6 ms·

Now That's What I Call Social Proof

260 points by earbitscom 14y ago

sparknlaunch12 14y ago
Great story! Call it whatever you like, this shows how getting involved and getting out there creates these opportunities. Good luck with ear bits.
tzaman 14y ago
I think anyone of us could easily identify ourselves with this situation. It's every founder's dream to build something people will love - money will come because of that and not vice versa.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
mattmanser 14y ago
Great story! Also a quick bit of feedback, the only way to realise there's a music control is to get rid of the pop-up about the chrome app. At first I thought this was a bad version of thesixtyone where you couldn't skip tracks. Not the greatest UX for first time users. And why is the difference in sound levels so bad. I had two songs, the difference in volume was very jarring. I'd link them but... This brings me to another massive deal killer. The url doesn't change as the band does. I can't copy the address of the presently playing song. And I can't skip back to find out who I was just listening to. And there doesn't seem to be a history function. What's the point in listening to new music if you can't listen to it again and share it? I'm probably a bit of an outlier though, I use that archaic thing called email or chat to share music. Still, I like the ability to add myself to someone's mailing list straight from the app. I'll certainly be checking back here soon. Seems a bit more artist focused than the competitor I won't name again, which is always good. EDIT: Also love the ability to dive into genres. Also, came off more negative than I meant it to, I do think it's off to a great start!
- richthegeek 14y ago
  So to boil down your comments into easy points: 1. kill the first-load chrome download bar (I don't want it until I know I like the service) or make it non-blocking 2. use something like pushState (or location hash) to have all URLs always be referencing something useful (like the current song) 3. a canonical share source (solved by point 2) rather than *just* social-network buttons 4. add a "recently listened" thing of some sort A few other ideas: 5. add a "listening with XXX others" count (specific to artist/track), for social proof of a different kind :) 6. add an "up next" with the option to skip 7. channel combinations (might be possible already? but the ability to listen to post-rock + ambient-electro would be cool, might confuse the UX) 8. nicer design.. it's ok at the moment but definite room for improvement. 2 cents provided, back to work!
  - Emouri 14y ago
    I agree with all of these points, and would like there to be a replay button.
  - earbitscom 14y ago
    Great feedback, almost all of which is in the works.
  - cabalamat 14y ago
    The same points, formatted so the text actually appears on the screen: 1. kill the first-load chrome download bar (I don't want it until I know I like the service) or make it non-blocking 2. use something like pushState (or location hash) to have all URLs always be referencing something useful (like the current song) 3. a canonical share source (solved by point 2) rather than just social-network buttons 4. add a "recently listened" thing of some sort 5. add a "listening with XXX others" count (specific to artist/track), for social proof of a different kind :) 6. add an "up next" with the option to skip 7. channel combinations (might be possible already? but the ability to listen to post-rock + ambient-electro would be cool, might confuse the UX) 8. nicer design.. it's ok at the moment but definite room for improvement.
- davedx 14y ago
greendestiny 14y ago
As a going no where amateur artist of many years, whats the big changing the world pitch to artists? I really didn't get a sense for that on your about page or on the app. Also your app does horrible things to any sense of navigational flow that's normal on a website - I get it's more like a media player, but I hate media players.
- doubleconfess 14y ago
  I had the same impression from going to the blog to the site, the line "Earbits is going to change the music industry and that the results we’re producing for bands are unparalleled" made me actually reconsider whether maybe the meeting was a set-up. It's just such an over the top line, and so patently untrue that it made me reconsider the character (or maybe the blinders) of the person writing the blog/founding this company. And I will say that the design and interactions on thesixtyone.com were much much much nicer (which is especially notable for the two sites being so similar). But I did miss the ability to set up a preferred genre.
  - gala8y 14y ago
