What can I do better? No one is using the site. | Hacker News Reader

What can I do better? No one is using the site.

youmixer.com

1 pointEGreg8 comments

1. How do they share with each other without going off to Facebook? 2. It might help if you bring the search to the landing page and have it on ever page 3. Is there a way for me (personally) to get in contact with you?

To start make the initial call to action simpler. Just let them enter a song or band name and let that action carry the user into creating a playlist. They will figure it out from there. Cool Idea.

Let me give you my feedback with one disclaimer: like most HN readers, I doubt I'm a typical user. Sometimes it's hard for us tech types and early adopters to appreciate "normal" usage of pretty much anything.

I go to the site and my initial thought is: too dark. In fact I saw an article on colour theory recently that explained why you should never use black. I can't find it at the moment. I'll add it if I do.

Another thought: some of the things loading on the site seemed to be a bit slow.

The home page says "Make a party mix with your friends!". Ok, that gives some idea of what the site is for but what problem is this solving?

I click on some of the mixes there but nothing seems to come up. What is it meant to be? Collections of Youtube videos? If you're having a party, how do you use such a mix? Most people will want to play such things through a stereo, probably through an iPod. Youtube videos require a computer (or an iPad or iPod Touch). Sound quality is typically worse. Bandwidth is an issue.

I can see why you chose Youtube as it's one of the very few ways of getting music on the internet but really for mass adoption something like this needs to integrate with iTunes or something else you can just play. Distribution of such content is going to be a huge problem. There was a post on HN in the last couple of weeks saying that music startups were basically dead. Legal barriers too high. Content owners stuck in the past that will simply bleed you dry.

The site suggests Facebook login. I guess to connect with your friends. But the mixes on the front page were public. So, as a user, I'm confused. Is this public or something I do with my friends or both? There's no clear message here.

What I think would need to drive this is high ranking on Google. This might take some research and possibly some AdWords. Things like "80s party mix". Themes like that.

Another big problem: Youtube allows you to create playlists on the site. What incentive and advantage is there to going somewhere else to compile this?

Music is a hard problem. Medieval content owners, iTunes being a closed ecosystem. It's tough.

Hey thanks for the feedback so far. I hope I get some more perspectives, also. I just wanted to address some of your questions...

First of all, my primary goal was -- I just wanted to make a site where there would be a continuous party mix for my parties, that people could add to during the party, or even add songs before they come to the party, so everyone can hear the songs they love.

what does it have that YouTube playlists don't?

1) continuous playing ... songs fade into each other if you just let it run

2) cut out non-music ... people who add a video can choose where it fades in and out

3) social contributions ... anyone can add their favorite songs to a mix

4) I kind of hoped that social contributions + people using the site would make it ALWAYS up to date, without constantly curating new and popular songs ... in 2011 it would be the best party mixes automatically, etc.

the dark color scheme - mainly because videos usually require a dark background in order to look good when playing. Especially if you are going to put it on your big screen TV, which I do at my parties (my primary use case).

why I picked youtube -- yeah, unlimited songs for free, and makes copyright not my problem since I am using YouTube's API along with thousands of other people. Muziik already made VEVO pull their videos, whatever's left is fair game

Ahh! I looked at it for a few seconds and didn't "get it". That sounds awesome though! Don't try to sell to every possible use of your site just sell to that one.

Also youmixer doesn't really tell me anything about this. partymix or crowdmix or... Something else. Target it to that and give it a VERY simple UI that gets the party started asap. I want an easy quick way to direct my friends and guests to it so they can add songs. A) I want to have it up and running on a computer at all times like a kiosk. B) it'd be awesome if i could just have all of my friends register their email addresses with and send requests via email.

Get your interface out of the way of the fun and I bet you've got solid gold.

Thanks man! It addressed my real-world problem at my parties so I figured it would help anyone who has a party. People kept wanting to add songs during the party. Now they can :) Now anyone can use it for their party.

I think you're right, about partymix or crowdmix etc. Unfortunately they are all taken.

Would you like to help me with this? I could use another pair of eyes on it. I've already built all the tech, now it's a matter of making it dead simple and social.

BY THE WAY:

If someone from HN thinks this site has potential and would like to come in and help me refactor it to the point where it's simple, popular and viral -- I'd be glad to make you a 50% owner of the project. Right now youmixer is pretty much just for me and my friends who "get it". I think the site is pretty close to being something everyone can "get", and I'd like to see this experiment through to the end.

Let me know if you're interested -- http://magarshak.com/contact

Ok, your second paragraph puts this a little more in perspective. I think you need to do a better job of communicating that. It may help to have a videos showing how it works.

This would actually be ideal on something like the Apple TV (which doesn't have apps yet but my bet is that it will at some point). Look into what's happening with Apple's upcoming AirPlay.

Other set top boxes could be adapted for this. Roku, Boxee, Google TV. That sort of thing.

So what you need is:

1. Apps for the set top boxes;

2. Apps for Android and iOS; and

3. Facebook apps.

(2) is really really important. You need something so someone can pick a song on their iPhone and "queue it up" on your party.

The app running on the set top box would record what was played and publish it. If songs are skipped then don't include them. This way it's more of a living, breathing playlist.

I guess this part goes to social media integration: publish that list to Facebook. It might be useful if someone says "What was that song at the party last night?".

But don't underestimate the importance of a good app for the people at the: to say what's playing and make requests. Think of it like an interactive, distributed jukebox.

And there's an idea for making money from it: iTunes affiliate links to the songs played.

I don't want to say any more so as not to influence you ... just evaluate the site on its own merits.

I mainly made this site for my own parties, but what if I wanted to make it popular?

1. What do you guys think is keeping people from actually creating music mixes and inviting their friends, like I do and a couple of my friends do?

2. What would you recommend I do to change that and actually make people use it?

I'm just looking to learn and get feedback :)

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