Extremely disappointed with the Song Library interface

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FlatPanda
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2020 11:56 am

Re: Extremely disappointed with the Song Library interface

Post by FlatPanda » Tue May 05, 2020 6:58 am

MarcoB wrote:
Mon May 04, 2020 2:38 pm
Are you still using Microsoft Dos? Or you are using a modern OS like windows 10.
I'm just asking because MS Dos can still work, in your words i find that updating and upgrading is not necessary, instead it's a plague.
Are you by any chance a cobol developer?
Since you brought up IT word, I remind you that this software has a maintenance contract, which implies that the software is properly maintained, as in the rest of the IT world.

Oh, take a look @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps, welcome in 2020.
As an interesting fact, I still use DOS (although DOSBox), when a software needs it. For most of my needs, I indeed tend to use Win10.

I'm not a COBOL developer (I wish!), I'm paddling away my days with Java and different web stuff.

What I meant is: SaaS (Software as a Service) is very good for business. There, I see the need for continuous improvement. But for B2C? (Business to Customer) Not really. What I mean: take a software like YNAB. They had a perfectly functioning, standalone desktop client for a one-off purchase. They migrated everything to the cloud and have a monthly subscription. Just why? It's not like I need any changes in my accounting software, if it's working well.

With the term 'plague' (although a bit of an overstatement) I meant for example what's happening with games: if there is no updates for a game on Steam for half a year, everybody starts yelling that the game is dead. Is Settlers 2 or Theme Hospital dead? No, they are finished, complete games.

PGS is somewhere in between: the content should be "never ending", it should always be some new stuff. But the "engine" underneath? If it's working, there is no need in continuous updates on it.

As mentioned: there are some bugs in the engine, and if there is any merit in the PGS staff saying, that there is development underways for a new enginer... that's enough for me.

I'm here for the content and not for the (although not optimal, but good-enough) software.

lucidmusicinc
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu May 30, 2019 1:14 am

Re: Extremely disappointed with the Song Library interface

Post by lucidmusicinc » Wed May 06, 2020 1:58 am

I've been a PGS user for nearly a year now. When I started out, while I wasn't a complete beginner, I had poor sight reading and very poor finger independence. I was able to blast through the Rookie Bootcamp in a few weeks, there was a lot of content to keep me going and the sheer repetition of playing little patterns in different hand positions something I really needed at the time.

I'm stuck somewhere in the intermediate bootcamp, the chords lessons are very challenging and I'd have to say the most frustrating thing about PGS is that the songs are very long and played at a ridiculously high tempo. If you wanna get that perfect score, it often takes hours and hours working on a session.

I've sent dozens of suggestions to the support people. All I wanted to say here is that a lot off work goes into PGS and you get enough value out of it, it will take you from novice to advanced if you stick to it, without too much frustration in terms of technical problems.

I looked to find a competitor and for this approach maybe there is one alternative but it doesn't come close to PGS in terms of the UI, pricing and song availability. There are other alternatives that use other approaches and I use a few of them for a different kind of experience.

PGS showed up on most people's youtube last year, as it did for me, and that was what enticed me to become a lifetime subscriber. I hope they continue their advertising campaigns so more people can learn about it and join. The market for piano students, I would expect is fairly limited. As a PGS supporter I'll do what I can to contribute to spreading the word and positivity.

emptynoise
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Apr 21, 2020 11:25 pm

Re: Extremely disappointed with the Song Library interface

Post by emptynoise » Wed May 06, 2020 12:08 pm

I'm here for the content and not for the (although not optimal, but good-enough) software.
More or less the same here, it's really hard to find beginner friendly music with a broad selection of pieces to practice. I don't really like the bootcamp, but it can be a good learning tool for the right people. I have no reason to keep up a sub, but I'll probably be working my way through a bunch of songs in the store which is arguably too cheap for what it is. Compared to buying a song book for like $20 bucks or so, which might not have the CD included (FFS) or have a substantial price hike to do so and get maybe 5-10 songs... Yeah, I rather like the good-enough software that doesn't make me turn a page and can start the accompaniment from almost anywhere.