    Never been to earbits site before. I just grokked its for listening to the music. Listening and then paying attention to who made the music, liking and sharing. Its designed that way, so I get it that I need to press the button for genre and actually listen for something longer than 30 seconds (thus media player feel). Its what people really into discovering music probably are doing - spending their time feeding those sounds into their brains (and selecting newly discovered artist AND buying their music). As per changing the music industry ("I just want to thank you for everything you do for independent artists."), it must be that artist do get discovered via the service (See prev. paragraph, I guess [my comment, not the article]). This 'function' is just not readily visible on the site. If this works that way, I would add I really like this 'magical', invisible twist in the service.
  - greendestiny 14y ago
    I gave it some thought, and I do think the genre radio and the curated artist profiles were interesting. Though it did't help that the genre's are great fits for the tracks I listened to, that does tend to happen with amateur music. I guess the kind thing you want to see as an artist is a whole bunch of listens for an artist you think you can do better than. Or money.
Angostura 14y ago
Feedback: I saw "Login with Facebook" and thought "No thanks"
- berntb 14y ago
  I just went to technical death metal and free jazz. It is a really nice selection of music subgenres. (I did post a link on fb, but not the official reference. :-) Point is, depending on their music selection size, I'll have a window open a long time (I'm not an expert on the internet radio stuff, but this seems good). Go use anononymous (edit: I meant -- in the web browser) if you really don't want to risk fb interaction. Edit: My problem is having to turn on Flash.
goblin89 14y ago
Just a little bit of feedback, in case OP is reading HN. 1) Nice. 2) Very much like thesixtyone.com, both in looks (although UI is more conventional) and in core idea, I may be wrong on the latter though. 3) The Chrome app promotion at the top tries to emulate native Chrome notification bar. A) This makes playback control unusable, especially for a newcomer who doesn't know where it is. B) One cannot hide the strip without either installing the app or dismissing the notification forever. (“Remind me later” button would fix that.) C) Third-party website trying to imitate security-related native browser UI elements is always suspicious. Maybe you should think of your own way to display service-wide broadcasts, like GitHub does.
- misterbwong 14y ago
  +1 to #3. I didn't know there were controls behind that bar until I read this comment. It'd be better if it "pushed down" the page instead of covering the controls.
- mbell 14y ago
  Another thing I noticed: The back button is almost entirely broken by the site (main site not the blog), it makes it very annoying to navigate.
joeconway 14y ago
I love the site and I really want to sign up to make an account with you. But I won't login with Facebook. I'd definitely compromise and login with Twitter, but to only use FB is an absolute dealbreaker
- earbitscom 14y ago
  Understood, Joe. Just keep in mind that you don't need an account to keep using the site as long as you want.
GFischer 14y ago
Not working for me, and somehow Google doesn't offer me a cache version. Edit: probably blocked at work, since it's trying to load Twitter, Facebook and stuff. But I usually get to see the text in those cases.
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/8UKDt.png http://i.imgur.com/8UKDt.png
  - GFischer 14y ago
    Thank you :)
trance 14y ago
Actually, social proof would be if someone other than yourself submitted this story ;-)
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
manish_gill 14y ago
It used to be that I would try to avoid getting registered with most stuff on the web, because I'm paranoid that way. But now, if I like an app and do want to register, there is no sign-up button! OP: Saw some pretty decent music there, but I assure you, not everyone is comfortable using only facebook to sign up on various web services. Especially here on HN, I imagine.
- earbitscom 14y ago
  We use FB for now, but you don't need an account in order to use the site as much as you want. You're only really missing out on social features anyway.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
leduxe 14y ago
Have you ever heard of Spotify? http://www.spotify.com http://www.spotify.com It's a music streaming service with social sharing.
adrianscott 14y ago
Did you close him? a.b.c...
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
amccloud 14y ago
Something similar happen to me with http://pixelcloud.com/ http://pixelcloud.com/ I was out in SF for the first time having a meeting with some interesting folks about Pixelcloud and after the meeting they decided to show me around SF and we ended up eating at a restaurant they picked. To my surprise the guy sitting right behind me had a Pixelcloud shirt on. We laughed and pretended the whole thing was staged even though there was no way possible.

