Initially this post was only meant to share the prototype and ideas I've been working on for a Wikipedia type product for music. But, since I started workin on it, a couple of other things have come up.
Back in May last year, I wrote a post which was essentially saying "the vibes are on here" regarding the edm scene. Then I listed out as many of the products and services that sounded the industry and wondered where the opportunities were.
Twelve months later and I think I feel the same, maybe even stronger about the opportunity. But this is a weird one, because I really can't point to one thing and say, "Oh I think this is what we should build". It all feels like puzzle pieces scattered across the table.
Some happenings though:
Working Together
Resident Advisor and Soundcloud have partnered to share events and music presumably in each others products. Since moving to New York, I've found the Spotify events recommendations pretty helpful. Although, basically everyone uses Dice. Dice are smashing it. I love their product. The RA x Soundcloud thing is exactly what I mean when I say puzzle pieces. There are lots of products doing one thing well and opportunity for them to get together and provide more user value.
x for Music
I keep seeing products that are taking existing value prepositions from other verticals and applying it to music. The most recent example is Record.club, described as 'Letterboxd for music'. It's in beta, it's beautiful and it's being built in Øresund.
Old Good Things
Something I didn't know about last year was Mixes.wiki. An old school website that does what it says. The value ins't in the tech, it's in the community. Almost every mix I can thing of is there with amazingly accurate track lists. Beacause that's why they exists. It's literally written on the home page.
Mixes.wiki is actually a recent evolution of MixesDB which closed last month. I think there is a lot of value here. It's an amazing community.
Cue...
Okay so a few weeks ago I wrote this below (before I'd actually found Mixes.wiki).
I asked the question: how can we connect people after a live show?
And I had this idea for a mobile first app, that is a combo of Wikipedia, Genius, RA, Soundcloud, etc.
It's rough and I know most of these features are taken care of in other places, but I guess I'm suggesting they get combined. And ultimately, let music fans discover, purchase, share, great music.
So here is what I wrote with some screen shots :)
...
A couple of weeks ago I had an idea for a product that is best pitched as Wikipedia/Genius for DJ sets.
I'm not totally clear on what the problem statement is for this. It's more something I want to exist.
Immediately, it's a product for a small group of music nerds. People who ware obsessed with what tracks and DJ played, when, and why?
Imagine a music player that had a detailed, community driven, 'behind the scenes', view of a DJ set.
There was a moment a few months ago that got me thinking about this. It was when I went to see salute x DJ Seinfeld play at Elsewhere. It was a Wednesday night, a few days after the Kendrick and Drake beef had kicked off. In the middle of the set, Seinfeld played a house edit of BBL Drizzy and the crowd went nuts. Re-listening to it without understanding the context of the moment wouldn't be the same.
So that is what got me thinking about the importance of context. And could we build something to give people more context?
You can find a lot of these behaviors in products that exist today. Soundcloud, Youtube, 1001Tracks, etc. all have time stamp commenting funtionality that allows people to make and discuss key moments, track ID's, fuck up's, funny crowds, etc.
I'm happy to concede that any need that might exist maybe already served by a frankenstein of other products.
Nevertheless, I decided to mock up some screens which I've shared below.
Some key points:
• Screenshotting points in a mix is a common behavior, so I wanted the screens to look beautiful and like gig posters
• There is a tension between encouraging people to listen to a whole mix and providing track ID's and time stamps
• A central spot for media feels really helpful
• So does a hardware list
• Track ID's seem to be the most exciting part to people I've shown
