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Building an App for vinyl junkies. What features would you like to see?


seb
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Hi everyone - my name is Seb and I co-founded a mobile App which brings together Music Creators and their Community, focusing on experiences (Album Release Parties, Listening Parties, Performances).

 

We are not re-inventing Discogs, but trying to propose something new as Discogs was developped 20 years ago (before even YouTube or Facebook were founded).

 

What cool features (related to vinyl) would be interesting? What don't you like with Discogs? Would you like to be able to buy directly to the Artists (like Bandcamp but on a more interactive version)? Would you like to be able to buy from other users? Apart from the price of a vinyl, why do you like Discogs?

 

Thanks for your time - just try to build something cool for vinyl lovers. :)

 

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I'll bite.

  • What cool features (related to vinyl) would be interesting?
    I think most of us want to track our collections and have it be accurate. I can't really think of any cool features specific to vinyl. I think myrecordlist.com has links associated with each release, links to spotify, discogs, etc. So it's like this mini hub for each release. I think it might be interesting to have a community that's built similar to reddit. Discogs will never be a place I go to talk about punk records, hell, I barely do that here. I created a discord server for that. But having user created and maintained subs might have an appeal that works better than some other areas. Also a lot to moderate and maintain.
  • What don't you like with Discogs?
    It just ain't nice to look at and in some ways, not easy to navigate. If I have a specific variant of an album that has 35 other variants, I will usually have to click on 4 or 5 before I find the one that's mine. Take Reinventing Axl Rose for instance. I buy a used album and then come to discogs to add it to my collection, I look at the list and see 90+ variants, how in gods name do I find it? Also, displaying my collection is ugly as hell. I'd give anything to go back to something simple like @deadformat and myrecordlist.com is even great too. I know some people don't care about the visuals, but I absolutely do.
  • Would you like to be able to buy directly to the Artists (like Bandcamp but on a more interactive version)?
    I think this is how limitedrun started maybe, it's been forever. Would definitely be okay with that option. I think having some sort of notification built in would make it work even better. One could follow artists or labels and then get alerts when POs go up. Hell, I'd almost be into a pull list style setup like they do with comics.
  • Would you like to be able to buy from other users?
    This would have to be an option. I imagine taking a cut would help your overhead. I do dislike that discogs charges the same amount as eBay. You'd be a hit if you can find a way to be profitable and undercut either of those options.
  • Apart from the price of a vinyl, why do you like Discogs?
    I'm a nerd when it comes collecting. So I appreciate the detail that can be had with that site. Some people are fine with knowing they have a copy of a blink 182 album, but other people wanna know all the details. Discogs is that.

 

 

All that being said. Finding that balance of simple, but detailed is what I'd be into. Mobile and web options would be ideal. Having integrations with some of the socials would be nice. Either way, good luck! I think there is room out there for competition, but there are also plenty of options that have been around forever.

Edited by geezfools
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20 hours ago, geezfools said:

I'll bite.

  • What cool features (related to vinyl) would be interesting?
    I think most of us want to track our collections and have it be accurate. I can't really think of any cool features specific to vinyl. I think myrecordlist.com has links associated with each release, links to spotify, discogs, etc. So it's like this mini hub for each release. I think it might be interesting to have a community that's built similar to reddit. Discogs will never be a place I go to talk about punk records, hell, I barely do that here. I created a discord server for that. But having user created and maintained subs might have an appeal that works better than some other areas. Also a lot to moderate and maintain.
  • What don't you like with Discogs?
    It just ain't nice to look at and in some ways, not easy to navigate. If I have a specific variant of an album that has 35 other variants, I will usually have to click on 4 or 5 before I find the one that's mine. Take Reinventing Axl Rose for instance. I buy a used album and then come to discogs to add it to my collection, I look at the list and see 90+ variants, how in gods name do I find it? Also, displaying my collection is ugly as hell. I'd give anything to go back to something simple like @deadformat and myrecordlist.com is even great too. I know some people don't care about the visuals, but I absolutely do.
  • Would you like to be able to buy directly to the Artists (like Bandcamp but on a more interactive version)?
    I think this is how limitedrun started maybe, it's been forever. Would definitely be okay with that option. I think having some sort of notification built in would make it work even better. One could follow artists or labels and then get alerts when POs go up. Hell, I'd almost be into a pull list style setup like they do with comics.
  • Would you like to be able to buy from other users?
    This would have to be an option. I imagine taking a cut would help your overhead. I do dislike that discogs charges the same amount as eBay. You'd be a hit if you can find a way to be profitable and undercut either of those options.
  • Apart from the price of a vinyl, why do you like Discogs?
    I'm a nerd when it comes collecting. So I appreciate the detail that can be had with that site. Some people are fine with knowing they have a copy of a blink 182 album, but other people wanna know all the details. Discogs is that.