260 points by earbitscom 14y ago

Great story! Call it whatever you like, this shows how getting involved and getting out there creates these opportunities. Good luck with ear bits.

tzaman 14y ago

I think anyone of us could easily identify ourselves with this situation. It's every founder's dream to build something people will love - money will come because of that and not vice versa.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

mattmanser 14y ago

Great story! Also a quick bit of feedback, the only way to realise there's a music control is to get rid of the pop-up about the chrome app. At first I thought this was a bad version of thesixtyone where you couldn't skip tracks. Not the greatest UX for first time users. And why is the difference in sound levels so bad. I had two songs, the difference in volume was very jarring. I'd link them but... This brings me to another massive deal killer. The url doesn't change as the band does. I can't copy the address of the presently playing song. And I can't skip back to find out who I was just listening to. And there doesn't seem to be a history function. What's the point in listening to new music if you can't listen to it again and share it? I'm probably a bit of an outlier though, I use that archaic thing called email or chat to share music. Still, I like the ability to add myself to someone's mailing list straight from the app. I'll certainly be checking back here soon. Seems a bit more artist focused than the competitor I won't name again, which is always good. EDIT: Also love the ability to dive into genres. Also, came off more negative than I meant it to, I do think it's off to a great start!

richthegeek 14y ago
So to boil down your comments into easy points: 1. kill the first-load chrome download bar (I don't want it until I know I like the service) or make it non-blocking 2. use something like pushState (or location hash) to have all URLs always be referencing something useful (like the current song) 3. a canonical share source (solved by point 2) rather than *just* social-network buttons 4. add a "recently listened" thing of some sort A few other ideas: 5. add a "listening with XXX others" count (specific to artist/track), for social proof of a different kind :) 6. add an "up next" with the option to skip 7. channel combinations (might be possible already? but the ability to listen to post-rock + ambient-electro would be cool, might confuse the UX) 8. nicer design.. it's ok at the moment but definite room for improvement. 2 cents provided, back to work!
- Emouri 14y ago
  I agree with all of these points, and would like there to be a replay button.
- earbitscom 14y ago
  Great feedback, almost all of which is in the works.
- cabalamat 14y ago
  The same points, formatted so the text actually appears on the screen: 1. kill the first-load chrome download bar (I don't want it until I know I like the service) or make it non-blocking 2. use something like pushState (or location hash) to have all URLs always be referencing something useful (like the current song) 3. a canonical share source (solved by point 2) rather than just social-network buttons 4. add a "recently listened" thing of some sort 5. add a "listening with XXX others" count (specific to artist/track), for social proof of a different kind :) 6. add an "up next" with the option to skip 7. channel combinations (might be possible already? but the ability to listen to post-rock + ambient-electro would be cool, might confuse the UX) 8. nicer design.. it's ok at the moment but definite room for improvement.
davedx 14y ago

greendestiny 14y ago

As a going no where amateur artist of many years, whats the big changing the world pitch to artists? I really didn't get a sense for that on your about page or on the app. Also your app does horrible things to any sense of navigational flow that's normal on a website - I get it's more like a media player, but I hate media players.

doubleconfess 14y ago
I had the same impression from going to the blog to the site, the line "Earbits is going to change the music industry and that the results we’re producing for bands are unparalleled" made me actually reconsider whether maybe the meeting was a set-up. It's just such an over the top line, and so patently untrue that it made me reconsider the character (or maybe the blinders) of the person writing the blog/founding this company. And I will say that the design and interactions on thesixtyone.com were much much much nicer (which is especially notable for the two sites being so similar). But I did miss the ability to set up a preferred genre.
- gala8y 14y ago
  Never been to earbits site before. I just grokked its for listening to the music. Listening and then paying attention to who made the music, liking and sharing. Its designed that way, so I get it that I need to press the button for genre and actually listen for something longer than 30 seconds (thus media player feel). Its what people really into discovering music probably are doing - spending their time feeding those sounds into their brains (and selecting newly discovered artist AND buying their music). As per changing the music industry ("I just want to thank you for everything you do for independent artists."), it must be that artist do get discovered via the service (See prev. paragraph, I guess [my comment, not the article]). This 'function' is just not readily visible on the site. If this works that way, I would add I really like this 'magical', invisible twist in the service.
- greendestiny 14y ago
  I gave it some thought, and I do think the genre radio and the curated artist profiles were interesting. Though it did't help that the genre's are great fits for the tracks I listened to, that does tend to happen with amateur music. I guess the kind thing you want to see as an artist is a whole bunch of listens for an artist you think you can do better than. Or money.

