

Now That's What I Call Social Proof - earbitscom
http://blog.earbits.com/online_radio/now-thats-what-i-call-social-proof-thanks-arthur/

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goblin89
Just a little bit of feedback, in case OP is reading HN.

1) Nice.

2) Very much like thesixtyone.com, both in looks (although UI is more
conventional) and in core idea, I may be wrong on the latter though.

3) The Chrome app promotion at the top tries to emulate native Chrome
notification bar. A) This makes playback control unusable, especially for a
newcomer who doesn't know where it is. B) One cannot hide the strip without
either installing the app or dismissing the notification forever. (“Remind me
later” button would fix that.) C) Third-party website trying to imitate
security-related native browser UI elements is always suspicious. Maybe you
should think of your own way to display service-wide broadcasts, like GitHub
does.

~~~
misterbwong
+1 to #3. I didn't know there were controls behind that bar until I read this
comment. It'd be better if it "pushed down" the page instead of covering the
controls.

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joeconway
I love the site and I really want to sign up to make an account with you. But
I won't login with Facebook. I'd definitely compromise and login with Twitter,
but to only use FB is an absolute dealbreaker

~~~
earbitscom
Understood, Joe. Just keep in mind that you don't need an account to keep
using the site as long as you want.

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greendestiny
As a going no where amateur artist of many years, whats the big changing the
world pitch to artists? I really didn't get a sense for that on your about
page or on the app.

Also your app does horrible things to any sense of navigational flow that's
normal on a website - I get it's more like a media player, but I _hate_ media
players.

~~~
doubleconfess
I had the same impression from going to the blog to the site, the line
"Earbits is going to change the music industry and that the results we’re
producing for bands are unparalleled" made me actually reconsider whether
maybe the meeting was a set-up. It's just such an over the top line, and so
patently untrue that it made me reconsider the character (or maybe the
blinders) of the person writing the blog/founding this company.

And I will say that the design and interactions on thesixtyone.com were much
much much nicer (which is especially notable for the two sites being so
similar). But I did miss the ability to set up a preferred genre.

~~~
greendestiny
I gave it some thought, and I do think the genre radio and the curated artist
profiles were interesting. Though it did't help that the genre's are great
fits for the tracks I listened to, that does tend to happen with amateur
music.

I guess the kind thing you want to see as an artist is a whole bunch of
listens for an artist you think you can do better than. Or money.

~~~
gala8y
"Though it did't help that the genre's are great fits for the tracks I
listened to, that does tend to happen with amateur music."

You mean are _not_? :) It's interesting how many preconceptions we have - I
mean, selecting 'ambient' I were prepared for getting fuzzy, 'not-exactly-
what-i-call-ambient' stuff. Where in different kind of service (say, internet
radio) I really want to get almost _exactly_ what I mean by 'ambient'. Just
part of a deal using such a service. Amazing how all this adds to perception
of the service and its usability (and success or failure).

(If I ever write a book that will be about 'contexts'.) :)

~~~
greendestiny
Oops, certainly did. I think you're right, but my expectations were a bit a
higher with the curated nature of the site.

~~~
earbitscom
The site is about discovery and we find that people are more excited to
stretch just beyond the genre they chose than they are to get only the songs
that narrowly fit the exact description. Most peoples' complaints about
Pandora are that it's too narrow and plays the same music too much. We will
often put a song that has ambient (or funk, R&B) elements into the channel,
even if it's not straight ambient, and the rating of the song in that channel
is still strong.

~~~
greendestiny
I can't argue with that. If you're tracking it and it works then I've learnt
something that challenges my preconceptions.

