7 ms·

Show HN: My side project just reached #6 on App Store music charts

125 points by dinnison 13y ago

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
technotony 13y ago
Nice work, now please can we have it on Android!
- dinnison 13y ago
  Thanks! and yes we will have one out for Android in the next month.
  - aadeesh 13y ago
    Great App. Thanks!
SmallBets 13y ago
Loved the first song I heard on web version, +1 for Android. Good example of non-technical value creation - can't fake good curation. That your project has done so well tells me that the streaming music players have not cracked the code yet.
- dinnison 13y ago
  Appreciate it. People seem to love the simplicity of having the music delivered to them instead of trying to search/browse through tons of artists. Huge fan of Spotify, 8tracks, etc. but I think you're right that the music discovery aspect is still lacking.
  - knight9990 13y ago
    Pandora does me well with discovery, though I do appreciate some hand curated lists from time to time.
    - ravin455 13y ago
      Songza is also a very big source of music discovery. It features music for the mood or situations you are in. Yet sometimes it can become impersonal.
rhymeswithtart 13y ago
So basically hype machine in an app?
- dinnison 13y ago
  I'm actually a big fan of Hype Machine (and love their app), but I'm attempting to do something different with Noon Pacific. It's considered more of a music newsletter with hand curated tunes and hopefully more of a personal touch.
dinnison 13y ago
Thanks for the support so far! Appreciate all the feedback.
clemsen 13y ago
The concept and screenshots look great! Do you have last.fm support? Because (for me): If it doesn't scrobble it's not a music player :-) Edit: Just downloaded the app. It doesn't scrobble but otherwise the app works as advertised. Thanks for posting here on HN! Not only music discovery but also app discovery is hard sometimes.
- dinnison 13y ago
  We don't currently have last.fm support, but the app uses the 8tracks API, so it might indirectly scrobble via that. I'll look into it, good feedback.
  - dan1234 13y ago
    +1 for last.fm support - a lack of support this in Rdio sent me back to Spotify.
    - martey 13y ago
      FYI, Rdio has Last.fm support: http://help.rdio.com/customer/portal/articles/58992-external-settings http://help.rdio.com/customer/portal/articles/58992-external...
      - dan1234 13y ago
        Yeah, I did that on the web version but the iOS app doesn't have that setting.
        martey 13y ago
        Connecting on the website should cause mobile apps to scrobble as well: http://help.rdio.com/customer/portal/questions/952119-scrobble-from-ios-app?b_id=681 http://help.rdio.com/customer/portal/questions/952119-scrobb... I don't use iOS, but this worked for me on Android.
qzervaas 13y ago
Good job! It's on the App Store, so treat yourself to a full version number ;) (I wonder if people would be less likely to buy it having "0.0.2", thinking it may not yet be worth buying. In any case, why not just call it 1.0.2, etc?)
- dinnison 13y ago
  It was my first ever app, so I admittedly wasn't 100% sure what I was doing in xcode. I agree with you though, it would have looked better to have a full release number. I'll bump it up next version. Thanks for the feedback.
  - RyJones 13y ago
    Remember, bumping your version number pushes all your current ratings and reviews below the fold.
    - zacinbusiness 13y ago
      That's a good tip!
psteinweber 13y ago
There's a web version too. Handy for checking out the type of music: http://noonpacific.com/ http://noonpacific.com/ edit: First song convinced me already.
- dinnison 13y ago
  Sweet thanks for checking it out. Working on a redesign for the web version too, not quite as slick as I'd like.
- enimodas 13y ago
  for some reason this makes my aurora+bunch of extensions lock up and crash edit: extension-free version of aurora also spikes cpu and starts eating all ram. Must be somewhere within the 8tracks embed, if i block 8tracks with requestpolicy nothing happens.
shriphani 13y ago
I liked the first song I heard on your website and signed up. Very nicely done!
- dinnison 13y ago
  Just saw your subscription, thanks!
epaga 13y ago
Congratulations! What did you do to market the app? Just stick it in the store? Or did you get blogs to do write-ups? It seems like discovery has always been a huge problem for app developers.
- dinnison 13y ago
