We give away 95% of our features for free.
The AI categorization? Free.
Unlimited recordings? Free.
All 600+ automatic sound albums? Free.
Import from other apps? Free.
We charge for one thing: Creating more than 3 custom albums.
Everyone thinks we’re insane. They’re probably right. Here’s why we did it anyway.
The Subscription Exhaustion Era
Open your iPhone settings. Check Subscriptions.
How many are there? 10? 20?
That $4.99/month for everything adds up to $500/year before you notice.
The average iPhone user has 12 subscriptions. For features they use maybe twice a month. Everyone’s tired of it. Everyone’s angry about it. Yet everyone keeps doing it.
What Others Charge For
Typical Voice Memo Apps:
- More than 10 recordings: Free
- Basic organization: Free
- Export recordings: Free
- Remove ads: Pay
- Cloud sync: Pay
- Transcription: Pay
Sound Library:
- Unlimited recordings: Free
- Export everything: Free
- No ads ever: Free
- AI categorization: Free
- All automatic albums: Free
- Import from anywhere: Free
- Advanced search filters: Free
- Create 3 Albums: Free
- Create more than 3 Albums: Paywall
The 3-Album Psychology
Why custom albums?
Why 3?
We studied how people actually organize:
Group 1 (70% of users): Never create custom organization. They rely entirely on automatic categorization. These users need zero custom albums.
Group 2 (25% of users): Create 1-3 project-based collections:
- “House Renovation”
- “Baby’s First Year”
- “Podcast Season 1”
Group 3 (5% of users): Power users who create dozens of custom collections for every project, idea, and theme.
Three albums perfectly serves 95% of users. The 5% who need more? They’re getting massive value and won’t mind paying.
Why This Specific Limitation Works
It’s Generous: Three custom albums is enough for most people’s active projects.
It’s Understandable: Not some arbitrary storage limit or recording count. Just albums.
It’s Optional: All automatic organization works without custom albums.
It’s Fair: Power users who need complex organization pay. Casual users don’t.
The Numbers Nobody Shares
Here’s what freemium usually looks like:
- 100 users download
- 3 become paying customers
- 97 delete the app in frustration
Here’s what we’re building for:
- 100 users download
- 95 use it happily for free forever
- 5 upgrade because they genuinely need more
- 100 recommend it because it’s actually useful without paying
Lower conversion rate. Higher retention. More recommendations. Sustainable growth.
Real User Scenarios
Maria, Freelance Writer: Records interviews, ideas, and client calls.
- Uses automatic “Speech” album for all interviews
- Created 1 custom album: “Book Research”
- Never hits the limit. Never pays. Loves the app.
James, Musician: Records practice, lessons, and song ideas.
- Uses automatic instrument albums (Guitar, Piano, Drums)
- Created 3 custom albums: “Band Demo,” “Teaching,” “Originals”
- At the limit but doesn’t need more. Stays free.
Sophie, Product Manager: Records everything.
- Needs 15+ custom albums for different projects and teams
- Happily pays for unlimited albums
- Gets massive value from the organization
Alex, Digital Archaeologist: Has 3 years of recordings.
- All recordings are accessible through sound albums (free)
- Can browse recordings by date created (free)
- Upgrades to premium to quickly search “What did I record in March 2023?”
- The search filters save hours when looking for specific time periods
What Premium Actually Costs: $1.99/month
Less than one coffee, parking for an hour, or a bag of chips at the airport.
For unlimited custom albums and advanced search capabilities. Forever. That’s it.
The Trust Transaction
By giving away the core features, we’re saying: “Try everything. See the value. Pay only if you need more.”
No bait and switch. No features held hostage. No “free trial” that suddenly charges your card.
You know exactly what you’re paying for: More custom albums and time-based search filters. Not basic functionality.
Why We Can Afford This
No Cloud Costs: Everything processes on-device. We’re not paying for your storage.
No Transcription API: We use Apple’s frameworks. No per-minute charges.
No Marketing Budget: Happy free users are our marketing.
Super Small Team: We’re not burning venture capital on ping-pong tables.
Sustainable Focus: We need thousands of happy users, not millions of frustrated ones.
The Features That Matter
What makes a voice memo app actually useful?
- Finding recordings quickly (AI categorization)
- Importing from other apps (Share Extension)
- Recording without limits (unlimited storage)
All free. Because if these aren’t free, the app isn’t useful. And if it’s not useful, why would anyone pay?
Premium adds convenience features like searching by specific months/years and unlimited custom albums—nice to have when your library grows, but not essential for core functionality.
The Anti-Dark-Pattern Promise
No tricks:
- No hiding the free option
- No constant upgrade prompts
- No limiting exports to force payment
- No ads disguised as features
- No “premium only” for basic functions
The app is fully functional for free. Premium is just “more of a good thing.”
The Long Game
We’re not optimizing for next quarter’s revenue. We’re building for the next decade.
Free users who love the app become:
- Advocates who recommend it
- Reviewers who rate it highly
- Community members who provide feedback
- Future customers when their needs grow
Subscription fatigue is real. App exhaustion is real. We’re betting that being genuinely useful for free is the best business model.
Your Move
Sign up for the waitlist. Use every feature. Create your 3 custom albums. Organize hundreds of recordings. Import your entire audio history.
If you never need more than 3 custom albums, never pay us a cent. We’re fine with that. Actually, we designed for that.
But if you’re that 5% who needs more? We’re here with unlimited albums for less than your morning coffee.
That’s the deal. That’s the entire business model. Transparent, simple, and built for humans, not metrics.
Sound Library: 95% free forever. 5% premium for power users. 100% transparent about it.
