
Show HN: I got tired of missing new music releases, so I built this - girasquid
http://beathound.com
======
droithomme
This is a good idea for a service but I found the interface too confusing
regarding how to use it, why it had to have that information, and how it
worked.

Select file would seem to mean the iTunes _folder_? Or do I select "iTunes
Music Library.xml" inside it (a large file). What personal and private
information is in that file anyway? How will it be used? Where is it going?
What if the xml file I have is for a different version of iTunes than the site
supports? Is there a list of iTunes versions tested and supported listed
somewhere on the site? What happens if a bunch of users have information in
that file that they have pirated songs and the service gets a subpoena to
disclose all xml files? What if I only want updates on some artists I like and
not the ones I hate and regret buying their CD? Does the XML file have DRM
keys in it that I will be inadvertently disclosing? If not where are those
things kept anyway? How often do I get emails? How can I unsubscribe? How can
I tell it to stop sending emails about a given group?

A service I would probably like would be one where I could type in names of
groups I actually like and get emails when they release a new album. This may
even be a complementary function to the "everything all at once without
distinction" feature on the beathound site.

~~~
smspence
If you're wondering what personal and private information is in "iTunes Music
Library.xml", couldn't you open it up and look for yourself?

"What happens if a bunch of users have information in that file that they have
pirated songs and the service gets a subpoena to disclose all xml files?"

Whoa, with absolutely zero knowledge of the .xml file, you just jumped 100
steps ahead to some hypothetical situation where this website will incriminate
its users. Loosen up your tinfoil hat a little bit...

You're asking a ton of questions about a service that is obviously just
starting out, and is probably not feature complete yet. Did you actually use
the site, and can you provide any comments on how well the site actually does
what it advertises? If not, your comment just seems like a lot of
bikeshedding:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_Law_of_Triviality>

<http://pink.bikeshed.com/>

~~~
j_s
Yes, droithomme (GP), please do not share your thoughts on a project which was
listed here specifically for you to do so.

On second thought, thanks for bringing up your concerns. It certainly seems
that in order for this tool to become a success for users like you it will
have to deal with these types of issues carefully.

Edit to add: I want to stress the near infinite value that the HN crowd brings
to the table whatever they say about any new site. Considering the vast
majority of passers by even on HN will not comment at all, anything
discouraging anyone from doing so seems to be more damaging than any negative
comment.

------
mnicole
The "Select File.." button label would make more sense as "Upload your iTunes
XML file" instead of expecting the user to read the entirety of the text above
or to click the equally confusing "What have I missed?" button, which I
assumed was a changelog but was really to pop up the helper text.

~~~
girasquid
Thanks for the heads up - I'll be deploying the change shortly.

------
hendi_
A service I can recommend is <https://muspy.com/> . You enter your favorite
interprets and get an email when they release a new single or album.

~~~
ew
Why would I want to create an account and then manually enter in my favourite
artists?

~~~
ThomasQue
Because you're not using iTunes. I don't. I agree it's not the best experience
ever, but it's a great solution for people like me using small music players
(Pragha) that will never be supported by services like this.

------
whyleyc
Nice idea, would use it if adapted for last.fm.

Your survey contains "FooBar" as a listening option - assume this should not
be on there ?

~~~
girasquid
I was surprised too, but it _is_ actually a music player that some of my early
testers use: <http://www.foobar2000.org/>.

~~~
antihero
A fantastic one, too. Unfortunately not on Linux, though.

~~~
thestu
Probably the single program I miss the most on Linux. I've never been able to
find an acceptable replacement.

~~~
antihero
I use MPD + ncmpcpp/ario, and then Picard for tagging. It works pretty well,
and I can do a bunch of stuff I couldn't do with Foobar2000, too, such as
controlling my music via an app on my phone.

------
sambeau
Well done. This really works. The first recommendation was an instant
purchase. So far I have spend £15.

Please consider two things: email alerts. I'f happily be spammed every time a
new album from my most-played artists was released.

A monthly-spend-automatic-buy. I'd risk $20 a month to wake up to new music.

Oh. And it took me straight to the US shop despite me being a British
customer. I take it the country code isn't in the iTunes.xml. Perhaps a
country selector is needed on sign-up.

~~~
girasquid
Right now the plan is to email you max once a week - most of my early users
hated email, so it was a matter of finding a balance between "I am putting
something in your inbox" and "I am doing my best to not annoy you". Once a
week seemed best for now.

This is my first time testing with an international audience - sounds like
there's some work to do on country selection. Thanks for the feedback!

------
ken
FWIW, I spent a while trying to figure out how to pronounce "beathound"
("beath - ound"? "bea - thound"?). I eventually figured it's supposed to be
"beat" + "hound" (right?).

As annoying as it can sometimes be, maybe this would be a good time to use
camelcase ("BeatHound"), or perhaps just style the text to use a different
color for the two words.

~~~
girasquid
You know, I had a tester point out to me that this could be a problem - this
is what I get for thinking he was nuts. Thanks for pointing this out.

