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Ask YC: Feedback on my new startup, a music scrobbler/player

9 points by danhak 18y ago

danhak 18y ago
I'd really appreciate the HN community's thoughts on my new site, snuzu.com. The second iteration has just been rolled out this morning. It's a simple service that keeps track of everything you play in iTunes, WinAmp or WMP. Then it creates a listening history page and provides full-length playable tracks for a majority of songs. For an example of what that looks like, you could check out my page: snuzu.com/history.aspx?id=1 I realize it's not the most novel idea, but I'd like to try a cleaner approach to this type of site and (hopefully) get enough users over time to develop some more interesting/sophisticated statistical metrics about music listening trends. Anyway, enough rambling. All your comments and suggestions are appreciated.
- j2d2 18y ago
  Do you have a way I could pull some of that data? I have an idea I'm looking to build soon and this information would be invaluable. Would you mind chatting more via email? jdennis at gmail.
roberto 18y ago
No Linux support, so I can' test it. Also, it doesn't seem to offer anything that woudd make me change from last.fm.
- xenoterracide 18y ago
  you should talk to the amarok people, the last.fm support should probably become a scripted plugin anyways...
snewe 18y ago
It is less cluttered than last.fm, but is that all it brings? I don't see the value-add above the current options.
- danhak 18y ago
  It's a fair point, and I really don't have much to say other than this: If and when snuzu hits a critical mass of data influx, I have some statistical tricks up my sleeve to go above and beyond what Last.FM, iLike or any other site offers in the way of recommendations or charts. Of course this is probably not reason enough for you to invest time and energy into snuzu at this stage if you're already married to other music sites. But given what I have to work with now (i.e. statistically insignificant amounts of data) what features would make snuzu an attractive alternative to Last.FM for you?
  - dhuck 18y ago
    Why wait for the users to come to your site? If you let me import my last.fm profile - and scrap all of my friend's profiles (they're linked from my profile) - you should have all the data you need to start recommending music or generating some interesting charts. Overall, it's a great start. I think there's a lot of places you can go with it - definitely places to improve upon Last.FM and such.
shawndrost 18y ago
Congrats on the work you've done, I like the design. A few notes... -In the "recently played tracks" box, don't show tracks that can't be played full-length. -Don't put the time it was played for now... I don't see any upside to counter the hit you'll take in perceived value from the half-hour gap between tracks being played. -I don't really know what's going to happen when I click the "get started" link... how about some explanatory front-page text like "1. download snuzu 2. listen to music and snuzu shares it with your friends 3. snuzu tells you what your friends are listening to." That's rough, but the point is, I'm not going to install this unless I know what it is.
- danhak 18y ago
  Thanks for the input. I've just implemented your first suggestion and will work on the other two when I get a chance.
dazzawazza 18y ago
How have you gathered the rights to the songs you play?
- danhak 18y ago
  I'm using the SeeqPod API
grag 18y ago
It doesn't offer much over last.fm except that it finds full length songs. You might be able to get some traction if you offered a widget people could place on their blogs, myspace, facebook, etc.. What music search engine are you using? Seepod?
- danhak 18y ago
  There is, in fact, an embeddable HTML widget for blogs/websites as well as a full-fledged Facebook application. Yes song results are from Seeqpod.
okeumeni 18y ago
Clean design, not sure if the idea is new but if not, there’s potential to upgrade existing stuff. Good job!
thomasswift 18y ago
very nice. I know your using the JW FLV MEDIA PLAYER on the bottom there. The only suggestion I have would be: when I click play within the list, switch the play button to pause or stop icon. I don't know if you can send a stop request to the player. Also, i do realize that if you play one song, then play another it switches nicely. Otherwise, very cool. good luck and be careful with the licensing.
lux 18y ago
Money-wise, you could make some via an affiliate program for buying songs. I like the idea of an FB app as well to link it in, people seem to dig those although I don't install many myself. That helps as well since you don't have your friend list on snuzu itself from the look of it. Not sure it's something I'd use actively, but then again I'm also not much for using stuff like Twitter either but apparently many people are...
truebosko 18y ago
My first layout impression: Don't like how the player is on the bottom almost hidden away. Would be nice if it was more relevant in the design