 

 

All that being said. Finding that balance of simple, but detailed is what I'd be into. Mobile and web options would be ideal. Having integrations with some of the socials would be nice. Either way, good luck! I think there is room out there for competition, but there are also plenty of options that have been around forever.

Thanks geez! Really appreciate your thoughts and comments.

You are spot on with mentioning Reddit -> our vision is to build a Community-centric App (but focused on Music). 

Discogs is an amazing Database and we won't "compete" with them. We want to be more "social" (engaging with other) than "utilitarian" (database).

 

Finally, Artists will remain at the center of the project, but the interactions/engagement Fans/Artists via vinyl makes a lot of sense as physical Music could be a growing source of income (and independance) for Artists. 

 

 

 

 

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17 hours ago, stl_ben said:

What is the ap you co-founded?

What are you offering to us....

The App is called FROW and can be downloaded on Apple: https://frow.live/

 

Don't be too demanding at this stage as we just launched 1 month ago, coding day and night. The main initial objective was to onboard 100 emerging (and talented!) Artists (which was done!) and we are now adding the Vinyl features (over the next few weeks/months). Don't hesitate if any feedback.

 

Thanks

Seb

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21 hours ago, geezfools said:

I'll bite.

  • What cool features (related to vinyl) would be interesting?
    I think most of us want to track our collections and have it be accurate. I can't really think of any cool features specific to vinyl. I think myrecordlist.com has links associated with each release, links to spotify, discogs, etc. So it's like this mini hub for each release. I think it might be interesting to have a community that's built similar to reddit. Discogs will never be a place I go to talk about punk records, hell, I barely do that here. I created a discord server for that. But having user created and maintained subs might have an appeal that works better than some other areas. Also a lot to moderate and maintain.
  • What don't you like with Discogs?
    It just ain't nice to look at and in some ways, not easy to navigate. If I have a specific variant of an album that has 35 other variants, I will usually have to click on 4 or 5 before I find the one that's mine. Take Reinventing Axl Rose for instance. I buy a used album and then come to discogs to add it to my collection, I look at the list and see 90+ variants, how in gods name do I find it? Also, displaying my collection is ugly as hell. I'd give anything to go back to something simple like @deadformat and myrecordlist.com is even great too. I know some people don't care about the visuals, but I absolutely do.
  • Would you like to be able to buy directly to the Artists (like Bandcamp but on a more interactive version)?
    I think this is how limitedrun started maybe, it's been forever. Would definitely be okay with that option. I think having some sort of notification built in would make it work even better. One could follow artists or labels and then get alerts when POs go up. Hell, I'd almost be into a pull list style setup like they do with comics.
  • Would you like to be able to buy from other users?
    This would have to be an option. I imagine taking a cut would help your overhead. I do dislike that discogs charges the same amount as eBay. You'd be a hit if you can find a way to be profitable and undercut either of those options.
  • Apart from the price of a vinyl, why do you like Discogs?
    I'm a nerd when it comes collecting. So I appreciate the detail that can be had with that site. Some people are fine with knowing they have a copy of a blink 182 album, but other people wanna know all the details. Discogs is that.

 

 

All that being said. Finding that balance of simple, but detailed is what I'd be into. Mobile and web options would be ideal. Having integrations with some of the socials would be nice. Either way, good luck! I think there is room out there for competition, but there are also plenty of options that have been around forever.

Do people really not like discogs? To me its super easy to use and the wealth of information on pressings, variants, etc can not be beat. While sometimes it is hard to find the exact one those are complete one offs for me

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17 minutes ago, youspinmeround said:

Do people really not like discogs? To me its super easy to use and the wealth of information on pressings, variants, etc can not be beat. While sometimes it is hard to find the exact one those are complete one offs for me

I wouldn’t say I don’t like discogs. I just think it’s…..lacking, visually. A dark mode would be a good start, but a complete redesign is long overdue in my opinion. It does it’s job really well regardless of how it looks, no debating that

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3 hours ago, youspinmeround said:

Do people really not like discogs? To me its super easy to use and the wealth of information on pressings, variants, etc can not be beat. While sometimes it is hard to find the exact one those are complete one offs for me

As a collector, buyer and seller I love discogs.  I can't imagine switching to any other platform.