~~~
ken
I won't claim I'm _not_ nuts, but on the internet, you probably have to assume
that a decent number of potential users are nuts, and design accordingly. :-)

~~~
j45
Many simple obstacles that can be cleared up easily is worth doing :)

------
minikites
There's also <http://www.albumreminder.com/>

~~~
droithomme
"You can add your favorite artists one-by-one or make use of one of Album
Reminder's powerful importers."

Thanks that one is really cool, the one-by-one option is the right amount of
disclosure for me.

------
defsprite
Well, I have created this a while ago: <http://qusic.co.uk> It tracks
currently only spotify stuff, but you can import your artists from SongKick.
Any feedback / suggestions highly appreciated.

~~~
girasquid
Cool - but if you're tracking things on Spotify, why do I need a Songkick
account in order to import my artists? Does Spotify's API not do this for you?

~~~
defsprite
You could only create an import building a proper spotify app. Songkick was
the easiest to implement quickly.

------
kylefox
This is awesome. It's already found me a handful of new albums from artists I
like.

~~~
simonsquiff
Yes - this genuinely is excellent. I've already bought two albums (first I've
got for years) and am really enjoying stepping through the results. Great
stuff!

------
kin
I feel like official music releases are too slow to the game. Kind of like
BandsInTown or SongKick, by the time you find out they're in town it's too
late and tickets are sold out. You have to rely on social media like
FB/Twitter for instant knowledge.

For releases, <http://hypem.com> is the way to go. Blogs will discover new
releases way before anyone and you'll discover them through hypem.

~~~
j45
I think this kind of service would be valuable to me just to find related or
similar artists that I might not have heard of before -- if new music wasn't
the sole focus

------
gghootch
This is a pretty cool solution; although I am getting a LOT of false
positives. Could that have something to do with my hand-tagged MP3s?

(shameless plug) I made a new album notification tool for Last.FM focused on
easily excluding non-important artists a while back:
<http://releasification.frapp.it>

~~~
girasquid
Hand-tagged MP3s are a problem, but it looks like I have some bugs in my
scanning logic that are creating more false positives than I'd like. I've been
collecting library.xml files to try and track it down - if you want to help
out, send yours to luke@creaturecreative.com.

------
dakrone
I don't see any kind of privacy policy link on the site, could one be added
spelling out how the email address will be used?

~~~
girasquid
Yes - I need to do this. For now I can just spell it out: I will only use your
email address to send you 1) an email when your library has been scanned, 2)
an email maximum once a week when I find new releases from artists in your
library, and 3) an email when there are recommendations for you to check out
(if you opt in to receiving recommendations).

I have added this to my priority list - thanks.

------
AtTheLast
Nice use of bootstrap and changing things up so it doesn't look like a default
bootstrap site.

------
martinwnet
No last.fm integration?

~~~
girasquid
Not yet, but it's on my list.

~~~
hackmiester
Excellent. I'm sure I'm not the only one on hacker news who doesn't use
iTunes.

~~~
girasquid
If there's anything I've learned today, it's been that people really like
Spotify, and tend to send their information to last.fm. All the feedback is
definitely helping me organize my list.

------
benguild
This is very similar to a service I built several years ago with a different
concept: <http://ilikebsides.com>

------
evan_
Reminds me a lot of <http://www.crapimissedit.com/> which is unfortunately
shuttered now.

------
moystard
The "Select File" button does not work for me on Firefox 15.0.1 / OSX 10.8.2
while it does when I use Chrome, bug or deliberate choice?

~~~
girasquid
Bug - that's what I get for trying to style a file input. Try clicking just to
the left or right of it.

~~~
simonsquiff
I hit the same problem, then fired up IE to try to get around it. Didn't work
there either...unless you double click. I'd have given up if I'd not seen this
comment!

The other thing that is rather confusing is that having selected the file,
it's not clear how to proceed. I eventually clicked 'What have I missed' which
seems to actually be 'I've not missed anything please click this button' - I
think this could be better worded to just 'Go' or something similar once the
file is selected.

~~~
girasquid
Good point - I've changed it to 'Analyze'.

------
kingatomic
Cool idea!

From a privacy perspective -- what info can you glean from someone's library
file? (other than the obvious artist/track information)

~~~
girasquid
Here's a paste of a small library.xml file:
<https://gist.github.com/d61db3dcfd07ad093abf>

Looking at it quickly, I can get some idea of how your filesystem is laid out
(or at least how iTunes thinks it is), as well as probably guessing your
username on your computer if you haven't changed your music path. Doesn't look
like much more than that.

~~~
rolux
Looking at my own iTunes library, the names of some of my playlists actually
leak quite a bit of private information.

------
jam
the iphone app "nomis" does this well: <http://www.nomisapp.com/>

------
ocharles
What's the data source for this?

~~~
girasquid
The iTunes store for now. Future sources are last.fm, Amazon, Insound, and
eMusic.

~~~
ocharles
Any plans to support MusicBrainz? That would seem like the obvious choice :)

~~~
girasquid
On the list!

