Rate My App: blueTunes.net -- a cloud music service
bluetunes.net
bluetunes.net
About the business model:
1) The interface seems almost like anywhere.fm (albeit less polished), which was bought by Imeem, which itself is rumored in a lot of debt right now.
2) The "sharing" aspect of the service kinda reminds me of playlist.com, which means if you gain any traction, you'll have lawsuits from the record companies
Regarding the technical aspects:
3) Back to the interface, the "play" and "rewind" buttons..etc looks badly aliased and ugly, I think it would have been better if you copied itunes more completely like anywhere.fm did.
4) As a fellow flex developer, I'm sick of seeing flex being used for simple applications like music players, you really don't need the 200+k framework code for something simple like this. It just adds to the loading time.
5) As I mentioned before, the interface doesn't seem polished, you have kind of "aqua" styled button but other parts of the interface uses the default flex Halo theme, it doesn't seem very coherent together.
6) I'm sick of seeing the default flex loading screen, do something more interesting like fotoflexor or picnic.
A few more things that I would like to point out after playing with it a little more.
Usability issues
1, In the "Add playlist" screen, the "enter" key on the keyboard should press the "ok" button. In flex, you can easily do this by setting the defaultButton property in your TitleWindow. Likewise, the escape button should press the cancel button for you.
likewise for your "edit playlist" screen
2, I dont like the java uploader, Why not use a flex based one like the rest of your app?
Minor UI stuff
3, Your aqua scrollbar seems to be taken from http://www.scalenine.com , but it doesn't have the nice "rounded" arrows that the real aqua scrollbar has.
Ideally, it should be something like this, with both the rounded corners and the "swimming animation" underneath:
like this: http://kpicturebooth.com/temp/aquascroll.swf * disclaimer, I made that and I might write a tutorial on how to skin this.
Other things
4, Are you using Flex RSL? at the moment, it doesn't appear so. That will speed up the load time by a lot.
1. good advice on the enter key stuff.
2. the uploader actually does more than just upload... it fingerprints songs. i'm sure it could be done with flex. however when i first tried to do so i started running into a lot of security issues. and so i ditched it and went with something more familiar, with the justification that a user only uploads a handful of times. but, yes, this needs to be redone in flex.
3. good advice. one thing that i haven't been able to figure out (and it looks like your example doesn't have it either) is how to let the mouse's scroll wheel activate the scroll bar. any ideas?
4. no i'm not. thanks for the tip
3, for mouse scroll, look here: http://hasseg.org/blog/?p=138
Contact me directly if there's anything else, I think I'm clogging up this thread too much =)
seriously??
Allowing the share option is a big no no in this regards.
The tech and idea are cool, but it's risky. Good luck!
What is different about your site?
just sick of the overuse of the term.
-in chrome the pricing for adding song storage isnt working
-the job form doesnt work
thought: maybe have a default 1 song for everyone(that is no longer copyrighted), so that people can see how easy it is to use
also you have the iTunes logo on the front page, but I cant seem to find where to stream to itunes; my guess is that you are working on this currently and its not ready yet.
the iTunes streaming is working, but it's a premium feature (currently $12 a month). email me if you want a free trial.
Also found that on the account page the title is screwed up until a Name for the account is entered, but you enter a name to register: might want that as default