

Show HN: My side project just reached #6 on App Store music charts - dinnison
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/noon-pacific/id803563983?mt=8

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epaga
Congratulations! What did you do to market the app? Just stick it in the
store? Or did you get blogs to do write-ups?

It seems like discovery has always been a huge problem for app developers.

~~~
dinnison
I've built up a list of 14,000 subscribers to the free web app over the past
year and also had a journalist at LifeHacker who wrote about the project
before. I offered the journalist an exclusive write up and then sent an email
blast to the 14,000 subscribers all within an hour (starting today at Noon)
and the app shot up the app store within a couple hours.

Still don't know launch day numbers since app store reports don't update until
later tonight.

For further coverage, I'm reaching out to app review sites and any journalists
who have covered similar apps in the past.

~~~
epaga
Great stuff, thanks for the info.

This is not the first time I've heard of this strategy, and it seems to be
quite profitable: "hook" a large number of users with a no-strings-attached
free app or web app and get their contact info. Then create an app in the same
niche, but charge for it, and email blast them all on launch day.

The last time I heard of someone doing this, they did it with a game. They
released an ad-free, excellent game for free and popped up a dialog after a
few starts saying "Enter your email here if you want to be notified when I
release <App Name> 2!". After a year or so, he had tens of thousands of email
addresses. Then he released a $2 sequel and did an "email blast" on launch
day. Similarly, he shot up the charts very quickly.

~~~
dinnison
That's a great story about the game. I'm interested to see the actual download
numbers tomorrow to see what Apple factors into the rankings.

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qzervaas
Good job! It's on the App Store, so treat yourself to a full version number ;)

(I wonder if people would be less likely to buy it having "0.0.2", thinking it
may not yet be worth buying. In any case, why not just call it 1.0.2, etc?)

~~~
dinnison
It was my first ever app, so I admittedly wasn't 100% sure what I was doing in
xcode. I agree with you though, it would have looked better to have a full
release number. I'll bump it up next version.

Thanks for the feedback.

~~~
RyJones
Remember, bumping your version number pushes all your current ratings and
reviews below the fold.

~~~
zacinbusiness
That's a good tip!

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psteinweber
There's a web version too. Handy for checking out the type of music:
[http://noonpacific.com/](http://noonpacific.com/)

edit: First song convinced me already.

~~~
dinnison
Sweet thanks for checking it out. Working on a redesign for the web version
too, not quite as slick as I'd like.

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mbosch
Did you get 8tracks API permission for use in a commercial app?

[http://8tracks.com/developers/terms](http://8tracks.com/developers/terms):
For commercial use of the API (including ad revenue) you must receive
permission. Please contact api@8tracks.com.

~~~
dinnison
Yes, 8tracks approved my API use and even promoted the app on their twitter:
[https://twitter.com/8tracks/status/435873866548662272](https://twitter.com/8tracks/status/435873866548662272)

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SmallBets
Loved the first song I heard on web version, +1 for Android.

Good example of non-technical value creation - can't fake good curation. That
your project has done so well tells me that the streaming music players have
not cracked the code yet.

~~~
dinnison
Appreciate it. People seem to love the simplicity of having the music
delivered to them instead of trying to search/browse through tons of artists.
Huge fan of Spotify, 8tracks, etc. but I think you're right that the music
discovery aspect is still lacking.

~~~
knight9990
Pandora does me well with discovery, though I do appreciate some hand curated
lists from time to time.

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L_Rahman
How are you handling issues related to copyright? I don't have an iOS device
so I can't tell if the app simply streams the music from sources that have
legal access or if its locally caching the music.

~~~
dinnison
I don't make the songs available to download so it is only streaming the songs
via 8tracks API. All songs are legally acquired through various blogs and
sites like Soundcloud.

~~~
L_Rahman
I figured as much based on the web player, but wanted to double check anyways.
Thanks for answering my question.

I'd love to see an Android version of this. I'm an Android dev, so if you're
looking to port this over at any time in the future please feel free to hit me
up with any questions you have.

~~~
dinnison
I have a friend helping me out already, but appreciate the offer and will
definitely keep you in mind. Thanks again.

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clemsen
The concept and screenshots look great! Do you have last.fm support? Because
(for me): If it doesn't scrobble it's not a music player :-)

Edit: Just downloaded the app. It doesn't scrobble but otherwise the app works
as advertised. Thanks for posting here on HN! Not only music discovery but
also app discovery is hard sometimes.

~~~
dinnison
We don't currently have last.fm support, but the app uses the 8tracks API, so
it might indirectly scrobble via that. I'll look into it, good feedback.

~~~
dan1234
+1 for last.fm support - a lack of support this in Rdio sent me back to
Spotify.

~~~
martey
FYI, Rdio has Last.fm support:
[http://help.rdio.com/customer/portal/articles/58992-external...](http://help.rdio.com/customer/portal/articles/58992-external-
settings)

~~~
dan1234
Yeah, I did that on the web version but the iOS app doesn't have that setting.

~~~
martey
Connecting on the website should cause mobile apps to scrobble as well:
[http://help.rdio.com/customer/portal/questions/952119-scrobb...](http://help.rdio.com/customer/portal/questions/952119-scrobble-
from-ios-app?b_id=681)

I don't use iOS, but this worked for me on Android.

------
hol
Congratulations! Just trying this out now and I love the mix I've had so far.

It's so easy to make music these days that it can be difficult to find the
gems in all the noise. For me, having places you can trust to do some
curation/filtering for you is really important.

~~~
dinnison
Thanks, that's exactly what I built it for.

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niklasber
The quality of the screenshots on App Store is pretty poor. You should save
them as PNG files instead.

~~~
dinnison
Thanks for the tip

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mokkol
This is an awesome app! Really nice unknown (at least for me) music!

If I can give you some feedback, the UI need some tweaks. the whole screen
bounces when you touch it. Would be nice to have more details about the songs.
A progress bar would be nice.

Really nice app!

~~~
dinnison
Thank you for the feedback!

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dorian-graph
Bought! To show support and so far the mixtapes are totally up my alley.

How long did it take till you felt comfortable with development on the app, as
far as quality, amount of bugs, etc., to release it on the app store?

~~~
dinnison
Thank you! It took about a week of QA to feel comfortable with it going live.
It's a pretty simple app, but wanted to make sure everything would work great,
especially since it was not a free app.

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shriphani
I liked the first song I heard on your website and signed up. Very nicely
done!

~~~
dinnison
Just saw your subscription, thanks!

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rhymeswithtart
So basically hype machine in an app?

~~~
dinnison
I'm actually a big fan of Hype Machine (and love their app), but I'm
attempting to do something different with Noon Pacific. It's considered more
of a music newsletter with hand curated tunes and hopefully more of a personal
touch.

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dinnison
Thanks for the support so far! Appreciate all the feedback.

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technotony
Nice work, now please can we have it on Android!

~~~
dinnison
Thanks! and yes we will have one out for Android in the next month.

~~~
aadeesh
Great App. Thanks!

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juliann
You just got a new fan! thanks for this.

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ldad
nice work! Check out hoot.ch. A similarly minimalist music discovery web-app.

~~~
dinnison
I'll check it out, thanks for the suggestion.

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almosnow
As fake as king.com's future valuation.

~~~
almosnow
Yeah, 15 reviews for a Top 10 App Store app...

Use your fucking brain man...

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dodotablet
Thanks, l really want use it.

------
demosquared
Congratulations! I invite you to give a demo of your app @
[http://demosquared.com](http://demosquared.com)

