Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
App Refunds
I find the app store refund process to be very hard to understand. There seems to be no consistency and no Apple rep will ever explain their decision so it is left a mystery.
My main curiosity at present though is what happens to an app after refund. Are you banned from ever purchasing it again? I just came across a refunded app and saw the download cloud and when I tapped it there was a blurb about the App not being available for my Apple ID.
Comments
This was already discussed and cautioned in the past. Apple could amend their policy at any time and devs won’t be in control of it. Apparently, Apple doesn’t allow to repurchase apps in some countries already and maybe it is applied to US too now. AppStore glitches could prevent from repurchasing apps woo. Do not seek refund if you intend to buy the app again in future.
This must be a new thing. I think I refunded that OBx synth because it was completely broken and then repurchased it when it got fixed.
Apparently you can get around it by logging out of your Apple ID, go to the page to buy it, and then login when it prompts you.
I've refunded several apps and repurchased. Go to the app store, go to purchased apps. Find the app and swipe it. It will hide it, reverting it to its undownloaded state.
If it showed the cloud then that's not the same as re-purchasing. That's what shows when you remove an app from your iPad that you've purchased. Are you sure you removed it from all your devices? If not, that might explain why the cloud is showing rather than Buy.
But if I intend to buy it in the future why would I seek a refund?
Thanks for this. At the moment it was just more of a curiosity. I haven't developed the ability to predict the future yet, so an app that does not sound or behave now like it will in the future might be something I want to repurchase at some stage. Haven't come across one yet though.
The other thing is I've been treating the refund process a bit like a demo version. With audio apps I'm not sure how it is possible to know when a musical app is what you want it to be. There are tutorials, but sometimes they don't cut it and sometimes there is just not enough audio/video to know exactly what you are buying. Maybe I reached a point where Apple decided I was getting a bit too refund happy.
Yep, I'm a simple, one device man.
Is it true that Apple still charge a developer for their 30%, cut when an app is refunded? I remember reading that here before, but it seems incredibly greedy, it's really hard to believe.
If an app is broken then asking for a refund is fair.
Shouldn’t be used to “demo” apps since the developer is left to pay the price
All CC companies charge the seller a percentage for every refund. So apple is getting hit with a charge every time someone refunds. It's at least 20% that the CC company charges for service fees of the purchase price. Apple would just be losing money if they didn't charge the developers. It's the CC companies that are greedy.
Thanks, didn't think about that.
Make sure you remove refunded apps. If it’s universal it might still be on another device. I be repurchased apps, just last week in fact, with no problems. I’ve often wondered if Apple knows if you failed to remove an app after they refunded it. Unfortunately there are likely people who get a refund and continue to use the apps. If I seek a refund, I remove all instances immediately.
I’ve found Apple more difficult to deal with lately. They really would prefer not to speak with you. The agents you get have been more hit and miss 9n terms of knowledge and their willingness to help you. So sometimes you have to call more than once to get answers or service, and especially refunds. I just bought a new iPad Pro and I had questions. I couldn’t speak with anyone at the store. I had to wait 25 minutes and eventually got a poorly trained person who didn’t know answers to my questions and appeared to guess at answers. She wasn’t even willing to look it up and research it.
I’m quite upset with Apple at the moment...
apple refunds are amazingly terrible. they denied me a refund on an app that was completely broken and after hours of talking to everyone in the department still couldn’t get an answer as to why. apparently the refund gods have spoken and that’s all you need to know.
How is that" Does the developer lose the full 100% including the 30% that Apple took?
What are your thoughts about asking for a refund if the app does not sound as you expect? As a musician this seems to me as important as being reliable and bug free. I can make some informed decisions about the interface but the sound is not fully known until put into practice.
Exactly my experience.
Most of my purchases are with gift cards. How does that work in the context of refunds?
Exactly. The developer loses the money from your sale and then gets hit with an additional charge. So the dev pays for you to demo the app.......
I'm not exactly sure how gift cards work, but I doubt apple has an algorithm in place that would differentiate the payment type. I'm sure its just a blanket refund clause that triggers the charge. There is still a process of removing funds from a developer.
If you've ever work at any retail establishment or sales firm, you know that the business will offer almost anything to prevent a refund, because they get hit with a charge. If you've never worked for a place like this, surely you've been in the position where the retailer offers you store credit or some other incentive to keep your money where you sent it.
True though that there will be no fee for gift card, nor debit card purchases either (I think, though correct me if I'm wrong) . Anyway, even if the fee is 20 percent, why are Apple charging the dev 30 percent? In many cases (certainly not all) it will have been Apple's fault for authorising release of a buggy app that doesn't perform as it says it will. And their cut from sales is already more than high enough to cover the admin for occasional refunds. It's not as if they're not drowning in profits, helped too by the fact that they are a major tax avoider.
Of course the obvious solution would be to allow demos (perhaps with some exclusions of certain app types, like games). Needless to say, this would save the likes of us a fortune, which is exactly why they don't do it. But I'd like to see the EU, for example, stepping in here and insisting on this.
The unfortunate side-effect of more regulation and governmental special requirements is higher prices. You can be that Apple will not take the financial hit, but will pass it down to consumers in increased costs overall. You can already see this reflected in prices for Europe that aren't in proportion to currency exchange rates.
One way or another someone takes the hit ... and it ain't gonna be Apple.
It would be hard to argue the financial pros of no demo and then complain about having to offer refunds.
OK, that's a very relevant point. I'm certainly glad that I'm not paying UK app store prices...
That may be the case everywhere. Certainly is in Australia. The markup is generally 50% of the US App store price.
Exactly why I have time for no 'free market is always best' spiel. In cases like this, we are a captive market, there is no real alternative. And especially when you have already invested in a system for years, you're just stuck with it and if you abandon it you lose your whole prior investment.
We only get that with the Google Play store here (as far as I know).
This is not true. For example here are VISA fees... they vary based o situation bit they are around 0.6% - 1.6%...
https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/download/merchants/interlink-interchange-reimbursement-fees.pdf
Charging devs 30% on refund is pure steal and Apple is greedy as fuck. End of discussion.
yes.