{"id":6211,"date":"2021-03-01T08:00:33","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T07:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.henle.de\/blog\/en\/?p=6211"},"modified":"2021-03-11T08:56:22","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T07:56:22","slug":"the-henle-library-app-is-five-years-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/2021\/03\/01\/the-henle-library-app-is-five-years-old\/","title":{"rendered":"The Henle Library app is five years old!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It was in February 2016 that our Henle Library app for iPad was born, after a gestation period of around two years, followed by a version for Android in June that same year. Five years have since passed, five years of a wonderful and lasting success story! But what\u2019s been happening since my last blog entry about the app in May 2019<\/a>? I\u2019d like to have a quick look back and then forwards at the future \u2026<\/p>\n

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3 February 2016 \u2013 we celebrated the day our app was born with an iPad cake!<\/p><\/div>\n

The Henle Library was launched five years ago, and we\u2019ve been busy looking after it ever since. We soon learned what we had suspected beforehand as \u201cnewbies\u201d in the digital world: a digital project has a beginning but no end. It\u2019s a constant work in progress; the expectations of musicians concerning the app are continually growing; the technical basis is in a constant state of flux \u2013 the tablets, their operating systems, the infrastructure in the background in the cloud etc. etc. \u2026\u00a0 Our visions and concrete plans keep us moving forwards and at the same time, the competition is doing its best to keep us on our toes.<\/p>\n

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Trend: Up, up and up we go! It\u2019s only Android (blue) that does not really want to take off \u2026<\/p><\/div>\n

Looking back, we can see it\u2019s been a great success, as wherever we look, we can see the numbers are increasing at a fast rate. In the meantime, we have tens of thousands of active users in over 80 countries, the revenue from the app now greatly exceeds our running costs and we are getting wonderful feedback on its quality in our daily contact with the musicians who use it. And yet we still have so much to do.<\/p>\n

As is to be expected, the quality of the iPad, its stability and the intuitive nature of the iOS operating system mean that it is this platform that is mainly dominating our market (see the orange bars above). The Android world has not been able to keep up \u2013 very few musicians use Android-compatible tablets \u2013 even though we made a version of the app with the same functionality for both operating systems in 2016. Nevertheless, we still have an obligation towards Android and will continue to develop this version of our app \u2013 even if at a somewhat slower pace. And something that might interest owners of laptops: the iPad version runs on the latest Macbook models (those with M1 chip), as does our Android app on numerous Chromebooks.<\/p>\n

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Our app on the latest Macbook Air, with the new double page view feature<\/p><\/div>\n

Occasionally we are asked to develop a browser version of the Henle Library that is platform agnostic. To date we have not been able to see the benefits of doing so. Our app has been developed with mobile and practical usage in mind, not for desktop computers or laptops as these are less suited to performance or rehearsal situations. In addition, many of the special features that we offer in our app would be extremely difficult to realise using browser technology (especially as they would also have to work offline). Having said this, we will continue to follow the development of Windows tablets, despite the fact that they are far less widespread than iPads and Android tablets, and might even take on this challenge one day.<\/p>\n

New features since May 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shortly before my last update on the state of our app in May 2019, we had completely reworked the annotation mode. The results of this larger undertaking proved extremely popular. In particular, working with the Apple Pencil has become much more intuitive, and the introduction of a decent eraser and the undo function have helped, too.<\/p>\n

What has happened since then? In the 19 (!) updates we have released since May 2019, alongside a wide range of improvements behind the scenes, we have added several very useful new functions to our app:<\/p>\n

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  1. A very important aspect is that our app offers content that goes far beyond what is included in our print editions: numerous additional fingerings and bowings from historical or living artists. In the Henle Store in the app it\u2019s been possible since the end of 2019 to search for the names of these artists or use filters to find them. But what\u2019s more, on the homepage of the store there are rotating banners which show all of the artists and can be filtered through a single tap on the screen:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    The rotating banners with famous musicians, past and present, who have contributed fingerings<\/p><\/div>\n

    For quite a while now, a great many artists have become active ambassadors<\/a> for our app. You can find a current list of all of the musicians who have provided contributions here<\/a>! We were also recently sent many wonderful birthday greetings<\/a>, including from none other than Maestro Emanuel Ax.<\/p>\n

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    1. You\u2019ve already seen the photo with the Macbook above: we have now also incorporated a double-page view feature in the app, something that many of you have expressed a desire for. And soon musicians will also have the opportunity to turn over one or two pages when they are in this mode. You can watch Lea Hausmann and Sam Sheperd from the fantastic Amatis Trio present this new function for us in a short video.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n