Review my startup: Mixlr
rfw.posterous.com
rfw.posterous.com
Now for some feedback! 1) The 'Create My account' button is dimmed out, even after I've completed the form!
2) The 'Password' tooltips aren't really that helpful because they don't give me any guidance as to how long my password should be. They're cute, but I had to hit 'submit' to find out that it had to be a minimum 6 characters.
3) The 'About' box on the signup page says something along the lines of 'If you're a DJ or a live act, Mixlr is for you!' I didn't find this very compelling compared to this line on your posterous: "If you are a DJ or part of a live act, you may have already found that it can be surprisingly hard to broadcast yourself live on the web." I would suggest swapping them :) I couldn't get back to the original signup page to get an exact quote.
4) Signup process is nice and easy! I didn't try the Fbook/Soundcloud integration but a brief blurb on why I would want to tie them together would be great. For example a cool picture of how the facebook integration would look (sharing your live stream with your friends!) would be ideal. Bonus points if you get a celebrity DJ to take the screenshot of his/her account :)
5) I liked being able to set my location on a map. Felt much more personal than just typing in my City/State into some text box (even though thats what I was really doing!)
6) I haven't received my e-mail yet but i'll try to post more feedback when I get in! :)
Thanks for posting your app here. Makes me super anxious to complete my app so I can post for some feedback :D
1) After completing the registration form, I was not immediately signed in. Before I got my email, I tried to log in and was told that my combination wasn't valid (it was). I then received the email, clicked on the link, and the resulting page told me 'link has expired'. I then closed both mixlr.com browser tabs that were open, clicked the link again and it took me to a page that said 'you are already logged in'. Weird session-y experience. I would expect to be logged in immediately and use the link to verify my email address.
2) I understand this is just getting off the ground, but do you plan on displaying a list of previously uploaded / currently playing streams?
3) Do you plan on establishing a 'public / private' capability so that certain streams would only be known by the passing around of the link?
Best of luck w/ the site.
I expected, once finally in, to find a site where I could listen to the aforementioned live/saved music. Since the page I saw was empty, I tried clicking on my username, which brought me to a page containing absolutely nothing except my username in a bigger font.
No links to anything at all.
Now what???
1. I'd like to be able to see pricing information before I sign up. This would be convenient because I don't want to sign up for something without knowing how much it will cost me.
2. An ad supported pricing option would be nice for those of us that don't want to pay anything. Bonus points if it doesn't insert audio ads, but instead uses Adwords in the listening interface or something similar.
3. The licensing agreement seems a little onerous. It sounds almost like I'm giving you complete royalty free ability to sell my music wherever you want. You should specify that I am only giving Mixlr.com the right to perform my music for the purpose of streaming to users of the Mixlr.com service, and for no other purposes. Serious musicians aren't going to use this service if it involves signing away in perpetuity their copyrights.
USER hereby grants Mixlr.com and its successors and assigns a worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid up, license to use, copy, transmit or otherwise distribute, publicly perform, digitally perform, publicly display, distribute, stream, download and/or otherwise make USER’s Content available to other users of Mixlr.com’s Website and Services. USER also grants each and every other registered user of Mixlr.com’s Website a worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid up, license to use, copy, transmit or otherwise distribute, publicly perform, digitally perform, publicly display, distribute, stream, download USER's content and/or otherwise to make USER’s Content available to other users of Mixlr.com’s Website and Services as set forth herein.
> Sorry, Windows and Linux users: we definitely have you in mind, but we want to get our Mac application perfect before we release for other platforms.
Only theoretically yet, though, since linux users probably feel the greatest pain there.
Anyways, best of luck! I'll be testing when a linux client is available :-)
A native mobile client (even if wifi-only) and a Flash desktop client would make this an absolute slam dunk. A discovery or "now playing" feature would of course be cool. The grayed-out color scheme (text:bg) can be a bit straining.
I would have killed for an app like this back in the day. It's actually kind of inspiring - makes me want to set up my decks again. Can't wait to give it a shot.
... and it's awesome!
Mixlr sounds like a great service. I have a few other questions though:
What is the quality of music stored by Mixlr? CD quality? MP3 quality? This is something audiophiles will be interested in.
Do you plan to convert to a paid service in the future to support yourself financially? If so what will happen to current members?
Will there be copyright problems if a DJ is playing songs, for instance, and then saves his performance on Mixlr? If the performance afterward gives public access to download copyright material you might run into some trouble with record companies.
At present: 128kbps MP3 (near-CD quality), both streaming and stored. This is much higher than most streaming services but lower than SoundCloud. Both numbers may change in future depending on a number of factors.
> Do you plan to convert to a paid service in the future to support yourself financially
It is already a paid service, with free credit for new users. I haven't settled on the exact business plan however. A lot of people have suggested a free option at low bit-rate, which is an idea I find interesting.
As someone who started out with shoutcast long ago sharing my dj mixes on two turntables and a microphone, I am extremely interested in the development of this project. Thanks for your innovation.
few thoughts (some already covered):
* buttons look disabled, I was waiting for them to un-ghost
* the "skip" links should be more prominent during signup since at the time it slowed me down.
* signup/design was generally very friendly
* please don't alert me to sign-out, I know what I'm doing, and it's not that bad if I made the mistake
One suggestion: give me a list of mixes to listen to right after I sign up. I had to go to your twitter page to find something.
"If you're sure your internet connection works, then we recommend you either use Google Chrome (this is the recommended option - you don't actually need Flash if you're using Chrome), or install Flash."
This statement confuses me since I am using Chrome, my connection is good, and I do have Flash installed.
Secondly, I don't appear to be able to search for or find existing uploaded mixes, is this intentional or have I missed something?
I will be building a search/discovery mechanism when there is more music to search for and discover :-)
Right now you have a great tool that helps artists connect with their existing fan base in a way that removes previous technological barriers and streamlines the process, but what about new potential fans?
I'll definitely use Mixlr.