VIBES
INTRODUCTION
If you listen to music (which I’m sure you do), you know how much of a hassle it can be to put together a playlist. Sometimes it feels like a chore picking out songs that fit well together. Not to mention, once that playlist is created, your music bound to get old and stale after a while. It’s not always easy to be exposed to new music that you actually like.
Based on research collected by the Pew Research Center, 91 % of Americans listened to the radio in 2015. This suggests that a lot of people are looking not only for music that they like, but also an easy listening experience that allows them to simply consume their music with minimal responsibility for choice. Vibes aims to solve this problem.
Music is a personal experience, and your music streaming experience should adapt to that. Sometimes you want to listen to music that matches how you’re feeling, what you’re doing, and your own musical taste. Creating playlists is a cumbersome task that can get in the way of your music listening experience. So, I’m proposing my application named Vibes.
Vibes is a Web application (built using the Spotify API and Echo Nest API) that filters new, perfectly tailored playlists for you with minimal user input. Similar to Spotify’s “Discover Weekly” Playlist that gives you a playlist based on your listening patterns every week, Vibes lets you plays the music that fits your context whenever you want — it easily connects users to new music based on highly curated music suggestions. To make this possible, Vibes utilizes user information from a simple survey designed to be as mindless as taking a buzz feed quiz. Each time the use visits the Vibes website, they are prompted with a quick survey. Each time the user completes this survey, vibes will generate a highly targeted playlist that fits not only their taste, but their context (it will draw from information that indicates how they’re feeling, what they’re doing, where they are, and the time of day it is, and what their friends are listening to). When the playlist is generated, the user will be able to play each song individually via the Spotify web player widget, or save it to their personal Spotify account where they can keep it, and share the new playlist with their friends.
TOOLS USED
html, css, javascript, php, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effects
SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES
I have never built a web application before. Although I have some experience with html and css, diving into integrating javascript and php was a challenge. Going through and eliciting the user’s wants and needs was also something that I had never done before. I was able to iteratively develop my project by starting with the inception of the idea, rapidly prototyping my idea and presenting it to various users until it was ready for deployment. This was a challenge because I was continually developing new ideas and implementing them to fit the user’s preferences.
ADVICE TO FUTURE STUDENTS
I firmly believe that you do not need to be an expert in something to start an involved project. It’s important to never be discouraged at what you think you don’t know. In many cases, just starting a project is the biggest challenge (not actually executing the details). Of course, do the necessary research and have a proper foundation to get yourself started on a project, but my advice would be to just jump into it while you’re passionate. Never wait to start creating your ideas. Put pen to paper. Draw out your vision, then bring it to life.