It for sure has a learning curve when you start, but once you have it down nothing else is going to be able to compete with it.

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5 hours ago, geezfools said:

A dark mode would be a good start

yeahbuddy.png

 

😎

I do agree it's due for a facelift.  Especially when trying to access your variant in a slew of listed colors, and trying to guess based off descriptors that are cut off; "Ltd, S/Sided, Etch, Opa" is hardly helpful.

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29 minutes ago, Derek™ said:

yeahbuddy.png

 

😎

I do agree it's due for a facelift.  Especially when trying to access your variant in a slew of listed colors, and trying to guess based off descriptors that are cut off; "Ltd, S/Sided, Etch, Opa" is hardly helpful.

Is this with the plugin? I use it at work and it's super helpful. I don't use chrome at home unfortunately 

This definitely drives me insane:

 

 

WIfW2Y8.png 

Edited by geezfools
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Yeah, the Chrome plug-in that enhances Discogs in general, with the dark theme just being icing on the cake.


They could (should) just have little colored nodes or icons alongside the actual variant color name – separate from the rest of the descriptors.  No one cares that something is etched when they’re trying to locate a specific variant and they’re all etched.

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28 minutes ago, geezfools said:

Is this with the plugin? I use it at work and it's super helpful. I don't use chrome at home unfortunately 

This definitely drives me insane:

 

 

https://i.imgur.com/WIfW2Y8.png 

This drives me nuts as well:

Click on one of the releases and you can see the variants' full info, but only for that particular release, not for everything. 

RWQaQPC.png

Edited by phillybhatesme
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7 hours ago, seb said:

The App is called FROW and can be downloaded on Apple: https://frow.live/

 

Don't be too demanding at this stage as we just launched 1 month ago, coding day and night. The main initial objective was to onboard 100 emerging (and talented!) Artists (which was done!) and we are now adding the Vinyl features (over the next few weeks/months). Don't hesitate if any feedback.

 

Thanks

Seb

You could allow like-minded users to purchase a stake in future vinyl pressings of their favorite artists. Everybody throws in a small amount to fund the pressing, and then gets the most limited supporter variant in return. Craft beer tours are also popular around here.

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36 minutes ago, smailtronic said:

You could allow like-minded users to purchase a stake in future vinyl pressings of their favorite artists. Everybody throws in a small amount to fund the pressing, and then gets the most limited supporter variant in return. Craft beer tours are also popular around here.

How much would the small amount be? Say, $1000 maybe? Only ten people would be needed to really get that off the ground. 

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39 minutes ago, Boaty McBoatface said:

How much would the small amount be? Say, $1000 maybe? Only ten people would be needed to really get that off the ground. 

That's one option. But if you get more people, you could also create larger 'teams' of sorts, so everybody would only have to throw in $40 or so. Each team could then press whatever releases they were most interested in.

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4 hours ago, Derek™ said:

Yeah, the Chrome plug-in that enhances Discogs in general, with the dark theme just being icing on the cake.

 

I didn't know about the Chrome extension, but for the amount of time I spend on Discogs, that dark mode is so much easier on the eyes. Thanks!

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12 hours ago, smailtronic said:

You could allow like-minded users to purchase a stake in future vinyl pressings of their favorite artists. Everybody throws in a small amount to fund the pressing, and then gets the most limited supporter variant in return. Craft beer tours are also popular around here.

Yes - this is definitely in the pipeline. The early "supporters" would have access to an exclusive chat/live stream with the Artist and have the possibility to engage/ask questions and see exclusive content (behind the scene, life in the studio, etc...)

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8 hours ago, faaip de oiad said:

Trades please

What kind of trades? We have 4 options:

1. Buying directly to the Artist (like bandcamp, but more interactive)

2. Buying from independant stores (so professional service)

3. Buying from other users (more a marketplac like ebay/discogs... with all the associated risks)

4. The 3 options above

 

Which option(s) do you tend to favor?

 

PS: Personally I never ever bought from other music minded people. I either buy from Bandcamp, independant stores (new or second hands). 

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  • 4 months later...

Hi everyone! Good progress on this project. As you suggested, we focused on trades and creating cool experiences around records.

 

We are launching tonight the live-streaming shopping feature from Let it Roll Records, our local record store in Camden. At 8pm, you will be able to buy

live a cool selection of records. 

 

Don't hesitate to contact me if you want to get an invitation for the live event! It starts tonight at 8pm (British Summer time). Thanks

 

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