7 ms·

Rate My App: blueTunes.net -- a cloud music service

24 points by nick007 17y ago

nick007 17y ago
how's it look? what's it missing/need? anything else?
- arfrank 17y ago
  a few things are broken around the website: -in chrome the pricing for adding song storage isnt working -the job form doesnt work thought: maybe have a default 1 song for everyone(that is no longer copyrighted), so that people can see how easy it is to use also you have the iTunes logo on the front page, but I cant seem to find where to stream to itunes; my guess is that you are working on this currently and its not ready yet.
  - nick007 17y ago
    thanks... both bugs have been fixed. and i really like the idea of the free songs. the iTunes streaming is working, but it's a premium feature (currently $12 a month). email me if you want a free trial.
    - arfrank 17y ago
      thanks. I thought it might be like that, it only just mentions second life. I will email you to try it out. Also found that on the account page the title is screwed up until a Name for the account is entered, but you enter a name to register: might want that as default
ktharavaad 17y ago
A few things off the top of my head after seeing this. About the business model: 1) The interface seems almost like anywhere.fm (albeit less polished), which was bought by Imeem, which itself is rumored in a lot of debt right now. 2) The "sharing" aspect of the service kinda reminds me of playlist.com, which means if you gain any traction, you'll have lawsuits from the record companies Regarding the technical aspects: 3) Back to the interface, the "play" and "rewind" buttons..etc looks badly aliased and ugly, I think it would have been better if you copied itunes more completely like anywhere.fm did. 4) As a fellow flex developer, I'm sick of seeing flex being used for simple applications like music players, you really don't need the 200+k framework code for something simple like this. It just adds to the loading time. 5) As I mentioned before, the interface doesn't seem polished, you have kind of "aqua" styled button but other parts of the interface uses the default flex Halo theme, it doesn't seem very coherent together. 6) I'm sick of seeing the default flex loading screen, do something more interesting like fotoflexor or picnic.
- nick007 17y ago
  thanks for the advice... especially about the buttons and loading screen. those will change soon.
  - ktharavaad 17y ago
    NP. upon reading my comments again, I sound quite mean and nasty in my citique, sorry about that, its because I spent the past 10 hours in flex builder =P A few more things that I would like to point out after playing with it a little more. Usability issues 1, In the "Add playlist" screen, the "enter" key on the keyboard should press the "ok" button. In flex, you can easily do this by setting the defaultButton property in your TitleWindow. Likewise, the escape button should press the cancel button for you. likewise for your "edit playlist" screen 2, I dont like the java uploader, Why not use a flex based one like the rest of your app? Minor UI stuff 3, Your aqua scrollbar seems to be taken from http://www.scalenine.com http://www.scalenine.com , but it doesn't have the nice "rounded" arrows that the real aqua scrollbar has. Ideally, it should be something like this, with both the rounded corners and the "swimming animation" underneath: like this: http://kpicturebooth.com/temp/aquascroll.swf http://kpicturebooth.com/temp/aquascroll.swf * disclaimer, I made that and I might write a tutorial on how to skin this. Other things 4, Are you using Flex RSL? at the moment, it doesn't appear so. That will speed up the load time by a lot.
    - nick007 17y ago
      thanks again for the feedback. you definitely know your flex (this was the project on which i learned flex from scratch). 1. good advice on the enter key stuff. 2. the uploader actually does more than just upload... it fingerprints songs. i'm sure it could be done with flex. however when i first tried to do so i started running into a lot of security issues. and so i ditched it and went with something more familiar, with the justification that a user only uploads a handful of times. but, yes, this needs to be redone in flex. 3. good advice. one thing that i haven't been able to figure out (and it looks like your example doesn't have it either) is how to let the mouse's scroll wheel activate the scroll bar. any ideas? 4. no i'm not. thanks for the tip
paul9290 17y ago
Seems cool, but Id watch out for the man! If your not funded to pay royalties and you gain a smidge of traction they'll shut you down. Allowing the share option is a big no no in this regards. The tech and idea are cool, but it's risky. Good luck!
- nick007 17y ago
  right-- the share option actually allows you to share short clips (less than 30 seconds) of all your songs which is considered fair use.
  - geuis 17y ago
    That "30 seconds or less is fair use" does absolutely nothing to stop the idiot RIAA from sending you all kinds of fan mail. That is not a law on the books anywhere. Its one of the problems of fair use, because there aren't many explicit laws defining exactly what fair use it. Its all more or less come about through court decisions and judges opinions over the years.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
jusob 17y ago
I wonder how you will handle the cost of storage and streaming.
- nick007 17y ago
  Right now it's built on s3... so storage and bandwidth is pretty easy to do, and cheap. Also, notice that there are premium feature (more songs, and playlist streaming) which users can, and are, paying for.
jkoom0 17y ago
i really like the design and feel. didn't bother logging in though.
patcito 17y ago
> Straight out of the engineering department at blueTunes, try our next generation uploader (patent pending) seriously??
siong1987 17y ago
The "sign up and get started" button is below the fold on my 15inch 1440X900 maximized Firefox. I would suggest to take that button above the fold.
rmason 17y ago
I wonder if its just me. I saw that headline and thought cool, blue tunes. Finally something for those of us who love the blues. But sadly it was yet another music service, sigh.
rochers 17y ago
Seems like you're taking lala.com head on. I happened to think they are really innovative in the cloud music service space. What is different about your site?
mstefff 17y ago
what does this have to do with "cloud"? because it's simply hosted on amazon? does that really mean anything different? does it affect your users at all? do they even know what it means? just sick of the overuse of the term.

