

Ask HN: Review our app, Muspy (new album notification service) - alexkay
http://www.muspy.com/

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charlesju
Cool startup, I like the logo. The video is a nice touch, people are just too
lazy to read these days (myself included).

Suggestions: \- Lose some of the fluff. For example, in your "what?" section,
you could've written it as simply "We notify you when artists release new
albums". There is no reason to have more words than you need to describe your
product. \- I would have preferred voice in the video. Don't be shy, having a
voice over helps a lot. \- Maybe add a way to import information from existing
sources like Last.fm or Facebook's music interests?

I'm intrigued by how you guys plan to monetize this, but maybe I'm just greedy
and should be thankful for a web app that helps alleviate some of my
headaches.

~~~
daveambrose
I agree with the voice over suggestion.

Try to humanize the site as much as possible.

Based on QA, I wonder what feedback you would get if you placed the video
above the fold....

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haasted
Overall, I think it is a nice and useful service. I could definitely see
myself using it.

My first thought once I grasped its function was "where do they get the data?
Can I be sure that my favourite, obscure indie band will show up there?".
Perhaps you should add this info somewhere?

Disclaimer: I did not sign up for an account, so there is a possibility that I
missed a members' faq somewhere.

~~~
alexkay
It's in the FAQ, we are using the MusicBrainz database.

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pxlpshr
Pretty good idea and easy to monetize if people actually purchase through your
site. I see this being less than 5% tho.

The logo concept is ok I suppose, but the overall presentation of your brand
(logo+site) will significantly impact adoption of a product like this. I
recommend you put some energy ($) into it... the logo reads like there's a 'T'
in it btw.

I think you should enable some public features, for example a user can easily
see any new releases within the last week. This will also boost your
saturation on search engines.

~~~
A-Merchant
yes re: the "t" in the logo, when I was on the site I kept reading it as
"Musty"

~~~
pstinnett
Totally agreed.

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bouncingsoul
It's a pain to add artists one-by-one, and the service isn't valuable until I
do.

I (and a lot of my friends) already have a list of artists in my Facebook
profile. You should let me paste that in and parse it.

~~~
alexkay
Good call, I'm going to add import from last.fm, facebook and probably iTunes.

~~~
paulsb
A widget/plug-in thingy that scans your music library and adds the artists to
your list would be nice.

~~~
bayleo
Only if it included a caveat "only add artists with X number of tracks." God
knows what kind of esoteric stuff is lurking in my music drive.

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grag
I think it would make sense to allow people to use your app (start building a
list of artists) before registering. Just store their list to a cookie and
show a little notification that tells them to enter their email and a password
to save their artist list and start receiving notifications.

~~~
alexkay
Great suggestion, thanks!

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pclark
this is cool, but the real reason I'd want this? honestly?

When the albums get leaked to what.cd.

I like the layout, I really like the sign up form (nice and simple) one thing,
when searching for something with multiple results there is no way to go
"back" once you've clicked "n more artists"

its a bit weird that the album links dont go direct to amazon/iTMS -- i
assumed that was your revenue stream?

~~~
alexkay
_this is cool, but the real reason I'd want this? honestly?_

I guess it depends on how many artists you want to follow. And also how
obscure they are. I personally have about 80 artists I absolutely want to know
when they have a new release (to sample it or at least to read a review). And
80% of them are not even on Amazon.

 _its a bit weird that the album links dont go direct to amazon/iTMS -- i
assumed that was your revenue stream?_

They will, we are working on this.

~~~
bayleo
If you're able to get referral revenue from amazon there's no reason your
service couldn't be extended to authors/books as well.

~~~
alexkay
Yes, and directors/actors ;)

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mdemare
I've actually googled around (in vain) to find such a service (after searching
everywhere on last.fm for this feature - I was convinced that they'd have it -
but no...)

So, excellent idea, I needed it yesterday!

~~~
alexkay
Glad you like it :)

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pstinnett
I think this is an interesting idea. I definitely agree with other comments
here. Open it up to let users import data from Last.fm or other apps that are
recording their listening trends. Then let them know what albums are being
released from artists they frequently listen to.

Pulling in info then making a recommendation system would be great. Maybe work
on an iTunes plugin to read star ratings and phone back to the app? Just
thinking out loud here, I have no idea if something like that would be
possible.

~~~
alexkay
Recommendations are available through Last.fm API, we are working on this.

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wensing
Great idea--solves a practical problem (albeit not one that I have).

On a different note: do you care how people pronounce your name?

My first thought was "Muspy", almost rhymes with "Musky".

My second thought (upon seeing the logo) was "Oh! Mus- is from music. And -py
is from ... Python?" So now I'm thinking about pronouncing it "Muse-py"--as in
how you'd pronounce a Python module.

~~~
alexkay
I have to admit we need to re-work the logo. Others suggested that it reads
"Musty"

The name comes from MUsic and SPY.

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tyohn
The concept is fine but I find the design a little drab. In my opinion this is
an "entertainment" based site and you mentioned possibly selling music... you
need to jazz it up, give it some pop - create a vibrant color scheme - then I
think people will feel more in-tune with your site.

~~~
alexkay
We like it plain and simple, but we may review the design in the future.
Thanks for your suggestion!

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arthurk
Would it be possible to have a RSS feed with the latest album releases rather
than email notifications?

~~~
alexkay
It's already there. We should probably make more visible, but if your browser
has the RSS detection built-in - you can already subscribe.

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truebosko
LOVE The idea. Allow me to import from Last.fm and I'll use your service.

~~~
alexkay
We are definitely going to add Last.fm import.

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dc2k08
include concert listings for followed artists. link to ticket sellers for
revenue. explore other ticket related ideas.

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mattdennewitz
when i read the name, the first association i made was "mumps"

