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11 Comments

Feedback for MVP wanted | Spotify related

Hey community,

I'd like ask for a bit of your time to check and validate my mvp. It's called BrowseGenres and let's you uncover the genres of artists listed on spotify. You start with one term and use it to uncover others. And so on until you come across an artist who just blows your mind.

I'm aware that some things still suffer from usability and important functions are still missing (typical user account settings), but that will come later. Important is the basic functionality.

Please play around, desktop, mobile. What you like, what you don't like, what you can't do, what you would see somewhere else,...
Important, cookies must be accepted, otherwise it won't work.

Here's the site: https://tinyurl.com/y4j43tol

Thanks for your opinions!!

Would you use it when it's done?
  1. yes
  2. no
Vote
  1. 3

    Nice idea, though got turned off by the forced login before I could even start. If you need the login maybe good idea to show on the homepage a mini video or something of how it works.

    1. 1

      thanks for taking the time. I don't really need the login, at least not now. For getting better 'sign in' rate it's better without, I agree. It's like someone buying items on your site and the last step before typing in your bank details you would be asked for registration. I will work out both, with and without user credentials.

  2. 2

    It took me a few minutes to figure out how to move around, but I after I got the hang of it I found it pretty compelling.

    I'm always being hit with asks to check out apps, but I really was excited to check this one out because of what it is trying to do. I went in hoping to find at least one new artist that I really like (which is not easy when it comes to me). So that's the "job to be done" for me.

    I found two new-to-me artists that I followed on Spotify!

    This is entirely my opinion, but I think this is best targeted at music "snobs" like me. Here are my psychographics ;-)
    • I really want to keep up with new artists, but I'm also (i) too busy, (ii) really specific about what I like and don't like.
    • I'm the kind of person who takes a ridiculous amount of pride in introducing my friends and family to music they haven't heard before.
    • I'm not a music aficionado, but discovering new music is important enough to me that I used to subscribe to a monthly CD from CMJ of curated up and coming bands coming out of college radio stations (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMJ). Guess I'm a crazy music FOMO, ha ha!
    • Spotify's recommendations rarely work for me.

    What I liked:
    • learning which genres are applied to the music I like
    • the single one short sample for each artist (I only need that much to know if I like somebody, seriously)

    What I wished was there:
    • a little more about each artist to help me understand if I might like them—I know this is old hat but maybe a list of other artists that people who like this artist listen to (maybe there's a better way?)
    • more old hat, but, I'd really like to be able to find a couple of my favorite artists and then see all the genres applied to them and start exploring from there
    • the ability to follow the artist on Spotify right from your app :-), or alternatively, just a way to save a list of all the artists I want to explore further

    The thing that I always run into is that the genre is only a starting point for me. There are usually 30 artists I don't like and maybe 1 I do like in any genre. Maybe if I could see the genre Venn diagram of all l my favorite artists I'd be able to up my success rate? Ha.

    I'd love a daily prompt of, say, 5 artists to check out based upon the genres I've explored (and in the future based upon the list of artists I've saved). This would be my favorite thing ever if I could discover one new artist a week that I really like.

    1. 2

      Thank you so much for your extensive feedback! This helps me a lot! What I learnt so far:

      • everybody has a different approach how he/she wants to start. Some by the genre choice ad offered right now, others want to type in a genre and see where it takes them, others by typing an artist they know to see what genres are assigned to them and then start from this point. I agree to all of them. For the beginning, I agreed with myself to offer these global genres as starting point. They do a good job but sometimes not so much.

      • People either are not interested in or just didn't see it but there's the possibility to change the country, aka market. This fun as it can bring you to complete unknown field within 3 clicks, especially when starting with genres like 'folk' and 'world', sometimes 'rock' does the job as well.

      • the landing page needs major improvement. In both ways, adding more information and better call to actions. Especially the forced sign up is a big downgrade, got it. I think, when keeping the sign up - what I actually not really need (it would just be helpful for future features as they can be more user centric then), - then I need to add a short video like a screen cast, at least.

