Les, I wish I could wave a magic wand and all the request from capable users like you would just materialize into product! My life would simplify greatly if I could do that!
I appreciate you pointing out the confusion over our Hoster releases. It is my writing. I do the best I can, but I admit I make mistakes. As President, I define where we go and manager our staff to get there. Sometimes I generate confusion in trying to not reveal our strategic plans too soon. I can now reveal to you and others who wish to read this, that our 5-year plan will soon come to the market.
Security
We had to secure our products. Internet theft is now so easy that honest folk go looking for cracked software. Hoster's protection required that it:
1. Be easy to install and stay out of the way.
2. Stop illegal distribution to protect our future.
3. Be afordable to use and maintain.
4. Automate database upgrades to keep you current.
5. Allow buying songs via the Internet or in bulk at lower costs.
6. Help your and our Karaoke industry grow.
Like you,
we earn our income, and we must protect our substantial investment. We discover that we help users daily who have never bought from MTU. That is not good business. You have watched us evolve from Serial Number protection that allowed Internet theft, to Hoster's MACID protection that is a pain, and now our new
Registration Code Security meets all these goals! I can tell you that Song Producers are very excited as they see our 5-year investment coming to reality.
Investment
It takes lots of money to hire good developers and staff. This year, in addition to our RegCode Security, we have made these product investments:
1. Hoster is our main product.
Period! The new feature requests were: #1-Upgrade the database (50% growth to 196,000 songs), #2-Play audio songs without vocals for DJ'ing (in 2.105), #3-Play VCD and DVD discs (in 2.106), #4-Upgrade the database on-line (this will come), #5-Allow buying new songs over the Internet... a soon to be reality.
2. Microstudio 2.517 supports the new DVD+R burner to give Hoster one drive that plays CDG, VCD, DVD discs, as well as from hard drive. This program was used to evolve the RegCode security.
3. Keyrite 2.008 is a major upgrade for use in Hoster.
4. Karaoke Pro 1.02x is a professional tool for the Song Producers to create and protect quality songs for you to buy for your audience.
Quality
MTU is known for quality, logical, polished products. This takes intelligent programmers who will do what we request... sorta like herding cats!
The results of our programmers can be seen in our recent new releases.
Our investments this year have been made to upgrade Hoster. However, 2.104 does not yet have the
Add HD Track upgrade you want. This is a very expensive upgrade, and one that is a "desire" level, not required to run your show. We are first meeting the market NEEDS, then adding the polish to our customer's desire levels. We have a clear idea what to do for Add HD Track, and we now have the programmer working on it to be in 2.106. I hope you appreciate our priorities.
Development is a Gamble
We must invest wisely to remain in business. If we do a good job at balancing our resource investments to meet your needs, then you will buy fromus. The "working world" works this way. Think about this... since you purchased Hoster last May, have you made income and is your show better than it was before? We haven't asked you to pay to further improve Hoster for your show. However, we have invested over $100,000 this year to help you and our other customers. I hope you can realize our need to charge for our developments. They are wisely made, yet very expensive.
Les, I have used your request about "Singing in the Chapel" in guiding our programmer upgrading Add HD Track. However, at least 10 others have also requested the same, which moves it up our "to do" list. When you ask us for something, our desire is to provide it. Our 34 year history proves we are good at doing this.
I am confident you will be happy with the small amout we are asking you to contribute to our investment this year. When you look at our total service to you and our paying customers, I believe you will agree it is worth it.
