Friday, February 12, 2010

Aviary - Creation on the fly / blog / Setting Aviary Free

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Setting Aviary Free

By Michael Galpert on February 11, 2010 | 9 comments

As of today, we have decided to make using Aviary's suite of editing tools FREE for everyone.

At Aviary, we believe that everyone in the world should have access to powerful creation tools. We therefore chose our company mission to be We make creation accessible to everyone. Our powerful set of tools helps fulfill this mission by enabling small businesses, students, artists & creators across different genres.

As a business, we did need to bring in revenues to cover our costs and development and to accomplish this we created a tiered pricing plan for certain types of uses. Although this was financially successful for us, the side effect of this was that our tools and their features (in their full capacity), were not truly accessible to everyone.

We have long felt that to better serve our core mission our complete feature set needed to be in the hands of everyone - not just those who could afford it. Fortunately, our recent round of funding (by Spark Capital, Bezos Expeditions & others) enables us to finally achieve this goal as we shift revenues opportunities to other exciting areas that don't limit individuals in any way. We are excited at the opportunity to stay true to our mission. Not many companies are so fortunate.

What does that mean exactly? Now everyone can:

* Save private files on Aviary.
* Add your own automatic watermark or go watermark-free.
* Access all tutorials.

Existing subscribers who signed up in the last 30 days can request refunds. [refund@aviary.com] For all other past Blue plan members, we will cancel all future recurring payments directly. You will remain on indefinitely as our legacy Blue Supporters (recognized by the blue badges wherever they appear on Aviary's site) and you will continue to gain first access to all alpha products we release (rumor has it that a new one is floating around). And of course, we can't thank you enough for supporting Aviary's growth and development. That means the world to us.

Thanks for your continued support and we looking forward to seeing what you create.

What you waiting for? Go create something AWESOME !

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Comments

Posted by Nic on 2010-02-11 20:03:46

May I just be the first to say, WOOT!!!! :D

Posted by Evelyn on 2010-02-11 22:02:26

And me the second!! WOOT! :D

Posted by Sally Carson on 2010-02-11 22:10:28

Congrats guys, I think this is fantastic.

Posted by Shea on 2010-02-11 22:25:41

Thank you.

Posted by suebe on 2010-02-12 07:51:24

This is the best thing you can do for the masses. I've been telling everyone about aviary.

Posted by xobuta on 2010-02-12 08:00:06

i love the colors of this blog and the way you write english

Posted by Apostol Apostolov on 2010-02-12 08:27:07

But how are you going to pay the server bills and support for the app?

Posted by Avi Muchnick on 2010-02-12 09:18:49

Apostol - we are pursuing other revenue opportunities. This is simply a shift that enables us to stay true to our mission statement. Have no fear - we would not have made this decision if it would have negatively impacted our ability to operate as a responsible business.

Posted by bassp on 2010-02-12 10:28:58

Quite a rush of good-news blogs! Congratulations on the savvy investors. And thanks for the juicy morsel you've thrown the flock: that new app floating around. Hope it's humming.

It continues to be a mystery to me how companies like this one offer completely free services and expect to stay in business. This only "works" on the internet and even on the internet it doesn't work sometimes. I wish they'd tell me how they're making money so I can know if I should trust or use their product.

I trust Google products (A LOT OF THEM) because they're not going out of business. This looks appealing but be careful to not rely on businesses that don't have a business model. I'm likely to sign up for this service if it's quicker to use it than to open Photoshop on my computer. I just hope they stay in business.

What do you use to crop and adjust pictures? Do tell...in the comments section of course.

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