9 points by danhak 18y ago

I'd really appreciate the HN community's thoughts on my new site, snuzu.com. The second iteration has just been rolled out this morning. It's a simple service that keeps track of everything you play in iTunes, WinAmp or WMP. Then it creates a listening history page and provides full-length playable tracks for a majority of songs. For an example of what that looks like, you could check out my page: snuzu.com/history.aspx?id=1 I realize it's not the most novel idea, but I'd like to try a cleaner approach to this type of site and (hopefully) get enough users over time to develop some more interesting/sophisticated statistical metrics about music listening trends. Anyway, enough rambling. All your comments and suggestions are appreciated.

j2d2 18y ago
Do you have a way I could pull some of that data? I have an idea I'm looking to build soon and this information would be invaluable. Would you mind chatting more via email? jdennis at gmail.

roberto 18y ago

No Linux support, so I can' test it. Also, it doesn't seem to offer anything that woudd make me change from last.fm.

xenoterracide 18y ago
you should talk to the amarok people, the last.fm support should probably become a scripted plugin anyways...

snewe 18y ago

It is less cluttered than last.fm, but is that all it brings? I don't see the value-add above the current options.

danhak 18y ago
It's a fair point, and I really don't have much to say other than this: If and when snuzu hits a critical mass of data influx, I have some statistical tricks up my sleeve to go above and beyond what Last.FM, iLike or any other site offers in the way of recommendations or charts. Of course this is probably not reason enough for you to invest time and energy into snuzu at this stage if you're already married to other music sites. But given what I have to work with now (i.e. statistically insignificant amounts of data) what features would make snuzu an attractive alternative to Last.FM for you?
- dhuck 18y ago
  Why wait for the users to come to your site? If you let me import my last.fm profile - and scrap all of my friend's profiles (they're linked from my profile) - you should have all the data you need to start recommending music or generating some interesting charts. Overall, it's a great start. I think there's a lot of places you can go with it - definitely places to improve upon Last.FM and such.

shawndrost 18y ago

Congrats on the work you've done, I like the design. A few notes... -In the "recently played tracks" box, don't show tracks that can't be played full-length. -Don't put the time it was played for now... I don't see any upside to counter the hit you'll take in perceived value from the half-hour gap between tracks being played. -I don't really know what's going to happen when I click the "get started" link... how about some explanatory front-page text like "1. download snuzu 2. listen to music and snuzu shares it with your friends 3. snuzu tells you what your friends are listening to." That's rough, but the point is, I'm not going to install this unless I know what it is.

danhak 18y ago
Thanks for the input. I've just implemented your first suggestion and will work on the other two when I get a chance.

dazzawazza 18y ago

How have you gathered the rights to the songs you play?

danhak 18y ago
I'm using the SeeqPod API

grag 18y ago

It doesn't offer much over last.fm except that it finds full length songs. You might be able to get some traction if you offered a widget people could place on their blogs, myspace, facebook, etc.. What music search engine are you using? Seepod?

danhak 18y ago
There is, in fact, an embeddable HTML widget for blogs/websites as well as a full-fledged Facebook application. Yes song results are from Seeqpod.

okeumeni 18y ago

Clean design, not sure if the idea is new but if not, there’s potential to upgrade existing stuff. Good job!

thomasswift 18y ago

very nice. I know your using the JW FLV MEDIA PLAYER on the bottom there. The only suggestion I have would be: when I click play within the list, switch the play button to pause or stop icon. I don't know if you can send a stop request to the player. Also, i do realize that if you play one song, then play another it switches nicely. Otherwise, very cool. good luck and be careful with the licensing.

lux 18y ago

Money-wise, you could make some via an affiliate program for buying songs. I like the idea of an FB app as well to link it in, people seem to dig those although I don't install many myself. That helps as well since you don't have your friend list on snuzu itself from the look of it. Not sure it's something I'd use actively, but then again I'm also not much for using stuff like Twitter either but apparently many people are...

truebosko 18y ago

My first layout impression: Don't like how the player is on the bottom almost hidden away. Would be nice if it was more relevant in the design