      • Yes, I agree, more info about the artist would be helpful. I also have on my to do list adding info about the genre itself, at least 2-3 sentences. Something like "Desi hip hop is a term for music and culture which combines the influences of hip hop and the Indian subcontinent; the term desi referring to the South Asian diaspora." I'm interested in this kind of information, getting some background info.

      • Same with the additional artists once you have found one, respectively found a new genre term.

      ad) "the ability to follow the artist on Spotify right from your app :-), or alternatively, just a way to save a list of all the artists I want to explore further"

      • To follow right from the app would be very handy, I agree. The only thing is that I don't ask for your spotify credentials when using the app. The reason is that spotify doesn't allow to use the app for commercial purposes then. I need to figure out how this could be done alternatively.

      • at the moment, you get all artists and genres in your 'profile' saved. There you can delete the ones you don't like, listen again or go to the specific spotify page of the artist in question. You can also see the genres you found and take this as new starting point when using the app again.

      ad) "Maybe if I could see the genre Venn diagram of all l my favorite artists I'd be able to up my success rate?"
      I cannot really follow what you mean. You mean a venn-diagram showing, say artist 1 (has applied the genres A, B, C, D, E) and say artist 2 (has applied the genres H, K, A, D, S). They both would have the genres A and D in common. So would like to see only those artists?

      ad) "I'd love a daily prompt of, say, 5 artists to check out based upon the genres I've explored (and in the future based upon the list of artists I've saved)."

      • This would be a really good reason to ask for user registration.

      It makes me really happy that you found two new artists. That's the whole purpose of this app!

      Thanks again for taking the time!

      1. 1

        I also have on my to do list adding info about the genre itself, at least 2-3 sentences.

        I like this idea.

        I think what I have in mind for the Venn diagram is something for much later :-) I was thinking about, why do I like the Electro artists that I like? Do they all share a particular sub-genre? If not, is it something else? Anyhoo, it's just sort of brainstorming more than anything 😬. But what you described is one way of tackling it. Again, I don't think it's mission-critical any time in the near future.

        I'm excited to see where this goes! Excellent MVP.

  3. 1

    Hi @Wondarar - I really like what you've built! It took me a bit of poking around to figure out how it works so I would agree that more descriptive calls to action would be really helpful. A couple other thoughts - 1) Once I signed up and signed in, I didn't get a lot of value out of the landing page. Have you considered making the 'browse' page your landing page? This screen is the top of the funnel and seems like a better place to start the user off on their journey. 2) After I click on an artist, I really think you should move the play button above the genre tags. Getting a sample of the artist that I clicked on is the reason I'm here but it took me a second to find it because it was below the fold. (BTW: I'm on a laptop - I admittedly haven't explored your site on mobile)

    I subscribe to spotify and value the radio features and suggested playlists but I think your product is complementary. I'm the opposite of a music snob and appreciated this way of exploring new artists. For example - I've never heard the geners's: 'Permenant Wave' or 'Funk Metal' but I love the Red Hot Chili Peppers so you got me to click on a genre I normally would have skipped over. Again - a better call to action would have made this more clear - "Love Red Hot Chili Peppers? You might also like the Genre's below: ..."

    Someone else already mentioned it in the comments I think but integrating this with my Spotify account would be awesome!

    Keep it up! ... I assume that since I signed up I'll get email updates on future progress and iterations of the product? :)

    1. 1

      Hey @RapidFireFeedback,
      thanks much for taking the time, really appreciated! It took me a while to build it, it#s far from done, but it was enough hours to leave me blind and I now realize with the help of your feedback and others what I have not worked out clearly enough.

      What most people mentioned, there's no need for having a user to sign up. At least not for trying the app. I do have more ideas, like micro tools and helpers for spotify that would add up in a solid product. This tool which let's you browse/uncover genres is just the first one and hast big potential for improvements.

      I agree, I'm a subscriber to spotify too and I like their features, radio, playlists, sound of...series. But Spotify cannot fulfull my need in exploring new stuff. It just doesn't work for me. For some reason I end up getting the same artists/music after a while.

