wikiloops transparency report 2023 - some statistics for you

I'll simply start by sharing some graphs with you - thanks to rootshell for reminding me to do this, it is one of wikiloops ingredients to stay transparent towards the community, so here are some numbers for you:












Now, let me add a bit of review to those statistics,
and also make mention of some noteworthy things about the wikiloops project in 2023 which might not be obvious from the stats.

A bit of evaluation

I have always added one more metric to my transparency reports, called "human time spent having fun on wikiloops" - the calculation goes like this:
Take 512k visitors who have spent an average of nine minutes and 55 seconds on wikiloops, and you'll end up with 3289 days, or 9 years total visit time in 2023.
It's a somehow inspiring number to think about, you can read it as "9 people were surfing wikiloops at any second of the year",
but it also sheds some light on how much focus time on creating music wikiloops allowed for.

A word on the budget

One of the few graphs that do not look overly good is the cost vs revenue graph. What we are seeing there is a mix of things:
- google sending less potentially interested people, decreasing the number of potential future supporters
- inflation hitting all of us, making people more spend-cautious, and also increasing wikiloops server cost significantly
- the USD to EUR exchange rate is also directly affecting wikiloops revenue
These factors are pretty much outside of my control, we already have taken some steps to make sure we can turn the trend around in 2024,
and I do hope posts like this one here may promote the "gold" support status a little.
Let me put it this way:
We are offering wikiloops for roundabout 80 Euros (that's currently $88 for you) operation cost per day.
Somehow the price to value ratio of being a gold supporter seems quite good to me - I hope you would agree on that,
and I hope it once more becomes obvious that wikiloops is basically a non-profit organization,
which also explains why our paying members are referred to as "supporters" rather than "customers".

Technical improvements

This might be only interesting for people with some development or IT background, it does belong in this report never the less.
Since I have been joined by senior karuma in late 2022, we have turned the complete backend code of wikiloops upside down and inside out.
What had organically grown to be a giant collection of spagetthi code needed cleanup,
so we took the following steps to make this project future-proof:
- setting up version controll
- untangling database access and controller logic, and separating html generation to twigs templating engine
- introducing automatic deployment via a gitHub pipeline
- introducing dependency injection
- upgrading and review of included third party packages
- migrating the project towards the symfony framework
We deliberately chose not to roll out the latest changes before 2024 to make sure we would not disturb the festive season,
but we will switch to symfony routing and add a first set of automated tests to the deployment pipeline next - improving security and automating quality controll.

On the visible side of wikiloops, the redesigned track search engine probably stands out in 2023,
but the whole new member registration procedure and the membership upgrade purchases have been re-designed as well, leading to a noticeable increase in new member registrations.
We did not track how many hours karuma and me have spent on these changes in 2023, my rough guess would be something close to 1000 hours in 2023.
That is a giant investment in terms of time, and expertised people like my friend and mentor-in-code karuma are not only hard to come by, but also quite expensive to hire...
so, on top of what we have seen in those graphs up there, there was this silent investment in the wikiloops engine room (those familiar with below screen should note the number of commits and changed code):

Volunteer support

Let me mention and thank the volunteers who have been tending to the wikiloops community and which are a bit more visible on the surface than karuma and me:
Here's once more to Shi, TeeGee and wjl - it would not be wikiloops without you guys, so thank you all for taking care!
I'd also like to give explicit thanks to Shamika - I have deliberately added the graph displaying the forums uprise in activity this year, and I believe Shamika played a role in that :)
Also, I'd like to thank those of you who engaged in bug reports and helped us fix whatever needed fixing after the upgrade to version 14. That feedback helps big time, so, thanks again for getting in touch when things seem odd or ceases to work.

Thanks to our supporters and our sponsor Thomann

Well, as you can tell, it simply would not work without supporting members, which generate close to 90% of wikiloops annual budget.
530 individuals supported wikiloops in 2023 - thank you, you made it happen!

We also would like to thank our long-term sponsor and favorite online merchant for musical instruments thomann for their continued support.

Here's to many jams on wikiloops 2024

I sometimes have doubts if anyone really reaches the end of such long-text articles... you obviously did, thanks for your time :)
Feel free to comment or feedback on this thread, or reach out to me directly if you care.
wikiloops is about collaboration, so, let's look forward to where the journey continues in 2024!

Yours Richard

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the 2022 dip in most of the graphs is interesting. on the work front, 2020 and 2021 were primarily remote years (more time at home) while 2022 was that 'return to work' push and hybrid schedules. maybe less time at home for music making, in addition to other things.

good stuff Dick! hats off to you and karuma. before tracking changes and version control, did you just track everything in your head??!! :o

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Dick,
Thank you not only for the update but also all the work that went into maintaining and improving what we see as naked numbers!