Angostura 14y ago

Feedback: I saw "Login with Facebook" and thought "No thanks"

berntb 14y ago
I just went to technical death metal and free jazz. It is a really nice selection of music subgenres. (I did post a link on fb, but not the official reference. :-) Point is, depending on their music selection size, I'll have a window open a long time (I'm not an expert on the internet radio stuff, but this seems good). Go use anononymous (edit: I meant -- in the web browser) if you really don't want to risk fb interaction. Edit: My problem is having to turn on Flash.

goblin89 14y ago

Just a little bit of feedback, in case OP is reading HN. 1) Nice. 2) Very much like thesixtyone.com, both in looks (although UI is more conventional) and in core idea, I may be wrong on the latter though. 3) The Chrome app promotion at the top tries to emulate native Chrome notification bar. A) This makes playback control unusable, especially for a newcomer who doesn't know where it is. B) One cannot hide the strip without either installing the app or dismissing the notification forever. (“Remind me later” button would fix that.) C) Third-party website trying to imitate security-related native browser UI elements is always suspicious. Maybe you should think of your own way to display service-wide broadcasts, like GitHub does.

misterbwong 14y ago
+1 to #3. I didn't know there were controls behind that bar until I read this comment. It'd be better if it "pushed down" the page instead of covering the controls.
mbell 14y ago
Another thing I noticed: The back button is almost entirely broken by the site (main site not the blog), it makes it very annoying to navigate.

joeconway 14y ago

I love the site and I really want to sign up to make an account with you. But I won't login with Facebook. I'd definitely compromise and login with Twitter, but to only use FB is an absolute dealbreaker

earbitscom 14y ago
Understood, Joe. Just keep in mind that you don't need an account to keep using the site as long as you want.

GFischer 14y ago

Not working for me, and somehow Google doesn't offer me a cache version. Edit: probably blocked at work, since it's trying to load Twitter, Facebook and stuff. But I usually get to see the text in those cases.

w1ntermute 14y ago
Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/8UKDt.png http://i.imgur.com/8UKDt.png
- GFischer 14y ago
  Thank you :)

trance 14y ago

Actually, social proof would be if someone other than yourself submitted this story ;-)

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

manish_gill 14y ago

It used to be that I would try to avoid getting registered with most stuff on the web, because I'm paranoid that way. But now, if I like an app and do want to register, there is no sign-up button! OP: Saw some pretty decent music there, but I assure you, not everyone is comfortable using only facebook to sign up on various web services. Especially here on HN, I imagine.

earbitscom 14y ago
We use FB for now, but you don't need an account in order to use the site as much as you want. You're only really missing out on social features anyway.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

leduxe 14y ago

Have you ever heard of Spotify? http://www.spotify.com http://www.spotify.com It's a music streaming service with social sharing.

adrianscott 14y ago

Did you close him? a.b.c...

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

amccloud 14y ago

Something similar happen to me with http://pixelcloud.com/ http://pixelcloud.com/ I was out in SF for the first time having a meeting with some interesting folks about Pixelcloud and after the meeting they decided to show me around SF and we ended up eating at a restaurant they picked. To my surprise the guy sitting right behind me had a Pixelcloud shirt on. We laughed and pretended the whole thing was staged even though there was no way possible.