The new simpler Volumio 3 Subscription plan

Hi,
Thanks for the good work. I moved to Volumio 3 and things still work as well :slight_smile: So far I have the Virtuoso subscription and I have a question (not sure Iā€™m in the proper topic) : it looks that the Premium plan allows to read information (donā€™t know really which info and from where) of the album but does it allow too to read a pdf file (the booklet) in the same directory than the files. Thatā€™s really a feature I would love.
Again thanks for your work and help, Flifli

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Hi @Flifli, no it displays artist biography, album information and credits during play.

I so much agree with this comment. I only need playback from a local NAS and Qobuz. By chance, I had Virtuoso subscription before this change, but would I buy premium subscription only for Qobuz now (which is a bit more than 1/3 of Qobuz, and also I think 1/2 of Roon which I dont want to use because of price) I dont know. I also strongly appreciate the effort put on this project (I also worked in software development for a long time), but I think there is a need for something in between free and premium. For me, it would be much better if you give individual feature options (qobuz, tidal, bt, album info) and also an all-included premium subscription. It would be very sad to see this project turn into something like Roon which is too expensive for a simple - but I think a common use case, use of one streaming service etc.

Mete

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You wrote that you keep an eye on feedback and that the new subscription plan is not set in stone. So here is my feedback:

I have to agree with the posters above: the one single subscription plan is to expensive for users that donĀ“t need multiroom or in general just one of the premium features.

There should be an more inexpensive offer or a pay once fee for specific features. In general I would really love a pay once for lifetime fee as I donĀ“t like subscription plans. But I am realistic enough to see this will probably not happen.

Also I donĀ“t understand the argument that you wanted to make subscriptions simpler. There has been two options, that WAS already simple and straightforward.

Personally I think that there were just way more Virtuoso than Superstar users, so the calculation goes that you earn more money with doubling the price for potential Virtuoso users. Understandable from a business side, but from a subscribers side, the changes are not that favorable for the majority of users.

Thanks for your feedbacks guys.

We are taking into consideration the possibility of offering features ā€œa la carteā€ when the new plugin store will receive the upgrades to accept payments for paid plugins.

On a side note, in the past we received many feedbacks that many preferred to have just one premium tier (instead of 2) and monhtly payments. We have listened and the outcome of this has been the new premium plan.

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Thank you. You will probably never please anyone, no matter what you do. And people unhappy will always provide more feedback than the pleased ones. :slight_smile:

Looking forward to what you have in the pipeline!

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My 2 cents.

I started building my streamer based on RPI 4b on Jan 2022. I tried PiCore Player and Volumio. Honestly speaking I like more Volumio. My Tidal trial (2 euros/months for HiFi plus account) will end on 17/04/2022. Till this date I will keep Volumio (due to Tidal Native plugin that allow max bitrate 24bit/48Khz and MQA passthrough VS Picore stream limited to 16/44.1). After 17/04/2022 I will move back to Picore LMS + Qobuz plugin. This solution is free and work flawless (+artist/song info plugin). I hope Volumio will change its prices and allow a unique price for the software buy (once). Otherwise, at least people who doesnā€™t regret to work a little more on the installation process (audiophiles like it, :slight_smile: ) will prefer Picore or Moode.

NOTE: yesterday I accidentally canceled my Premium monthly account and Volumio immediatly changed the account to free even if I already paid for the month! This behaviour is not correct towards customers. I wrote 2 emails but I didnā€™t receive any answer yet.

Alessandro

Sorry to hear things didnā€™t work out as expected. However, please give Volumio time to respond, donā€™t start copying the same information in multiple topics.
Not sure where you find the bit rates, I guess you take the info from the UI, but for both solutions itā€™s incorrect. Both Volumio and LMS+pCP stream as Tidal provides the bit-rate and both pass MQA through (if supported by your DAC and performed the correct settings for audio). Seems youā€™re missing some basic information on the lossy MQA containers and what is displayed in LMS+pCP or Volumio.
Volumio excels in being user friendly but need funding to keep it that way, while LMS+pCP is hard to customise as you need to build your own packages in order to save/have it after a reboot and a wild variety off fuzzy plugins but yes itā€™s free.

But itā€™s good for us (customers) that there is competition, so the peeps at Volumio stay focused :smile:

The billing problem has been solved today. Thank you.

Regarding bit rate, you can check by yourself and also try, Pcp+LMS has a limit of 16bit/44.1Khz for the Tidal plugin. Reported bit rates in the previous message refer to the unfolded MQA files passed to the dac. I have been studing and getting information on MQA for the last 3 months, so Iā€™m quite sure Iā€™m not missing basic information.
Customization on Pcp is a good quality for expert users (not a cons).
As told before Iā€™m happy with Volumio and hoping new prices (more affordable) will be offered.

Alessandro.

Darn, this will hurt to admit, but here we goā€¦
Your statement is correct in regards to the Tidal plugin on LMS. Got confused with some MQA test tracks on my network which shows 352k. Volumio did a better job on this.

But just sent you a PM, as it seems I am not going crazy and much less hurt. :slight_smile:

Hi Alessandro.
Thanks for sharing your feedbacks in a constructive manner. Youā€™re helping us improve.

Before Volumio 3 we were offering only a yearly subscription plan, but we got many requests on a cheaper solution. We thought that the monthly plan was a more affordable solution for those not willing to commit for one year.

I am sorry, but I donā€™t see us decreasing pricesā€¦

Rather, what we want to do is adjust our subscription plans prices for zones where they are too expensive, by comparing them with other comparable services (mainly for non-EU or non US countries).

Do you mean an increase?
Thanks

No, I redacted my post to explain better what I meant.

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Any chance for a pay once/lifetime plan and/or a plan to pay just for individual features?

I have to admit I donā€™t like subscription services in generalā€¦

A lifetime plan is available only if you buy the Primo Hi-fi Edition at the princely sum of 649 ā‚¬ - which of course if ok if you want the a streamer without the hassle of setting up a RPi, but I would personally agree ā€¦ a lifetime option for the software only would be welcome. I also have Plex / Plexamp for when Iā€™m out of home, which costs 120 ā‚¬ for lifetime pass. I did not hesitate when compared to 5 ā‚¬ per month forever. ROI comes after 2 yearsā€¦

@volumio or anybody on the team:
I was fortunate enough to get one of the 200 lifetime offer you had a couple of years ago.
MyVolumio brings me joy everyday, so even if I donā€™t need to spend, I would like to donate a small amount from time to time.
Is there a ā€œDonateā€ button or something similar somewhere?
Thanks for your work!

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Yes Volumio guysā€¦ a lifetime license would be really appreciatedā€¦

You can donate by going into Settings ā†’ System ā†’ First Configuration Wizard ā†’ Last step .

Thanks!

We did offer once the chance to get a lifetime deal on MyVolumio. As of now we donā€™t plan to do it againā€¦

Hey guys still enjoying Volumio.

Just wondering are there ever promo periods etc?
Coming up for renewal, have noticed the price for virtuoso has increased from A$46 to $90/year.

Not a big problem, and realise a lot of time and maintenance would go into getting it to this point - just seems like a bit if it increases by 50% each year.

Thanks,

That seems to match the price of an upgrade to Volumio Premium. What does it show when you login to myvolumio.org and edit your profile? I have a Virtuoso plan and my next renewal doesnā€™t show an increase.

As you may know, the Virtuoso plan is no longer offered for new subscriptions but they said (earlier in this thread) that those currently on Virtuoso are allowed to stay on the plan in perpetuity. However, once you switch to Premium you cannot switch back to Virtuoso.