24 points by nick007 17y ago

nick007 17y ago

how's it look? what's it missing/need? anything else?

arfrank 17y ago
a few things are broken around the website: -in chrome the pricing for adding song storage isnt working -the job form doesnt work thought: maybe have a default 1 song for everyone(that is no longer copyrighted), so that people can see how easy it is to use also you have the iTunes logo on the front page, but I cant seem to find where to stream to itunes; my guess is that you are working on this currently and its not ready yet.
- nick007 17y ago
  thanks... both bugs have been fixed. and i really like the idea of the free songs. the iTunes streaming is working, but it's a premium feature (currently $12 a month). email me if you want a free trial.
  - arfrank 17y ago
    thanks. I thought it might be like that, it only just mentions second life. I will email you to try it out. Also found that on the account page the title is screwed up until a Name for the account is entered, but you enter a name to register: might want that as default

ktharavaad 17y ago

A few things off the top of my head after seeing this. About the business model: 1) The interface seems almost like anywhere.fm (albeit less polished), which was bought by Imeem, which itself is rumored in a lot of debt right now. 2) The "sharing" aspect of the service kinda reminds me of playlist.com, which means if you gain any traction, you'll have lawsuits from the record companies Regarding the technical aspects: 3) Back to the interface, the "play" and "rewind" buttons..etc looks badly aliased and ugly, I think it would have been better if you copied itunes more completely like anywhere.fm did. 4) As a fellow flex developer, I'm sick of seeing flex being used for simple applications like music players, you really don't need the 200+k framework code for something simple like this. It just adds to the loading time. 5) As I mentioned before, the interface doesn't seem polished, you have kind of "aqua" styled button but other parts of the interface uses the default flex Halo theme, it doesn't seem very coherent together. 6) I'm sick of seeing the default flex loading screen, do something more interesting like fotoflexor or picnic.

nick007 17y ago
thanks for the advice... especially about the buttons and loading screen. those will change soon.
- ktharavaad 17y ago
  NP. upon reading my comments again, I sound quite mean and nasty in my citique, sorry about that, its because I spent the past 10 hours in flex builder =P A few more things that I would like to point out after playing with it a little more. Usability issues 1, In the "Add playlist" screen, the "enter" key on the keyboard should press the "ok" button. In flex, you can easily do this by setting the defaultButton property in your TitleWindow. Likewise, the escape button should press the cancel button for you. likewise for your "edit playlist" screen 2, I dont like the java uploader, Why not use a flex based one like the rest of your app? Minor UI stuff 3, Your aqua scrollbar seems to be taken from http://www.scalenine.com http://www.scalenine.com , but it doesn't have the nice "rounded" arrows that the real aqua scrollbar has. Ideally, it should be something like this, with both the rounded corners and the "swimming animation" underneath: like this: http://kpicturebooth.com/temp/aquascroll.swf http://kpicturebooth.com/temp/aquascroll.swf * disclaimer, I made that and I might write a tutorial on how to skin this. Other things 4, Are you using Flex RSL? at the moment, it doesn't appear so. That will speed up the load time by a lot.
  - nick007 17y ago
    thanks again for the feedback. you definitely know your flex (this was the project on which i learned flex from scratch). 1. good advice on the enter key stuff. 2. the uploader actually does more than just upload... it fingerprints songs. i'm sure it could be done with flex. however when i first tried to do so i started running into a lot of security issues. and so i ditched it and went with something more familiar, with the justification that a user only uploads a handful of times. but, yes, this needs to be redone in flex. 3. good advice. one thing that i haven't been able to figure out (and it looks like your example doesn't have it either) is how to let the mouse's scroll wheel activate the scroll bar. any ideas? 4. no i'm not. thanks for the tip

paul9290 17y ago

Seems cool, but Id watch out for the man! If your not funded to pay royalties and you gain a smidge of traction they'll shut you down. Allowing the share option is a big no no in this regards. The tech and idea are cool, but it's risky. Good luck!

nick007 17y ago
right-- the share option actually allows you to share short clips (less than 30 seconds) of all your songs which is considered fair use.
- geuis 17y ago
  That "30 seconds or less is fair use" does absolutely nothing to stop the idiot RIAA from sending you all kinds of fan mail. That is not a law on the books anywhere. Its one of the problems of fair use, because there aren't many explicit laws defining exactly what fair use it. Its all more or less come about through court decisions and judges opinions over the years.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

jusob 17y ago

I wonder how you will handle the cost of storage and streaming.

nick007 17y ago
Right now it's built on s3... so storage and bandwidth is pretty easy to do, and cheap. Also, notice that there are premium feature (more songs, and playlist streaming) which users can, and are, paying for.

jkoom0 17y ago

i really like the design and feel. didn't bother logging in though.

patcito 17y ago

> Straight out of the engineering department at blueTunes, try our next generation uploader (patent pending) seriously??

siong1987 17y ago

The "sign up and get started" button is below the fold on my 15inch 1440X900 maximized Firefox. I would suggest to take that button above the fold.

rmason 17y ago

I wonder if its just me. I saw that headline and thought cool, blue tunes. Finally something for those of us who love the blues. But sadly it was yet another music service, sigh.

rochers 17y ago

Seems like you're taking lala.com head on. I happened to think they are really innovative in the cloud music service space. What is different about your site?

mstefff 17y ago

what does this have to do with "cloud"? because it's simply hosted on amazon? does that really mean anything different? does it affect your users at all? do they even know what it means? just sick of the overuse of the term.