Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The New Grooveshark

blog.grooveshark.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 92 posts

Re: The New Grooveshark

#41

Post by dsirijus »

I'm VIP user on GS for 3 years now.

The interface was just downhill ever since they've switched from Flash. And not only that, but this thing hogs entire CPU sometimes.

Android app is pretty sweet, though it didn't received update in quite a while.

Btw, you can be on the edge all the time on http://preview.grooveshark.com

Not only that but they've broke the promise that they'll be always free (they're not in a lot of countries) and a promise to keep my VIP subscription cost permamently at what I've subscribed too.

I'm still a whore and use them as my primary source of music though, so I guess I endorse them.

EDIT: No, they've actually kept the original pricing. My mistake.

Re: The New Grooveshark

#42

Post by ubermensche »

alan_cx wrote: post #35

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.

Curious as to what you were looking for but was missing? I've noticed over the last year more 'obscure' artists starting to appear, and less '0 results' searches - though this is mainly electronica, so maybe holes elsewhere.

Re: The New Grooveshark

#43

Post by Radix_ »

This is a wonderful update. I'll allow that it takes a moment to understand that the playlist along the lower edge should be thought of separately from the navigation it really only takes a moment. And the new front page opening is much more welcoming and I'd say the subtle addition of the (+) on the play symbol is enough of a cue. I never liked seeing the adverts page, so big and open, and found the old left hand navigation cluttered, useless, and to be ignored. But I'm happy to see that everything flows better now and like everything about it.

The artist overview looks much better now that the bio has been added and only a few album covers are showcased followed by a list of the artists most frequented songs. Which is what I want to see. I was always annoyed by the Activity Feed for taking up the space which ought to have been granted to Top Songs. My favorite change is the large Share Song invitation seen after clicking on a song. I'd really like to see Grooveshark replace YouTube for non-video music streaming and linking and I hope making that link so prominent will make it happen.

I do have a couple questions though. As someone who doesn't have an account I didn't see a link to add music and if I wasn't familiar with Grooveshark I wouldn't even know that was an option. Also I was wondering why the Artists Top Songs and Comments aren't switched when viewing a single song. And last, I noticed the radio button has been tucked away nicely. Since it's a switch would you consider leaving the menu up for a half second? That may be an awful idea but switches are meant to be seen and felt so I thought I'd mention it just the same.

edit: Since I was praising the quick sharing might as well: http://grooveshark.com/s/Do+Ya+Thang/4wvNTg?src=5

Re: The New Grooveshark

#44

Post by officemonkey »

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.

Their webpage for iOS devices is actually serviceable.

I primarily use Grooveshark to find tunes I can't find on Youtube, Spotify, Amazon, or iTunes (I listen to a lot of import Jazz and 60s French pop.) For the dozen times a year I fire it up on my iOS device, it performs well.

Re: The New Grooveshark

#46

Post by cowpewter »

grosbisou wrote: post #45

I love Grooveshark and this redesign is really nice. It clears out a lot of the menu and features. But the MyMusic page is really messy... I hope it's a bug because it's barely usable ( http://i.imgur.com/TAzxG.jpg )

That's a bug. What browser/OS are you using?

Re: The New Grooveshark

#47

Post by BitMastro »

alan_cx wrote: post #35

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.

I think it depends on how much widespread is what you want to find. Personally I would rather see people use this service, than playing low quality videos on youtube.

Re: The New Grooveshark

#48

Post by pbhjpbhj »

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…

>they've clearly been spending way too much time with it internally without showing it to real world users //

I find it quite easy to use but have used the old interface - which incidentally I don't see this as that much different to, much more responsive (in the non-web3 sense).

What they're trying to do is allow you to select a playlist of music whilst listening. Their primary use-case appears to be someone who knows what they want to listen to, but they offer "radio stations" if you just want a sample of a category of music.

First song you add to the playlist (at bottom of screen) is autostarted. You search for another song, click the triangle-plus button and that song is added to playlist.

You can hover a song in the playlist to get more options or just click it to play that song.

If you select a few songs then click "radio off" (to turn it on!) then the "radio" feature selects similar songs and continues to do so. Songs in the selection can be up/downvoted to say you want more/none of that type of song (used to be anyway, too granular IMO).

One thing they do really well is to let you login without stopping the music.

Re: The New Grooveshark

#49

Post by BitMastro »

dan1234 wrote: post #38
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?

Yes, you can download the app from http://mobile.grooveshark.com/android

Re: The New Grooveshark

#50

Post by Radix_ »

wturner wrote: post #34
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.…

Click to add is faster when adding to the playlist. It's just the addition of the small plus to the play symbol isn't immediately obvious if your mouse is hovering over it. I like it better than click to drag. But drag is surely best for first encounter.
Post reply on HN