One thing that bothers me a bit is the cost to revenue ratio, or rather the potential consequences. I think I've mentioned in various posts how much I value not only the pure musical aspect of WL but also the community spirit, the style in which we interact and help each other. Maybe it's just me and my past experiences but there's this fear I have that with increased membership comes a downside of loss of...call it the social element.

So, while I don't want to put this up for general debate - this is your baby after all - I'm just wondering what vision for the future you have and what we could do to provide support.

Thomas

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As far as the revenue goes, have other ways for side revenue been considered, like affiliate linking, etc? Personally, I've purchased so many music-based items on Amazon, if a small percentage of that went to WL I'm sure it would help a little. Working with other music entities as well, like Sweetwater in the US for affiliate revenue benefits (if they have them) couldn't hurt. Just thinking out loud :)

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Thanks for the update and yes, a lot of people have less money now with the way economies are after the whole covid thing.

Speaking of silver and gold collaborator status, I've been buying the gold support status for years now and it still says "silver collaborator" on my profile when I click on the gear icon. :O Not worried about it, just saying :D I got the gold star so it's all tickety-boo! :W

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So good to have the report, so bad to see that the cost revenue isn't healthy. Definitely not Richard's fault yet opens up an area for further discussion?

There is no doubt about Richard's committent to the continuation of the project with new programming taking place. Should the community be discussing how they might help or ideas of different types of sponsorship?

There is a wealth of experience in the members, who may have ideas, or are willing to act as ambassadors. Some have assisted new or other members in a teaching role. Music education is big business all over the world and online teaching pretty standard. Volunteers in the community? Others may have good connections for potential sponsors. If not asked to assist that won't happen. The statistics (above) reveal plenty of visibility which have been taken up by Thomann, but could also be of value to others.

Other sites have (separate) sections for instrument sales with a percentage going to the site. There could also be adds for other services such as teaching, recording, mastering, etc. We've all got gear and expertise and others are always in the market for these things. That could also open a new entry/referral point for Google or other searches.

All "off the top of the head" suggestions. Do others have suggestions?

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A look at the graphs of the google visits and the revenue reveal a very similiar curve. Marketing loss perhaps the reason for the deficit. A quick batch of thoughts: investigate marketing options for google placement of non-profits, as well as other sites and search engines. Especially, social media sites come to mind (Facebook, Discord, and Mastodon). Could this be the year wikiloops sells out a bit, with coding of bots to drop ads around the web? Or will wikiloops subscribers take some grassroots initiative and post up virtual posters where and when we can.

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@Wade: that's why I asked about vision going forward. Things like sponsorship, mentoring etc. will change WL to a certain extent. Question is how much change in what areas Dick would like to see or find acceptable. I'll certainly contribute ideas but the Master should point towards the general direction for the future.
Hmm, Master Richard has a nice ring to it :D

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you'll always be 'gold' in my book amigo :) :W you got that midas touch :o

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back to money matters, is there a 'group' within WL who focus on donations/giving/revenue/etc? if not, i would say now is a time to form a committee for ideas. just a thought. we've missed on "Giving Tuesday" ( https://www.givingtuesday.org/about/ ) but there are probably things throughout the year that can be done to help with donations.

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That'd be a yes, sir.



I believe I understand what you are talking about, but I also feel you might be following a line of thought that is chaining some assumptions which I would not make - let me explain:
If we take these stats as a starting point, and agree to notice that there seems to be some need to watch the monetary side, then "we need more members" is one possible way to solve the problem, but not the only one.
If that was the only way to survive, and we would push all available buttons to increase membership numbers, then yes, I'd absolutely agree that would affect the overall feel of wikiloops.
I do not really connect the two issues like you did - making sure the community spirit survives membership growth is a challenge to itself, and one I have been thinking about a lot - solving the budget situation is a different challenge.
It would basically suffice to convince todays silver supporters to switch to gold, or to engage with some additional sponsors to solve the situation, just to give examples for why I don't see the community size as the only parameter.

You also kindly asked for some more insight in my vision, and I'll be happy to offer that, but let's maybe wait and see some more feedback from others before I do.

Actually, i just checked, and there are more posts coming as I type here, to which I'd like to respond as well - I'll mix order tho, let me reply to Mikes observation next:

