I'm confused with the comments here - we do all know Garageband is the app in the ad, right? It just so happens that people see a piano and search "piano" in the app store.

I may also be missing jokes and/or sarcasm :)

Yes, GarageBand is the app in the commercial. Why would Apple feature someone else's piano? :-) But it is nice that they said "App from App Store" instead of being more specific. That allowed the rest of us piano app developers to benefit.

p.s. I hope I'm not the only one around here who thinks of Tom Hanks when I hear that tune. I suppose all the kids downloading my app don't think of "big" when they see the TV ad.

Or Robert Loggia. I hope they never remake that movie.

I loved Big! And Vice Versa (with Fred Savage). I think I fit their target demographic.

I saw this commercial and I was upset that Apple didn't explicitly say which App they were using for the commercial. At the end at the bottom it just said, "App From App Store" . Glad that people are finding the app though, the commercial is great advertisement!

EDIT: Ok, apparently this app is not the tiny piano app I thought it was in my initial comment. Thanks for clearing this up. The confusion is why I was upset they didn't explicitly say which app they were using. I guess its a just a good day to be a piano app.

In other words, TV advertising is the most effective way to promote an app?

Depends on how you define effective. If you are getting free air time, with Apple PR picking up the bill, then yes, there probably is no better way of increasing your own revenue. However, if you are paying for the ad yourself - well, I guess there is a reason why we don't get a huge number of ads for individual apps (at least, that's the case here in the UK). Its simply not cost effective.

Yes, if you can get other people to pay for it.

When I had an app featured in an Apple commercial it appeared in an "As Seen on TV" section of the App Store in that country, and lead to a sales boost.

More like people trying to find a use for their iPad mini

No its more like people being interested in the application, finding value in it and actually wanting to buy it. When I got my Nexus 7 it came with £15 free content on the play store and I couldn't even spend it all because there was so little quality applications available.

3 million downloads bringing in $10K revenues, that dosen't seem like a huge amount of money considering the spike in users of the app.

Sorry for the confusion. I meant Tiny Piano achieved its 3 millionth download since its launch in February 2012. The TV ad is bringing in about 4x the daily sales.

I think they meant in total since launch they have now brought in 3 million downloads, and that over the 3 days they have made $10K.

Maybe? It is a bit unclear.

Look at the sales trend graph. He said $9k from Friday to Sunday, which add up to ~100,000 downloads.

I read this title much more literally, I thought they had seen an uptick in physical tiny piano sales (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c3/Schroeder_Pian...)

Curious how you landed on the color scheme for the keys. Is that how you hear them?

I just ask because I've always heard D as "red" and you had yours at red/orageish. Was wondering if it was just coincidence.

EDIT: Scratch that. Just realized it was ROYGBIV with C as the root. :)

I honestly don't recall. I am not a synesthete, and in fact I'm not a musician. That's why I make apps that make it easy for people to feel like they are a musician... :-)

This web app references various historical tone-to-color mappings. Check out the settings menu: http://mudcu.be/piano/

In a way this reminds me of how Etch-a-Sketch sales skyrocketed after the Mitt Romney Etch-a-Sketch comment earlier in the year.

(Say what you will about the former presidential nominee, but Etch-a-Sketch is a pretty cool toy for kids!)

I actually thought the app in the ad was Garageband for iOS! Congratz man!

The app in the ad is Garageband. However people just saw a piano and went searched for "piano" in the App Store and downloaded this instead of GarageBand (probably because the thumbnail looked like what they were looking for).

    (probably because the thumbnail looked like what they were looking for)

Probably because GarageBand is five bucks and TinyPiano is free.

I ran into Ron at Startup School. We, like many others, exchanged business cards. He added me on LinkedIn the next day, and was the only person I met who added me. I think Ron makes his own luck.

Congrats Ron!

Hi Blake!

10K is good monetization for 3 million free downloads. Its not easy to get that kind of money from ad displays. On a normal site you get a bit less for that amount of impressions.

Slightly less? What ad networks are you using at $10k that would be an eCPM of $3.33 which for non-mobile ads is pretty high for what the app is.

I don't know how that app works, but I would assume that it generates more than one impression per download. I assume it shows adds before/during/after usage, not just at download or first run.

The author's message is roughly "ship and improve", but I think he is understating "pay attention, work hard, and learn" which also show, though subliminally, and might be so ingrained in him that he didn't notice.

In the screen snap of the piano apps, notice that half of his competitors say "Download" instead of "Free"? That means he has already bought them, but they are not installed on his device. Research. Learn.

Also notice that he has a variety historical metrics easily at hand to guide him.

Yes, I try to download most related apps. It's important to be aware of the competition. But don't be dissuaded by them.

I use as much analytics as I can. If anyone is interested in app development, they should definitely check out: App Annie & Flurry Analytics.

Taken another way, this campaign would have clearly been -ROI if the Piano apps themselves ran it themselves. Although a mass-market television commercial clearly isn't the best way to reach a niche audience, I think it definitely says something about the market potential and profits of most apps these days.

For sure, but I'm pretty sure Apple has been happy with this campaign. Not only did it result in increased iPad sales, it has increased app sales and iAd impressions, from which they get 30% commission.

The #2 iPad paid music app right now is a $10 app! That developer also owns the #1 iPad free music app. If I were him I'd be buying a plane ticket to Hawaii right about now. :-)

Hey everyone! Feel free to leave me any questions here or on the comments section of my blog post. I'm happy to answer your questions regarding indie development.

I'm always glad to help another indie developer by sharing my experiences. The more information that's out there, the better it is for someone trying to make it!

-Ron

I consider this to be somewhat misleading advertising. The playing, especially towards the end, has the full chord and a bit of glissando which I'm not entirely sure you can do this on any app......

All TV ads are somewhat misleading. :-) Yes, they do add some extra stuff at the end... mostly an octave up and down, to fill out the sound.

Here's a fun parody ad that adds even more notes with more devices: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaW6IiWKHAk

You can do glissando in garage band. There's even a button for that.

I don't hear a glissando in the ad, where should it be?

At around 0:15, just as the bigger iPad is going out of the picture, a third piano enters the song.

There's an ever so slight little twinge of something, maybe gliss is the wrong term... perhaps like a slight flam-like jazzy diminished 32th note into the actual note?

Congratulations! Luck plays a role but ultimately it is your hardwork that brought you success! It is encouraging that independent developers do and can thrive. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks! Yes, that reminds me of the quote usually attributed to Thomas Jefferson:

"I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."

If anyone is thinking of doing indie development, it IS a lot of hard work. But if you ship and continually improve your app(s), there's a good chance you'll get lucky (someday).

Chance. Maybe not good chance.

It's all very well deserved Ron, your app in fact demystified to me how to actually play the piano. Not to mention that my toddler loves it.

Greetings from Kyoto ;)

Hi Paco! Glad your kid likes it. Let me know if you have any song requests, as I'm currently working on song packs for the next update.

I'm missing some Churro Star right about now. :P

Am I the only one to find this a bit sad? People do what Apple does. I know, it's always been like this...

Well, I guess it's good for us developers. Great news for you guys, congratulations!

You find it sad that people discovered something through a commercial and wanted to try it?

I don't know why it always has to be this cult of Apple BS. Maybe it just hadn't occurred to a significant number of people that they could use their iPad as a virtual piano until they saw it?

You're finding it sad because you want to find it sad. In reality the explanation is quite reasonable. People saw something cool and wanted to try it. That's real sad alright.

I'm not surprised, it's a cute ad.

That's great news, very happy for you :)