Ask HN: Review our startup: Mugasha - A better way to listen to electronic dance music

by lyime • 18 years ago

30 62 18 years ago

mixmax2• 18 years ago

Looks nice. I'm into this sort of music, so I'll use it for a few days and tell you if I have any problems/changes/ideas

:-)

omarish3• 18 years ago

I love this.

A couple of things.

1.1 The invite a friend form is broken. 1.2 Could I invite multiple friends using the same form?

2.1 Why are you searching for music like this at Amazon.com? I think you would have much better luck using beatport.com.

I just started using this right now; I'll keep you posted when I have more comments.

Thanks for creating this.

lyime13• 18 years ago

What's broken about the invite form? Could you take a screenshot. I have noticed sometimes if you load the page and click on invite friends too soon it takes you to a white page with a blank form. This is because the JS hasn't finished loading. I'll have a fix for that soon.

omarish3• 18 years ago

Yeah, that's exactly what was happening. It's working now.

omarish3• 18 years ago

also, i'd like to send this site out to a bunch of my friends in the near future, let me know when you guys are ready for a spike in traffic :).

alex_c3• 18 years ago

Looks great, but... I can't seem to get any sound out of it? I click the Play button, and absolutely nothing happens.

It's disappointing, since I actually want to use it :p

Tried it in Chrome and Firefox 3 so far.

Small side note: log me in right after I register! Especially if you don't require email confirmation. It's a minor one-time irritation, but any friction you can remove, especially at the beginning of a user's experience, is worth it.

lyime13• 18 years ago

What flash player do you have? You should have 9 or above

alex_c3• 18 years ago

WIN 9,0,115,0

according to http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn...

mixmax2• 18 years ago

As Alex_c said: log the user in when he registers. The extra step loses you a lot of potential customers.

Tangurena3• 18 years ago

The blog page gave me a 406 error in internet explorer (ver number 7.0.6001.1800. vista).

Tangurena3• 18 years ago

Using XP at home, I can't register, it gives multiple errors, and using the password recovery page, it gives the following error: A password reset link was not sent, you may have enetered an invalid email address. (typo on original page).

Tangurena3• 18 years ago

Errors when trying to register:

Invitation is required

Invitation has already been taken

I used the link in the original post. If you want to send me an invite, use my nick/handle at yahoo dot com. I'd also use the same nick/handle as the login name as I post here with.

slig• 18 years ago

Somehow, after I click to listen a track, it breaks the "back button". ff3.05 osx

lyime13• 18 years ago

Yea, that is a problem. Silly SWFAddress... Its on the list ;)

rjprins• 18 years ago

The title of the 'forogt password' page is misspelled :)

I love this by the way. I always listen to long trance mixes while progging..

technosmurf• 18 years ago

I wish you could browse the available sets and DJs without signing up for an account. To force me to do that is a bit of a pain. I'd rather go back to doing some "real work" than to go through the trouble of signing up so I can explore your new site quickly.

lyime13• 18 years ago

That is the idea. I dont't like signing up for accounts either. The only reason we have account signup right now is for the beta period. Essentially to understand how people are using the site and to make fixes accordingly. When we launch we want it to work perfectly, right now its far from that.

Harkins• 18 years ago

Now you understand how people will use the site: they will look at it, not instantly understand why it's worth giving personal information to, leave, and tell their friends it's not worthwhile.

If you want to track interaction, just give everyone a cookie (or Flash cookie, nearly nobody clears those) and watch behavior by that.

fizx• 18 years ago

I want a play button on the home page. Doesn't really matter what, but I want to get something happening without figuring out navigation.

siong1987• 18 years ago

I don't know whether this is a usability issue or not. But, I really don't like the extra long input text area:

This issue is quite critical on acquiring new users. A good read on designing sign up form.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/04/web-form-design-p...