I deliberately added that graph to demonstrate that corelation. With googles continued dominance of the search market, they do have a giant impact on how wikiloops will fare in the future. wikiloops used to rank very prominently for some high volume search terms like most obviously "backing tracks" or "drum tracks", but after a really extended stretch of updates on google this fall,
organic traffic is getting harder to come by. Luckyly, wikiloops was only slightly impacted by the past years updates, the project has taken quite severe hits (think 30% less visitors over night) during updates in the past.
The whole search engine environment is shaken up by AI, and we seriously don't know what the internet will look like three years from now -
chances are projects like wikiloops will get hard to find if one does not pay some sort of advertising fee to some search engines, that seems to be the way it is going.
So, yes, social media outreach and grass root recommendations will become even more valuable than before.
I am no online marketing expert by any means, but from what I know, the current cost-per-click prices would lead to a negative return on invest for wikiloops as it is today,
so I don't see a viable way to establish some perpetual payed marketing at this time.
A bot raid to drop spam-ads about wikiloops... no, let's not even think about that please :)
Organizing a member effort do do some guerrilla marketing action? Possibly dangerous as well, first, because most wikiloops members are not that web-savy, and second because it sends a dubious signal about the state of the project to orchestrate a member-based soft-spam raid (sorry, but that is what a grassroot initiative might be perceived as).
Spreading the word about wikiloops is important, and I absolutely encourage anyone to do that, and be aware that the darn link to wikiloops below your youtube video does make a difference to wikiloops visibility. It's that awareness that we need to stimulate, but without any drama IMO.


I have to strongly disagree on that one, sir.

Maybe I should try to explain why I am not alarmed or feel as much need to take immediate action - that will be a good exercise for me, but probably another long read for you, so I'll just send this one off for now :)

(no offense to Wade and Nicks ideas, I'll get back to those as well)

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just more ideas...maybe a 'pay it forward' campaign too. i've had someone recently buy me a month or so of membership, totally awesome by the way. i want to pay it forward, but maybe upon request, it would be cool to see a list of active members who's membership may be expiring in the next few months...i don't know if that's possible. definitely not something i would expect to be publicly available but if you could provide that upon requests if an individual requested it, it would be great.

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Your a good man and a great musician.Happy new Year my friend.:W

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For me it is simple: WL is a non profit organisation. But it cannot live with deficits. Somehow somebody have to pay...

Because it is us, musicians who use WL who should pay a fair price. So after making a budget, We should adjust the contributions in order to achieve financial balance.

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Robjol and Dick both have good points. Dick has wisely suggested that we don't panic about the future status of the wikiloops community. As Robjol has stated, if such a problem were ever to surface, I'm sure many members would be willing to pay extra to keep the site running.

An extra point I'd like to make besides marketing and subscription fees, is extra subscriber status rungs. A Platinum membership perhaps, for those willing to shell out for stems revision history storage (and the coding behind).

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I think PayPal payment puts some people off. I've had several times when I couldn't use it, never found any reason why, and it was "Please try again later" yesterday when I discovered I'd have to subscribe to download -- paying by card is same cos it goes through PP.

If you could offer Stripe, or WorldPay, that would not put as many people off, imho. There are other alternatives too. Search PayPal alternatives. Basically: put nothing in the way of people pressing the Subscribe button and paying immediately.

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Thanks Richard, eye opening numbers on display. Let's hope for a good 2024. P.S. Master?? More like Captain for me ;)

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Off topic:

Before this 'Master' thing spirals out of control...I meant it purely in the old fashioned sense. But maybe Lord Loop (or is it Looplord?) is a better alternative? :D

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Hey, giving this a bump, as I just posted the requested "vision" in a new thread.

You know, former german chancellor Helmut Schmidt once said:
"If someone has visions - they should see a doctor." :D

Hope you won't mind if I skip the "how to be-title richard" discussion, as that is sligthly off-topic... I'll pick up some more of your above suggestions instead:


I completely agree with you. There is a whole layer of rather boring functionality that must be improved for convenience, and you named two of the most boring and most relevant things: Signup & Payments. Just make things obvious and easy to use, following the "don't make me think" approach (I did not invent that).


Could you please elaborate what "revision history storage" would be? You made me curious.
A platinum status... not so sure, tho I understand and have no objections against major supporters being displayed as such.
I have also been wondering if I should try to market things like "sponsor the license fee for Dicks development software for one year"
or "sponsor the official wikiloops engine room espresso machine" (now that would be one hell of a supporter badge to display!) on black friday... thing is, letting platinum members sponsor new features requires time to code new features, what wikiloops needs are funds for the ongoing operations, that might be difficult to play, if you know what I'm trying to say.

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'Revision history storage’ -
As in stricter coding practices, every part of the branch history is stored. In music terms, this means stems (tracks in daw terms). You would, as a platinum member, upload every stem from your daw project to wikiloops 'platinum' area. Then years later, someone perusing a Platinum template, could extract that 'cool' percussion track right off the site. Final mixes could be uploaded as regular templates to the regular feed area and take on a life of their own. As I'm writing this, it occurs to me I'd forgotten about the Band code, which seems kind of neglected somehow. You can upload and share files with friends, but neat built in widgits using webdav technology would be super cool...


How would this be fun? I would find it enjoyable to hunt down tracks with interesting stems and break-em out of the parent mix. The HD code works fine, and most loopers will upload HD if you prod them. But it seems a seldom used bit of code here.

In terms of sustainability, complete stems storage could be a goal of sorts, if not this year, then perhaps in coming. I backup all of my DAW projects to cloud or external drive, so I can track down older templates. I wonder what % users backup versus discard.

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