This is awesome. Why do you think you never found success with it?
Currently I have exactly 2 customers, who are pretty much friends helping me test. The good news is the site is optimized for being set-it-and-forget-it (all serverless arch) so just having one customer is enough to break even.
Have a really small demo tier or a demo account, say with public domain classical and jazz standards, just something basic.
The demo tier could be phone number based, then a write once system, let's say 100mb ... something really token.
You could even have a few sample tunes everyone gets by default. Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin is in public domain for instance as are say, the rags of Scott Joplin, Debussy's Deux Arabesques, etc.
If that doesn't onboard people then have a no-hassles 7 day refund. If someone gives you money but then decides they don't want it, have it built in the interface they can back out for 100% money back in 7 days.
"Free 2 week demo. No credit card needed. [Try it now]"
"Register" is too committal ... try things like "get started" or "try it out" - more action, result and experience oriented.
Lastly on the technicals, look into https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/MediaSessio...
this will allow you to navigate through things when listening over bluetooth using the media buttons. I'm sorry for the rather advanced example but here's how I use it to navigate through hierarchy with double and triple tapping: https://github.com/kristopolous/music-explorer/blob/master/w...
> "Register" is too committal ...
I actually didn't notice the "No credit card needed" until I had written a long explanation :-)
That is how hard the "Free demo" has been abused to snag my credit card, so maybe experiment with some variations as long as it doesn't delay launch :-D (FWIW: personally, with my background and as a non-native speaker, "register" doesn't sound as scary as "Free 2 weeks demo".)
There's other ways. "Upgrade to a paid account if you like it" works. "Upgrade" implies work. "Paid" implies the work is paying. Thus the thing you're currently engaging with doesn't need payment.
You can also call it "Free tier" which has "14 day expiration" as a stipulation.
There's no best practice here because it's dependent on the product, value proposition, where you are in the funnel and who the customer is. They'll perform differently and counterintuitively and most frustratingly, change over time (because the context of the relationship between your prospect and product is always dynamic)
The truths that do hold are,
1. Make it sound casual
2. Avoid hustle language
3. Give an easy exit strategy
4. Make it clear and direct
I don't think I'm your customer here.
I think the parting advice I can give is <all products are relationships>. The interface and experience defines this relationship. We shape our buildings and thereafter they shape us or the interface sets the terms of the engagement or the medium is the message. It's been stated a myriad of ways.
I kinda hated "Selling the invisible" by Harry Beckwith but out of the 100 or so marketing and product development books I've read, I think, for you in particular, a weekend paging through that book might really help you here. You have to read it as an analogy of how to design software of course.
I could be wrong about this, but aren’t individual performances of these works still protected? If I record an album of works by Debussy that performance isn’t in the public domain and couldn’t be used as sample tracks.
If the performer doesn't mind and the work is public domain then it's an easy path
For example, here's the famous Waldstein by Beethoven performed explicitly as a free and open recording
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ludwig_van_Beethov...
Funny apocryphal story about that song. For a long time I had got in my head that was extremely disruptive for the time. I envisioned men with powdered wigs running distressfully throughout the aisles as he plays the work for the first time as their wives fan themselves and couch faint in the seats.
I still think that every time I hear it and I think it's hilarious to imagine European high society losing their composure over this sonata. This and Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 are ridiculously close to modern music structure. That's a 110bpm breakbeat done with violins you're hearing.
https://www.gardnermuseum.org/experience/music
These are recordings of live performances by a variety of musicians from a long lasting podcast series.
Licence
https://www.gardnermuseum.org/organization/rights-reproducti...
and scroll down.
https://musopen.org/music/performer/isabella-stewart-gardner...
I've just discovered that the ISGM library has been uploaded to musopen.org which is good as the ISGM Web page has a pretty basic search function.
Once I started adding a bit more "flair" to it, things got traction. I'm not talking a complete redesign, but I too had to go back to capitalizing words, adding color, and caring about the "experience" for the market I was aiming to capture.
I hated it, I still do, but I hate it less after seeing success with the changes I was willing to concede on. Just sayin'.
It's a cool project nonetheless. I'd love to be proven wrong.
https://github.com/web-scrobbler/web-scrobbler/
assuming the UI expresses meta data in an easily scrapable way.
Did you ever try to promote it in Hydrogenaudio? Is "the" music enthusiasts forum.