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Ask HN: Feedback on my project

10 pointsa5huynh7 comments

Hi guys,

I'm currently an undergrad at UCSD working on a research project that I'm hoping you guys can give us some good feedback on.

"Herd It" is a, what I like to call, music discovery engine. You enter/select some tags in the search box, which could be anything from music genres (like punk, rock, hip/hop) to certain characteristics (like danceable, sad, romantic, etc) and our project comes up with a playlist that best fits those tags. Once you start playing the playlist it'll continually add more songs that match those tags (so really similar to Pandora in that aspect).

Any feedback is appreciated! And thanks for your time!

URL: http://herdit.org/music/index.html

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I had a very quick look ... initially noscript meant it just said "you haven't added any tags" - no indication as to what the website was nor what the tags were for. Enabled a temporary pass for your scripts ...

Gah! move that Feedback button, it's the trendy way, but it's right in the way of the tags, push it over next to the about button.

Selected a few tags and then emotion tag of "calming". The 2nd song was "Act of Love by Neil Young" which was described as "punk" and included the tag "not calming"!

Changed emotion tag to "likeable" same song was in the list with the tag "not likeable".

I added a new tag "onions" (!) to see what happened. I think the range of tags you have is great, I wouldn't add tags based on single user additions but maybe have a threshold. Searching then for "onions" the track didn't come up but onions got automatically altered first to oasis next to inxs - interesting matching algo.

When you give out the address just post www.herdit.org/music/ - I don't quite get the herd association, crowdsourced tagging?

Oh yeah and I uploaded some RIAA group music [not really], expect a knock on your door in 3...2...1...

Not conclusive but looks like a backend issue.

Generally nice.

I've had some experience in this space, and good on you for tackling a very challenging issue.

I really like how you've done your interface, the ability to add and filter by a fairly easily understood group of labels.

Unfortunately, you still have a lot of work to do on the quality of playlists being created. I started with funk/slow temp and got back Neil Young and the Beach Boys. I kept going and added 'bass', and I have a very twangy harmonica filled blue grassish track by "the trouser legs of time".

The best I have seen to date is http://theperceptron.com/ which was written by a girl from the UK (I believe a CS student as well). Looks like they opensourced their technology too, check it out (their site used to play the tracks, but apparently it doesn't anymore) :(

http://theperceptron.com/blog

Thanks for all the feedback so far guys!

I know the UI is a bit unwieldy at this point because it was a quick mash-up of the work of a couple students.

The playlist generator is still a work in progres, but the feedback certainly helps. Our algorithm creates a pool of songs that match certain tags, and if the tag combination matches a subset of songs that we don't really have many of than the playlist may contain songs that don't really match the tags.

As for the tags, unfortunately you can only choose from the set of tags we have at the moment.

We're adding more songs as time goes on, so the playlists being generated will get progressively better as the pool of songs get progressively bigger.

Hey,

I just played with the site for a while and really enjoyed it. The design is simple and easy to use.. you did a good job.

Some comments:

-The about button at the bottom doesn't work (at least not on FF on Ubuntu). I was trying to figure out how you get the musics/copyrights/privacy policy/etc.

-How are you getting the musics? I see the users can upload, but what about copyright? That can be a pain to deal with..

-There is not many musics yet, which is understandable for a new site.

Good job and good luck.

You know we mean well, so don't take these suggestions to heart:

- "Vote for Pedro" logo font and colour looks a bit nasty.

- Clicking the logo should take the user back to the homepage (I know there's only like, two pages, but still)

- Typed "instrumental" in the search box, pressed enter, my input was cleared but the search did not commence (FF3 Win 2008)

- Search is doing nothing, the ajax spinner goes forever (server too busy?)

Clickable link: http://herdit.org/music/index.html

I tried looking up instrumental music (I've really gotten into instrumental/post rock stuff lately) and your site changed my search into "inxs" and I started to listen to "need you tonight"...although funny, I think you should disclaim that I'm only searching for what's in your system, rather than replacing my search with the closest thing you do have.

Also, I know it's a school project, but be careful with the copyright stuff. Especially if your school is potentially liable (server space or something)

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