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/08/web-form-design-p...

ericwaller• 18 years ago

Few more usability comments related to sign up:

"Login" should be "Username" (username is used on the login form)

"Name" should be "Full Name" or dropped altogether

Log me in when I register, there's no reason to have me retype my details

dzohrob• 18 years ago

i tried signing up a few times but couldn't make it work. username too short, then the invite code disappeared on the retry page. i tried going back to step 1 and it still wouldn't let me sign up.

nx• 18 years ago

Same here. Perhaps there are no more invites?

arjunb• 18 years ago

ditto.

lyime13• 18 years ago

Just increased the number of incites. "hackersftw" is the invite code

swombat2• 18 years ago

Buy track by track?? Why?

I listen to whole sets, not single tracks... why have a per-track buy button?

chriskelley• 18 years ago

I agree. If I'm listening to a good set I'm much more likely to "buy set" than I am to take the time to buy them one at a time. "Buy set" option highly suggested.

lyime13• 18 years ago

You can't really buy sets. Sets are basically podcasts that are mixed by DJs weekly for promotional purpose. Unless we collaborate with sites like Beatport or Juno to make this happen.

trapper2• 18 years ago

I don't get what it does after reading your front page and about page. Why should I sign up?

wheels2• 18 years ago

It feel like this is another case of slogans gone wrong. "Music. Gather. Share." Huh?

It seems like the message should be something like, "Listen to full DJ sets, searchable by track."

trapper2• 18 years ago

Ahh that would be awesome. I have always wanted the ability to have a set annotated, so that i can replay my favs and skip to certain sections easily - is this what it does?

bprater2• 18 years ago

Same deal with me.

We go through this on nearly every review. I think that instead of a day of coding, the team should sit around the table and bang out a list of reasons why people should sign up to their service right now.

This is critical: if you are launching a site, spend hours and hours and hours thinking about this. You know why you started the site, you know why you've been working on it so hard, but we are all busy playing minesweeper.

Tell us why we should spend 15 seconds checking it out.

Its the difference between gaining some traction from a YC! "review" and getting zero traction and having no clue why.

apsurd• 18 years ago

I've always wanted a GUIDE to good electronica, techno, dance etc because I know I like it, I just don't know whats good... so it sounds like your site may help me! Right now I'm listening to some random tracks I've found... so far so good....

The UI is nice, one thing that would help, though I'm spoiled, is how on the new playlist.com website you can browse music without interrupting your player stream.

ggruschow2• 18 years ago

This is sad.

I actually love electronic dance music.

But.. I clicked twice, ended up on a page full of from to fill out, and just didn't have the energy to go through with it 'cuz I had no idea what the point was. So as my 4yo (who used all said energy up) would say.. I x'd it.

lyime13• 18 years ago

That is pretty lazy IMHO. Its a beta site, read the comments above on why there is a login.

bprater2• 18 years ago

I did the same thing. So either there is some merit or we are two dingbats.

ggruschow2• 18 years ago

Now that I came back to HN for my morning fix and made it through the form:

1. Seems to only have trance-y stuff, not the general electronic dance music (e.g. search for popular non-trance artists: Pendulum, Prodigy, or Aphex Twin). The only problem with that is the expectation from the description.

2. On my browsers (Safari, FF3), the sets search edit box isn't clickable / won't take focus. I can only search tracks and artists.

3. How does this help me? Is it just a nicer interface than Amazon's? I frequent sites like http://dnb-sets.de to listen to music. I suppose this is a compelling argument for pandora to take mixed sets into their playlist?

Now, I've closed it because I don't see a reason to use it. This is a major problem because I figure I'm probably the best consumer you can imagine for this. I love this music. I listen to it online for literally hours nearly every day. I'm very hungry to find new stuff to listen to, have it available to listen to again (I had physical media storage problems back when raves were big), and I'm happy to pay ridiculous sums for the service (e.g. i'd pay $10 just to know the name of the D&B song from 1-2 years ago with certain fight club samples#, and if I couldn't quickly find a mix with it online, maybe $25 for an mp3 of it).

