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Some areas in the app and the MIDI Mixer website display affiliate links to known compatible MIDI devices. If a person clicks on an affiliate link and then purchases that device within a particular timeframe, MIDI Mixer earns a small commission.
{% hint style="success" %} The commission is paid by the retailer, at no cost to you. {% endhint %}
Due to the way MIDI Mixer supports any MIDI device, finding a device honed to your particular needs can be daunting if you're buying for the first time. Affiliate links help bridge this gap by providing you with plug'n'play profiles and direct links to investigate and purchase those devices.
Let's be clear and look at the benefits to users, MIDI Mixer, and retailers:
- Users are given clear, reputable paths to investigate and purchase new devices that are known to work well with MIDI Mixer
- MIDI Mixer earns a commission for directing users to known compatible MIDI devices that will provide a good experience when used with MIDI Mixer
- Retailers benefit from increased sales
The largest barrier for entry to using MIDI Mixer is owning a MIDI device. Aside from the other benefits, affiliate links help brand new users to easily understand what to buy to get started, which is a huge boon for MIDI Mixer and its users alike.
If you're having any issues with your account or contributions, email [email protected].
This includes issues with contribution syncing not seeming to work, or manual syncing required if you've used different emails for Patreon/Ko-fi and your MIDI Mixer account.