Show HN: Create a simple SMS to-do list for your music. (alpha) | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Create a simple SMS to-do list for your music. (alpha)

tasteplug.com

27 pointsajaymehta13 comments

This is something I have been waiting for! Simple and actually useful. I was skeptical at first, but being able to build a list then later listen to the song is great!

Besides cleaning up the site and making it look pretty, the MVP is very well executed. What are your plans for monetization?

Also any thoughts on building in a playlist feature to run through my entire list of songs? How about sending songs to my contacts to-do list?

Good job though!

Thanks so much for the feedback! We're planning on building in recommendations as a big part of the service -- and trying to make the experience more social overall. Your other suggestions are awesome too.

Glad it's providing a bit of value and utility!

Monetization idea: allow n songs per day/week/month for free, more with a premium account

Nice! As far as I know Shazam sort of does the same thing and it is kind of annoying. The freemium model is very appealing but I would love to find a different way too.

I love this, and I'll use it - and I've already told everyone I know about it. And I'm very excited to see how you build on the product. To that end, here's why this app doesn't - for me - solve the main problem of remembering music:

When I'm listening to the radio in the car, I'll use Shazam to identify a song. But the process of sending myself that song information for future reference is far too involved (and unsafe while driving).

So what I really want is a Simple Shazam: As soon as it identifies a song, it emails me the information. Otherwise I never remember to check Shazam for all the music I want to buy later.

I haven't looked into the feasibility of the above - except to discover that many other people wish there was an API of sorts for identifying music.

I don't know if the above is a pain point for you or others as well; but I figure if anyone would understand the need for Simple Shazam, it's you.

Thanks! We actually totally understand what you are saying. We have looked at both Shazam and Sound Hound (both top music recognition apps) but see not trace of a public API any time soon. However, we built this app in hopes to just see if people will use it as a tool. If we gain a large enough user base we will start investing in building our own recognition engine, but hopefully by then something public will be available.

In regards to that specific pain point, I do believe we understand that. It is def something that occurs when you are listening to a song in the car or have no idea what the name of the song is but you really want to know and download it later. We will do our best to provide a solution!

Good start to a good idea. I guess music discovery can be though of as having 3 stages. 1) Hearing a song and not knowing its name 2) managing to remember the name of the song until I am ready to purchase/download it and put it on my ipod 3) and actually purchasing/downloading/getting the song on my ipod.

The closer you can get to solving/connecting all 3 of those the more useful your app will be to users.

good start though

like how I got a text instantly making it super easy for me to use the service

bpeters thanks for the kind words! Monetization is not a key priority, though there is a small chance to make some commission from affiliate links (as you might see through our download links).

We do hope to allow a playlist feature, but currently are only able to provide 'previews' of the songs versus the full songs. And YES! Recommendations to friends' lists is def where we are heading next.

Have you looked into how Grooveshark streams songs? I am only pushing this because I would love a playlist I can build as I think up or find songs and then can playback at some later time. I am always forgetting songs I want to listen to when I get home.

I actually have. I have corresponded with their CEO actually regarding usage of their unofficial and official API. Both which they told me would not allow me to get previews or full versions of songs.

You might check out sndchk.com they allow you to create playlists...but not for certain songs only artists.

Oohh, I like this.

I use rd.io and would love the songs I txt in to be added to a playlist there. Or really a playlist anywhere - grooveshark, pandora, rdio, amazon, last.fm, etc. That'd be cool.

The only issue I see arising is that of internet radio laws. I believe (and I am no expert so please correct me if I am wrong) there is no way to 'freely' search for a song and have it be heard. Last.fm only allows previews (or radio stations that play similar songs) and rd.io is a paid app. I would love some way to do this for free. Yes Grooveshark does offer it for free, and I am not sure how legal their practices are.

Good point. My thought was to build a playlist over in a service I am already paying for. The songs I submit via TXT get added to a playlist on Rdio. Then, next time I login there - those songs are there for me to listen to. http://developer.rdio.com/

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