      My theory is Spotify has some kind of 3 layers. layer 1 is the super known famous artists, mostly one of (what I call them) 'global genres'. They have nearly 100 popularity, 8digit followers. These are the ones you get when starting with, say rock. Because Spotify wants you to stay so you get the best artists of this term.
      Then comes layer2, or "second row", not so known artists but definitely not unknown and newcomers. You would have to dive deeper a bit, say take subgenre, like 'alternative rock'. If you know one of these sub-genres, you will get these artists. Here starts my problem with Spotify and that's the reason why I built this tool. Spotify doesn't give you anything to explore and discover these genres. You just have to know them. Maybe first google them and then return to Spotify for the playlist. But I want all out of one tool.
      Layer 3 are the newcomers, extreme genres, low popularity, small number or no followers (yet). These can be real gems but you have no chance to get them presented by Spotify.

      Coming back to my theory. My impression is that spotify does only alternate the artists horizontally but not really vertically. Horizontally means you get practically only the ones within layer1, or whatever you are in. But you don't get it vertically, that would mean you get layer1, 2 and 3 mixed. Because the risk is way to high for Spotify to present you ones from layer3 that could probably don't like at all and leave the app. With layer1 they play safe.

      Signing up doesn't mean to be on the newsletter list automatically. You could either sign up which is just one click or I add you, no problem.

      Thanks again for your feedback!!

  4. 1
    • super super slow with timeouts and errors.
    • Why would I care to go outside of Spotify to look into spotify? like I get it there are some service, I think I'm not that in love with spotify and/or music but it has more than a few ways to browse and discover inside (they aren't the best, but...)
      I'm probably outside your target crowd, I don't care enough about music and discovery...
    • Don't most people only care about a few genres? well some have more sub genres than others I guess... but don't you search the types like once or twice in your life and make up your mind generally and stop looking?
    • 4,000? that's like too much to have significance for any? ...
    • You should inspire me a bit more on the homepage, I'm not going to create a user when I belive I can just go to spotify and click somewhere there...
      I don't know how your thing looks and why it helps... and why should I care...
      This might be attractive to a really small niche of crazy music FOMOs... but would they use it more than once? seems low usage + low value + small niche... IMHO, while again I'm probably an outsider by far for this.
    1. 1

      Thanks for your prompt reply. No worries, according to your description, you are not in the target group. It's a niche and it's for people interested finding new music, apart from what spotify delivers.

      ad timeout)
      which errors did you get? you haven't registered yet.

      ad spotify)
      Spotify is really good in playlisting, radio function. But it lacks in offering a good browsing tool. This tool only serves you when you already know the name of the genre. My site is about finding the name of the genre. I then pass you to spotify. I'd like to have this function on spotify. I consider myself a heavy user that consumed 5 hours / day in 2019 on spotify. Someday you will reach a point where you not only feel you get the same music, you simply get the same music. I want to deliver a new starting point for the spotify algorhythm.

      ad genres)
      yes, niche and you need to be more interested than just turning on the radio and not caring what might come out.

      ad 4000)
      it's getting more and more every week. You surely don't need all of them. If you are not into classical music, why should you care, right. If you are - in general - into rock music you might be interested in subgenres. There's a big difference between 'alternative rock', 'christian rock', 'comic rock', 'stoner rock' etc....

      Again, thanks for your reply, really much appreciated and helps me!

      1. 1

        That last part, should be reflected visually in the landing page...

        loading the side, 1st try 10sec, couldn't resolve dns, 2nd attempt 20sec, timed out connecting to server, 3rd attempt loads in 3-4sec
        Are you using like a burstable instance?
        Getting into the homepage is like the worst I've seen in a really long while and so is any further page.. is this like a free shady hosting? or just in TX?... (not going to start looking into, just saying it's bad)

        1. 1

          I checked website speed, simulating someone accessing it from Australia like you. Yes, it's slow, agree and sorry for that. My server is in Frankfurt/Germany. I'm working on it. Thanks again for input, it helps.

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