  I've built up a list of 14,000 subscribers to the free web app over the past year and also had a journalist at LifeHacker who wrote about the project before. I offered the journalist an exclusive write up and then sent an email blast to the 14,000 subscribers all within an hour (starting today at Noon) and the app shot up the app store within a couple hours. Still don't know launch day numbers since app store reports don't update until later tonight. For further coverage, I'm reaching out to app review sites and any journalists who have covered similar apps in the past.
  - epaga 13y ago
    Great stuff, thanks for the info. This is not the first time I've heard of this strategy, and it seems to be quite profitable: "hook" a large number of users with a no-strings-attached free app or web app and get their contact info. Then create an app in the same niche, but charge for it, and email blast them all on launch day. The last time I heard of someone doing this, they did it with a game. They released an ad-free, excellent game for free and popped up a dialog after a few starts saying "Enter your email here if you want to be notified when I release <App Name> 2!". After a year or so, he had tens of thousands of email addresses. Then he released a $2 sequel and did an "email blast" on launch day. Similarly, he shot up the charts very quickly.
    - dinnison 13y ago
      That's a great story about the game. I'm interested to see the actual download numbers tomorrow to see what Apple factors into the rankings.
  - joshuahornby 13y ago
    Any chance once you find the numbers you could post them on here? Very interested to know.
L_Rahman 13y ago
How are you handling issues related to copyright? I don't have an iOS device so I can't tell if the app simply streams the music from sources that have legal access or if its locally caching the music.
- coldtea 13y ago
  By ignoring them I'd guess.
  - dinnison 13y ago
    ha sorry, his post got pushed down.
- dinnison 13y ago
  I don't make the songs available to download so it is only streaming the songs via 8tracks API. All songs are legally acquired through various blogs and sites like Soundcloud.
  - L_Rahman 13y ago
    I figured as much based on the web player, but wanted to double check anyways. Thanks for answering my question. I'd love to see an Android version of this. I'm an Android dev, so if you're looking to port this over at any time in the future please feel free to hit me up with any questions you have.
    - dinnison 13y ago
      I have a friend helping me out already, but appreciate the offer and will definitely keep you in mind. Thanks again.
hol 13y ago
Congratulations! Just trying this out now and I love the mix I've had so far. It's so easy to make music these days that it can be difficult to find the gems in all the noise. For me, having places you can trust to do some curation/filtering for you is really important.
- dinnison 13y ago
  Thanks, that's exactly what I built it for.
dorsapiri 13y ago
Nice work. How we can choose our best song?
dodotablet 13y ago
Thanks, l really want use it.
mokkol 13y ago
This is an awesome app! Really nice unknown (at least for me) music! If I can give you some feedback, the UI need some tweaks. the whole screen bounces when you touch it. Would be nice to have more details about the songs. A progress bar would be nice. Really nice app!
- dinnison 13y ago
  Thank you for the feedback!
dorian-graph 13y ago
Bought! To show support and so far the mixtapes are totally up my alley. How long did it take till you felt comfortable with development on the app, as far as quality, amount of bugs, etc., to release it on the app store?
- dinnison 13y ago
  Thank you! It took about a week of QA to feel comfortable with it going live. It's a pretty simple app, but wanted to make sure everything would work great, especially since it was not a free app.
niklasber 13y ago
The quality of the screenshots on App Store is pretty poor. You should save them as PNG files instead.
- dinnison 13y ago
  Thanks for the tip
demosquared 13y ago
Congratulations! I invite you to give a demo of your app @ http://demosquared.com http://demosquared.com
ldad 13y ago
nice work! Check out hoot.ch. A similarly minimalist music discovery web-app.
- dinnison 13y ago
  I'll check it out, thanks for the suggestion.
almosnow 13y ago
As fake as king.com's future valuation.
- almosnow 13y ago
  Yeah, 15 reviews for a Top 10 App Store app... Use your fucking brain man...
mbosch 13y ago
Did you get 8tracks API permission for use in a commercial app? http://8tracks.com/developers/terms http://8tracks.com/developers/terms: For commercial use of the API (including ad revenue) you must receive permission. Please contact api@8tracks.com.
- dinnison 13y ago
  Yes, 8tracks approved my API use and even promoted the app on their twitter: https://twitter.com/8tracks/status/435873866548662272 https://twitter.com/8tracks/status/435873866548662272
juliann 13y ago
You just got a new fan! thanks for this.

