Q: I am already a user of Soundwise.
in fact, I use it quite regularly for my own consumption but not yet for selling audio content for reasons you will see below.
Here are my experience and review + feature requests. In writing this here (and not on the original AppSumo Soundwise page), I hope that fellow Sumo-lings will be guided in this new deal and that Natasha and her team will take more notice of my concerns.
1) First, BUGS, BUGS, BUGS!
I changed the cover art of a soundcast but the same is not updated in the mobile app. The new cover art appears when I click the particular soundcast, but the old cover art remains in the list of soundcasts. This has never been fixed, and I have been waiting for months.
Another is when I upload in bulk, some files will not get uploaded or will get uploaded in a different soundcast. So it has become a task to painstakingly double-check if all audio files have been uploaded. And if something is missing, I will have to manually identify which one and upload them again. This one annoys me the most and is an utter waste of time.
Also, there have also been times when the title of the audio would not be correct after publishing. Watch out for this one! If you see a title twice, check the content.
I tried to upload using a Dropbox link. I would get an error. I had to email support. The solution was to change something in the Dropbox link so that Soundwise can recognize it. I don't know if this is a bug but this certainly wasted my time as I had to email support.
I have emailed support for my concerns. Thankfully, support responds promptly but will not always be fully helpful. I end up emailing back and forth.
2) No PayPal integration. Bummer for those in countries where Stripe is not supported (like ours). I notice that Natasha has a strong stance on this. PayPal integration is not a priority. Ok, I get it. The suggested workaround here is to make the soundcast private and do payment processing elsewhere. Or integrate PayPal via Zapier (Take note: Only Zapier is supported). Sounds good until you decide to offer your product on a subscription basis. In a private soundcast, you can only accept one-time payment for your audio products. Of course, you can do a subscription but you will have to manually remove the user upon notice of the end of the subscription. Take note of this limitation and the cumbersome workaround. Soundwise might “probably not [be] a good fit for you.”
3) You cannot rearrange the soundcasts. As an admin, you will see soundcasts arranged based on the date of publication. As consumer, you will see soundcasts arranged alphabetically. Please allow the capability to rearrange soundcasts
4) As pointed out by one Sumo-ling in an earlier question, there is no folder/categorizing/tagging feature for the soudcasts. If you have many soundcasts, you will see all of those in one long scrollable list.
5) You cannot upload links in bulk. Please consider this as a feature request.
Ian_Soundwise
May 14, 2024A: Thank you for your message. Here're our responses:
1)
Cover art: if you publish a soundcast and change the cover later, you'll likely still be seeing the old cover cached in your local device. Image caching is used to reduce the need to load large chunks of data every time you open the app. If you log out and log back in the app to refresh data, you should see the new cover. This will not affect any new listener as they will see the new cover right away.
Dropbox: Your file link needs to permit file download. If your file link format has "dl=0" at the end, that means download not permitted. If you want the file to be downloadable (so that we can fetch it from Dropbox and upload it for you), you need to change it to "dl=1". This is not a bug.
Bulk upload: Sorry about this problem. We're aware of the issue and we're working on it.
Audio title: Not sure I understand what you mean by "would not be correct". But if the same issue happens again, could you report the issue to our support desk? support@mysoundwise.com.
2) Integration.
Our Starter tier does not include any integration with third-party payment processor except Stripe. So if you're considering buying the Starter tier, you need to be in a country that is covered by Stripe, as we already stated in the FAQ above.
Regarding your question about subscription integration on the Pro tier, if Paypal is the only payment solution you can use, and you want to offer subscription, you can still charge subscription using Paypal and connecting it to Soundwise via Zapier. Though Paypal's subscription solution is not the best, or so we heard.
3) Reordering soundcasts: this is in our pipeline.
4) Soundcast categories: we're working on this.
5) Upload link in bulk: The best place for submitting product suggestions is through our product suggestion form https://forms.gle/bMuScYiBahP4QPA59.
We have an excellent support desk. If you run into any issues using the product, the best way to let us know is to email our support at support@mysoundwise.com. It's difficult for us to track the issues reported on a product listing page. If you want to get any problem resolved as soon as possible, please email our support. Thank you.
wasabiThank you for your reply.
1) Cover art: I have already logged out and logged back in several times for the past months and yet nothing has changed. I just did this before writing this, and the discrepancy still exists. In fact, I just uninstalled the app now and installed it back again, and I still see the old cover art.
Dropbox: This should have been written somewhere in your documentation. Or did I miss this? Has this already been written somewhere in your website? Even the support person who I talked to did not immediately know this. We had to email back and forth.
Audio title: The shown title is not be the same as what I typed in the text box. I will certainly report the issue to your support desk when this happens again.
2) Yes, this Marketplace deal is mapped to the Starter tier. Take note of this, Sumo-ling. I recommend that you check their website to compare the features of the Starter plan to the other plans. The past lifetime deal is mapped to the more generous Pro plan.
Just as I said, PayPal via Zapier is a workaround for the lack of native PayPal integration. Sumo-lings, take note that this might entail additional expense on your part. Zapier’s free plan might not be enough for your needs.
5) Can we find this link on your website? Is this new? It is the first time that I am seeing a feature request form for Soundwise. I had to email support for a feature request when I started using Soundwise a few months ago.
My primary intention in writing this is to help Sumo-lings make an informed decision, and not to ask for specific, individual support. I am well aware that contacting support is the way to (hopefully) resolve any problem involving Soundwise as I have done so several times in the past (sometimes with success and sometimes without). And I do advise others to do the same.
Thank you. Regarding the points you raised:
Cover art: please contact our support with your publisher email address. They will need to check your account as this is an issue with a specific soundcast.
Dropbox: We don't have the documentation regarding Dropbox file download on our documentation site yet. This is something we can add. However, different cloud drives have different rules regarding direct download links. And you can also check with your cloud driver provider regarding how to get the direct download link. Here's related documentation from Dropbox for your reference https://help.dropbox.com/files-folders/share/force-download .
Starter tier: This offer is on our Starter tier, and it has nothing to do with any previous AppSumo offer we ran. We have listed very clearly on this page what are the features included in the Starter tier. We also have reiterated several times here that payouts to the publishers are done through Stripe. So before you purchase, please check if your country is covered by Stripe https://stripe.com/global
Feature suggestion form: This form link is accompanied with every email sent from our support desk. If you contact our support desk, you will get the link in the email signature of all our support agents.
We thank you for being a customer. For the issues your raised that are concerning specific soundcasts in your account, I again urge you to contact our support. Thank you.
FGCPLUSI'm an avid consumer of audiobooks and creator of audioproducts for coahing, consulting and adult learning.
While this certainly looks like the proverbial "no brainer" for someone like me I'd like to see more of the items in the "coming later" response bucket be available before buying.
chariotPLUSThanks for sharing your experience.