We can joke about DOS and COBOL, but let's admit it... they're both more legitimate than Adobe Flash, which is what I'm looking at in the installation for Playground :lol:
PGS showed up on most people's youtube last year, as it did for me, and that was what enticed me to become a lifetime subscriber. I hope they continue their advertising campaigns so more people can learn about it and join. The market for piano students, I would expect is fairly limited. As a PGS supporter I'll do what I can to contribute to spreading the word and positivity.
I don't think I've actually seen this product marketed anywhere. I don't even know (or care) about the big names attached to this software that people have been clamoring about. Like, what are they expecting from a video lesson that couldn't be said by literally any other musician? The content for new learners is so basic that having someone like Miles Davis teach would be completely pointless (but maybe a bit cool). But I don't think the market is that limited either, rather than just piano students midi controllers are very useful for anyone that does music production/composition with things like a DAW. IIRC, the music students at my old uni were required to take a semester or two of piano regardless of their concentration as well. The basic piano content PGS covers is just really useful to pretty much anyone getting into music.

Assil91
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed May 06, 2020 2:03 pm

Re: Extremely disappointed with the Song Library interface

Post by Assil91 » Wed May 06, 2020 2:06 pm

mariyastepanenko wrote:
Thu Mar 07, 2019 11:28 am
Are you buying songs on the computer app? Try buying songs from our website instead: https://www.playgroundsessions.com/store/songs. The website has a search feature and a couple of additional filtering options on the top. While looking for a specific song or artist, make sure that 'Sort By' is set to either 'Song Title' or 'Artist Name' so that you view the full selection.

The system does not prioritize non-expiring credits. If you would like a walkthrough of how to redeem song credits, please visit this article in our FAQ: https://support.playgroundsessions.com/ ... de banques
I would like to buy songs on this site and I have a question

Assil91
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed May 06, 2020 2:03 pm

Re: Extremely disappointed with the Song Library interface

Post by Assil91 » Wed May 06, 2020 2:11 pm

emptynoise wrote:
Wed May 06, 2020 12:08 pm
I'm here for the content and not for the (although not optimal, but good-enough) software.
More or less the same here, it's really hard to find beginner friendly music with a broad selection of pieces to practice. I don't really like the bootcamp, but it can be a good learning tool for the right people. I have no reason to keep up a sub, but I'll probably be working my way through a bunch of songs in the store which is arguably too cheap for what it is. Compared to buying a song book for like $20 bucks or so, which might not have the CD included (FFSprêt) or have a substantial price hike to do so and get maybe 5-10 songs... Yeah, I rather like the good-enough software that doesn't make me turn a page and can start the accompaniment from almost anywhere.

We can joke about DOS and COBOL, but let's admit it... they're both more legitimate than Adobe Flash, which is what I'm looking at in the installation for Playground :lol:
PGS showed up on most people's youtube last year, as it did for me, and that was what enticed me to become a lifetime subscriber. I hope they continue their advertising campaigns so more people can learn about it and join. The market for piano students, I would expect is fairly limited. As a PGS supporter I'll do what I can to contribute to spreading the word and positivity.
I don't think I've actually seen this product marketed anywhere. I don't even know (or care) about the big names attached to this software that people have been clamoring about. Like, what are they expecting from a video lesson that couldn't be said by literally any other musician? The content for new learners is so basic that having someone like Miles Davis teach would be completely pointless (but maybe a bit cool). But I don't think the market is that limited either, rather than just piano students midi controllers are very useful for anyone that does music production/composition with things like a DAW. IIRC, the music students at my old uni were required to take a semester or two of piano regardless of their concentration as well. The basic piano content PGS covers is just really useful to pretty much anyone getting into music.
Why is it more difficult to find songs?

Moreless
Posts: 41
Joined: Sat Sep 09, 2017 12:45 am

Re: Extremely disappointed with the Song Library interface

Post by Moreless » Thu Jun 04, 2020 3:12 pm

No QoL updates since 2016 is a shame. I'm waiting for someone to create a home brew Playground Sessions 2.0. Then we'd just import our purchased music and accompaniments from PGS. It'd be really simply, none of the scores or accompaniments are encrypted. This app needs a face lift with QoL improvements.

david
Posts: 49
Joined: Sun Feb 05, 2017 4:38 pm

Re: Extremely disappointed with the Song Library interface

Post by david » Fri Jun 26, 2020 11:59 am

I've already said it but I'll say it again - the user song library is completely broken. You cant sort properly, it doesnt work. Not even taking into account the feature requests which would improve things (like a search function for example), what we want is the software and DLC we paid for to work properly.

