Show HN: Spotify for Independent Music • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Spotify for Independent Music

#11

Post by sakbhatn » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 2:16 PM UTC

jurre wrote: post #9

This looks cool! Is there or will there be an API at some point so I could potentially build native clients?

We don't have a public api yet, but we do have a messy one that we use internally. Shoot us a mail, maybe we can work something out :)

Re: Show HN: Spotify for Independent Music

#12

Post by quaunaut » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 2:16 PM UTC

Honest question: Would you consider reaching out to foreign artists? I ask because it's damned difficult as anyone not in Japan to compensate those of the Doujin music scene in Japan- their music is traditionally sold at conventions(and then, in limited quantities), but not online, so you really only have access via piracy.

Giving their fans a way to compensate would be amazing.

Re: Show HN: Spotify for Independent Music

#13

Post by sakbhatn » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 2:18 PM UTC

martinml wrote: post #8

I understand that if I disable plugins in my browser some pages are going to break, but a friendly warning to whitelist your site would be better than silence and Object # has no method 'play' in the console :)

Sorry about that :) We'll get this done.

Re: Show HN: Spotify for Independent Music

#14

Post by alphakappa » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 2:21 PM UTC

The design looks good, and I've been playing the music for half an hour (/hot/) and it seems to be excellent so far. Good job.

I hope there's an API or a mobile app plan in the future.

Re: Show HN: Spotify for Independent Music

#15

Post by sakbhatn » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 2:23 PM UTC

quaunaut wrote: post #12

Honest question: Would you consider reaching out to foreign artists? I ask because it's damned difficult as anyone not in Japan to compensate those of the Doujin music scene in Japan- their music is traditionally sold at conventions(and then, in limited quantities), but not online, so you really only have access via piracy. Giving their fans a way to compensate would be amazing.

http://musicfellas.com/ryoutasato and http://musicfellas.com/nicotone

We do :) I know of at least these 2 artists from Japan.

Re: Show HN: Spotify for Independent Music

#16

Post by sakbhatn » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 2:26 PM UTC

alphakappa wrote: post #14

The design looks good, and I've been playing the music for half an hour (/hot/) and it seems to be excellent so far. Good job. I hope there's an API or a mobile app plan in the future.

We do have an iPhone app coming out soon. However we plan to release that as a premium feature. If you had to pay 99 cents per week for the premium version, would you still be interested? Of course there will be more premium features included.

Re: Show HN: Spotify for Independent Music

#17

Post by lux » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 2:26 PM UTC

I see my song was approved today, but for some reason it's showing a broken image in the listings. It's the first listing in electronic (http://musicfellas.com/aband_nthecar). I've uploaded a photo for both my profile and the album, but I can't seem to re-upload an album image to check if that's the issue.

Thanks, and good luck on the site! :)

Re: Show HN: Spotify for Independent Music

#18

Post by lowkaseo » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 2:27 PM UTC

thumbnail those images! you'll drastically cut page speed. other than that, site looks good!

Re: Show HN: Spotify for Independent Music

#19

Post by tfinch » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 2:29 PM UTC

It's interesting to me that you see yourself as spotify + itunes, as the comparison that immediately struck me is Bandcamp + recommendations and the ability to queue up tracks. It certainly seems like the value you bring to artists is very similar to bandcamp - I suppose your differentiator here is discovery? Are you planning to allow sales of physical items as well? I'm a big fan of buying the vinyl release + immediate download - and anecdotally it seems like the independent music crowd would be more interested in this than perhaps other music demographics.

I'm keen not to make any comments about recommendations or the breadth of music available, as I'm aware that the latter is a chicken-and-egg situation, and the former is hard to judge without giving the site a chance to learn my tastes. I'm going to give it a try for sure.

And now for some classic hn nitpicks:

* Please stop your site links from opening pages in new tabs. Whilst looking about for more information, I ended up with 7 tabs open. Please no.

* I clicked on the feedback tab on the right side and was presented not with a feedback form, but a login form. If I can listen to music without signing up/in, surely I can leave feedback?

Re: Show HN: Spotify for Independent Music

#20

Post by sakbhatn » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 2:34 PM UTC

lux wrote: post #17

I see my song was approved today, but for some reason it's showing a broken image in the listings. It's the first listing in electronic ( http://musicfellas.com/aband_nthecar ). I've uploaded a photo for both my profile and the album, but I can't seem to re-upload an album image to check if that's the issue. Thanks, and good luck on the site! :)

Sorry about that, should be fine now :)