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The New Grooveshark

blog.grooveshark.com

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Re: The New Grooveshark

#31

Post by Axsuul »

cowpewter wrote: post #24
Axsuul wrote: post #13

Took a look at the code. It's built with Backbone.js!

Yup! The previous version used JMVC but it was a poor fit. Backbone does juuuust enough to help you out then gets out of your way. Means you have to write a lot of your own architecture but that's pretty much my favorite thing to do ever (and I hated JMVC) so I gladly did so. The site is way faster now, despite having more stuff going on, just because half the codebase is no longer trying to hack around the parts of…

Did you ever look into using something like LayoutManager or Marionette?

Re: The New Grooveshark

#32

Post by risratorn »

LinaLauneBaer wrote: post #29
risratorn wrote: post #23

Too bad they can't get their iOS app through the apple approval process. It would be a serious contender to Spotify.

I am pretty sure that they can't get the approval from Apple because they cannot prove that they have the rights to publish the content.

Indeed, i'm not saying apple is unfair but it's just a pity we don't have a native ios app, despite the legal affairs of grooveshark. There is a cydia version though :)

Re: The New Grooveshark

#33

Post by mmahemoff »

jimm wrote: post #27

I went to grooveshark.com and looked at the page for a few seconds. When I went to close the tab, a JavaScript popup asked me if I was sure that I wanted to "navigate away". Why, oh why does Grooveshark think that was useful, necessary, or a good way to treat a user?

I do something similar on my own site, but the difference is it only kicks in if playing has started. I think they have the right intention, but they need to add an if statement in their window.onbeforeunload hook. (Edit - I see Grooveshark said they only do it for the first 30 seconds of the site loading as a workaround.)

I haven't had any complaints about it and personally find it useful. Especially as it lets me quickly "close all right tabs" without stopping to think if I'm about to break what I'm listening to. However, these are podcasts and maybe people are less fussed about a random song stopping halfway through.

Re: The New Grooveshark

#34

Post by wturner »

jasonkester wrote: post #22

I've never used this site before, so I can't comment on how it used to work. This interface is not at all intuitive though. - click a play button on a song - music starts playing - click a different play button - nothing happens - click pause - music stops - click a different play button - nothing happens - click play - first song continues playing Steps to get a second song to actually play after you've got a first…

After reading everything you wrote I immediately thought..damn that must be a really horrible website navigation nightmare. So I went to the website, searched for an artist and dragged it. Then I played it. Then ..(cringe)..I did it....again. In summary, as of the moment of this post, the small scale nuclear holocaust of complexity you have described apparently lay dormant. My experience was actually kind of boring.

Edit*

I see what is happening. There are a couple of paths users can take based on if they click or drag items, and I just so happened to take the smoothest one.

Re: The New Grooveshark

#35

Post by alan_cx »

Never used the site before, I gave it a go. What I wanted to find, I could not find. What I did find, the sound quality was, to me, awful. Maybe its just my taste in music and ears, but for me, still a long way to go.

Re: The New Grooveshark

#36

Post by cowpewter »

jasonkester wrote: post #22

I've never used this site before, so I can't comment on how it used to work. This interface is not at all intuitive though. - click a play button on a song - music starts playing - click a different play button - nothing happens - click pause - music stops - click a different play button - nothing happens - click play - first song continues playing Steps to get a second song to actually play after you've got a first…

If you're currently listening to a song and you hit play on another song, it should queue up the second song to play when the first finishes. When you started playing the first song, also, the queue should have opened up at the bottom to show a list of the songs, and if you wanted to skip to the second song you could either hit the next button or the play button in the second song in the list.

http://cl.ly/image/390409163d2D Song playing is in orange, you can see the play button on the second song when you hover it.

Did the queue not open up for you after hitting play on the first song? Normally it should, unless you've manually closed the queue previously, but if this was your first visit that shouldn't be the case. When the queue is open, it should be pretty visually apparent what clicking the play button did. Also, most places that will add instead of play immediately should have an icon change (play+) http://cl.ly/image/1R3n1I1S0y0i

There may be a few places that either are not updating their icon or should be playing immediately but have the wrong classname and are getting caught in the 'play next' process. Bugs happen, I'll make sure it's on the list of things to check.

Re: The New Grooveshark

#37

Post by cowpewter »

Axsuul wrote: post #31
cowpewter wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup! The previous version used JMVC but it was a poor fit. Backbone does juuuust enough to help you out then gets out of your way. Means you have to write a lot of your own architecture but that's pretty much my favorite thing to do ever (and I hated JMVC) so I gladly did so. The site is way faster now, despite having more stuff going on, just because half the codebase is no longer trying to hack around the parts of…

Did you ever look into using something like LayoutManager or Marionette?

No, after JMVC I just wanted to write it to work the way we wanted it to work without dealing with yet another framework.

Re: The New Grooveshark

#38

Post by dan1234 »

risratorn wrote: post #23

Too bad they can't get their iOS app through the apple approval process. It would be a serious contender to Spotify.

They would have a significant financial advantage over Spotify, who pay a large sum to licence the music they carry.

Weren't they also yanked from the Google Play store?

Re: The New Grooveshark

#39

Post by thirdsun »

thomaslutz wrote: post #16

And still not available in Germany anymore thanks to GEMA. I use Spotify now.

I think the GEMA should be their smallest problem given the amount of illegal content they keep offering. In my opinion they should have been shut down by now.

Re: The New Grooveshark

#40

Post by Angostura »

I actually found the interface smooth and intuitive.

One gotcha, however. Selecting a video to play while a song is already playing produces a broken UX for me - the video appeared in a modal box, but was truncated by the queue and play bars at the bottom of the screen. There was no obvious way to view the whole video since the controls at the bottom were hidden.

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