If the site had a much broader range of music, and at least 100x more of it, I might use it. Even then, you'd need a compelling reason for me to stick around on your site (e.g. making it easy for me to find tracks I don't know what they are and buy them... or sucking in zillions of mixes and indexing them continuously in a way more convenient than others do).

___

# example sample, Tyler Durden: "You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you. He never wanted you. In all probability, he hates you." This isn't the more common tune you'll find in your quick search. Like I said, I'm serious, I want this tune.

daveambrose2• 18 years ago

Looks like great progress since TC50 Akshay! Going to take the app for a spin in more detail tomorrow. I'll send feedback.

daveambrose2• 18 years ago

Here you go:

1. Flow of the signup form. I think this was mentioned before, but the "login" field should be titled "username" since you have it on the login field to the right.

2. Can you add a lighter color to the footer? I think it may look better with three variants of the black on the page.

3. Can you direct me to a tour of what Mugasha does, rather then pointing me to text with a "Find out more" pointing me to an "About" page with copy? Give me a guided tour, show me what it is and why it's useful!

mattmcknight2• 18 years ago

I was only able to get two of the sets to play. Every other one sits at 0:00 with the play button clicked. Added it to my Flashblock whitelist, but the flash bar was way below the player, which was weird. The player should be able to pop out or iframe or something so that you can browse while listening. How do I gather and share? You should pre-check the buy links so they could go to Amazon, itunes, Juno, or wherever, based on who has it. Many tracks are hard to find mixes.

lyime13• 18 years ago

could you post a screenshot of what you are seeing?

mattmcknight2• 18 years ago

Everything looked fine, but for the sound of silence. I hit play and it stayed on 0:00.

jawngee2• 18 years ago

- Let me queue up dj sets. - Give me a desktop player so I can listen without keeping firefox open. - Not clear why I have to create an account since I can't do anything with it other than leave comments

Have you checked out soundcloud?

jyu• 18 years ago

Why do you slap me in the face with a full page sign up form, without giving me any clear benefits to signing up?

okeumeni• 18 years ago

'11 errors prohibited this user from being saved'

charlesju• 18 years ago

I think he isn't trying to court you guys as a consumer, but rather as fellow hackers to test his beta site. You guys should cut him some slack — I always thought YC was a positive environment, but all your comments are incredibly unhelpful and just showcase your personal laziness.

BTW, this is site is FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!

It has a bunch of live DJ sets that you can listen to and even allows you to jump between tracks. It's for people that enjoy trance music and are tired of having to constantly find new sets.

Good job man, keep up the good work.

tlrobinson• 18 years ago

I love it! I like listening to live sets, but I'm always annoyed when I want to know what a certain track in the middle of a set is. If you're lucky you can find a breakdown of the set list, but this is way better than even that.

[me goes to unsubscribe from electronic music podcasts in iTunes]

Now, just make it so you can continue browsing the site without interrupting the currently playing track/set. You could do that with frames, or by loading content using AJAX (that's what http://www.thesixtyone.com/ does)

cmos• 18 years ago

I wish you the best of luck. My momentum ran out with the signup form. And I like electronic music.

But regardless, congratulations! You got something up and running, and the custom link greeting page was a very nice touch. Please give us updates + progress reports.

Dilpil• 18 years ago

Every single set listed is eurotrance. Many even play the same tracks. Furthermore, they are all from established DJs. When does the 'upload set' feature make it in, and truly democratize techno music?

truebosko• 18 years ago

I can't seem to type anything on this page: http://mugasha.com/browse/sets

The input box has a highlight but when I click on it, I can't type anything at all.

pgebhard• 18 years ago

Does anyone else feel that the play/pause button is backwards? For me, the button displays the "Play" arrow when the music is playing and it shows the pause button when it is paused. I know that sounds like how it should be, but I think that's the reverse of most other players that show the Play button when music is not playing, and, after clicking, the music begins and the button switches to give you the option to pause.

Also, I noticed that the album art was constantly flickering for me.

(I'm using FF 3.0.5 on OS X 10.5.6)

Ask HN: Review our startup: Mugasha - A better way to listen to electronic dance music

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