MusicButler will shutdown on February 15, 2022
TL;DR - The short version
MusicButler will cease operating on February 15, 2022. Registration is closed.
If you're a member, you can export the list of artists you follow here*, before the service becomes unavailable.
*If you don't like or understand the JSON format of the export, you can use a JSON to plain-text converter (example).Saying goodbye
MusicButler is my first ever public web app. When I started it in 2018, I didn't imagine it would grow the way it did.
It's an interesting experience, running a music-oriented web service. On the one hand, you've got those passionate members who have high demands and are very picky about how they'd like things to run (I'm all for that); On the other, you've got to deal with the intricacies and inner-workings of your information sources — Apple Music, Spotify, and the like...and trust me, there are many intricacies to deal with.
This landscape is the wild-west of information, and if anyone's wondering why Apple Music and Spotify haven't built a mechanism like MusicButler on their own, I'm not one of those.
And then there's money. Or lack thereof in this kind of industry. People like their music, but they often don't like paying for it.
With its growth, MusicButler has also become resource-hungry. That in and of itself is fine, but with a demanding full-time job, a house and household to now take care of, and the realization/guesstimation that MusicButler has no commercial future whatsoever, I can no longer afford this expensive hobby.
I've always taken pride of MusicButler's quality and precision vis-a-vis other services out there. I would rather kill it than see it become a lousy app.
Not long ago, programming and web-development have become not just a passion, but a job, too. I attribute much of that on the countless hours I've spent building, fixing, and maintaining MusicButler. And I would like to thank you, members, for taking the time to send feedback, guide me through solving bugs you've experienced, and kindly and unsolicitedly offering to donate towards the maintenance burden of this app. I have always declined, because I don't believe in this model. It warmed my heart and made me proud to read your emails.
So long!