125 points by dinnison 13y ago

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

technotony 13y ago

Nice work, now please can we have it on Android!

dinnison 13y ago
Thanks! and yes we will have one out for Android in the next month.
- aadeesh 13y ago
  Great App. Thanks!

SmallBets 13y ago

Loved the first song I heard on web version, +1 for Android. Good example of non-technical value creation - can't fake good curation. That your project has done so well tells me that the streaming music players have not cracked the code yet.

dinnison 13y ago
Appreciate it. People seem to love the simplicity of having the music delivered to them instead of trying to search/browse through tons of artists. Huge fan of Spotify, 8tracks, etc. but I think you're right that the music discovery aspect is still lacking.
- knight9990 13y ago
  Pandora does me well with discovery, though I do appreciate some hand curated lists from time to time.
  - ravin455 13y ago
    Songza is also a very big source of music discovery. It features music for the mood or situations you are in. Yet sometimes it can become impersonal.

rhymeswithtart 13y ago

So basically hype machine in an app?

dinnison 13y ago
I'm actually a big fan of Hype Machine (and love their app), but I'm attempting to do something different with Noon Pacific. It's considered more of a music newsletter with hand curated tunes and hopefully more of a personal touch.

dinnison 13y ago

Thanks for the support so far! Appreciate all the feedback.

clemsen 13y ago

The concept and screenshots look great! Do you have last.fm support? Because (for me): If it doesn't scrobble it's not a music player :-) Edit: Just downloaded the app. It doesn't scrobble but otherwise the app works as advertised. Thanks for posting here on HN! Not only music discovery but also app discovery is hard sometimes.

dinnison 13y ago
We don't currently have last.fm support, but the app uses the 8tracks API, so it might indirectly scrobble via that. I'll look into it, good feedback.
- dan1234 13y ago
  +1 for last.fm support - a lack of support this in Rdio sent me back to Spotify.
  - martey 13y ago
    FYI, Rdio has Last.fm support: http://help.rdio.com/customer/portal/articles/58992-external-settings http://help.rdio.com/customer/portal/articles/58992-external...
    - dan1234 13y ago
      Yeah, I did that on the web version but the iOS app doesn't have that setting.
      - martey 13y ago
        Connecting on the website should cause mobile apps to scrobble as well: http://help.rdio.com/customer/portal/questions/952119-scrobble-from-ios-app?b_id=681 http://help.rdio.com/customer/portal/questions/952119-scrobb... I don't use iOS, but this worked for me on Android.

qzervaas 13y ago

Good job! It's on the App Store, so treat yourself to a full version number ;) (I wonder if people would be less likely to buy it having "0.0.2", thinking it may not yet be worth buying. In any case, why not just call it 1.0.2, etc?)

dinnison 13y ago
It was my first ever app, so I admittedly wasn't 100% sure what I was doing in xcode. I agree with you though, it would have looked better to have a full release number. I'll bump it up next version. Thanks for the feedback.
- RyJones 13y ago
  Remember, bumping your version number pushes all your current ratings and reviews below the fold.
  - zacinbusiness 13y ago
    That's a good tip!

psteinweber 13y ago

There's a web version too. Handy for checking out the type of music: http://noonpacific.com/ http://noonpacific.com/ edit: First song convinced me already.

dinnison 13y ago
Sweet thanks for checking it out. Working on a redesign for the web version too, not quite as slick as I'd like.
enimodas 13y ago
for some reason this makes my aurora+bunch of extensions lock up and crash edit: extension-free version of aurora also spikes cpu and starts eating all ram. Must be somewhere within the 8tracks embed, if i block 8tracks with requestpolicy nothing happens.

shriphani 13y ago

I liked the first song I heard on your website and signed up. Very nicely done!

dinnison 13y ago
Just saw your subscription, thanks!

epaga 13y ago

Congratulations! What did you do to market the app? Just stick it in the store? Or did you get blogs to do write-ups? It seems like discovery has always been a huge problem for app developers.

