Re: Appreciation / Financial support

[Tim McNamara]

On May 28, 2012, at 9:29 AM, James Harkins wrote:
> 
> Related: I can't say I read the list very closely, so somehow I overlooked 
> the fact before that David K.'s livelihood comes from working on Lilypond. I 
> had assumed Lilypond was almost completely a volunteer effort (like 
> SuperCollider, for which I contribute some code, bug fixes and documentation 
> when I can), so I hadn't taken seriously the idea of supporting Lilypond 
> financially. The recent thread changes my mind about that. I can't do it 
> immediately for reasons I don't need to discuss, but after I get back to the 
> US for summer holiday, I can make a donation on the order of a few years' 
> worth of "Finale tax" (yearly $100-$120 US upgrade fee).

The "Finale tax!"  I got a chuckle out of that.  But it's a great point.

> I'd urge other users to think in similar terms. If Lilypond is as valuable to 
> you as Finale or Sibelius, or more: How much do those packages cost? Does a 
> $10-$15 donation match the value you get out of Lilypond? My contribution may 
> be a small amount of what David needs, but... if I can put that kind of value 
> on Lilypond, maybe you can too.

Sending money to David is very simple, and I would think that would be the case 
for other developers interested in this.  Just send by PayPal or a bank wire 
transfer, whichever is easiest/cheapest in terms of fees.  Sending money 
directly to developers instead of to a central Lilypond account cuts a lot of 
costs and eliminates much of the need for organizational bureaucracy (e.g., an 
accounting department).

FWIW with today's exchange rate for Americans, the €15 I sent = US $19.37 
(minus fees).  I don't know what the going hourly rate for developers is where 
David lives; at US average wages for programmers my $19.37 would at best pay 
for about 30 minutes of his time.  I can afford to send about that every month. 
 What David *could* be making working at a job underscores the need for many 
Lilypond users to be contributing- he would need 320 people a month each 
contributing €15 to be competitive with having a regular full time job (and he 
still would not be getting many of the benefits that would come with 
traditional employment- at least seen through the lens of how self-employment 
works in America).

As great as Lilypond's output is, there is a long way to go in terms of 
simplification and usability (the syntax needs to be simplified dramatically; a 
lot of the code users have to write is pretty ugly and is going to scare off 
potential users).  Having someone working full time on Lilypond is a great way 
to get that done in under a decade.