There are a lot of other issues which I have reported directly in the past and some were fixed, some can't be fixed until the next version (yeah, ok), but the broken library sorting is particularly annoying imo.

EFlatMajor
Posts: 147
Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2017 2:51 pm

Re: Extremely disappointed with the Song Library interface

Post by EFlatMajor » Fri Jun 26, 2020 2:18 pm

I think it might be time to lock this thread - so, Andrew, feel free if you agree.

Everyone that has been here a while knows why there has not been an update to the desktop version of PGS in a very long time. Those same people also know that Playground Sessions is being replatformed.

Replatforming means different things to different people. My personal guess is that PGS source code is being ported over to a new platform, one where they can share source code between the desktop and mobile versions, and maybe get that android version released. This makes software releases faster and easier.

I know from experience this takes a long time. I also know that during the replatform, bugs are fixed and features are added into the new version. Also, no one spends any time fixing the old platform because it is a waste of time as that old platform is on its way out.

I humbly ask that you all stop complaining about the song store until you see it running on the new platform.

No, I do not know when that will happen and I doubt PGS will tell us.

Have a great weekend and don't forget to practice,

david
Posts: 49
Joined: Sun Feb 05, 2017 4:38 pm

Re: Extremely disappointed with the Song Library interface

Post by david » Thu Jul 09, 2020 9:34 am

EFlatMajor wrote:
Fri Jun 26, 2020 2:18 pm
I think it might be time to lock this thread - so, Andrew, feel free if you agree.

Everyone that has been here a while knows why there has not been an update to the desktop version of PGS in a very long time. Those same people also know that Playground Sessions is being replatformed.

Replatforming means different things to different people. My personal guess is that PGS source code is being ported over to a new platform, one where they can share source code between the desktop and mobile versions, and maybe get that android version released. This makes software releases faster and easier.

I know from experience this takes a long time. I also know that during the replatform, bugs are fixed and features are added into the new version. Also, no one spends any time fixing the old platform because it is a waste of time as that old platform is on its way out.

I humbly ask that you all stop complaining about the song store until you see it running on the new platform.

No, I do not know when that will happen and I doubt PGS will tell us.

Have a great weekend and don't forget to practice,
The application is broken and hasn't been fixed in the 4+ years since I paid for it, so your reasoning on not fixing soon-to-be legacy software holds no water at all. Why wasn't it fixed 4 years ago?

So yeah, I don't see any reason to lock the topic as the issues persist and prospective new customers need to know. Some of us are far from happy. You are, good for you, but I'm not.

SWhite
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2020 9:58 pm

Re: Extremely disappointed with the Song Library interface

Post by SWhite » Sun Jul 19, 2020 10:23 pm

I've been on a 7 day trial and this is how I see it.

I love the app. It is entirely usable and it is fun. I've been trying to work out how I would start paying for it. It is made a bit difficult because my wife likes to dabble with learning keyboard every now an again but family issues means she doesn't want to think about it right now. But I was considering a family lifetime purchase.

But. I thought I would check where PS is heading seeing it is using Flash and it reaches end-of-life in 31 December 2020 where it will no longer be updated or distributed by Adobe. That doesn't mean PS will stop working but it does mean that it is severely obsolete (and Flashes security issues are legenday).

I'm a software developer and in most places I've worked, when we see an easily reproducible bug that affects almost all customers we've fixed it an pushed an update within 48 hours. Two common bugs reported here I hit myself on day two.

I read that we can expect a new version but I've not seen that said officially nor has any progress been published at all AFAICS. So I am not confident it is actually happening.

So this is all really disappointing for me. It is not an insubstantial amount of money so I doubt I'll be risking it.

Now before anyone says, "but, you said it is fun and usable!". Yes, so I am of two minds even now. But there is a competitor that while they aren't quite as good they are close, they are using more modern technologies and for their iPad app at least, and are publishing very regular updates.

A bug like the store sorting issue being around for so long, I just cannot fathom it. While it might well be wrong, but with the limited *official* info available to me it says that they don't care.

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