Greetings.... and happy new year all,

I'm a new member and really enjoying the site. Can someone explain what the significance of the Alpha and Beta status of the site means?

Thanks,

Marcus

Hi Marcus .. good question.  Alpha and Beta are rough terms used in the software / web industry to define early testing of new products.  Here's my take

Alpha is an incomplete early version of a new product / service that has enough functionality and utility for people to use and benefit from.  An Alpha test is usually closed (invitation only) and small 6-10 people.  It's a time for the development team to see how new potential users react to the product .. get a fresh perspective and new ideas from people .. and also find bugs / issues.  For Sonic Junction, it was also a time for Duke, Corey and I to work out how we would create the lessons together .. and find issues, work out the kinks etc.

Beta is generally close to or feature complete version of the commercial product.  It can range from closed, invitation only to open (like ours).   The goal for the Beta is to test the commercial product with a larger number of users to prepare for the commercial launch.   In our case, we have the functionality .. but will update the UI before our commercial launch.   Beta's are usually free.  We charged $1 for our Beta as a token symbol that we are creating a paid service and want to work with people who are willing to pay for services IF they deliver value to them.

Moving forward, we are approaching the product from a modern web perspective .. so we will likely continue to refine the product with new releases every 2-3 weeks (you may have noticed we added the video looper 2 weeks ago).  Right now we have two things in development

1. New UI (still minimalist with a bit more color and polish)

2. Tab / chords overlay (on & off) in the video player (really cool full screen experience)

When we go to commercial, it will be a subscription service with two plans .. monthly $19.95 and yearly $199.50 .. which works out to $4 or $5 a week (or lesson) depending upon the plan.  The subscription will give you access to all artists, all lessons and feedback (Q&A and uploaded videos).  

Happy to answer any further questions and thanks for the question Marcus.