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Seline HD’s dishonest marketing?

There is a comment from an Amidio Inc rep below that I think is worth checking out. The comment points out that Amidio is not directly connected to the iPad Orchestra (who made the video in question) and that the Seline HD app at some point sold for $12.99 (also pointing out that I suck at math). The comment also mentions that Googling “iPad Street Musician” doesn’t pull up videos of various iPad buskers, but at the moment all I see are at least 6 pages of links to that video. So, if you are still reading this, understand it was written by a very bitter person and it should be filtered as such:

Found myself annoyed by a new story that’s popping up all over my rss reader this morning. I know it’s best to just accept that someone is wrong on the internet, but in this case I felt like I needed to say something because it’s coming from a company that has used dishonest advertising a couple of times to promote their product.

A few weeks ago Amidio, makers of the Seline HD music app for the iPad, announced their product had gone on sale for 40% off… but when I looked at the price, I noticed the price had actually gone up from it’s usual price. To be clear, the app had been listed at $5.99, but when the app went on “sale” the price actually jumped up to $7.99… and claimed to normally sell for for $12.99. That’s some tacky/dishonest shit, but whatever… the app was still too hi at $7.99 for most folks to care.

Now they, or their marketing person, have posted a video (which I will not link to) of a street musician performing with their app and with the title “The 1st iPad Street Musician?”. Clearly these folks know this isn’t the first, not even close, but I guess they feel by adding a question mark at the end it makes them feel like they aren’t actually telling a lie. Maybe they should have tried that with their iTunes sale “Seline HD for iPad is now on sale for 40% off?”. Naw, it’s still dishonest.

Obviously I’m particularly annoyed since I’ve been heavily involved in teaching iPad music workshops and performances, as well as reaching out and working with other musicians in the scene, then some app maker comes in and makes a false claim just to help sell their product. It’s a very dishonest way to market anything, and a terrible impression to make on the very musicians you should be trying to market to.

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4 responses to “Seline HD’s dishonest marketing?”

  1. AmidioInc Avatar
    AmidioInc

    Hi Doc,

    Maybe you could consider to stop posting this everywhere. We understand that you’re offended, but it is generally not cool to make such accusations in public, especially given that they are completely false. We kindly inform you that we are not using “dishonest marketing” and are absolutely not into “tacky shit” and “false claims”. We value our reputation very much and cannot stay without action on such accusations.

    Also, we are not directly connected with the iPad Orchestra members (who shot & titled the video) as you suspected but still we do really think that this is the first street performance with iPad. We searched google on “iPad street musician”. You are very welcome to do the same and find out that your videos do not come up on that search term.

    Moreover, the girl even earned money, gained crowds of people and she had a special neck-work iPad case for the performance.

    As for the Seline HD price. Regular price is $12,99. When Seline HD was introduced, we had more than 50% off ($5,99) and then it rose to 40% off ($7,99), and now it is still remains discounted. It is actually very easy, and there wasn’t a slightest bit of “dishonest shit”, but anyway we are very sorry if the clarification of our price policies wasn’t clear enough for you.

  2. DocPop Avatar
    DocPop

    Thank you for your level headed reply. I realize other folks don’t care about who was actually the first iPad busker, so I decided to just post my thoughts on my own blog and be done with it.

    It’s interesting that you still believe the performer in the video that I’m referring to is the first iPad street performer, even after seeing other people doing the same thing. I definitely drew crowds and made money for several weekends and weeknights. I didn’t have a ergonomic strap for my iPad, but I’d still go out on a limb and I qualified as a street musician (with a hat for collecting money and everything). I performed by myself and sometimes played with other street musicians. Even then, I had already found videos of other performers busking in Tokyo, London, and Berlin. I was also pleased that people found me through Google searches and blog posts about iPad music. Even if I hadn’t found other performers online, I still wouldn’t have presumed I beat anyone to the punch.

    i tried Googling the term today, but unfortunately all I can see now are hundreds of posts and tweets about this one particular video, but when I filter out articles from the past 2 days, I see my old videos still show. I can understand trying to research something and not being able to find it, and I should have considered the possibility that the person naming the video would not have found the same things I would have on a search. In my defense, it’s hard for me to understand how someone who seemed so interested in iPad street musicians would not have come across the videos on Matrixsynth, Palm Sounds, and even a Boing Boing post. Again, I’m assuming other people would have the same habits as me and I should have left open the chance that the person might have actually believed they were witnessing the first person to play music with an ipad on the street. For the record, I’m an asshole and I wish I would have phrased myself more cautiously.

