As someone who uses YouTube a lot to listen to music: thanks for this!
I have some comments + questions, though:
Comments:
1.The video feels too small for such a large screen estate. Perhaps add an option to resize it? Or relocate it to the bottom of the screen or top of the playlist, instead of using the corner..
2. You should add an option to directly copy-paste the URL. As I see it now, I can't even highlight it.
EDIT: 3. How do you determine which video gets played? Sometimes the video I want is not the one as the top result, but #4 or even #5. Maybe add an option to use the next video in the search results?
Questions:
1. How did you create it? What do you use for the frontend and backend? Are you planning to release the code somehow? (just curious)
Again, thanks :)! It feels very slick and I like the color scheme.
I used nothing but a text editor to write the frontend, and the backend is entirely yourls: yourls.org. Song lists are stored directly in URLs using iTunes IDs, and yourls shorturls them. A very preliminary version was piggybacking on a third-party shorturling service. I plan to release the source on github in the next couple of weeks.
The top result on a YouTube search for 'song title+band' is played. The Fail button cycles through the next few results.
I agree that the video is a little too small. I've experimented with making that a resizable window on the screen -- I'll try that again.
Awesome stuff! But wont you get into trouble with Google for this site? Because it is like Spotify, except much better. :) Previously, I used http://www.youtube-mp3.org/ to conveniently listen to music on youtube, but it apparently ran into legal issues.
Anyone have any more info on this? I have an idea for a similar service with a bit of a twist, but I've been put of as I thought this type of thing was against youtube TOS.
Also, I've queued up and played a few tracks, but not seen any youtube adverts, have I just been lucky or is there some way of removing them?
Getting some good punk tonight! Well, aside from a Minutemen track that was in there! ;p
Definitely some design challenges ahead. Make +Artist infinite scroll, put it in the very upper left. Make +Genre into #Genre and put it one column right of that. Put all the playlist controls in the third column, New/Random and Shuffle/Loop. Cram the main header & social feeds right of that, include the Add Tracks in the lower part, and then the video in your fourth and last column.
That's my suggestion at a first pass anyways. There are three different tools for adding songs, and knowing you need to click & do something with them is priority #1 for new people, and needs to be minimal. The big search box doesn't help, as it takes to much brain power to see something happen. The +Artist and #Genre columns top left are to try to condense & make apparent their utility, stress the need to do one of them asap. Search is more advanced, people seeking shall find.
Great functionality! Love it. What's it coded in? Would be happy to rejigger your front end code for the above.
While people are giving advice on burn.fm, there was a similar project submitted here just a few hours prior that may also be of interest called YouFM.
Watch people use your interface (observational research/ usability testing) and then iterate. They idea is great and the interface looks good but it seems you haven't honed in on the mental model of your users and how they use the interface.
How to usability test:
(Insider tip: Don't ever call it User Testing, you are not testing the User, you are testing your interface. This my seem subtle, but it is not.)
Congrats on the launch! It's always interesting to see different executions of the same idea - I had actually launched something very similar earlier this year: http://www.deskamp.com
I read the other day that most teens listen to music through YouTube, something like 64%, so there is definitely a market out there for YouTube music apps.
Related: Something I made awhile ago - http://www.tunesicles.com It allows you to do the same thing but also search by album and add all of the songs off it instantly!! But cool project. I like the hashtags feature.
Yeah, im not much of a designer. I'm working on it. But im not planning to make money off it so its not getting my full attention right now. But if any designers would like to work together. Let me know! I think it could be a cool service!
Shamelessly going to plug my app, YouTunes Live, which lets you create YouTube audio playlists on iOS, as some readers may be interested: http://youtuneslive.com/download
When I want to share a track, I use toma.hk beaucse it does not care about the content source. It can resolve tracks using a lot of different providers, making sure my contacts will always be able to listen to it.
Nice start. I'd recommend a way to add songs by bulk, though. One at a time can be very inefficient when you want, say, everything by your three favorite artists.
Liked the clean UI. Very useful stuff.
But it stopped after playing few (-5) songs everytime, the youtube player keeps showing that the song is still buffering.
Other than that - really neat project!