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Angostura
Feedback: I saw "Login with Facebook" and thought "No thanks"

~~~
berntb
I just went to technical death metal and free jazz. It is a really nice
selection of music subgenres.

(I _did_ post a link on fb, but not the official reference. :-)

Point is, depending on their music selection size, I'll have a window open a
long time (I'm not an expert on the internet radio stuff, but this seems
_good_ ). Go use anononymous (edit: I meant -- in the web browser) if you
really don't want to risk fb interaction.

Edit: My problem is having to turn on Flash.

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tzaman
I think anyone of us could easily identify ourselves with this situation. It's
every founder's dream to build something people will love - money will come
because of that and not vice versa.

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sparknlaunch12
Great story! Call it whatever you like, this shows how getting involved and
getting out there creates these opportunities. Good luck with ear bits.

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manish_gill
It used to be that I would try to avoid getting registered with most stuff on
the web, because I'm paranoid that way. But now, if I like an app and do want
to register, there is no sign-up button!

OP: Saw some pretty decent music there, but I assure you, not everyone is
comfortable using only facebook to sign up on various web services. Especially
here on HN, I imagine.

~~~
earbitscom
We use FB for now, but you don't need an account in order to use the site as
much as you want. You're only really missing out on social features anyway.

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mattmanser
Great story!

Also a quick bit of feedback, the only way to realise there's a music control
is to get rid of the pop-up about the chrome app. At first I thought this was
a bad version of thesixtyone where you couldn't skip tracks. Not the greatest
UX for first time users.

And why is the difference in sound levels so bad. I had two songs, the
difference in volume was very jarring. I'd link them but...

This brings me to another massive deal killer. The url doesn't change as the
band does. I can't copy the address of the presently playing song. And I can't
skip back to find out who I was just listening to. And there doesn't seem to
be a history function.

What's the point in listening to new music if you can't listen to it again and
share it? I'm probably a bit of an outlier though, I use that archaic thing
called email or chat to share music.

Still, I like the ability to add myself to someone's mailing list straight
from the app. I'll certainly be checking back here soon. Seems a bit more
artist focused than the competitor I won't name again, which is always good.

EDIT: Also love the ability to dive into genres. Also, came off more negative
than I meant it to, I do think it's off to a great start!

~~~
richthegeek
So to boil down your comments into easy points:

    
    
      1. kill the first-load chrome download bar (I don't want it until I know I like the service) or make it non-blocking
      2. use something like pushState (or location hash) to have all URLs always be referencing something useful (like the current song)
      3. a canonical share source (solved by point 2) rather than *just* social-network buttons
      4. add a "recently listened" thing of some sort
    

A few other ideas:

    
    
      5. add a "listening with XXX others" count (specific to artist/track), for social proof of a different kind :)
      6. add an "up next" with the option to skip
      7. channel combinations (might be possible already? but the ability to listen to post-rock + ambient-electro would be cool, might confuse the UX)
      8. nicer design.. it's ok at the moment but definite room for improvement.
    

2 cents provided, back to work!

~~~
cabalamat
The same points, formatted so the text actually appears on the screen:

1\. kill the first-load chrome download bar (I don't want it until I know I
like the service) or make it non-blocking

2\. use something like pushState (or location hash) to have all URLs always be
referencing something useful (like the current song)

3\. a canonical share source (solved by point 2) rather than _just_ social-
network buttons

4\. add a "recently listened" thing of some sort

5\. add a "listening with XXX others" count (specific to artist/track), for
social proof of a different kind :)

6\. add an "up next" with the option to skip

7\. channel combinations (might be possible already? but the ability to listen
to post-rock + ambient-electro would be cool, might confuse the UX)

8\. nicer design.. it's ok at the moment but definite room for improvement.

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amccloud
Something similar happen to me with <http://pixelcloud.com/>

I was out in SF for the first time having a meeting with some interesting
folks about Pixelcloud and after the meeting they decided to show me around SF
and we ended up eating at a restaurant they picked. To my surprise the guy
sitting right behind me had a Pixelcloud shirt on. We laughed and pretended
the whole thing was staged even though there was no way possible.

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GFischer
Not working for me, and somehow Google doesn't offer me a cache version.

Edit: probably blocked at work, since it's trying to load Twitter, Facebook
and stuff. But I usually get to see the text in those cases.

~~~
w1ntermute
Screenshot: <http://i.imgur.com/8UKDt.png>

~~~
GFischer
Thank you :)

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adrianscott
Did you close him? a.b.c...

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trance
Actually, social proof would be if someone other than yourself submitted this
story ;-)

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leduxe
Have you ever heard of Spotify? <http://www.spotify.com> It's a music
streaming service with social sharing.

