LaunchSong

Thanks! I really appreciate it!

Thank you, I really appreciate it! I have always used hackernews as a reader and as a result only just got an account!

Hey, thanks for checking out the site.

I do listen to a lot of music and I definitely agree with you about the music genres. The issue is just ensuring there are enough listeners and musicians per genre. The site is very new and we are slowly increasing the number genres as we expand. We started out with only 4 genres and are now up to 8. We look to support many more in the future.

As for the 20 second time for more casual listening I recommend listen or skip mode where you build up quick skips and can skip to the next song 3 seconds in. For the ranking mode it is very important to artists that the people ranking their music and determining its exposure give it a chance.

After speaking with artists I think there are several issues with this approach (though also advantages). These groups either have a few tastemakers controlling the opinions of the masses which musicians already consider a major issue. On the other side of the spectrum are groups that operate as a free for all where musicians are posting so many links that each song is not given a real chance or where musicians set up like for like rings to go scale the reddit/group vote ladder.

I also think elo rating is a very transparent system.

Thanks for trying out the site!

1. Your rankings are actually what helps prevent other users from stumbling upon these same songs. The lower the ranking the less likely to appear for other users.

2. For the yay or nay, the lack of clear explanation is definitely my fault as it is a newer feature. The idea is that how much you listen to the song vs skip determines the ranking of the song. This mode intends to be lower touch for more relaxed listening

3. Would you mind elaborating on the ranking publish idea. I am always looking for new ideas to promote it, but am not sure I understand this idea.

Thanks for the feedback. I definitely agree with you on the design and information fronts and will be working a lot on this piece.

For functionality piece I would love more feedback. Do you have any suggestions of features you would love to see? I have received very positive feedback from musicians, but am only just starting to get listeners using the site!

I am also curious if you used the site on mobile or web. For now I'd say the experience is far superior on web!

Exactly! Thanks for answering the question! We exist to help with music promotion for artists and music discovery for listeners but claim no rights to any of the songs!

Thanks for the suggestion. Songs are ranked and listened to only within a genre so I would expect each genre to end up with its own popular set of songs.

I am definitely open to further experimentation but so far users have enjoyed the ranking process and it is easier to say I like this song more than this song than it is to say this song is good vs bad.

Also the upvote downvote system is ripe for abuse comparatively. Because LaunchSong doesn't let you link to a song to rank it gives artists without an existing audience a level playing field (because people cannot say go upvote my songs). Furthermore the elo rating system lets newer songs climb more quickly

Great question. The site may not be clear but the reality is anything but handwavy. The higher rated the song, the higher the probability it will show up in a set of songs to rank. This means more exposure since ranking sets of songs is the primary mechanism with which users find new songs on LaunchSong!