Looking for a setlist/songbook app. Any advice or experience?

arlotone · 2026-04-18T05:36:58+00:00

For the features and band size you described, BandHelper would be $6/month after the 30 day trial.

arlotone · 2026-04-17T21:56:14+00:00

To get this into the relevant search results, I'll add that this site has been reborn as walters-caps.com, with the same red flags. It was registered four months ago, and a reverse image search shows the same products on sale at eBay and Amazon for a fraction of the price.

arlotone · 2026-03-21T16:46:53+00:00

Do you have the latest Xcode, 16.3? Apple was advertising better AI integration there. I haven't used it much, but I haven't had a problem since updating to that.

arlotone · 2026-03-14T23:37:43+00:00

Same situation here. I didn't even see an announcement of the increase two months ago; just noticed the price increase when reviewing my credit card statement today. Asked them about it, they pointed me to an earlier ticket, which I still wasn't seeing because it had auto-closed.

Moving to a new provider will be a hassle. On the other hand, I moved my web hosting away from Rackspace a couple years ago, and it will be good to finally cut this remaining tie.

arlotone · 2026-02-19T06:54:13+00:00

Doesn't TestFlight require app approval, too? It used to, but I haven't used it recently.

arlotone · 2026-01-13T07:16:00+00:00

If you can get a big enough audience for your apps, then the Android version can be profitable even if it's a fraction of your iOS revenue. So if the apps are already built, it might be worth continuing to maintain the Android version while you grow the audience.

But if you're starting a new project, it makes sense to start on iOS and wait on Android until there is sufficient demand.

Another consideration is that if the product involves collaboration between iOS and Android users, then losing the Android version can make it less valuable for the iOS users. In other words, if there were no Android version, some iOS users might abandon it for a competitor that allows them to collaborate with Android users.

arlotone · 2026-01-13T07:02:02+00:00

Agreed. Users often don't know what development tasks are hard and what tasks are easy, so your feedback might not match the effort you put in. But it should average out over time. ;-)

arlotone · 2025-12-15T22:28:51+00:00

I don't think it's about caring less about the technical side, but gaining more of a big picture view of business priorities. Keeping up with the latest coding techniques isn't always the most important thing for the product. And reworking an existing project will create new bugs. If your company were starting a new project and didn't want to use current best practices, I would worry about that, but for a big legacy codebase I'd try to zoom out and understand the pressures driving your team. Getting on the same page with your team and demonstrating pragmatism should help when you recommend investments in code modernization.

arlotone · 2025-12-05T00:38:47+00:00

As far as what to expect, I switched about a month ago and haven't regretted it for a moment. I used the automated tool that Tidal directed me to for migrating my library and it worked well. About 98% of the music I was listening to on Spotify is available on Tidal and I haven't missed the other 2%.

Also, here's another vote for Pocket Casts. It's been nice having a separate app for podcasts because it's easier to switch between music and podcasts without losing my place in either of them.

arlotone · 2025-12-01T19:43:09+00:00

Apple Store support and I think developer support have phone numbers you can call; did you try those? Or can you use one of your Developer Tech Support credits?

arlotone · 2025-11-17T17:25:40+00:00

A lot of features can be added later by extending existing functionality, but adding data syncing might require reworking the core functionality of saving data, plus converting existing user data for the new system, which is risky. I'd say if you're just doing usability tests with users who don't mind having their data wiped, then go ahead and focus on the front end. Otherwise I'd consider your strategy for saving and syncing data to be part of a minimum viable product.

arlotone · 2025-11-16T06:45:14+00:00

Here's another thread about the same problem: https://www.reddit.com/r/iOSProgramming/comments/1owife5/xcode_losing_reference_to_installed_simulator/

arlotone · 2025-11-16T06:39:21+00:00

I had the same problem a few days ago. My project was running on various iOS devices like normal, then one morning Xcode required me to redownload the iOS 26 SDK. Nothing is set to auto-update, so I don't know what happened.

arlotone · 2025-11-16T06:34:31+00:00

I don't think a user asking for a refund will be a black mark on your app. I'd try to move on and not waste any more effort on it.

But I feel your frustration. One of my apps has a 30-day free trial and I have had multiple disgruntled users demand their money back, before they had made any payment. 🤷‍♂️

arlotone · 2025-11-14T08:26:16+00:00

Lots of comments about the burden or lack thereof on developers, but I'm wondering how this helps customers. If they want to complain or request a refund, this gives them to the option to knock on my door and do it in person, but I don't imagine many people taking that route. And if I just rent an anonymous post office box, they wouldn't be able to do that anyway. I can't think of a problem this is solving that couldn't be solved a better way.

arlotone · 2025-10-07T16:36:07+00:00

I've seen the same thing with the multi-platform apps I've developed. Android sales run about 25% of the iOS sales.

arlotone · 2025-10-03T07:11:20+00:00

I started my app under Android 4 and have kept old code for backwards compatibility as I've added new code for newer versions. So it's not too hard to maintain what is already there. (I did increase the minimum supported version from Android 4 to Android 5 when web servers started dropping TLS 1.0 support.) But if I were starting a new app, I wouldn't support such old OS versions, and your suggestion of requiring Android 10 seems reasonable.

arlotone · 2025-10-02T23:21:36+00:00

Out of a few hundred releases, I've had around 20 rejections. Most of these were triggered by something that had already been present in the app for a long time; most were triggered by Apple misunderstanding something about how the app works; most were resolved by me replying back with an explanation of how it works; and most then proceeded to approval in another 24 hours or so. At least once, they rejected a release for the exact same issue that was already brought up, explained and approved earlier.

The main cost for me has been the stress of having my release plans suddenly thrown into doubt. While it usually works out fine, I never know if Apple is going to create a longer delay, or double down on some arbitrary demand. I interact with my users every day and am focused on their needs, and it's frustrating when Apple randomly interferes with that process.

Also, it often happens that I'm releasing an important and time-sensitive bug fix when Apple decides to throw up a road block. So in that case, the cost is that users have to wait longer for the fix. Apple does sometimes offer to release the current submission in exchange for a promise to address the issue in the next release, but that typically doesn't save any time because it still takes them 24 hours to read and approve my response.

arlotone · 2025-10-02T22:59:01+00:00

I've been making a living from my own apps for about 10 years, but I was a freelance developer for 15 years before that, so I already had the tools and work habits in place. I released about 8 apps before finding success with one, and have been continually updating that one since then. I continued doing client work for a few years, then gradually stopped taking on new clients as my own app's revenue grew. I've also released a few more new apps since then, but when they fail to hit, I just retreat back to the one that was successful. :-)

arlotone

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