Ask YC: feedback on my music recommendation app (round 2)

[maryrosecook]

http://theperceptron.com/

So, I submitted this about six weeks ago and it got a well-deserved trashing (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=293699).

I've spent a bunch of time on the site's algorithm, plus there is a load of new stuff: playlists, automatic recommendations, links to get more information about artists.

I'd love to get some more feedback from the HN community.

[tptacek]

The Postal Service:

  Amazon: Death Cab, The Shins
  iTunes: Imogen Heap, Feist, M.I.A.
  Perceptron: The Knife, Dntel, Bright Eyes

Eric B and Rakim:

  Amazon: EPMD, Big Daddy Kane, Public Enemy
  iTunes: EPMD, Boogie Down Productions, KRS-One
  Perceptron: No recommendations

Fleetwood Mac:

  Amazon: Journey, Bob Seger, Steve Miller
  iTunes: Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, The Doobie Brothers
  Perceptron: Vetiver, The Beach Boys, The Everly Brothers

Sepultura:

  Amazon: Pantera, Slayer, Metallica
  iTunes: Soulfly, Machine Head, Fear Factory
  Perceptron: Moonspell, Soulfly (x3), Fear Factory

In none of these head-to-heads does Perceptron do the best job (the Dntel pick ties it with Amazon's Death Cab pick). I can intuitively guess that iTunes will do a better job of recommending for me than your website, because millions of people's buying habits make iTunes smarter every day.

It's not just that this space is crowded; it's that it structurally resists your entrance. You need features, lots of them, compelling features, or this isn't going anywhere.

Also, you're trivially XSS-able:

http://theperceptron.com/recommendation/artist/h%3Cscript%3E...('hi');%3C%2fscript%3E?h=true

Finally: "astute music recommendations" is a terrible tagline. It doesn't convey value. It tells me why you like your code, but not why your code matters to me.

[maryrosecook]

I see what you mean about the tagline.

Thanks very much for doing those side-by-side comparisons. I am not a fan of any of the bands you entered, but, to my ill-informed eye, the recommendations don't seem too bad. Which ones were off the mark?

And thanks for the heads-up on the XSS exploit. Will need to sanitise my URLs more thoroughly.

Thanks very much for your feedback.

[rksprst]

I don't like the simple, all text interface. I think an app like this needs a clean but graphical interface. Take a look at this screenshot: http://skitch.com/rksprst/3t9q/the-perceptron-astute-music-r...

Am I supposed to understand any of the text there? It looks like a bunch of random works thrown together. No human will ever read that. No offense but this display reminds me of those "crack/serial" search engines that just list a bunch of random programs in alphabetical order just for seo.

I think you have a neat idea. But please get a designer.

[maryrosecook]

Yep, I do need a designer.

The band descriptions are taken from Wikipedia. My parsing code needs work.

Thanks very much for the feedback.

[pedalpete]

well, as somebody who has been in this space before and left it to pursue other music opportunities, I think you're off to a great start mary.

I wasn't able to get music to play on quite a few tracks (the majority actually), but without any sort of progress bar on the download, it wouldn't be apparent to most people what is happening, so I think that would be one of the first things to do.

I didn't go through your code, but have you hidden the flash player somewhere? or are you using a javascript player?

Whatever, I think showing a player inline (kinda like you are now, but with more controls) would benefit you. At the least, you need a 'progress bar', and the 'hear' should be linked to start the track too, as that is what I tried clicking on, not the play button.

I'll be keeping an eye on your progress mary. Best of luck to you.

[maryrosecook]

Yes, I agree with you. The player does need a loading progress indicator. I also need to be more aggressive about culling tracks that are hosted on slow servers, or have been removed.

I use JavaScript to control a little offscreen flash player.

Thanks so much for your feedback.

[rockstar9]

I like your site. It has potential. How bout include some album art next to the artist descriptions?

I think you can also UI redesign. Starting having some buttons and graphics.

good luck!

[maryrosecook]

Yep, album art is a real nice idea.

The UI is something I am thinking really hard about. My skills are in coding, not UI/design, so I'm learning as I go.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Dilpil]

What it really needs is more data, anything obscure and you get no recommendations.

[maryrosecook]

Niche music is one of my main focuses. For obvious reasons, the site is is good for the sections of music I like. Could you tell me what genres/niches/bands you were trying? I'd love to expand the index to include them if I can.

Thanks very much for the feedback.

[rsheridan6]

There ought to be a way to just upload a list of the music on your computer.

[maryrosecook]

Yep, I have investigated this. It's lower on the list of priorities because my focus is to make the site work when it knows nothing about the user.

[yesimahuman]

It's really cool. I don't love the colors though, I'm not a big red fan (while I wear a Man U jersey...oh well:))

[mstefff]

got 2 (way off) recommendations for my favorite band.

my opinion is that this space is wayyyy too crowded (huge players involved) and to take any market share seems impossible.

[maryrosecook]

Which band was that?