Here’s a recap of last week’s presentation of the project concept for what is tentatively called “Play DJ” followed by feedback from today’s group discussions with Liz and Nick.
The preliminary concept for “Play DJ” is for groups of people in social spaces to collectively play the DJ through their individual selecting of and collective voting of songs to be played in the space. Patrons who check into a venue (think 4Square) could view suggested songs to be played, vote on songs, and suggest songs themselves through a mobile application. Based on the number of votes, songs would play (essentially only those with more yes votes than no).
Precedents for this project are Pandora (individual voting of songs generated for a personal music station), Reddit (collective voting up/down of content), iTunes and deejay application (remote control of a music playlist), and 4Square (location based social network). Also the jukebox is a key precedents allowing people to select music in social spaces. And the notion of paying to pick a song that plays should not be ignored: it feels good when your song plays (even better when other people are excited by the song), and people are willing to pay for that.
Since the project is about music, I considered an extreme user scenario: how to select the music played between sets at a music concert filled with music enthusiasts. People who go to concerts generally care or have opinions about music, so they would care about the consequences of their selections and votes: if a song a person picked passes the vote of other music enthusiasts, the selector feels a sense of pride; the voting mechanism gives agency to all individuals who feel a part of something and feel their opinions matter. I used Terminal 5 and the LCD Soundsystem concert as an example of a venue where this application could be used, but I realize this may have been too extreme. For bigger bands the bands themselves many times want to control the whole experience down to the music played between sets. The scenario may be better suited for smaller indie bands just getting a start; the band may have a particular sound that they associate with, but perhaps they want to know more about their fan base – how varied are our fans tastes? who else might like our music if they heard it?
Below are screenshots of a paper prototype for the mobile application interface.
Feedback about the interface included issue of ease of use: the potentially long list of songs to vote on could be daunting and then how often do you check the list to vote on the latest suggestions? One solution to this could be push notifications with simple two button yes/no interface (though a shower of push notifications is invasive too).
I also started working with Grooveshark API with the idea of using Grooveshark’s large and current library of music as the source for the music. I was able to display songs from an actual GS playlist on a webpage and add thumbs up / thumb down submit buttons which update to my database. One issue I did experience was a delay in new songs showing up on the list. I’ve asked the developer about this so we’ll see if there’s a fix or I may have to explore new tech if I do still need instant updates.
In class there was a suggestion to modify the project concept to inform a live DJ of what the crowd likes. You check into a place through the mobile app and can see what the current song is. A simple interface lets you vote this song ‘Like’ or ‘Dislike’ and the collective votes would be shared with the DJ who gets a feel for what the crowd likes and can choose subsequent songs accordingly. An added feature would be allowing users to look back at songs they liked to be reminded of music they like or learn about new music. After talking to a couple DJs, I’m not sure how many DJs would really use this information – ultimately playing DJ is like playing god, you’re the expert and you know what’s best.
Since last week’s presentation, I’ve been thinking of many directions I could go with my original idea. Over the weekend I went to a chill bar with a decent jukebox (and had a very interesting encounter, all in the name of research) and queried some people about why they go there and there thoughts on the music / jukebox. I discussed a few of the ideas with Liz and Nick, and they helped talk through some of the variations to the original idea.
Many of these ideas are compelling but have their issues which are seemingly hard to resolve. I’m meeting with another DJ this week, who may have his own approach to DJing which may help inform/direct me. So, I am still trying to figure out what the core mechanic is, and the part I like most about the original idea is giving the patrons agency about what music is played – and bringing a DJ music experience to places that don’t typically have a DJ – so we’ll see I can get that to work somehow.
Any additional thoughts/feedback on any of this would be great. A list of the floating/floated ideas:
- Use at up-and-coming indie band shows between sets to inform the band of who their audience/fans are
- Allow checked-in patrons to add to bar’s song queue – but only songs which are on select users’ playlists (from their phone? from their last.fm or Grooveshark playlist?); so the regular super visitors provide a curated list of songs and influence the music played there
- Vote on the DJ’s picks to help him gauge crowd on what to play
- Allow user to see songs currently played at their location; user can like songs and check their liked list to buy this new music
- Playlist based on all checked-in users playlists (pulling from…. phone mp3s? last.fm or grooveshark accounts/playlists?) – system figures out which songs the most people have and plays those; but just because you all secretly like Mylie (or have a song you like to study to) doesn’t mean you want to hear it when you’re out. And this relies on users keeping their list updated.
- Jukebox app on the phone, rather than going up to/needing a physical jukebox you can select from venue’s catalog of songs and pay for the song via Google Checkout
- House party for listening and learning about new music – attendees can submit songs to be played for their friends who can like songs and refer to this list to get new music