Show HN: Musi | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Musi

itunes.apple.com

12 pointsspeedyapoc15 comments

Hey HN,

So I'm a music lover. I regularly have binges where I'll play the same song over and over for hours - especially when I'm in a coding groove and just hammering through work. There are also times that I find a song that relates to a friend's situation, whether it be a break up or some sort of success that they may have had in their life. If I ever want to share any of this music, I have a bit of a dilemma on my hands. How can I even do this? For the last while, I've resorted to finding the song on YouTube and texting a link to the song, or tweeting a link to it. This approach gets tedious though. Transferring a YouTube link to my phone is also incredibly tough to do. From what I've found, there's no actual good way of sharing music with others.

This is why I built Musi.

When looking at music networks and the state of music, generally you think of big players such as Spotify or Pandora. However, these networks have song limitations and if you're like me and live in Canada, it's extremely tough to access them at all. YouTube, on the other hand, is available nearly everywhere and has arguably the largest library of music available. If you're an artist, you or someone else has probably uploaded your music to YouTube.

Musi takes advantage of this and uses YouTube as the basis for its music streaming. Integrated within Musi is also a friend finder, inbox, and friends list to manage the music that is sent to you. Musi even lets you share playlists with others. Since all of the music is online, playlist and song sharing takes milliseconds. When receiving anything as well, previewing and adding songs to your library are just one tap actions.

It's simple, social, music. A concept and service that I've never seen before until now.

http://feelthemusi.com

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/musi/id591560124

Also, I hate mentioning my age. However, I can't deny that it's catchy.

Hah, nothing wrong with that. I'm 17 myself and programming for a bit more than three years now. Currently working on an browser extension for multilingual videos on YouTube. Keep up the good work, looks awesome!

Was this submission's title edited? When did you mention your age?

It said something like "I'm 17 and I made this app:"

To be honest it comes off as (at least a little) arrogant in my opinion. It's one thing if I read something along the lines of "This kid is 17 and he's trying to change the music industry" [posted by someone else] because that would be a third party endorsement of your ambition/drive, as well as highlighting your age. It's another if you're boasting about it yourself.

Then again, I'm in my mid-20s so maybe I'm just grumpy that I wasn't as motivated or directed at 17 as you are :)

Sure it's arrogant (or braggy), but a headline is supposed to catch peoples attention and then it is in the submitters best interest to highlight things that people might find impressive about the submission.

I'm extremely humble by nature, and the original title took a little bit of nerve to pull off, as did the paragraph. It attracts views though, which is what marketing is about.

Great work and love the simplicity of it! It looks like you already have a ton of downloads. Would you mind sharing how you marketed the app?

This is a new incarnation and update of the app. Throughout 2013 Musi hit some small blogs, national (Canadian) television, and local news. Very slow buildup to the user base that it has now.

Your creativity is evident in this app and your reflections on music availability match those of others of your generation. Specifically, turning to YouTube for music. It is free, highly available and people are making great playlists.

It is curious that YouTube may have better and broader licenses from the various copyright holders, SoundExchange, SOCAN, etc... that Spotify, Pandora, et al. Somehow I doubt it.

There is a stackoverflow discussion worth a read on the use of the YouTube API for music playback.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2312179/can-we-play-only-...

I wish you success and I like the app. The powers that be probably will not agree with its function and lack of appropriate streaming licensing, but that is a conversation to have over a medicinal beer or scotch.

The one problem I had right away is that you're asking me to create an account. Why?

You're streaming music from 3rd party services. Search functionality is an API call. Settings and playlists can be completely stored locally on the device and backed up to iCloud. Sharing used 3rd party services. I don't see the need for an account.

The app looks neat from the screenshots, but offers no functionality until I sign up. Maybe there's some neat thing the app does that requires a login, but I have no idea what that is.

I like the logo. Love the premise. Design looks nice from the images.

Before the 4.0 update, Musi had optional accounts. However, the conversation rate was basically zero. Now, I'm trying to promote inter-app sharing of music which requires accounts. For the utility that the app provides and the pricetag, a small sign up is quite appropriate in my opinion.

I actually use this app when I want to stream handpicked music from youtube. Great app btw.

Thanks!

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