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Ask HN: MusicWalla - A Social Online Radio : Review my product concept

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Ask HN: MusicWalla - A Social Online Radio : Review my product concept

#1

Post by vikasvadlapatla »

Hi guys, I recently came up with a concept for a social online radio. It is just a half-baked idea as of now but the following presentation should give you a gist.

I'm a user experience researcher so all it's features are a result of different user data acquisition techniques. I am working on adding game dynamics to this model(foursquare style badges and user upvoting).

I would love to get some valuable inputs from you guys!

www.vikasvadlapatla.com/musicwalla

Direct link to presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/vgvikas/musicwalla-business-pitch-7864740

Re: Ask HN: MusicWalla - A Social Online Radio : Review my product concept

#3

Post by pedalpete »

Interesting idea, though I think I like it more on a broad friend sharing stream than all listening together. There doesn't seem to me to be a benefit of only having people in the same room.

You've also gone with a 'fair' way of playing users tracks, though as a group, you may have better luck with playing the tracks recommended by the most popular users.

As a user experience researcher, you should know that you'll have the majority of the users just as listeners, and a much smaller percentage who are actively building the playlists, so you'll have to account for that.

Re: Ask HN: MusicWalla - A Social Online Radio : Review my product concept

#4

Post by vikasvadlapatla »

pedalpete wrote: post #3

Interesting idea, though I think I like it more on a broad friend sharing stream than all listening together. There doesn't seem to me to be a benefit of only having people in the same room. You've also gone with a 'fair' way of playing users tracks, though as a group, you may have better luck with playing the tracks recommended by the most popular users. As a user experience researcher, you should know that you'll h…

I had three types of music rooms in mind: location-based, genre-based, and friend/follower-based.

with respect to playing tracks by the most popular users, i think you've brought about an interesting point. I am currently working on a model where, at the end of every music "round", the most popular user is decided based on upvotes scheme and he/she gets to pick an additional song for the next round.. also allowing him to unlock badges and gain more credits! So far in my user interviews, people have liked this scheme and one of the user's mentioned that a sense of "competition" enhance the playlist and the listening experience.

The third point you made is particularly intriguing and something I hadn't thought about until now..But I am sure users would want to join the room just as listeners. In that case, either the control would automatically move to the next person in queue or it would switch to a computer generated playlist based on the previously played songs.

Re: Ask HN: MusicWalla - A Social Online Radio : Review my product concept

#5

Post by niketdesai »

Uhhhh. I'd look at turntable.fm and see their "version" of what you're talking about. Their "rooms" are effectively channels, and they have heavy integration with music collections (and I think they'll make uploaded music available to a more general library soon).

I think your idea is a good one, though and I get it.

Re: Ask HN: MusicWalla - A Social Online Radio : Review my product concept

#6

Post by vikasvadlapatla »

niketdesai wrote: post #5

Uhhhh. I'd look at turntable.fm and see their "version" of what you're talking about. Their "rooms" are effectively channels, and they have heavy integration with music collections (and I think they'll make uploaded music available to a more general library soon). I think your idea is a good one, though and I get it.

Huh! Interesting.. pretty much what I was thinking about. Unfortunately, I could not sign up . but I would love to take a look at their product

Re: Ask HN: MusicWalla - A Social Online Radio : Review my product concept

#10

Post by petervandijck »

You have WAY too many features for an initial product idea. It's not focused.

Try to describe the value and differentiation of your service in 1 sentence.

Don't add game mechanics, upvoting and the kitchen sink unless it is part of the core value/differentiation.

The competitive advantage matrix you have at the end shows how unfocused you are: your competitor have few features, and you have checkboxes against ALL features.

More features isn't good.

More features is bad. It's less focused. You'll do them worse.

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