dinnison 13y ago
I've built up a list of 14,000 subscribers to the free web app over the past year and also had a journalist at LifeHacker who wrote about the project before. I offered the journalist an exclusive write up and then sent an email blast to the 14,000 subscribers all within an hour (starting today at Noon) and the app shot up the app store within a couple hours. Still don't know launch day numbers since app store reports don't update until later tonight. For further coverage, I'm reaching out to app review sites and any journalists who have covered similar apps in the past.
- epaga 13y ago
  Great stuff, thanks for the info. This is not the first time I've heard of this strategy, and it seems to be quite profitable: "hook" a large number of users with a no-strings-attached free app or web app and get their contact info. Then create an app in the same niche, but charge for it, and email blast them all on launch day. The last time I heard of someone doing this, they did it with a game. They released an ad-free, excellent game for free and popped up a dialog after a few starts saying "Enter your email here if you want to be notified when I release <App Name> 2!". After a year or so, he had tens of thousands of email addresses. Then he released a $2 sequel and did an "email blast" on launch day. Similarly, he shot up the charts very quickly.
  - dinnison 13y ago
    That's a great story about the game. I'm interested to see the actual download numbers tomorrow to see what Apple factors into the rankings.
- joshuahornby 13y ago
  Any chance once you find the numbers you could post them on here? Very interested to know.

L_Rahman 13y ago

How are you handling issues related to copyright? I don't have an iOS device so I can't tell if the app simply streams the music from sources that have legal access or if its locally caching the music.

coldtea 13y ago
By ignoring them I'd guess.
- dinnison 13y ago
  ha sorry, his post got pushed down.
dinnison 13y ago
I don't make the songs available to download so it is only streaming the songs via 8tracks API. All songs are legally acquired through various blogs and sites like Soundcloud.
- L_Rahman 13y ago
  I figured as much based on the web player, but wanted to double check anyways. Thanks for answering my question. I'd love to see an Android version of this. I'm an Android dev, so if you're looking to port this over at any time in the future please feel free to hit me up with any questions you have.
  - dinnison 13y ago
    I have a friend helping me out already, but appreciate the offer and will definitely keep you in mind. Thanks again.

hol 13y ago

Congratulations! Just trying this out now and I love the mix I've had so far. It's so easy to make music these days that it can be difficult to find the gems in all the noise. For me, having places you can trust to do some curation/filtering for you is really important.

dinnison 13y ago
Thanks, that's exactly what I built it for.

dorsapiri 13y ago

Nice work. How we can choose our best song?

dodotablet 13y ago

Thanks, l really want use it.

mokkol 13y ago

This is an awesome app! Really nice unknown (at least for me) music! If I can give you some feedback, the UI need some tweaks. the whole screen bounces when you touch it. Would be nice to have more details about the songs. A progress bar would be nice. Really nice app!

dinnison 13y ago
Thank you for the feedback!

dorian-graph 13y ago

Bought! To show support and so far the mixtapes are totally up my alley. How long did it take till you felt comfortable with development on the app, as far as quality, amount of bugs, etc., to release it on the app store?

dinnison 13y ago
Thank you! It took about a week of QA to feel comfortable with it going live. It's a pretty simple app, but wanted to make sure everything would work great, especially since it was not a free app.

niklasber 13y ago

The quality of the screenshots on App Store is pretty poor. You should save them as PNG files instead.

dinnison 13y ago
Thanks for the tip

demosquared 13y ago

Congratulations! I invite you to give a demo of your app @ http://demosquared.com http://demosquared.com

ldad 13y ago

nice work! Check out hoot.ch. A similarly minimalist music discovery web-app.

dinnison 13y ago
I'll check it out, thanks for the suggestion.

almosnow 13y ago

As fake as king.com's future valuation.

almosnow 13y ago
Yeah, 15 reviews for a Top 10 App Store app... Use your fucking brain man...

mbosch 13y ago

Did you get 8tracks API permission for use in a commercial app? http://8tracks.com/developers/terms http://8tracks.com/developers/terms: For commercial use of the API (including ad revenue) you must receive permission. Please contact api@8tracks.com.

dinnison 13y ago
Yes, 8tracks approved my API use and even promoted the app on their twitter: https://twitter.com/8tracks/status/435873866548662272 https://twitter.com/8tracks/status/435873866548662272

juliann 13y ago

You just got a new fan! thanks for this.