    My beef is really with the misleading title of the video, but since I brought up the pricing and have heard your response, I better understand why it appeared so suspicious. I have never seen the app at $12.99. I saw it when it was 5.99, then 7.99, and finally seems to have a price of 9.99. Prices change quite a bit in the app store. It’s also common for developers to have an inflated price, then drop the price with a sale, but never bring it back up again… Since I gave the maker of the video a hard time for not better researching their statement before publishing it, I probably deserve some shit for not trying harder to see that the app once cost $12.99.

  3. DocPop Avatar
    DocPop

    Thank you for your level headed reply. I realize other folks don’t care about who was actually the first iPad busker, so I decided to just post my thoughts on my own blog and be done with it.

    It’s interesting that you still believe the performer in the video that I’m referring to is the first iPad street performer, even after seeing other people doing the same thing. I definitely drew crowds and made money for several weekends and weeknights. I didn’t have a ergonomic strap for my iPad, but I’d still go out on a limb and I qualified as a street musician (with a hat for collecting money and everything). I performed by myself and sometimes played with other street musicians. Even then, I had already found videos of other performers busking in Tokyo, London, and Berlin. I was also pleased that people found me through Google searches and blog posts about iPad music. Even if I hadn’t found other performers online, I still wouldn’t have presumed I beat anyone to the punch.

    i tried Googling the term today, but unfortunately all I can see now are hundreds of posts and tweets about this one particular video, but when I filter out articles from the past 2 days, I see my old videos still show. I can understand trying to research something and not being able to find it, and I should have considered the possibility that the person naming the video would not have found the same things I would have on a search. In my defense, it’s hard for me to understand how someone who seemed so interested in iPad street musicians would not have come across the videos on Matrixsynth, Palm Sounds, and even a Boing Boing post. Again, I’m assuming other people would have the same habits as me and I should have left open the chance that the person might have actually believed they were witnessing the first person to play music with an ipad on the street. For the record, I’m an asshole and I wish I would have phrased myself more cautiously.

    My beef is really with the misleading title of the video, but since I brought up the pricing and have heard your response, I better understand why it appeared so suspicious. I have never seen the app at $12.99. I saw it when it was 5.99, then 7.99, and finally seems to have a price of 9.99. Prices change quite a bit in the app store. It’s also common for developers to have an inflated price, then drop the price with a sale, but never bring it back up again… Since I gave the maker of the video a hard time for not better researching their statement before publishing it, I probably deserve some shit for not trying harder to see that the app once cost $12.99.

  4. AmidioInc Avatar
    AmidioInc

    Hey Doc,I think the key to this whole story is that you’ve used the verb “to busk” to describe the iPad street performance activities. This verb is unknown to most of the non-native-English-speaking audience, but they do know “iPad street musician”. I didn’t know this verb myself, and the iPad Orchestra members didn’t know it as well.As for the iPad strap, we’ve made a video showing how to DIY: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl0rHOROmMAWe usually offer our apps at an introductory price first, then rise the price to it’s normal level, this is a better policy for not-so-popular-as-games apps (i.e. music apps), so our fans get the apps at a lower price.I have a proposal for you, to smooth the things up. Since you’re heavily involved in teaching iPad music workshops and performances, do you want to become one of the exclusive betatesters for our upcoming Mint.io iPad groovebox? If so, please send your iPad UDID to company@amidio.com 🙂

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